Social Media Week 2011: Facebook Takes Center Stage

Looking back on last week’s Social Media Week 2011,  one thing is clear.  The event that was born in New York in 2009 has certainly secured the title of “Best Newcomer” on the conference circuit. And Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence jumped at the chance to host events in several hub cities including London, San Francisco and New York.

Since February marks Facebook’s seventh birthday, what better way to celebrate in NYC than to host an interactive workshop with partner and Facebook powerhouse Buddy Media? Entitled “It’s 2011…How’s Your Facebook Strategy Doing?” this session brought together the industry’s top experts in branding and platform development to share their experiences.

The half-day work session kicked off with best-in-class case studies from Ford and Starwood Hotels. 360 Digital Influence’s Karen Untereker showcased how Ford became the first automotive manufacturer to unveil a vehicle over 24 hours on Facebook. How? Tips included rolling out photo teasers, serving up fresh content every 30 minutes and hosting live chats with Ford experts to drive lasting engagement and positive word of mouth for the new Ford Explorer as it was launched.

Alyssa Waxenberg of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide shared tactics that have led to the phenomenal growth of Starwood’s official presence on Facebook - more than 1,000 of its properties have distinct Facebook Pages. Some of her tips for success? Senior-level support, tracking and responding to fan queries around the clock globally and adjusting the in-person Starwood experience based on feedback shared on Facebook. See her presentation here.

A workshop on Facebook would not be complete without hearing the facts straight from the world’s most popular website - Sarah Personette, US Head of Agency Relations at Facebook, presented a “State of the Union” address to the audience in Ogilvy’s Theater. She focused on the fact that every brand needs a customer-centric strategy, whether its using Facebook to deliver customer service or crowd-source around product development. The fact is the web is reorganizing around people,  and so businesses are reorganizing around people - because this approach delivers results.

Some of the latest Facebook numbers around the globe:

• More than half of Facebook’s 600+ million users return to the site daily
• In the US, that percentage is even higher: 70% of the 125 million US Facebook users return to the site every day
• France has 22 million active users, with 65 percent returning daily;
• The UK has 29 million active users, and Canada has 19 million active users

To wrap up, the event culminated in a panel debate featuring Pepper Evans Roukas of American Express; Beth Colleton of NBC Green Is Universal; Michael Lazerow, CEO Buddy Media and Julio Fernandez, Global Strategies International. Panelists focused on sharing their Facebook experiences and providing practical tips covering topics from fan acquisition and engagement to driving compelling, current content, measurement, effective advertising, and a look ahead to the next 12 months on the platform (spoiler alert: more mobile functionality and measurement were the top of the panel’s wish lists).

Could not attend? See TechCrunch’s report here.

And tell us, what do YOU think the next 12 months hold for Facebook? What will we be discussing with our panelists at SMW 2012?

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Tweeting Your Way to Success

This morning, as I skimmed through my newsfeeds and email messages, I found three posts that had to do with finding a way to excel on Twitter. Since the bird seems to be in the collective consciousness today, I thought I’d take a moment to add my two cents to the communal pot.

Let’s start with Business News Daily. For some strange reason, they have two, very similar articles running today that deal with Twitter success. First, there’s 9 Steps to a Successful Twitter Strategy.

The title alone will stop many people in their tracks. Strategy? I just post whatever comes to mind when I have minute, right? Is that a strategy? No, Newman, it’s not. The article lists nine steps to setting up a plan but basically it breaks down to this, list your marketing goals, listen to your customers, create a plan to regularly engage and respond to your customers, set up metrics to measure your success in regard to the marketing goals.

Nothing there you didn’t know and yet I’d bet that 75% of people who Tweet for business don’t do any of that. Overwhelmed, maybe? That takes us to Splitting Up Your Social Strategy from WebPronews.com The suggestion here is that you look at the small metrics in order to decide how to proceed with your Tweeting. For example, how many people RT a story? Which stories get clickthroughs? Which were ignored? Remember to look at time of day. Do your am stories get more clickthroughs than the ones you post at night?  Then make that part of your strategy – schedule more tweets before noon and forget Tweeting after six.

Need some inspiration? That second article on Business News Daily talks about the Twitteratti,aka, the business Tweeters who are doing it right. They have their list but I’d like to add two of my personal favorites, @Syfy and @WarnerArchive.

Both of these active Twitterers do an excellent job of balancing community and fun with business. WarnerArchive’s ultimate goal is to get you to buy their DVDs (which are fabulous) and though they do post sales Tweets, I don’t feel like I’m being spammed. Most of their stream is devoted to trivia, contests and responding and RTing to the community members. I feel like WarnerArchive and I are friends and I look forward to their exchange.

@Syfy is actually Craig Engler, the VP of a large cable network but his Twitter account makes him very accessible. He takes the time to answer questions, he sends out fun trivia, he runs giveaways and he promotes the TV shows on Syfy. He has 53,000 followers and yet if feels like he’s talking to a small group.

To sum it up. Take a look at the businesses on your Twitter list, learn from the ones who have got it right and the ones that rub you the wrong way. When it comes to Twitter, there’s gold in them hills, you just have to figure out the best way to get at it.

Do you have a favorite business Tweeter?

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Should You Really Enter The “Make Money Online” Niche?

First of all, by “make money online” I mean all the Internet marketing niches, including blogging, social media, SEO, affiliate marketing and so on.

The question I am asking is: should someone who is getting started online enter the Internet marketing niche directly?

Many people seem to think so, judging by the amount of blogs and websites we see popping out in this niche every month.

In my opinion, however, this is a mistake.

Why? Because entering a mainstream niche (e.g., health care, education, finance, travel and so on) can be easier, because there might be less competition there, and more profitable, because the size of the potential audience is much larger. That is why they are called “mainstream” after all, because they appeal to the majority of the population, while Internet marketing has a really small audience in comparison.

Given these facts, why do people insist in entering the Internet marketing niche? I think for one main reason: the Internet marketing community is more vocal about its earnings, strategies and what not, so people get the idea that talking about making money online is the best way to actually make money online.

This is clearly not true.

There are many people out there making a killing in mainstream niches, the only difference is that they don’t blog about how much money they are earning, about the strategies they are using to achieve it and so on.

Now don’t get me wrong. Internet marketing is a profitable niche. I am not arguing otherwise. I am just saying that, in comparison, mainstream niches can be even more profitable.

At this point you might be thinking: “It is easy for you to say Daniel, but you have a blog about blogging and a course about making money online.” This is true, but I also have many other online properties in mainstream niches. Want one example? My other blog, DailyWritingTips.com, was launched after this one, and despite that it receives more traffic and makes more advertising money.

Here are the numbers to give you a better idea: DailyBlogTips.com has around 5,000,000 backlinks according to Google, and it generates around 300,000 page views monthly. DailyWritingTips.com, on the other hand, has only 150,000 backlinks according to Google, yet it generates over 500,000 page views monthly (according to Google Analytics. as you can see in the image above).

What is the explanation? It is simple, the “writing tips” niche has less competition and a larger potential audience. Most of my new projects these days are on mainstream niches as well, exactly because I think there is more money to be made there.

The bottom line is: You don’t need to enter the “make money online” niche to have a profitable website. If you learn the Internet marketing principles and apply them to mainstream niches you might end up making more money.

 

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