Is Social Media The Magic Bullet?

In tough times it is tempting to look for magic bullets that will get you out of trouble with little effort. However, when you scratch below the surface you will discover how it works: So called "Overnight miracles" invariably seem to be the result of consistent, dedicated work and relentless attention to the strategy you have chosen.

Is social media marketing any different? As you marvel at the fact that you suddenly have access to 500 million people, and for FREE, you actually enter an arena that has rules, traps and often false promises. The enormous power of social media marketing for yourself or your business is undeniable, but harnessing this power is a long term mission that requires strategy and determination.

Before you spend time exploring the "next shiny thing", please consider that the same amount of time could be spent relentlessly applying the strategy that you have chosen and that will work in the long run, only with true dedication and belief. If you catch yourself looking for yet a new "magic bullet" it is time to reassess your belief in what you are doing.

We are all prone to those fluctuations in motivation, that is human and normal. To add to the temptation, our mailbox tends to be full of big promises coming from strangers who claim they are doing it better and easier than you, with explosive results! The bottom line is that explosive results are possible, definitely, but only with ongoing implementation of your strategy, whether it is online or offline.

3 Under Utilised "Direct Marketing" Strategies on Facebook

In many of the social media blogs I have read over the years there is a very strong focus on quality posting, making sure you provide value to your audience and keep them interested. By now, that should go without saying! Even outside social media, you have to be interesting if you want to keep your audience. By the way your audience will grow even faster if you are interested in them, which is often an easier thing to do than find something of high value to say, day in day out.

But from a business perspective you would be forgiven for being frustrated at the limitations of just posting on your wall, simply because it is in no way guaranteed that your fans will see it. Sure you have a good chance, but only if your fans go to their newsfeed regularly.

For a more direct, perceived as "one on one" communication tools on Facebook, you can however use some readily available features, which will allow you to communicate in the "notifications" box, automatically increasing your chances of being seen. Here are 2 options that will land in the notifications, and one option that will land directly in clients' email boxes.

1) Write a "note" to your friends or your fans

That can be written in a personalized style. You can even attach a picture and select who you send from your friends lists. If you are sending a note to your fans from your fan page then all you have to do is push "publish" at the bottom and all your fans will see it in their notifications box, the first place you go to even before your news-feed.

2) Organise an event

Events can be for anything, a sale, a VIP invitation, telling people about a new item, product or course that you have. Even inviting people to "Like" your page could be an event. The great thing is that it goes into all your invited fans' and friends' "notifications" box. Remember with an event you can have several bites at the marketing cherry by simply posting some updates to the event, which will show like an advert on the top right hand side of your fans' Facebook.

3) Use the "Tell your fans" feature in the "Resources" of your Fan Page

This great but little known technique allows you to create a CSV file from your excel or outlook database and send them a "Facebook" message inviting them to join your fan page. Just go to Apps and choose "Tell your fans". Facebook will even tell you step by step how to create a CSV file from your own database. When you know that facebook messages get at least a 20% higher open rate you know this is a great way to grow your following, and once more by DIRECT, one on one communication through Facebook

So Just go ahead and experiment, make sure that your events and posts are of high perceived value...but that goes without saying doesn't it?

Why 97% of Facebook FanPages Don't Work

Every day a larger number of small to medium size businesses embrace social media as a viable marketing strategy...Or is it?
Unfortunately I see many page owners who obviously got very enthusiastic in the beginning and then lost momentum: often they have not added any posts for over a month and their page carries 120 odd likes. As a result you have guessed it, they lost interest and went back to their expensive traditional advertising like the phone book and newspapers, with no indication of their return on investment. In the worst cases they deem social media an utter waste of time and swear it was just a useless fad.
Even if you have 300+ likes, Facebook may not turn out to be a viable means of advertising, so what's the secret? How can you make your Facebook page become much more than just a PR exercise with no positive ROI? How can you make sure that your Facebook page is not sitting there like a brochure that nobody is picking up?
When initiating your social media strategy you must keep in sight this crucial fact: it's a number's game! As you engage with your clients and provide them free value, your ultimate goal is to get repeat sales from them, as well as referrals to grow your fan base. If you keep giving great value to a couple hundred people you will go nowhere fast!
So here are the 7 ways for you to make sure that your daily attendance to Facebook produces more sales AND more viral marketing to grow your account.
1. Create a customized, branded fan page with an incentive for people to click "like". This must include a compelling call to action, not even 2% of page owners have figured this out. This strategy alone increases conversion into fans by 27%, and give you an instant point of difference
2. Switch into "Use Facebook As A Fan Page" and start "liking" other Facebook fan pages in your area, or where you think your target market also hang out.
3. Regularly post on those pages, at least once a week, with free information, tips, or anything that will make you known as a business owner or a good business to deal with. You have to write several non promotional posts before promoting outright
4. Contact other page owners for a joint venture and offer their fans a free voucher, exclusive to them. Then ask your joint venture partner to do the same for you. Having establishes that relationship you will always be allowed to market on that page!
5. Offer your fans a reward for posting about your business on their wall: all their friends will see that on their newsfeed, again it can be a free voucher
6. Use "Notes" for direct marketing offers to your fans. This will be shown on their "Notifications"
7. Join Facebook Groups in your industry or locally, and get more friends that way. Then invite them to "Like" your page
Remember Facebook is meant to be a marketing strategy, not a closed shop conversation with your existing fans that only generates disappointing fanbase growth. Please keep in mind that a Facebook page that has little interaction and only 300 likes is bad PR for your business

Social Media Or Phone Book?

Social Media Or Phone Book?

Old habits die hard! Despite the rapid fall in percentage of people
looking for services through the yellow pages, business owners are
still bowing to the traditions and spending substantial amounts of
money on phone book advertising.

As you are reviewing your advertising budget I am sure you always have
in mind what's in it for you, and there is a time where you must make
an educated choice.

In a recent national radio interview one of the speakers was asked how
they did their searching for services like plumbers, or products like
restaurants in their neighborhood. One answered "I go online" and the
other one said "Word of Mouth".

In fact he revealed that he had expressively asked yellow pages NOT to
deliver the phone book to their place...But that request was declined
because the only credibility left to the phone book is its distribution!

Is it a better idea to rely on your website and your social media
marketing for your lead generation? Here are 5 reasons why the answer is
more and more overwhelmingly YES:

1.Unlimited Brand awareness
Using the web and in particular social media, there is no end to how much
information your can give about your brand. This is free, renewable
advertising real estate, with a unique chance to showcase your point of
difference. Buying this amount of space would be totally prohibitive in
print advertising

2.Interactive advertising
Online you are able to get instant feed back from clients about their
experience but also from people who haven't used your business yet. You
get to create a relationship before purchase

3. Instant Word Of Mouth
Social media marketing creates a conversation that may never happen at
the pub or around the dinner table. It also allows word of mouth to spread
between strangers. You can easily do your market research by surfing a business's
facebook wall

4. Standing Out Of The Crowd At No Extra Cost
Custom designed facebook fan pages are a key to initial interaction. As more
people use Facebook to do their research, many more businesses use custom
design to improve visitors' first impression. Check this tool to give a great
reason for visitors to "like" your page. Why buy a big expensive ad on the
phone book?

5. Controlling Brand Reputation
The Conversation you are having with your clients and prospects is a much more
credible way to control first impressions than dominating pages of print
advertising. This is where small to medium businesses have the opportunity to
compete on a level playing field, even with big companies

Your Call To Action On Facebook

As more business owners recognise the value of facebook as an integral part of their marketing mix, I am pleased to observe that more fan pages are adopting a professional and attractive look.

However, when you get your custom designed facebook page you can still leave your competitors in the dust just by using a well underrated trick.

Have you ever been to a marketing seminar and heard time and time again how important a call to action is for any kind of advertising? Yet if you open the advertising pages of a newspaper you will notice that very few advertisers actually use it...in other words they are wasting precious marketing resources on ineffective, non measurable advertising.

The same applies to your facebook page. There are 2 main calls to action that you can use on your fan page to grow your fan base as well as your email list, plus get more clients through the door. Here they are:

1) A strong call to action for your page visitors to "like" your page. But you cannot expect them to like your page if you are not serving their self interest, the famous "what's in it for me".
"Like our page and get fresh updates on our exclusive facebook fans restaurant offers" or
"Like our page and automatically become part of our VIP customer club to receive regular added bonuses and free offers". This works for beauty therapy, retail, gyms , cafes or any high repeat purchase businesses where customer loyalty is key.

2) Instantly start growing your email list by using an auto-responder "opt in" form. Have something of value to give away in exchange for their email address: "Receive our free report on 7 ways to alleviate back pain in 5 minute per day" could work very well for a chiropractor or a physiotherapist.
If you keep in mind that across all industries, only 5% of browsers are ready to buy now, you have to do something to keep your chances alive in the future. The point of the opt-in form is to increase your chance of initiating a relationship with the non committed visitors.

To help you remember how to structure your welcome page, just go back to the well known "A.I.D.A" advertising formula. It works for fan pages:

A for Attention, by having a well designed custom page with a good headline

I for Interest, tell your visitors what they will find interesting on your page

D for Desire. Create desire for them to like you page or sign up on your "opt in" form

A for Action. Strong call to action " Like our page" with arrows to the "like" button, or "Register to receive our free report or Free Gift voucher"

Are Your Facebook Posts Attractive?

You would be forgiven for thinking that Facebook is all about you. Indeed the latest changes with the "timeline concept" have reaffirmed the idea that facebook is all about who you are. You can even keep adding posts and photos about events in your life that happened way before Facebook existed...that's if you have the time and inclination. Online scrap booking is at its best here.

However if you are using facebook for marketing purposes it's not all about you, it's about your readers, particularly when you are using facebook as a fan page. To make your posts more compelling for your account and page visitors, keep a few very simple things in mind and your popularity will go up. Check these 7 tips to make your posts attractive and popular:

Firstly getting your readers' attention

1. Short posts, up to 80 characters, are statistically the most read and "liked". Inspirational quotes are still among the most popular posts!

2. Attach a photo: 95% your readers are primarily visual people so make the most of it!Your photo does not have to be 100% contextual, but it helps. Eye Catching is the key though

3. Even better, attach a video to your post. It's preferable if the video is yours but you can also use something of interest from youtube and share it

Secondly knowing what's in your readers' minds

4. Facebook is all about you, but marketing is all about showing your readers "what's is in it for them". Do you have really good info for them, an exciting event or a new offer from your business?

5. If you are not sure what's on their minds use Facebook to conduct a customer survey

Thirdly, ask them to take action

6. Facebook is all about spontaneity, you are in the land of "Right there, Right now!". Make the most of it with " facebook specific", limited time offers

7. Facebook is also the land of referrals, the function to use is the new "Make a Recommendation" tab. And what is the first way to get recommendations? Simply ask your friend and fans to recommend you to their friends, just like you should ask for referrals on your invoices, sales voucher and thank you cards...

Keep your facebook involvement simple and non time consuming. 20 minutes a day is sufficient to show consistency and get results.

Facebook Accounts Versus Fanpages: Still Confused?

This is an area that has been creating a lot of confusion in business owners minds:
What I advise my clients to do is slightly different. It does not involve migrating their account into a page. This is how it goes.
1.Keep your personal account as a "family and friends only" account
2.Start a new account where you keep your posts, photos and contacts.. exclusively business related. One of the main advantages is that you can join and create groups from your account as a business person
3. Create your fan page administered from your account. As an admin you will be able to "switch" to "Use Facebook as Page" when you want to start "liking" other pages as part of your main lead generation strategy
4.Send a note or a message to all your business related friends (from your original personal account) and suggest them to become fans of your page or friends of your new business related profile

Firstly I find this a great way to keep your family and friends completely separate and in parallel, make yourself known as a business person, with Fan page attached to your account.
Secondly if you intend to use facebook as a tool for a proactive lead generation strategy, which you should, you still have access to groups, as well as "Liking" other pages from your Fan Page to get instant brand exposure.

Your thoughts are welcome!

Facebook Changes Make The Ink Flow... But How Much Does It REALLY Affect Your Business?

Just what everyone has been craving: a good old combat of the titans! Isn't it exciting to watch the heating race between Google+ and Facebook. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerber at the recent F8 Developers conference in San Francisco has revealed and explained the details of the latest changes in Facebook, among rumors and statistics flying around on how much dissent it has triggered and how much it's going to play right into the hands of Google+. I can see bookmakers rubbing their hands! ...
It's great get this kind of entertainment outside the sports arena, but let's get back down to earth for a while and look at it from a small to medium size business owners' perspective. If you have a busy enterprise to run you won't have time to wallow in watching the score between the 2 giants, but you will want to know if you can still effectively market through your fan page, right?...

So let's look at it a bit closer:

• As far as I can see, your updates will still reach your fans, except that their order of appearance might be tempered with somewhat. So far no damage
  
• You used to be able to send a direct message to your fans, a feature that very few marketers have been using for their business. This feature will disappear as of the 30th of September. That is regrettable as it was a more direct way to market your offers, by appearing in your fans' "messages"
• With the upcoming need for a SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate for your fan page you may need to put your Geek at work so your page is easily accessible after the 1st of October...that is inconvenient, except that it's making the use of Facebook more secure, which we all want right? Considering the short notice you would be forgiven to give Mark Zuckerberg some bad press, or a piece of your mind!
  
• If your Facebook page needs customizing this software will ensure a seamless transition for your fan page to be still easily accessible
  
• There are other "minor changes" in the wings, however except for some inconvenience and possible costs, the way you market through your fanpage could be almost unchanged
• If these changes were to create a huge backlash and associated exodus to Google +, then you could fear that the huge market that facebook represents may wither away. In that case you would want to focus your social media efforts on another, less volatile platform. But we are nowhere near that sort of tipping point!
  

So is it time to pack up your fan page and rush to brother Google+? I would say hold your horses, changes of this nature at short notice are sometimes hard to take, but it is probably wise to give it a few days and avoid panic. Let's reassess facebook as a marketing tool once the solutions emerge and see how they make up for the annoying rocker in the boat....
Meanwhile this is a great reminder for the big picture, and how to avoid the "eggs in same basket" syndrome. Use at least 2 social media platforms complementing each other, and always make sure you drive you followers and fans into an "opt-in" form so they become part of your email list. As social media platforms change, your email list remains yours as your best marketing tool.
Keep an eye on our blog for further updates on changes.

Twitter Can Predict the Stock Market

The emotional roller coaster captured on Twitter can predict the ups and downs of the stock market, a new study finds. Measuring how calm the Twitterverse is on a given day can foretell the direction of changes to the Dow Jones Industrial Average three days later with an accuracy of 86.7 percent.

“We were pretty astonished that this actually worked,” said computational social scientist Johan Bollen of Indiana University-Bloomington. The new results appear in a paper on the arXiv.org preprint server.

Bollen and grad student Huina Mao stumbled on this computational crystal ball almost by accident. Earlier studies had found that blogs can be used to gauge public mood, and that tweets about movies can predict box office sales. An open source mood-tracking tool called OpenFinder sorts tweets into positive and negative bins based on emotionally charged words.

But Bollen wanted to build a more nuanced emotional barometer. He used a standard psychology tool called the Profile of Mood States, a quick questionnaire that is used frequently in pharmaceutical research or sports medicine.

The original questionnaire asks people to rate how closely their feelings match 72 different adjectives, including “friendly,” “peeved,” “active,” “on edge” and “panicky,” and uses the responses to measure mood along six dimensions: calmness, alertness, sureness, vitality, kindness and happiness.

Bollen and colleagues checked a huge Google database to see what other words are commonly used in conjunction with the original 72 adjectives, and added those words to their lexicon. Then the researchers took 9.8 million tweets from 2.7 million tweeters between February and December 2008, selected the tweets that indicated a confession of emotion (tweets that included the words “I feel” or “I’m feeling,” for instance), and ran the test on the entire data set.

“We’re using Twitter like a psychiatric patient,” Bollen said. “This allows us to measure the mood of the public over these six different mood states.”

As a sanity check, the researchers looked at the public mood on some easily-predictable days, like Election Day 2008 and Thanksgiving. The results were as expected: Twitter was anxious the day before the election, and much calmer, happier and kinder on Election Day itself, though all returned to normal by Nov. 5. On Thanksgiving, Twitter’s “Happy” score spiked.

Then, just to see what would happen, Mao compared the national mood to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. She found that one emotion, calmness, lined up surprisingly well with the rises and falls of the stock market — but three or four days in advance.

“I sank into my chair. That’s a pretty big result,” Bollen said. “It was one of those ‘Eureka!’ moments.”

But this surprising correlation said nothing about whether Twitter could be used to tell the future. To test that idea, the researchers trained a machine-learning algorithm to predict whether the stock market would go up or down, first using only the Dow Jones Industrial Average from the past three days, then including emotional data.

The algorithm did pretty well using stock market data alone, predicting the shape of the stock market with 73.3 percent accuracy. But it did even better when the emotional information was added, reaching up to 86.7 percent accuracy.

“Including this mood information leads to higher accuracy,” Bollen said. He stressed that their algorithm is highly simplified, and not the best stock market predictor anyone could come up with. But “we’re presuming on the basis of what we found, if you have some kind of super-duper algorithm and you add our time series, its accuracy will go up, as well.”

The fact that Twitter mood could predict the stock market’s movements even in the middle of 2008 is also significant, Bollen added.

“This was probably one of the most difficult periods to predict,” he said. “We had a presidential election, we had what looked to be financial Armageddon, we had the start of what has been the deepest and greatest recession since the 1930s… If our algorithm was able to predict Dow Jones Industrial Average in that period, we figured that may establish some kind of lower baseline. It could do a lot better in other periods of time.”

But why does it work? “The short answer is, we don’t know,” Bollen said. It’s reasonable to assume that people’s moods will have some effect on their investments, he says, but more research is needed to figure out exactly how.

“It’s a pretty interesting result,” commented computer scientist Sitaram Asur of HP Labs. But even though the correlation is there, Asur is reluctant to believe that the moods captured on Twitter can cause the stock market to change. Not everyone on Twitter plays the stock market, he notes, or even lives in the United States. And he would like to see the algorithm used on tweets from a wider span of time.

“If it is true, if we can actually find this correlation to be consistent, that will be a very important result,” he said. “But right now, I would be cautious about saying how important this is.”

Bollen agrees that the result has some shortcomings. “We need to expand this,” he said. The next step, he said, is to “put some of our money where our mouths are, and try to do this in real time.”

The One Essential Key to Developing Your Social Media Influence

On October 16, 1869 workers digging in a field in Cardiff, New York unearthed a startling specimen; the petrified remains of a 10ft tall giant man. The owner of the land, George Hull, set a tent over the remains and charged visitors .25 cents to view it. Droves of people flocked to this tiny farm field in New York - so many in fact, that in just 2 days Hull was able to raise the cost of admittance to .50 cents. Visitors gazed in thoughtful silence at the twisted and contorted remains, they were transported in their imaginings to an ancient world where giants walked the planet. It did not take long, however, before archaeologists presented evidence that the giant was no more than a stone carving created by Mr. Hull, and stained with acid to give the appearance of age. Yet, despite the evidence, many people defended the validity of the giant, unwilling to believe that this beautiful story was not real.

We love stories.

Actors, movie studios, publishers, video game creators, and, yes, social media connections, are some of the most prevalent influencers in our lives because of their ability to move us. Those who tell stories well are rewarded commensurately. Those who can't tell an engaging narrative burn out quickly.

The greatest predictor of social media success is also the most challenging to master; it is the ability to tell a story well in very few words. A narrative must be intentionally developed and every post must become a building block that deepens and widens the story.

Those who succeed in social media, those who have the ability to influence the behavior of others, are master storytellers. They have learned how to graft powerful words together that pique emotion, stimulate a need, elicit a vision, and produce engagement.

Some of the best stories are being told on social media. And so are some of the worst. If your story is disjointed, perhaps you have not yet developed your narrative.

Consider in advance how every post fits into your story, and whether it is consistent with the narrative that you're intentional cultivating. Pique. Stimulate. Elicit. Engage.

We can outline effective social media strategy all day. However, even the most accomplished music theorists will fail if they try to sing without first having exercised their voice.

We must find our story and tell it well.

Online Video Retail Success Stories

Increase your conversion rates overnight!

Really?

That’s amazing. How can I get a piece of that pie?

Call it what you will -- V-Tail, vCommerce, or just plain online video -- we are seeing some pretty bold claims around the use of video in eCommerce. Claims from platform vendors, press, and even some case studies and success stories from large retailers who are seeing some significant successes when they integrate video content into the online shopping experience.

But there’s the key. Integrate. Of course it isn’t as simple as sticking a few videos on your existing dot-com site and hey presto, conversion rates skyrocket. Video needs to support the sales process in a way that makes sense to your customers, that supports your brand values, and that enhances the shopping experience.

There are a growing number of ways to source video content, and an increasing number of players in the market who will all tell you that they have the answer. From user-generated content to automatically generated video. From content delivery networks to social media. There are a bewildering number of options out there.

Video absolutely can deliver firm benefits :

• It can increase page views by driving traffic to your site.
• It can enhance the time people spend lingering on your site, giving you more opportunity to market to them.
• It can help to increase conversion.
• It can reduce your returns.

I’ve been looking at a wide range of vendors, agencies, and retailers who are seeing some of these benefits and, along with my colleague Sabine, have published both a strategy guide and a specific Case Study on one particular success story. I’d love to hear about more examples as this unfolds, because from what I’ve seen, video in retail is only just at the start of a long and interesting journey.

3 Successful Small Businesses on Social Media

This post is part of the series – Successful Small Businesses on Social Media.

So we have heard of big names like Starbucks, Dell and Whole Foods making their names even bigger on social media. We have also shown you 5 great social media campaigns and social media best practices from the giants and there are a lot that we can learn from their strategies.

But are you truly convinced that social media could actually help small businesses?

No? I thought so too. To help you see how social media can work no matter how big or small your business, I’ve found some great case studies of small businesses that get it and are seeing results!

1. Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse

Caminito is a traditional steakhouse in Northampton, MA run by Justin Levy and Joseph Gionfriddo. Tapping on Justin’s business and social media expertise, this steakhouse has seen great results online and boosted sales offline.

Social Media Engagement

PrimeCutsBlog – Through the blog, the restaurant provides tips on cooking, grilling, kitchen gadgets, restaurants and recipes. It has no lack of pictures and videos to engage readers. The blog is also linked to other social media sites that Justin is active in.

Prime Cuts TV – Caminito reaches out to the YouTube audience with their very own channel, providing value with videos for foodies, which are also posted on its blog.

MySpace Page – A MySpace page was first set up to reach college students. Updates are sent via its profile but otherwise, the page has not been very active.

Google news, blog alerts and analytics – Simply engaging in social media is not enough. This steakhouse makes sure its web analytics is studied weekly to measure the success of social media campaigns and promotions.

Google news and blog alerts are used to observe not only what people are saying about the restaurant, but also what other steakhouses and restaurants are up to.

This results in innovations (menus, designs and more) and new ideas to promote the business.

Justin is also active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Flickr and Delicious, giving Caminito the exposure it needs.

Social Media Results

Justin was interviewed in 2008 about his social media success. I can’t imagine how well he is doing now!

As far as our ROI on social media efforts, of course it’s always hard to determine that. But, what I do know is that since we turned our focus to social media, attracting inbound links, more internet marketing/less print advertising, etc., we have seen an approximate 30 percent boost in sales (year to date) in a time where a lot of restaurants are down 10-20 percent. Not all of that can be attributed to our online presence but I’m sure a good portion of it can. The blog and social media outposts help us reach and interact with our community as well as show our expertise in our space. I have done some research and can’t find anyone in our area (or in general) that’s doing what we’re doing as a restaurant.”

2. Wiggly Wigglers

Wiggly Wigglers is a small gardening business in Herefordshire with a mission to change the world, one rural home at a time. Its Wiggly community is built on several social media tools, which are mainly maintained by Heather, the farmer’s wife!

Social Media Engagement

Blog – Used to share gardening tips, events, interesting content and offers, this rural store is very active on its blog.

Podcasts – Stay tuned to the Wiggly team every Monday on the Wiggly podcast! It’s hilarious!

“With thousands of listeners from all around the world, and over fifty 5-star reviews on iTunes, it seems that our audience enjoys listening to the shows as much as we enjoy making them. Join us every Monday as we cover the environment, wildlife, gardening, farming, biodiversity and the things we can all do to make a difference.”

Facebook Group – The Wiggly Facebook group now has over 2000 members. That’s really impressive results for a small gardening business. What’s worth commending is how active it is on Facebook!

Twitter – I should correct myself, Wiggly is active everywhere! Heather tweets really often on Twitter about latest offers, free stuff and tips.

The Wiggly Cinema – By now, you should be really convinced how social media savvy the wigglers are. The Wiggly Cinema is filled with high quality videos about everything gardening! You can find some of their videos on their YouTube channel as well!

Social Media Results

In 2008, Dell and its global partners awarded Wiggly Wigglers the Global Small Business Excellence Award. It went on to win Dell’s Inaugural Global award.
Its podcast reaches thousands every week and along with over 2000 Facebook members, Wiggly Wigglers is able to reach customers worldwide while cutting back on its advertising costs.

Here are the other Wiggly achievements mentioned on Dell’s website:

• Interviewed on new webTV channel Small Business Advice.TV where the theme was ‘Using social networking for small businesses’
• Special winning feature in The Daily Express
• Two videos on Dell’s YouTube site – Video 1 , Video 2
• Coverage in leading SME online publication BusinessZone.co.uk – UK firm worms its way to the top in global business awards
• Two articles in leading IT magazine IT Pro – Web helps Wiggly Wigglers win big and In-depth feature on Wiggly Wigglers
• Hereford Times (local press coverage) – Blakemere’s Wiggly Wigglers win Dell’s Excellence Award in New York
• Heather was also invited to be a panel member for a special Small Business Media Roundtable in London in December 2008

3. Moonfruit

Moonfruit is a free website builder with no ads and no catches! Building your own website DIY style is made easy and fast. Over 2 million sites have been built using its website.

Social Media Engagement

The Moonfruit Blog and Forum – Moonfruit site updates, website building tips and other announcements can be found on the blog. The forum was also set up to answer enquiries, gain feedback and allow members to share their new sites, experiences, tips and frustrations. Pretty comprehensive site!

Twitter – Moonfruit is very active on Twitter with most tweets involved in some form of interaction with its followers.

Twitter Campaign and Results

To celebrate its 10th birthday, Moonfruit decided to hold a Twitter campaign: users that include “#moonfruit” in their tweets are entered into a daily draw to win 10 Apple Macbook Pros, one to be won each day for 10 days.

The results were surprising and overwhelming! The buzz caught on so fast that “#moonfruit” topped Twitter’s trending topics, with “Michael Jackson”, “#iranelection”, “iphone” and “Wimbledon” below it. This is pretty awesome for a small business.

What’s more, the campaign brought Moonfruit 600 percent uplift in web traffic, and number of sign ups for trial services doubled.

These small businesses have shown us how big they can be on social media. We don’t need to be huge companies with a huge capital to benefit on Facebook or Twitter. Anyone can set up a profile and a blog free of charge, no excuses.

Small Businesses Are The New Big

It might be true that we don’t have the benefit of vast brand recognition, but from what we can see from Wiggly Wigglers, recognition knocks on your door when you have done social media right. In fact, most big businesses have a lot to learn from the small people.

Google Plus vs. Facebook… What’s the Difference?

On 28th June, 2011 Google rolled out the beta version of its highly anticipated social networking site, Google Plus. It is no secret that Google has long been wanting to get a slice of the social networking market. So, what exactly is Google Plus and how does it compare to Facebook? In this post we are going to look at Google Plus Versus Facebook and examine some of their major differences.

Simply put, Google Plus has integrated many of the best features from our favorite social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, in one convenient package.

Photo by Mike Volpe - CMO Hubspot

Google Plus versus Facebook – A Brief Comparison

You’ve probably seen some of the cartoons poking fun at the rivalry between Facebook and Google+. While they’re all in good fun, there’s a grain of truth to them as well. By all accounts, Google is trying to oust Facebook as the King of Social Media – and if any company is up to the task, it’s Google. But is Google+ a contender? Let’s compare the two and see.

Facebook

Once merely a hangout for college students, this powerhouse has become the goto network for family, friends, and even businesses and government entities. You can chat with your grandmother in Sydney, play a game of Bejeweled, post pictures of your wedding, and encourage people to sign up for your mailing list – all without leaving the site. Not only that, but Facebook has it’s own advertising network, making it easy and cost effective to get your business in front of your target audience.

Facebook also allows users to set up both private and public groups where you can dish about common interests and invite others to join the discussion. You also have the ability to set up “facebook pages” which are specifically designed for businesses and other entities.

Google+

1. Sharing Information

The new kid in the social media market has a lot to offer. Unlike Facebook, Google+ is not an all or nothing venue for sharing information. It allows you to pick and choose who can see your content, making it a bit like your Facebook wall with groups mixed in. Not only that, but Google+ gives you a lot more sharing space, whereas Facebook limits individual wall posts to 420 characters.

Although Facebook allows you similar sharing controls with lists, these are far from easy to find and use. Facebook is in the process of introducing easier controls over sharing of information, probably in response to Google+’s success with Circles, so it will be interesting to see how this all pans out, but for now, Google+ gets my vote on this one.

2. Hangouts

If you prefer to mingle face-to-face, Google+ has you covered with a nifty little tool called Hangouts. Using your web cam and mic, you can chat in real time with co-workers, friends around the world, or even total strangers. Whenever someone in one of your circles starts a Hangout, it will show up in your stream, so pull up a chair and join in.

3. Streams

‘Streams’ is probably the thing Google Plus does best. It offers you a way to filter the content you see. If it’s your day off and you don’t want to hear about work, click another stream. Feel like reading about a particular topic? Make a circle dedicated to it, then choose it from the “streams” list. You’ll hear only what you want, when you want. No more miss-mash of information sorted only by time of creation.

4. Google Rankings For Your Profile

And finally, probably the most exciting (and most speculated about) feature of Google Plus is the way your Google profile will quickly climb the search engine rankings. Use your keywords in your profile and get ranked in Google.

5. Personal Accounts Only….For Now

At this point in time, Google Plus is only available to private individuals, but business accounts are on the menu for the future, so watch this space.

Summary

In the battle of Google Plus versus Facebook, which one is the better choice? Well, it depends on your needs and how you choose to manage your social networking. One thing is certain though, Google Plus is a true contender in the highly competitive social media marketplace. If you’re not a member yet, you should make it a point to get on board, because Google Plus is going to play an important role in social marketing.

In my next post I will be walking you through how to get started with Google Plus and talking you through some of the Google Plus features in greater detail.

Are you already using Google Plus? If so, I would love to hear what you think of it so far and how it is stacking up against the established Social Networking sites. Please leave me a comment below…..and don’t forget to share and Google+ me

Facebook accounts versus Facebook fanpage: what do I choose?

This is a question I get asked a lot: For my business do

I get a facebook account and get lots of friends into it

or do I get a Facebook page and grow my Fans list?

Using the right strategy is not complex, but crucial.

Here are my answers:

Case Number One:

You are an accountant, a lawyer, a consultant, a coach

etc....or any other situation where you are known as a

business person and you are the main reason people

will do business with your company.

In that case you should have a personal account where

you build a Friends list and you become member of

facebook groups within your industry.

This in turn helps you build your following and you can

then direct them to your fan page.

So in many cases in small business you need both an

account under your own name and then a fan page under

your name or your company name.

Case Number Two

If you own or co-own a corporation and people do

business with your company mainly because your

company has a big name in the industry, then you can

go straight to having a page only, under your company

name.

The main restriction here is that a page cannot

be part of a Facebook group. That alone limits your viral

marketing options down the track.

Having a proper social media strategy can sound

complex but it is possible to keep it simple and easy,

with great return on investment.

This is a very brief answer to this question, there

are more elements to it but I just wanted to give you

some clarity here.

Social Media for Business is About Giving, Not Taking

Many organizations – and particularly businesses – still look at social media and wonder, “Where’s the value?” From their perspective, social media fails to deliver the goods. And the bad news is, from their perspective, it probably always will – because the question “What can I get out of social media?” misses the very point of social media.

At the heart of the misunderstanding is the question “Why is social media here?” Consider Facebook, for example. Was Facebook created to help users share their experiences and find like-minded people, or was it created to serve the needs of stalkers? Okay, that question was too simple. But if you change the second option to “to help corporations improve their profits by leveraging the social networks of unsuspecting users”, the answer would be the same.

Harsh, you say? Perhaps. At least from the business’ perspective. But from the average Facebook user’s perspective, corporations who use social networks to reach out only for financial gain are seen as outsiders – just short of “creepers” and “lurkers” (see Urban Dictionary).

By design, social media are venues for giving, not for taking. And to users, a participant’s motives are self-evident.

30 years ago, there would have been less scrutiny on organizations attempting to leverage social media for financial gain – had there been social media. In the ‘80s, it was cool to be a taker. Yuppies flaunted their earnings and their consumption, stocks (and retirement funds) were on the rise, and everyone-who-was-anyone expected to retire by age 55. Takers suffered a setback with stock market crash of 1987, but the mindset rebounded with great resilience, turning a blind eye to the footloose behavior of the ‘90s in favor of more big corporate gains. Then, with the new millennium, came the collapse of Enron, the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and a growing public distrust in corporations. To a new generation, “taking” was no longer cool. And it was this new generation that gave birth to social media.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that the current generation is innocent of “what’s-in-it-for-me” behavior. Quite the contrary. After all, this is the generation who brought us Napster (the illegal version) and Limewire. What I am saying is that the spirit of social media – from Myspace to Facebook to YouTube to Photobucket to Wordpress – is about sharing. Users turn to social media to share their ideas, their creations, their social circles, and their influence.

And as long as corporations engage with social media for the same reasons (or ostensibly the same reasons), then engagement can work.

Such examples of corporate sharing aren’t even difficult to find. Philanthropy is an obvious place to start, but stopping there would miss the point of social media. Because money isn’t the biggest asset in the social vault. Knowledge is.

So, start a dialog with your customers. Share your manuals (even on products you no longer support). Develop slide presentations that educate (not sell). Create infographics. Promote responsible behavior (which, for brewers, could include curbing sexism). Make a difference.

In brief, if you want to get something out of social media, you have to stop trying to take.

Starting in Social Media? The 5 P’s of a Perfect Program

So you are new in this Social Media revolution. You may or may not have been an innovator or early adapter – or perhaps you are still cautiously implementing Social Media into your business.

This article isn't going to convince you WHY to use Social Media, but rather teach you HOW to best use it.

Create your Perfect Program with your plan, position, platform, people and performance.

The 5 P’s of a Perfect Program -
Social Media Success:

PLAN: Social Media Strategy
Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance. So, before you venture out, create accounts and starting posting – take a big step back and think about your strategy. Then, put it on paper.

• Establish goals (recruiting, training, client interaction, PR, branding, education, culture, etc.)
• Integrate social media strategy piece with your business plan
• Establish a content strategy based on your goals
• Budget for both time and resources
• Set a timeline for frequency of messages
• Implement HR policies and procedures
• Partner with your IT department
• Communicate your plan and engage your internal audience!

POSITION: What’s Your Point?
One of the best parts (and biggest challenges) in Social Media is crafting a clever (and memorable) message. So, what is your point? What are you trying to convey? Finding your voice will help you differentiate and dominate.

• Differentiate your content
• Become the expert in your industry
• Link, link, link!
• Get involved with group discussions
• Value before self-promotion
• Research what others are doing
• Talk about what you are already doing
• How personal do you get?
• Is there such as thing as sensitive information?

PLATFORMS: Tools and Tactics
Over 350 mediums for sharing online – how do you have the time for all that?! Make sure you are learning which platforms are best suited for your strategy. The Big 4 (5 with the new Google+ platform) are most utilized because of their impact and influence online. Finding tools to expedite your posts and content will help!

• Understand key social platforms and their purposes – with an integrated approach
• The Big 4: Facebook (500M), Twitter (200M), LinkedIn (100M), Blogs – and Google+
• 350+ mediums for ‘sharing’ online!
• Resource libraries (Wikipedia, etc.) exponential growth in use, high accuracy of content
• Photo and video sharing phenomenon (YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr, etc.)
• Others: Tumblr (3^rd party), Foursquare (location), etc.
• Tools for managing multiple platforms (Tweetdeck, HootSuite, etc.)
• Link shorteners and trackers (bitly, owly, deckly, etc.)
• Tagging (@), hashtags (#), and other key tools

PEOPLE: Internal and External Audiences
Once you have a strategy and Social Media functionality figured out, what is next? Engaging your audiences. And yes, this includes both external and internal. You could have crafted the best message, but if no one is listening and responding you are missing half the battle.

• Who dictates your content (internal audience)?
• Who posts content, how many voices?
• Give incentives for posting good content
• Have a watchdog that monitors content
• Utilize training forums so your content is well thought out
• Who is your external audience?
• Grow your external audience
• Retain your external audience
• Interaction with People vs. Companies
• Small company can have a much bigger voice!

PERFORMANCE: Return On Investment?
Monitoring and measuring ROI for your Social Media efforts can seem daunting. Frankly, sometimes it is hard to quantify. The biggest key is to ensure you are measuring against the goals of your Social Media campaign. If you are looking to brand your business or recruit great talent, your metrics may be different.

• Utilize analytics already built into the platforms
• Use measurement tools available online
  (google analytics, ominiture, postrank, sentiment metrics)
• Monitoring vs. Measurement, there is a difference
• Report, report, report
• Track and improve your SEO
• Integrate your Social Media ROI with other business metrics
• Tracking the intangible parts of ROI (feedback)
• What are YOU learning in social media space?!

So is there really a “Perfect Program” in Social Media? Depends. What are your goals versus your successes? How much are you learning? Do your customers and colleagues engage with you in a new way? Then perhaps you are finding your Social Media Success.

How Social Media Takes Us From a selling world to a buying world

In the words of Raymond Aaron, author of "Chicken Soup

For The Canadian Soul", we are living through a transformational

change that has affects all businesses, whether on or offline.

What is very interesting is that in fact we have come the full

circle. Let me explain:

In the days where tribes and small villages were the biggest

social unit apart from families and armies, establishing a

relationship with clients was the only way to sell a product or

service. Trust was essentially created through Word of Mouth.


But with the power of advertising and communication through

mass media, selling became the main skill required. If you had

the "gift of the gab", you could sell ice to an eskimo, flippers

to a duck etc...

With the rise of Online Social Media we have now come back

to trust being the main requirement before people buy. The

"tribe" has no boundaries as the conversation spreads to the

whole global village. Word of mouth is the only thing that

counts. So in your social media strategy you need to focus on

giving value, advice, proof that you are trustworthy, and sales

will come!

Google+ May Be the Biggest Online Conversation in the History of the Internet

What is Google + and what are the main differences with Facebook and twitter is what most people are wondering right now. Should I be part of it? I can’t waste my time on Facebook, Twitter and now in Google+. This is what most people are saying right now, but what is actually Google+?

Google+ is the biggest online conversation since the internet was available to the public. It is still in Beta version and you need to be invited to join by someone already in it.

In Google+ you can potentially make a conversation with every single user of Google, not of Google+ only but Google, so if there are millions in it, you have potentially millions to exchange ideas with. Why? and How?

Google+ allows you to add to your circles everyone on Google+ and anyone with a Gmail account and they don’t even need to accept or add you in their circles to receive your status updates. In Summary everyone you add to your circles (and you can potentially add everyone) will receive your status updates in their “Stream” and they can add comments and likes.

This is a total new way of social interaction, online conversation and online sharing.

Many of us don’t believe Google can have a successful Social Network because of all their previous failures, but Google + is not competition to Facebook or Twitter, it is a whole new vision of the capabilities within Social Media in general.

Do companies actually see the potential of what Google+ is? I am sure not yet and they will not see it for a long time, basically you are able to reach your target market and potential clients without them even knowing you are there, but they will receive your posts about your business so you can reach everyone you want.

You can make the biggest market research ever imagine for your business by reaching as many people as possible and sharing the questions, they don't need to have you their contacts but they are still able to answer your questions.

This will create a whole new level in the way marketing is done online. Like we have been saying for a long time now... the news, services and businesses will find you, no longer you will have to look for them.

How will this affect Facebook or Twitter? That is only to be seen, all the attention is going to how Facebook will react about Google+ but what about Twitter? While not having all the eyes on them we might be giving the space they need to be the real threat to all social networks around.