Getting in Gear with Social Media News

How about a round-up of social news stories making the rounds on the Web today? There are some important landmarks for social media watchers to be aware of in the journey toward social media success.

A quick view of the roadmap first:

• There’s a social media traffic jam in the B2B lane.

CC BY SA 2.0

• Google still drives more trust than social media channels.
• Users beware stranger danger! Don’t fall for social media candy.
• There’s a powerful new competitor in the race. Keep up!

Now buckle your seat belts and away we go!

Social Media Marketing Breaks Down on B2B Lead Generation

Social media marketing is a weak method of B2B lead generation, according to a study by LeadForce1. Product pages and contact pages were among the least-visited page types from social sources, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. From Facebook, visitors check out about pages and blogs most, and product pages least. From Twitter, blogs take the top spot, with product pages trailing behind in third place. And visitors from Facebook and Twitter visit just one page of a B2B site more than 63 percent of the time. Though, while social media traffic can’t be counted on for driving instant sales, this study doesn’t negate the community building, engagement generating and branding powers of social media marketing. Just be sure SMM goals line up with social media’s strengths.

Social Media Companies Still Have a Lot of Ground to Gain in User Trust

While Twitter and Facebook are the life of the party on the Web, Google, Apple and Microsoft are still far and away more trusted by the American public. Apple, Microsoft and Google were found to be trusted by 49 percent of adult respondents, while Facebook and Twitter were trusted by 13 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Among a younger crowd (18- to 29-year-olds), the established tech giants still had higher trust ratings than the social media companies, although Facebook and Twitter were viewed more trustworthy by the younger group at 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively. (It’s interesting to note that none of the above faired as poorly on the trust meter as traditional media.) The trust level of Internet marketing channels including search engines, computing device manufacturers and social media sites is worth consideration when deciding the strengths and best use of such channels.

Avoid Stranger Danger on Social Media’s Mean Streets

I knew my fears of broadcasting your whereabouts to the world were well founded. David Harry is shining a light on the trouble with services like Foursquare that encourage users to post their current locations online. The exploitable personal detail that Dave was able to find in a few short search sessions is shocking. I’m sure you can understand how sharing your home location and then sharing your current location is enough info for a would-be thief to know the coast is clear and for how long. Teens are among the most vulnerable to predation as they often share personal information without a clear understanding of potential consequences. The old saying “don’t talk to strangers” is just as relevant online today as ever before.

There’s a New Car on the Track — BlueGlass Interactive

Search & Social, 10e20 and Brent Csutoras, Inc. were always forces to be reckoned with in the Internet marketing industry, but now that they’ve teamed up, you better be ready for a challenge to your SERP space. Luckily for us, the individual members of the new BlueGlass Interactive team are all incredibly active in the community. They frequently speak at search conferences, publish news, tactics and strategies on Search Engine Journal, and organize their own educational conference series, with the next soon taking place in L.A. Recognize the challenge of a new Internet marketing force on the field and use their offerings to your advantage to push your pedal to the metal.

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The Secrets To Social Media Marketing

Charlie Cook, the man who wrote The New Profit Rules, is back with the secrets to social media marketing. Charlie has assemble eight social media experts to teach you exactly how to leverage the power of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook for make more money for your business.

So here’s how we developed this program. Recently I had a Tele-Seminar Event where I put each of these 8 experts on the “Hot-Seat” and had them reveal strategies, formulas, tips and tricks that their clients have paid large sums of money to discover.

Each one of these training sessions is about an hour long and you can listen to them in their entirety on MP3 for each of the eight training calls.

In addition to these eight MP3s you’ll also be getting eight transcripts of each interview so you’ll have all this information at your fingertips.

List of Speakers and Topics

• Carrie Wilkerson – Where To Focus Your Social Media Marketing To Rapidly Expand Traffic and Profits
• Jan Vermerien – The Quick and Easy LinkedIn Tactics For Building Your Online Network of Hot Contacts and Leads
• Paul Dunay – How to Use Facebook to Attract New and Repeat Business and to Grow Their Annual Revenue
• Jack Humphrey – The Fastest Way to Attract More Prospects to Your Business With Your Blog
• Ryan Healy – How to Create a Killer Blog That Builds Credibility and Profits
• Kyle Lacy – The Top Ways to Use Twitter to Dominate Your Market
• Warren Whitlock – Advanced Twitter Marketing Strategies Guaranteed to Boost Business Revenue
• Perry Lawrence – Video Marketing Made So Easy Anyone Can Do It

I’ve been listening to the MP3s for the past few days and so far, it’s been really good and extremely informative. I especially like the ideas Jack Humphrey presented for using a blog to attract prospects to your business. The video marketing module from Perry Lawrence was also very good.

Because everything is in MP3 format, you can load it into your iPhone/iPod and play it whenever you want. For me, it’s generally at the gym when I’m on the elliptical trainer. A PDF transcript is included for those who like to read. In addition to the main eight speakers, The Secrets To Social Media Marketing includes a bunch of free bonuses. There’s a 65 page eBook on how to profit from social media plus six other social media money-making resources.

Social media is one of the driving forces behind my marketing strategy. It’s also one of the most cost effective because it many case, it doesn’t cost anything. All boggers, Internet marketers and business people need to learn and use social media and The Secrets To Social Media Marketing is a good place to start. In addition to the free bonuses, Charlie is offering a $100 discount on his program. The Secrets To Social Media Marketing is also backed by a 100% Money-Back Guarantee. it’s worth checking out.

Download The Secrets To Social Media Marketing

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What If the Customer’s Wrong?

I went to sign in to my personal e-mail this morning and what did I find but a lovely tattooed lady, the portrait of independence and personal style. In this vivid imagery, Yahoo! is telling me they’re where it’s at for a customized experience of the Web in all its social, informational and visually engaging glory.

Because isn’t that what users want? A platform that fits the way they use the Web? It’s the goal of a business to fill a consumer’s need, and it’s the marketer’s job to define that need and explain why said business is the right solution.

Technology companies have been leading the pack, even getting the credit for lifting the country’s struggling stock market, because they offer new, cutting-edge solutions, often times to needs consumers never even had before the Information Age changed the game forever.

But I can’t help but wonder. Have businesses shifted their service strategies too far into the realm of pandering to be truly productive. After all, what if the customer is wrong?

Admission: It’s a bit of a stretch to go from Yahoo!’s perfectly reasonable offering of a personalized home page to a larger criticism of companies that let their customers call the shots. But you follow me, right?

Okay, fair enough. Here’s a better example. Would you ever let your life be dictated by the Twitter mob? One guy’s doing it as an experiment dreamed up by his advertising firm. On Monday, David Perez will be at Twitter’s disposal for a week-long exercise in black-belt-degree submission. Just send a Twitter message to @davidondemand and he’ll do what you tell him to (within the law, of course). Supposedly, this isn’t just another scheme to get attention. Rather, it’s meant to demonstrate how advertising is becoming more personal thanks to technology.

So I’m supposed to view @davidondemand as some kind of progressive art installation? What exactly are we supposed to understand from this marketing mess? That the ad agency responsible will bend over backwards based on a customer’s whims? It may seem like the customer wins in that situation, but if suddenly that same theory became a trendy new school of parenting, there’d by thousands of angry, spoiled, fat toddlers running around demanding you hand over another puppy-cupcake duo.

Turns out, people are pretty awful at predicting what makes them happy. Furthermore, the more options you offer to meet any individual consumer’s desires, the unhappier that individual becomes. And of course, by letting the consumer dictate the offering, a business has no room for innovation. A business shouldn’t spend all day chasing the whims of customers who aren’t the experts in your field, who can’t visualize the full trajectory of the industry and who would be doing what you do if they did know it all.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s certainly a place for identifying business opportunities as they pop up. And this strategy can result in wins all around. The Hide Google Options plugin we developed recently was a fast response to a brand new problem and it quickly became one of the most popular ways to turn off Google’s three-column user interface and a link magnet that got us visibility and pats on the back from a relevant audience.

On the other hand, look at Google’s response to the user interface backlash. They’re not budging. They expect that users will adjust and are sticking to their guns. If I were a betting woman, I’d take one look at Google’s track record of success and side with them on this one. Sorry, Susan. [I freely admit that I just don't like change. —Susan]

For the final word, I’ll turn to another formidable force in the tech world: Apple. It’s fairly well known that Steve Jobs doesn’t do market research. And yet his company continues to set the bar for whoda-thunk tech devices that quickly become any American’s fifth limb. Rather than asking people what they want, they ask themselves what a great product would be and then strike out toward that goal.

Have you ever had an experience where trying to make a customer happy ended up backfiring? Have you ever found success by ignoring what a customer requested? Or do you think I’ve gone off the deep end completely? Share your thoughts in the comments. I promise to listen — even if we don’t agree.

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Only 10% of Marketers Consider Social Media Important for Customer Engagement

If I were to ask you “how do you measure customer engagement,” what would you say?

That’s just one of the questions that Forbes asked CMOs in a new Forbes Insights report entitled: “The New Rules of Engagement: CMOs Rethink Their Marketing Mix” (free download). And, while CMOs seem to understand the importance of engagement–67% said is was “very” important and 30% said it was “somewhat” important–they can’t quite put their finger on how to measure it.

The chart below highlights the metrics CMOs are using to determine just how successful they are in engaging their customers. Some of them look “about right” but others perplex me.

For example, customer retention and sales aren’t very good measures of engagement, are they? Apple doesn’t do much to “engage” its customers but its retention and sales are through the roof because it builds awesome products. Likewise, just because someone opts-in to your email newsletters, doesn’t necessarily mean they are engaged. They could have filters set up to simply show them the email if you mention a discount coupon.

Perhaps the most confusing stat is the low importance placed on social media activity? Maybe I’ve been sipping too much of the social media Kool-Aid, but wouldn’t social media activity be a very important metric for measuring customer engagement? After all, isn’t that where a company truly gets to “engage” with its customers?

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Create Plenty of Ads with Plenty of Fish Ads Manager

Are you already killing it with Facebook Ads? Or maybe you are just getting killed and not making any money at all!? Another excellent source for driving traffic to your affiliate offers is the free dating social network, PlentyOfFish.com. Think Facebook… but focused towards online dating.

Plenty of Fish is one of the largest free dating sites in the world, and as a marketer, I can tell you they also have an amazing back end for advertising on their network. Facebook has a ton of demographic targeting, but Plenty of Fish really drills down on personal preference, education, occupation and income levels. If you have successfully made a profit on running dating campaigns with Facebook, you should be able to do the same, if not better with Plenty of Fish.

Obvious dating offers are one of the hottest and easiest offers to promote and see results. The majority of users on Plenty of Fish are already single and looking for online dating, so hitting them with a new dating site is just what they want. However, more than regular ad campaigns, you will really need to drill down on what ad creatives pull in the best results and click through rates.

If you have an affiliate or product offer and know what the demographics are of the average buyer, then Plenty of Fish is a great network for testing and marketing to your direct audience. Dating on Plenty of Fish is always going to be saturated since it’s the focus of the network, so think outside of the box to find a new campaigns that isn’t being heavily pushed.

Just like advertising on Facebook Ads, the process of manually adding new ad campaigns one at a time is a tedious and frustrating task. Lucky for us, Mr. Green has created the Plenty of Fish Ad Uploader. Just like the 4 Hour Affiliate plugin, I’ve been using Mr. Green’s Ad Uploader for months now.

How much is your time worth? You can keep manually uploading campaigns one at a time, or invest in the Plenty of Fish Ad Uploader for only $100 and start focusing on what matters most, your ROI and CTR.

Read a full review on how the Plenty of Fish Ad Uploader works and how it can drastically improve your roi, time management and ad campaigns for Plenty of Fish advertising.

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Getting Perspective: Why the Opinion Revolution Works for You

Can I just take a moment to lament the decline of traditional media?

Oh, this again?

Just hear me out. I’m a blogger. It’s my prerogative to opine and get all emo on you — which is exactly my point.

Bruce recently gave the content creation department a glimpse of his predictions for the near future of Web content. It’s all moving toward opinion. Traditional news organizations of the last decade will be extinct in the next decade, replaced by heavy editorial and subjective analysis.

Excuse Me While I Cry About It

A reader has an abundance of choices for news reporting online. Raw fact can be found almost anywhere, and yet news readers are likely to choose large, established media organizations for this sort of information — though even then, they’re not safe to rest on laurels of fair and balanced reporting. For proof, check out CBS evening news anchor Katie Couric’s Twitter update about a political power couple’s separation:

I bet the obvious bias and emotion of that sentiment had Pulitzer rolling in his grave. And yet the truth is, an organization — especially the smaller ones with fewer resources to devote to breaking news — can’t do “just the facts” because opinion is what differentiates an offering and endears an audience. In order to survive, news organizations better have something original to say.

Problem is, the Olbermanns and Limbaughs of the world operate in an echo chamber, giving viewers and readers a self-fulfilling prophecy that does little in the way of enlightenment or education. Few and far between are a consumer’s choices for balanced analysis from any single offering.

And while remnants of old school, factual reporting still hang on, it’s being pushed aside to make room for challengers to fiery entertainment-news hybrids that dominate primetime timeslots. Just look at Campbell Brown’s decision to step aside so that CNN could have a chance to compete.

For a unique perspective of how news organizations intent on keeping “fair and balanced” alive are responding to the shift, tune in to SEM Synergy tomorrow on WebmasterRadio.FM. I interview Kate Gardiner, director of social media for PBS NewsHour, about upholding the mission of the fourth estate while engaging and interacting in the new media world.

Why This Works for Business

So now that I’ve had a chance to indulge in my futile pout, I’ll take refuge in the fact that at least there’s a lesson we marketers can take from this. We’re in a pretty good position considering it’s long been our objective to help our businesses and clients differentiate themselves from the competition through experience and insight. In terms of marketing material, we’ve traditionally provided a two-pronged content experience.

On the one hand, a business must offer objective facts on the industry or product and the needs an offering fills. By providing factual information to the savvy researcher interested in a product or service to meet their needs, a business can create a sense of trust and comfort in knowing the options available to them.

At the same time, a business must stand out among these options. Demonstrating a unique feature — be it of the product or service itself or of the organization that provides it — can provide an edge in the market. A strong sense of opinion can translate into perceptions of leadership, experience and authority. After showing an understanding of a consumer’s needs and laying out the facts of the solution, offer an analysis of the competition, explain how years of experience have fine-tuned the service, reveal why your offering goes beyond all other options through knowledge, quality, value or service.

Offer a strong perspective. Balance your opinion with fact so you’re viewed as fair and trustworthy. Use your blog and social media channels to broadcast your unique offerings, start conversations and position yourself as a thought-leader. Providing opinion is nothing new for marketers and business, so prop yourself up and prepare for the editorial content revolution.

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OnlineProfits Marketing Course Is Now Free

In January Daniel Scocco opened the doors back up of his popular OnlineProfits marketing course to a limited number of people.

The course covers everything you need to know about making money online in it’s 24 training modules. Modules range from the basics such as registering domain names and setting up your hosting account right through to link building, social media and traffic generation. Advanced topics such as Pay Per Click marketing, landing pages and selling products are also covered.

When I spoke about the course a few months ago it cost $392. Therefore I was both shocked and pleased to read last week that OnlineProfits is now free. All you need to do is sign up for a hosting account through one of the sites partners such as HostGator or HostNine. Hosting packages start from around $4.95 a month, making this the cheapest marketing course on the net.

OnlineProfits Marketing and Business Training

In the program you will get much needed help from several mentors such as Yaro Starak, ProBlogger book author Chris Garrett and our very own Zac Johnson.

Online Profits owner Daniel Scocco is also available to help too and over the next few months he will be doing a live case study where members can see how to turn a brand new website into a profitable website worth thousands of dollars.

Here’s a recap of the 24 subjects which are covered in the course:

1. Business Principles
2. Domain Names
3. Website Setup
4. Markets & Niches
5. Business Models
6. WordPress
7. Web Design
8. Blogging
9. Keyword Research
10. Online Forums
11. Online Stories
12. Web Content
13. Basic SEO
14. Advanced SEO
15. Link Building
16. Traffic Generation
17. Web Metrics
18. Social Media
19. Selling Advertising
20. Email Marketing
21. Affiliate Marketing
22. Pay Per Click
23. Landing Pages
24. Selling Your Products

If you are looking to increase your knowledge of blogging, marketing and making money on the web, then I encourage you to check OnlineProfits out. Not only will you get access to a wealth of information, you will also get access to some of the most experienced marketers and bloggers on the web. The live case studies will also show you exactly what you need to do to make money from a website.

Have any BloggingTips members joined up already? If so, please leave a comment and let fellow readers know what they can expect.

Thanks for reading

Kevin

Link: OnlineProfits

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It’s the Simplicity, Stupid

I’m a cartoonist. This is my tenth year blogging. My work has been mentioned in big media including Wall St. Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, and The Guardian. It’s been mentioned in bestselling books like Groundswell and Tribes. And it’s been mentioned on thousands of blogs, including many of the big, A-Lister ones.

That’s all well and good, I suppose. We artist types can use all the PR we can get.

But looking back, it occurs to me that none of that “hot PR media action” has moved my business forward nearly as quickly or effectively as this one simple thing:

My newsletter subscribers telling their friends about my newsletter, and suggesting that they sign up.

No, really, that’s it. That is the money shot. When that happens, my business grows, end of story.

More traditional media PR … well, that can work, sometimes.

You never know. The results are always foggy at best, and it’s always a lot of voraciously time-consuming, pain-in-the-ass work to make something happen. And even then, it may not actually increase sales.

I know getting mentioned in huge media outlets is sexy and all, but seriously, hear me out. I’ve been at this for a while.

Traditional PR works, when it works. Most of the time though, it doesn’t. Same with traditional advertising.

But my list telling their friends — that never fails.

Ever.

Make it easy

Another thing I’ve learned the hard way is: I cannot make my subscriber list tell their friends about the newsletter, no matter how hard I try to apply my Jedi mind tricks.

All I can do is make it easy for them to share. All I can do is make it as friction-free as possible.

So this is what I did to achieve that: I created a simple link on the bottom of the newsletter.

Hello from Hugh: Please share this link with your friends.

If their friends get the link and click on it, the page has a personal message from me.

Hello!

One of your friends sent you the link to this page, and so here you are. Welcome!

My name is Hugh. I’m a cartoonist. I have a newsletter, “Hugh’s Daily Cartoon,” which I send out five mornings a week. A wee chuckle in your inbox, to start your day off on the right foot (so to speak). I hope you will subscribe.

That’s it.

Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. Just a short and sincere message from me. I also threw in a few cartoons, just to give them something fun to read, other than my sales pitch.

A recommendation from a friend carries more weight than a hundred media recommendations.

It’s the simplicity, stupid

If my subscribers aren’t telling their friends, I’m doing something wrong, end of story.

If I’m not making it as easy and friction-free as possible to get my list to tell their friends, I’m doing something wrong.

You read Copyblogger, you’re a member of The Third Tribe, and you probably read a bunch of other savvy marketing folks. Great! They have a lot of killer stuff worth knowing about. Tons of it.

But just for a minute, forget all that and let me ask you two simple questions:

1. Is your list telling their friends about you? I mean, really telling them?
2. Have you made it as easy and friction-free as humanly possible for your list to tell their friends?

Until you can honestly say “Yes” to both questions, you have a severe marketing problem that no cutting-edge marketing theory — Copyblogger’s or anyone else’s — will ever solve.

About the Author: Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist who blogs over at gapingvoid.com. He makes his living by selling fine art prints, doing Cube Grenade commissioned art work and sending out daily cartoons on Hugh’s Daily Frickin’ Newsletter.