“At the center of any revolution is the burning desire to bring about change. But it always comes down to people, shared experiences, and a common ambition. And it is people who need one another for leadership, support, and inspiration. 
LinkedIn? Facebook? Which is better for B2B marketing? To help you make an informed decision, here are 10 resources making a case for each platform. http://bit.ly/Ln2PGS Unbounce and Bop Design have created a new Infographic that shows the strengths of both social media sites. Facebook is the most popular site, but Linkedin is more focused on professional content. If you’re looking for a place to do B2B, LinkedIn is the place to go. Not only can you create new connections, but in comparison to other social media sites, its four times better for B2B leads and almost three times more effective for generating new business leads. Some stats: »» 61% of LinkedIn users use it for industry networking; 55% use it for networking with co-workers »» 55 million. Number of LinkedIn users in the US; 22.5 million are aged 35-64 »» 326 million. Number of minutes spent on LinkedIn each month by US users »» 155 million. Number of Facebook users in the US; 51 million aged 35-64 »» 41% of people marketing on Facebook got a customer this way Thought leadership is the top use for social media among B2B marketers Ultimately there are benefits to having a presence on Facebook and other sites too. 
This Go-Gulf Infographic compares the latest user statistics on popular social networking sites - Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest and what they have to offer as far as user activity. As we all might have guessed, Facebook is the top leader of the bunch, but the second spot is actually grabbed by the newcomer Pinterest. Facebook users average about 405 minutes on the service each month, while Pinterest actually ties that with an equal 405 minutes. 
Stay away from social networks and people won't know who you're hanging out with or what you're doing, right? Wrong. A Paper published last month in the journal PLoS One - http://bit.ly/JiFFdC - shows how researchers were able to learn about nonmembers of social networks based on information their friends posted online. Using machine-learning models, the German researchers were able to predict whether two nonmembers of a social network knew each other based on information shared by a mutual contact on the network. “To our knowledge these are the first results on the potential of social network platforms to infer relationships between non-members,” the researchers wrote. They also noted that the relationships were predicted with an “astonishing” rate of accuracy simply by scanning readily available information on Facebook for students at five U.S. universities. “Ultimately,” the study concludes, “it evokes the question of the ownership and exploitation of relational data in the information age.” 
Here is another great Infographic from Go-Gulf, that explores how people around the world split their time across different online activities. Social networking activities win a clear lion’s share of people’s attention with this set of data suggesting that Facebook captures an average of more than 465 minutes of people’s time each month. If that’s true of every one of the platform’s 901 million worldwide users, Facebook now accounts for almost 800,000 years of human time every month. Of particualr note is that location-based services are currently the fastest growing area of interest. 
Yes, LinkedIn tells me lots about potential employees. But it's just as useful for getting the scoop on a new client or partner. For most industries, LinkedIn is now the de facto career management tool for professionals -- and if you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, you don’t exist. Every profile leaves the reader with a distinct impression that can make or break a valuable connection. And that means LinkedIn profiles are a great way to gain insight into a potential client. So what does a potential client’s LinkedIn profile say? http://bit.ly/K5wphd #Photo #Connections #Summary #Experience #Recommendations Like most everything else in our crazy, busy world, we often scan and jump to conclusions. Take the time to read up on your next prospect, and find the invisible clues that can turn a simple contact a real, lasting -- and possibly profitable -- connection. 
Social media has a fraught relationship with neurosis. Obsessive people are essential to sites like Facebook and Twitter. They add energy and buzz. Their identities get tied up with their avatars, and that in itself makes the sites seem important. But obsessives are dangerous. Do I really want to check Twitter, Facebook, or Google Plus if all I see are the same thoughts, infinitely recycling, through the same minds? Social media also has a fraught relationship with competition. Twitter does everything it can to make users obsess about follower count: every time you click on someone’s name, you see how many people follow them, and, for better or worse, you develop some notion of their worth. Google Plus shows its heart—or perhaps its lack of a brain—by concealing the number somewhat. LinkedIn’s solution is kind. It prominently displays the number of connections you have, until you reach five hundred. The newest social media tool to grapple with this is Klout, a service for measuring your influence on all of these social networks. Klout grades users on a scale of one to a hundred based on some proprietary algorithm that counts how often your comments are retweeted, liked, or shared. Don’t ever go on vacation. The numbers are also obviously important to employers, marketers, and socialites. Klout is designed in a way that makes it likely to fuel both unhealthy obsession and unhappy competition. 
Community is not marketing. Community is part of your product. It’s part of the User Engagement Cycle. In the cycle, marketing drives users into the cycle. Users connect with your product, then with your brand, and then a community is formed when they connect with each other which will then improve your product. How will it improve your product? 1. Community as a feature By becoming a customer, you’re also becoming a part of a community and the user experience is enhanced. That’s an emotional connection to a product that is hard to replace. 2. Feedback collection Perhaps the most important contribution to the product is the lessons you learn from users talking with each other. 3. Increase user activity When people are part of a community, they want to be perceived as a valuable member of that community (increase their “social equity”) and so they will aim to improve their status by being better contributors. Finally, it’s up to your product and community programs to drive user activity and improve over time. 
2 billion people are online. 85% of customers expect businesses to be active in social media. Word of mouse = word of mouth. Here are 7 reasons - http://bit.ly/JrexbQ - and some thought provoking questions to get you loving Facebook, Twitter, emarketing, blogs and more... #1. 80% businesses are NOT passionate Show you’re human. Business is built on relationships. Your web presence must show you are passionate #2. 55% more web visitors & 67% more leads for businesses that blog #3. 68% Email subscribers & Twitter followers are likely to buy #4. 20-30% Emarketing response rate #5. 30% customer questions & compliments get no reply #6. 77% customers read brand posts but don’t comment #7. 71% complaints on Twitter are NOT responded to
What’s The Meaning of a Klout Score?The Pros and Cons of How Social Influence is Measured... Should you or shouldn’t you use Klout? In the end, it’s up to you to decide, but should you go ahead with it, remember to take everything with a grain of salt. Any single metric will only give you a hazy idea of how you’re doing online, so it would be best to have other means of monitoring your social media metrics and use your score to complement your findings. Klout, however, is definitely here to stay, as its recent announcement of new funding would indicate, so as brands and marketers, we have to continuously adapt with the tools that exist, and utilize the good aspects and filter out the bad that any “score” provides us. Neal Schaffer - http://bit.ly/JCserw - suggests that the problem doesn’t lie with any one of these systems: The problem of measuring social media influence lies with either; 1) users who take their Klout score too seriously or 2) companies who make decisions based purely on one metric. 
In the history of social networks, never has a service risen so far, so fast; and never has a social network started to deliver lucrative customers to business so quickly. The most successful brands on Pinterest have really understood the importance of building up a human connection with their customer base. They have worked hard to understand why users value Pinterest, and to align their Pinterest presence with that value proposition: whether it be a large brand that is prepared to sponsor people to make their Pinterest dreams a reality, or a small startup using the site to create a global identity, they know that people value Pinterest as a place to find inspiration. Kay Hammond, CEO of multi-award-winning social media marketing agency TAMBA, has the following advice for big brands: http://bit.ly/JGnJuZ 1) Be a magazine, not a brochure! 2) Share and share alike 3) Use Pinterest’s new features to create a look and feel that reflects your brand 4 ) Create “sharing moments” with your brand’s Pinterest followers 5) As with all social media – be a good conversationalist Original Article: http://www.tamba.co.uk/blog/loyal-customers-who-spend-more-invest-in-pinterest-tamba-kay-hammond as the source 
When you have evangelists for your product or service, you have the best possible kind of customer. Your evangelists are passionate, loyal, and thrilled to recommend you. They are communicators — when it matters. They are your public defenders — when times are difficult. Evangelists are also forgiving. They assume your mistakes are honest. They believe you have their best interests at heart. Best of all, evangelists are hyper-repeat customers. No matter what business you are in you should be doing everything humanly possible to develop customers whoa are evangelists. Here's how: http://on.mash.to/IfU1Q7 1. Customer Insights You must develop deep insights about your buyers. You want to know what they think, what they want, and how they use your product or service. 2. Emotional Marketing Language Once you have customer insights, you use them to develop simple, emotional, lifestyle-oriented marketing language. No matter what you do, you are in the life-improvement business. If your work is in the business-to-business space, your language must focus on how you improve the condition of your clients. Not technical specifications. Not features. Just simple, salient statements. The bottom line: most customers don’t care about the steps you take to improve their life. All they want know is how you’ll improve it. So, tell them! 3. Proper Platforms You must communicate this effective messaging on the proper platforms: a. A long list of your customers. Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses. Conclusion: Gather qualitative insights from your market; use simple, emotional language; and communicate it from the right platforms. 
The timeline shows Facebook's quarterly revenue since 2010. In the first quarter of 2010, the social network's advertising revenue amounted to 340 million U.S. dollars and grew to 872 million U.S. FaceBook's Untapped Potential - http://bit.ly/K5sxIV Facebook updated its S1 filing yesterday, revealing a decline in year-over-year revenue growth. A reason to worry for potential investors? Probably not, as the filing also indicates that the company still has a lot of untapped potential. In Q1 2012, 50% of Facebook's revenue was generated by North American users, who represent only 21% of its ever-growing user base. Average revenue per user in Asia is currently less than one fifth of the ARPU in North America. If Facebook somehow manages to kickstart advertising outside of North America, there’s still a lot of revenue to earn. Today’s chart by Statista visualizes Facebook’s current situation and shows some of our key takeaways from Facebook's updated S1 filing. http://www.statista.com/statistics/223277/facebooks-quarterly-gobal-revenue-since-2010/ |
There are just so many darn social sharing buttons these days, and content marketing is more important than ever. As a user, it has created a moment of decision of choosing which channel to share a particular news story, or cute video. The goal is to have as many network peers see the content, enjoy it, and re-share. There’s no shame in admitting gratification in people liking something you share. As a Marketer, its important to help users make this decision easily, and also ensure that your content is shared with the appropriate audience on the right channels. This Infographic by The Search Agents - http://bit.ly/KBCg9O , takes a closer look at the different social sharing buttons, how they work, who their target audience is and the kinds of content that will be most effective when shared via these tools. Your mileage may vary, but this is a very useful one-stop resource for brands looking to get the biggest bang from their social sharing buttons. Just remember: when it comes to user options, less is always more. Pick the best three or four buttons for your site and leave it at that. 
Eloqua breaks down which social media marketing channels are delivering the most traffic. Socially referred traffic has more than doubled since Q1 2011. Although Facebook continues to dominate the total traffic to customers, marketers appear to be enjoying a much more diverse portfolio of social lead sources from Twitter, LinkedIn, as well as StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Reddit. Although still a very small portion of traffic comes from Pinterest (at least for Eloqua's customers, see this chart which shows a different story for the web in general), it is far and away growing fastest – 52x what it was last year. In a world where change is the only constant, marketers will be experimenting more than ever, and will need tools that allow them to do that. 
Whether you're marketing yourself or your company, your audience gets to know your personal brand, or personality. Here are some key ways you can maintain a consistent social media persona, no matter what the forum. The Challenge All of the social media touch points we employ to create and sustain our brand online require ongoing maintenance. And the individuals maintaining them have personalities of their own. How can brand marketers be sure that the updates made on behalf of their brand are consistent with the persona they’ve worked so hard to create? #1. Create a Social Media Style Guide Meticulously outline everything related to the way your brand’s presented, from the required minimum clear space around your logo to your acceptable typeface. #2. Social Media Guidebook Very specific guidelines about your brand tenets as they relate to the production of online content, it should also focus on two things in particular: tone and imagery. i.) Brand Tone Distinguishes you from your peers and your brand’s most powerful tool requiring the most attention by those managing your social endeavors. ii.) Imagery Image filter warrants careful study when it’s going to be made public as part of a brand’s persona. The branding opportunities provided by social media are beyond compare, but so is the importance of sustaining a brand persona when faced with the infinite production of online content. 
The Five Benefits of Social Customer Service from the thinkJar and Sword Ciboodle-Whitepaper We Are Social: The State of Social Customer Service - http://bit.ly/L0rdIx [PDF] #1. Increased Customer Satisfaction Other interesting findings that came from this report include: http://bit.ly/L0rzif ** 35% of organizations between 100 – 500 agents have not started to implement social customers service 
How Much Is Facebook Really Worth? With Facebook's upcoming IPO – currently scheduled for this Friday, May 18 2012 -- Wordstream have put together this Infographic based on Data from their own Advertising Perspective. This is a specific comparison of the Display Advertising capabilities of Facebook against only the Display Advertising component of Google's business, which makes up roughly 20% of Google’s total advertising business. Criteria including advertising reach, ad performance, revenues and growth, ad formats, and targeting options The Google Display Network allows advertisers to place contextual ads on a network of sites across the Internet (including Google properties like YouTube, Blogger and Gmail as well as over 2 million other participating sites), rather than in the search results. Results of The Study Include: http://bit.ly/J7wQst #Facebook and Google both have huge potential reach, with Facebook boasting 845 million monthly active users and Google owning the world’s largest online display advertising network. The comparison suggests that Google currently offers advertisers more value in terms of both options and results for advertisers, and that Facebook has a lot of catching up to do to provide advertisers with the best possible advertising solutions. “So far, Facebook’s advertising platform hasn’t kept pace with the explosive growth of its social network, and it remains to be seen if CEO Mark Zuckerberg even wants to focus on advertising as a source of revenue. In his 2,500+ word letter to shareholders this month, he mentioned advertising just once,” said Larry Kim - http://bit.ly/J7x0Qy , Founder and CTO of WordStream. 
“Being Professional and Personal” is the key to his highly influential identity. This means all you need to do is be yourself and connect with others personally not professionally. After building an online identity, we always think of increasing our online influence. This Infographic by Reformation Designs, visualizes 5 basic tips on increasing your online influence: 
While researching and writing his new book on Klout, "Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring and Influence Marketing ", Mark Schaefer had exclusive access to the inner workings of the company and its customers. Here are 10 things you probably didn't know about Klout and the man who created it: 1. Klout Founder and CEO Joe Fernandez studied English at Oxford University but never received a college degree, although he had more than enough credits to graduate. His first startup was making skate boards, a life-long interest. 2. When Klout went live in December, 2008, Fernandez manually calculated each Klout score. 3. The only person with a perfect 100 Klout score is Justin Bieber. Several celebrities have lobbied for higher Klout scores, including Britney Spears. 4. When Joe Fernandez first pitched his idea for Klout to the startup accelerator panel at South by Southwest in 2009, the idea was rejected because it was not business worthy. One of the panelists, Nova Spivack, later became the first investor in the company. 5. Klout has different influence calculations based on which social media platform you are active on. It also accounts for international differences in communication patterns. 6. A Klout influencer who receives a perk (a gift from a brand) creates an average of thirty pieces of content about that gift. About 80% of the companies who participate in a Klout influencer program sign up for a second one. 7. When Klout received its first round of funding, the first check went to the owner of the Klout.com domain name. Up until then the company was only found on Klout.net. 8. With tens of billions of hits to its API in a month, Klout has at least 50 times more traffic than its nearest competitor, PeerIndex. 9. Giving somebody a +K is a nice gesture, but it has no effect on a Klout score. 10. Klout’s first office in San Francisco was in the same building as Twitter. 
We've already come across a way to transform your Facebook feed to make it look like Pinterest, and it was only a matter of time before someone came up with something similar for Google+. Using the aptly named Greasemonkey userscript Google+ Pinterest, you can instantly transform your Google+ feed into a Pinterest-like grid of posts and photos. With Google+ recently introducing a revamped design, the look hasn’t gone down well among all of its users. If you’ve been particularly annoyed by that great big chunk of white space glaring back at you, and aren’t sure what to do with it, this is a great way to get rid of it. Once you’ve installed the userscript, your Google+ newsfeed will be transformed into three columns, and photos, of course, really come to life with the new layout. Aside from giving your Google+ feed the ultimate Pinterest feel, the script also puts the focus on the content you’re viewing, hiding the menu and chat window out of sight. The menu slides into sight when you hover over the left hand side of the screen, with the same effect used to slide the chat window into sight on the right hand side. 
The no.1 motivation for customers to 'like' a brand's Facebook page is because they are a loyal customer, but brands are not engaging with them on social media. Why do customers ‘like’ a brand on Facebook? And how do brands respond? Using recent research by the CMO Council, Our Social Times - produced this Infographic as a thought-provoking reminder as to why brands need to engage with their fans on social media. The top motivation for ‘liking’ a brand’s Facebook page is because you are a loyal customer, but brands are failing to engage these customers and are missing the opportunity to deepen their relationship. Only 1.3% of ‘fans’ actually engage with the brands they ‘like’. The reason this is so low? Customers expect something in return for their click and, in general, they aren’t getting it. Over two-thirds say that they expect to be eligible for exclusive offers via social media, but less than a quarter of brands actually offer this. Brands need to give something back, whether it’s exclusive offers, content, prize draws or otherwise. Excessive posting and irrelevant content are the main reasons why customers click the ‘unlike’ button. 
In a recent study of 5,000 B2B and B2C Businesses, HubSpot found that LinkedIn was 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter, with a whopping conversion rate of 2.74%. This under-utilized tool is offering businesses the opportunity to generate real results, but many organizations aren’t using the network to its full potential. The following are five tools within the LinkedIn Community that businesses aren’t using to their full advantage: http://bit.ly/JoFSeT 1. Products & Services Tab This tool allows a business to naturally feature a business’ products and services 2. Products & Services Target Audience Variations Another component of the Products & Services tab is the ability to create variations of this page to target specific personas 3. Status Updates Many marketers are not yet investing time into using status updates on LinkedIn, even though the opportunity to do so is a major contributor to the strength that this channel can provide to your marketing. 4. Company Page Statistics As you use your company page more and more, you should be measuring engagement, as well as tracking who is visiting your page. 5. LinkedIn Ads LinkedIn has a self-service ad product that you can use to target specific personas and drive visitors to a landing page on your website. LinkedIn’s variety of useful tools makes it a fantastic channel for B2B marketing and an effective way to drive better business results. Keep experimenting and see how much value you can get out of it for your company. Download Hubspot's Ebook Written by Five LinkedIn Experts "Learning LinkedIn From the Experts: How to Build a Powerful Business Presence on LinkedIn" With this ebook, you will learn how to: 1. Build Your LinkedIn Foundation, by Stephanie Sammons 
Facebook is about to raise $5 billion from investors.When you are ask for that amount of money then you need to produce some reliable evidence and facts and figures about the current state of play that are accurate. Facebook has recently revealed the latest statistics about its business in its S1 Filing - http://1.usa.gov/JLN4HS - for its upcoming IPO. Facebook mission which states “To make the world more open and connected” is obviously resonating with the earth’s netizens. **Monthly active users now total 901 million (up from 680 million a year ago) It's apparent that its growth is not slowing anytime soon and with over 7 billion people on the planet it still has a lot of headroom for future growth. 
Do you think you need to be an expert at something to inspire others? The methods of motivation and leadership are many and varied, but undoubtedly leading by doing is one of the more successful. New research by social software company Harmon.ie - http://bit.ly/JEOrYS - should be cause for concern for anyone with an interest in creating social businesses. The aim of the research was simple. They wanted to find out how many Chief Information Officers (CIOs) were active on social media. Now of course you could argue that social business does not, and should not, sit within the IT department, but that discussion is for another blog. "10% is a pathetic figure and is severely undermining efforts by those of us here to make our organizations social." - Michael Brito 
A few recurring points that keep resurfacing amongst friends and clients when asked about social media and the role it is now playing in our public relations and marketing campaigns. Three Great Ways to Leverage Social Media for Your PR Campaign • "Socialize" your publicity coverage! • Media platforms that generate daily content are always looking for interesting people and products to feature. • Use social media platforms similar to the way we leverage print, television, online and broadcast. Three Fun Ways to Use Social Media for Marketing and Business Development • Brands/Experts should approach the social media team for similar brands or media outlets and offer promotions, giveaways, interviews, and product announcements on those brands' Facebook/Twitter pages. • Instead of writing a column in a magazine, why not have your client ( brand or individual) spend a day on the media outlets Facebook or Twitter page answering reader questions? • Create savvy content & programs that engage consumers online and offline simultaneously, so that your presence is felt beyond social media. There must be a give and take relationship between traditional marketing tools and social media, so that each is used to strengthen the reach of the other to help transmit strong brand messaging and consumer engagement. |
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