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February 12, 2010

Can a Facebook group influence Brett Favre?

Brett Favre Billboard It’ll be interesting to see if social media mixed with traditional outdoor billboard advertising can influence the career of Brett Favre. There is a loyal and persistent group of fans on Facebook that are determined to bring Brett back to the Minnesota Vikings to play another year of football. The Facebook group has grown to about 128,000 fans… just a little shy of their goal of 4 million fans.

This group has also created their own website. They have raised enough funds to place a billboard in Brett’s hometown of Hattiesburg, MS. The sign reads “Hey No. 4, do Minnesota fans love you and want you back next year? You Brettcha!”

Let’s see how Brett reacts to this… if we’ve learned anything, it’s that Brett likes to change his mind. I can’t imagine he wants to retire on an interception throw to lose the playoff game to the New Orleans Saints. After all they were poised to win that game – and perhaps the Super Bowl?

Can social media play a small part in Brett’s decision to return to the NFL? Perhaps the more important question is should he return?

February 11, 2010

Making sense of Google Buzz

I’ve been an avid user of Gmail for the past six years. Yesterday I was reading all about Google Buzz and their attempt to succeed in the social media frenzy. Sure enough when I logged into my Gmail account, I saw the “Buzz” icon right below my inbox… so naturally I clicked on it. Wow, I already have several people following me and following several people. Apparently, I’m connected with everyone in my address book. Since Google Buzz integrates with Gmail without the need for users to sign up, Google instantly added 176 million users to their social network platform… not too shabby of a start.

It’s no secret that Google is anxious to compete in the social media space. While their social media platform Orkut has not reached the masses as Facebook has, this has not seemed to deter Google. Buzz seems to be a much more strategic way of penetrating the market.

While it’s intriguing to have built-in connectivity features in my email, I must admit it feels a little invasive. There comes a time when consumers want the convenience of aggregated information on a single platform. Who has time to login to dozens of different systems to manage their information, respond to questions, and provide updates? I’ve got login credentials for so many accounts – I can’t even keep track of them all. It would literally take me a few hours just to login to each of them for 5 minutes each on a daily basis.

In order to solve this issue, I think we’ll begin to see a convergence of the top players in this space. While some of the systems are already compatible, most users want a single stop destination. Think Facebook on steroids. The best features of the top platforms need to collaborate and partner to develop the ultimate social media networking destination.

What are your thoughts? Is there an easy solution to all of these disparate systems? Is Google Buzz the savior?

February 9, 2010

US Army Embraces Social Media

The US Army is going to great lengths to embrace and encourage the use of social media. “We do not want to be a closed institution” said LTG Benjamin C. Freakley – US Army Accessions Command. With that in mind, the Army has created online communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace. They currently have more than 250,000 friends and followers – and this number is growing daily.

“It’s really transforming the way we look at recruiting, advertising, and communicating” added LTC Brian Tribus. It’s allowing families to stay in touch during difficult and stressful times. They can share photos, instant messages, and web cams. It’s clear that this is a trend the Army continues to expand – especially as the technology further develops. There are a number of potential uses that will improve communication and morale among our soldiers.

Army Strong Stories is an innovative program which allows deployed soldiers “to share their unfiltered perspective on daily life in the military through blog entries, photos and video.” There is currently over 100 soldier bloggers participating in this program.

I think this is an incredibly functional and practical use of social media. I’m anxious to see other branches of the armed forces adopt these tools as well. I’ve added them to my blogroll and look forward to interacting with them.
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January 28, 2010

Google activates social search

Ever wanted more control over your Google searches? Perhaps filter and highlight relevant information from your network of friends, family, colleagues, and online contacts. Basically, have the ability to filter out a lot of the noise and take advantage of the knowledge of your network. I sure do. Well, this new beta release of Google Social Search is intended to do just that.

By releasing the facilities to enable social networking search, Google is adding more purpose to all of the various social communities being created online. You can quickly setup a profile and link social content. Let’s say you’re in the market for a new Gibson Les Paul guitar. Traditionally, you may go to Google and do a random search for “Gibson Les Paul” guitars (or some variation). You may get results from Gibson, Guitar Center, eBay, Craigslist, and many other distributors. Ok, that’s great… but wouldn’t it be cool to instantly search your network of musical friends who may have some personal insight or photos uploaded right from the Google search results page? You could interact with your contacts directly to answer basic questions that they may have already experienced. See for yourself at google.com/profiles

While this is an early release, certainly there is a lot of future potential… especially as more people embrace the various social networking tools. It allows integration with blogs, Picasa, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, etc. I just gave it a test drive… pretty slick. The video to the right gives a nice brief overview.

January 22, 2010

Measuring Social Media ROI

Measuring Social Media ROI For many small businesses, measuring the return on investment (ROI) for social media is a mystery. While some of these businesses actively engage in blogging, tweeting, and perhaps even Facebook, they have no idea on how to gauge the effectiveness of their efforts. The remaining businesses that have not entered the social media frenzy are hesitant to get started because they too are looking for an accurate method of determining the ROI or impact of their social campaigns.

Since this has been a burning question for many small businesses, I’d like to share my thoughts. For starters, let’s take a quick look at measuring ROI for a traditional marketing vehicle – direct mail. The first step is to determine the goal of the campaign. Are you trying to create awareness, generate leads, close sales, or drive traffic to your website? Once you have decided on your goal, establish an attainable benchmark and track responses against that baseline. For example, let’s say you are anticipating a 2% response to your campaign. It’s good practice to direct your recipients to respond to a unique URL or web address. Since this page is not part of your standard web traffic, you can easily determine the number of people that initially reply to your mail piece. Furthermore, if you have an offer, you can have them submit some basic information to access a whitepaper or other incentive. This will further screen your qualified leads and allow you to monetize the results of your campaign. From this point, you should have some metrics that determine your conversion rate – from interested prospect into valued customer. The most accurate ROI calculation takes into account a customer’s lifetime value, or the amount of sales generated by that customer over time.

So if measuring the results of traditional marketing is so tangible, why is social media different? The answer, it’s not. Many of the same principles of conventional marketing analysis holds true for social media campaigns. For example, let’s say you want to start a company blog. Unlike the options for traditional marketing, your goal should be to share, educate, and create awareness. In other words, you post information that is timely and of interest to your customers and prospects. You do this in a non-invasive manner to attract potential customers. You can create awareness and drive traffic to your blog with an e-newsletter and direct mail, but additionally you want people to seek you out and subscribe to your content on their own.

This brings us back to measuring the effectiveness of your blog (or Facebook page or Twitter account). There are many tools available such as Google Analytics which can generate a number of meaningful reports. You definitely want to monitor the traffic of your blog over time. This will help determine trends and most appealing topics. Again, without a clear benchmark, you won’t be able to accurately determine your ROI. Set realistic goals… perhaps set out to obtain 2 new subscribers to your blog in the first month, 5 in the second month, 10 in the third, etc. I won’t get into how to attract new subscribers in this article – but rather stay focused on the success-rate of the initiatives.

Using a combination of website traffic statistics, new subscriptions, and specific page views, can help you determine where to focus your energy – and the effectiveness of your social media campaign. Unlike a single direct mail campaign social media is an ongoing campaign. It takes time, knowledge, and patience to get it right. Over time, you can build long-term relationships and interact with customers and prospects in a friendly manageable format. With the proper tools in place, you can accurately determine the ROI of your social media efforts.

Don’t be discouraged. We can help.

January 21, 2010

Social media creates a small business success story

I thought this was an interesting article detailing how a small bag manufacture in Seattle – Tom Bihn – was able to leverage social media outlets to connect with fans and customers.

Darcy Gray is a VP at Tom Bihn.

Gray manages the Tom Bihn Facebook fan page, forums, blogs, Flickr and Twitter. She said updating them is a lot of fun and works on them whenever she checks her iPhone… She said engaging directly with customers began with the TomBihn.com forums.

“In 2006, it occurred to us that our customers and potential customers could get significant value from talking with each other as opposed to just with us. They could share their experiences of their Tom Bihn bags, offer advice for selecting the right bag to new customers, and post reviews/pictures of their experiences with their bags,” she said.

She said the company’s success on social media starts with their bags and that social media tools have given them more powerful ways to connect.

“Anytime a company is given more ways to directly communicate with customers, it’s an opportunity for growth. Tom Bihn designs all of our bags himself. Interest in a particular type of bag might encourage him in a certain direction,” Gray said.

By using a combination of blogging and interaction with their communities on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, Tom Bihn has been able to build a sustainable business.

January 21, 2010

What’s next for Twitter?

What's next for Twitter? After millions of people scrambled to get a Twitter account activated, they later asked themselves – ok, what’s next? While the underlying concept behind Twitter is interesting – stay connected with brief snippets, the software is still in its infancy. There are several companies trying to add more functionality and purpose to this infrastructure.

January 20, 2010

Profiting from social media

Many people continually ask me how they can make money or increase sales from social media. My answer is simple: it’s like losing weight. There are no shortcuts or magic pills that will instantly shed pounds. Losing weight is a lifestyle change and commitment to health and fitness.

The same holds true for social media. Don’t expect to sign up at Twitter or Facebook in the morning and start generating sales in the afternoon. It’s not that simple. It’s a change in corporate culture. It’s a commitment to participating in relevant online communities and discussions. It is most effective by adding relevant and interesting content and opinions, inviting others to share their experiences, and most importantly reading and listening.

Jeffrey Gitomer had some interesting observations in his article: Social media – the new cold call. Wanna play?

There are key words to consider as you try to build your social media world. Connections, attract, video, value, consistent, fan, relevance, write, allocate, monetize.

But there’s a secret. How you position and promote yourself in the NON-social media world is critical to your success in the social media world. Your writing, your website, your blog, your ezine, your personal brand in your marketplace, your perceived value in the marketplace, and your reputation, are elements of attraction that affect your social media status – and surely your success.

There’s billions of dollars of new business being generating by social media – how much of it will you get? Maybe you need to get a bit more serious about being a bit more social.

It’s not an overnight sensation; social media is here to stay… and your involvement could be critical to the future of your business.