Rich Page, Poor Page – Not every Facebook Page is created Equal

Pages are becoming more and more an essential part of major brand’s Social Media Arsonal. Facebook has recently allowed brands to increase the breadth and depth of information available on said pages. Essentially these pages (if developed and tracked properly) can become micro-sites assisting in all marketing efforts for a brand. They’re easily modified, appropriately engaging, and at times can become the central hub of information or PR for major brands. 

Because you cannot track how many “fans” you have on your page, brands should look to alternate ways to track success of a page.  Firstly, ALL brands should have a page presense. If you don’t I can almost guarantee that one of your customers has already taken the liberty of starting a fan page, and or (worst case) and negative page about your brand.  Once your page has been launched, your message and voice conveyed appropriately you must of course have a media dollars to help support the page. If you build it, unfortunatly they don’t always come. 

• Number of Fans
• Active Users – Total users that interact with your page over a specfic time frame, usually per day, week, month. 
• Fan Profile – mining the information about the fans of your page can offer optics into a consumer base you may have never tapped into before.
• Unique user reach – percentage of those users that have become a fan among the total social media audience (or calculated as active page users per audience)
• Growth – Average numer of users within a specific time frame
• Influence – Average number of friends among each “fan” of your page
• Number of pages your fans are also fans of

Tweetliers – Why Twitter Has Already Changed Marketing

Yesterday Will Akerlof posted an article on MediaPost titled “Twits: Why Twitter Won’t Change Marketing” I thought perhaps the title was a bombastic contrarian comment to suck the reader in. I was wrong. Mark feels that in a couple of years we’ll look at Twitter as

another online flash in the pan that the press and digerati got all excited about until they found the next new thing.

 Finally he compares Twitter to a Ponzi Scheme Stating:

One could argue that social networks operate like Ponzi schemes. They require rapid growth to maintain interest and draw more users. There is inevitably a point where growth is limited by the size of the potential audience and the appeal of the service. When growth slows and the shine of newness fades, the network begins to wither and die

Here’s my comment I posted

While twitter may not be the final iteration of the micro-blogging/social media sensation, the power of twitter lies in the “changing of the game”. Those that are participating in Twitter realize that they can leverage, and influence large numbers of like minded people. Ask Gary Vaynerchuk – (350,000+ followers). He owns a wine store in New Jersey, and rates wine on his online Vlog. He has the wine industry shaking, and is leveraging the power of Twitter. This type of influence is hugely impactful for marketers. To say that Twitter may be gone in a few years is possibly true, but that’s not to say that this type of social interaction will be gone along with it. This is word of mouth on steroids. If you look at it as if we were growing in the social sphere along the same line as in Maslow’s hierarchy, we have yet to come to self actualization. Twitter may take us there (obviously currently they are not), but what they are allowing people to do is to become experts, and receive esteem from their peers and to contribute in a community. Your post is well written, and obviously well thought out, but I’d recommend perhaps getting more involved in Twitter before passing judgment. I personally didn’t see the point until I fully immersed myself. Yesterday I found a solution from my followers regarding how to remove a stain from a marble counter, shared images from a car wreck on the Saw Mill Parkway to warn other travelers, and passed on a great vacation deal that lasted only 48 hours. Twitter works…for now. Ponzi schemes offer perceived reward. Twitter has already given back with human interaction and information sharing. Final thought – you should follow me @cdessi

here is Mr. Akerlof’s reply

Christopher: I appreciate the argument that I really just need to know Twitter better before I understand the value. I’ve only been using Twitter for a couple of months. I did go over to @garyvee on Twitter and in the first 3 pages of his tweets, don’t see any about Wine. It’s all random comments and a thread about his book on marketing. I think this proves my point about Twitter being an echo chamber. If the proof of Twitter’s success is that there is a man who has had success selling a book on having success using Twitter. I believe you, but I am not convinced it’s a new marketing paradigm.

I appreciate Mr. Akerlof’s contrarian view, and I commend him for sticking to his guns and offering a thoughtful, and gracious response to my comment.  I still disagree with him.  Again, I’ll state that Twitter may not be the savior here, but what it has done is shine a light on the fact that the game is changing and that marketers must evolve or die.  This instead of saying this isn’t your father’s marketing: it’s more like – this isn’t the marketing you did 2 years ago. The world has changed, Twitter is the Tipping Point.

Brands and Social Media: Top 3 Reasons Why Every Brand Must get Involved

Brands continue to hedge regarding involvement in Social Media. Lack of control, a lack of knowledge regarding where to start, what to measure, and how to measure push brands into an inactive catatonic state of empathy regarding the whole of Social Media.  Dismissing Social Media is a mistake – ESPECIALLY if you’re a large brand.

Here’s why:

1. Social Media is the richest ecosystem of data that brands can leverage today. Firms make marketing decisions based on what they know about their customers and potential customers. Knowing how well a consumer is linked to existing customers is a powerful characteristic on which to base direct marketing decisions.

2. This is only the beginning – As more consumers create interlinked blogs, and have the opportunity to participate and create content, this is just the first iteration of a consumer based ecosystem of data that brands can have access to if they decide to participate.

3. Demographic, Geographic and Psychographic information is dead. Social media offers brands insight into communication between people. This communication is a better indicator of deep similiarity than any demographic or geographic attributes. Homophily or word of mouth is the best indicator of brand loyalty that has ever been available. Period

The Power of Small: How Little Gestures can Make Your Brands Social Community a Hit

As more and  more brands take the leap into Social Media we continue to hear  horror stories.  Some brands think that they should jump on the Social Media Bandwagon, create a community  – set it, and forget it.  BIG mistake.

While attending the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco  I sat in on a session regarding something that I didn’t even know existed before  – Community Managers. The title of the session was What would the Community Manager Do?  Micki Krimmel @mickipedia presented ideas that are worth restating there, and are certainly appropriate consider all of the brands jumping on the Social Media Bandwagon.

The 4 Tenants of the Community Manager:

1. Creators
2. Empathizers
3. Pattern recognizers
4. Meaning makers

Community Advocate – Listening to what the community wants – solving customer needs

Brand Evangelist – PR Events and Panels, participate, vision and personality – admit mistakes

Flexible – Can’t just be a megaphone for the PR company

Communication – Shape editorial, new media tools, responsive, 2 way street

Gathers Input – Actively seek input, build relationships, ask questions, report feedback

How do you hire a community manager?

The person you hire for this role MUST reflect your brands core values.  Micki shared a job offer she received from Tesla car company. She knew instinctively that this was not the appropriate role for her because she isn’t passionate about cars.  If you’re a brand looking for a community manager you must hire your biggest fan.

How do you fit this role into your company?  The community manager must be offered 4 “luxuries” in order to be successful for your brand.

1. Autonomy
2. Authority
3. Agency
4. Accountability

Your Brand can’t have a “build it and they will come” attitude. Your brand must focus on the little gestures. The conversations, interaction and nuances of your community. Hire the appropriate person in this role, and gain commitment from the whole company/brand to be advocates.

Case Study:
Zappos –

A woman purchased a wallet via Zappos.  She didn’t like the wallet purchase so she returned the wallet and mistakenly left $150 in the wallet. The person that recieved the returned item sent back the $150 to the woman.

You’re successful when EVERYONE is a community manager

More Candy Talk: I promise No More Skittles – What do Reeses Peanut Butter Cups Have to do with Semantic Search and Email?

Remember in the 80’s when some unsuspecting  guy enjoying a large bucket of peanut butter would be happily walking down the street when out of nowhere some guy enjoying a huge chunk of chocolate would collide – than you’d hear “you got your peanut butter in my chocolate” from one guy, than the other would reply “you got your chocolate in my peanut butter”!  Than they’d both realize the wonderful marriage of chocolate and peanut butter – BAM – Peanut Butter Cups are born!  Oh Joy!

Yesterday I thought of a similar marriage of technologies that I think will be very powerful.

Email + Semantic Search.

Now, I know that I can’t be the first person to think of this, so if you know of any companies doing it, and doing it well. Please comment, and link to said company. I want to invest. Here’s why:

Financial Times just invested a large chunk of money into Semantic Search Engine Newssift. These guys have their act together, and they have some very powerful tools for Business to Business Research tools.  They can determine the Sentiment of certain news stories that they index. I think this is fascinating, and certainly applicable for research, even identify protection, Public Relations etc. What if the same technology were applied to Email? What if you were able to tell between the urgent email from your boss and the totally innocuous one from said boss about Thursday’s lunch meeting?  Wouldn’t this be a much more powerful way to sift through your email?  Perhaps you’d need to keep track of any new business opportunities that hit your in box.  Currently if you have no idea who the sender is, this important note may end up in the trash.

Well, I just thought I’d put it out there.  Who knows maybe Newssift will team up with a Email Service provider and offer the service for free.  I’d use it, wouldn’t you?

Why Your Business has to be on Twitter; Demographics Aren’t what you think

Recently I’ve been going a little Twitter crazy. There are a few factors involved, not the least of which is that I’m unemployed and learning about Social Media as much as I possibly can. The Twitterverse is bubbling with interesting links, updates, Tweets, and tools to grow your business online using Social Media techniques etc.  What I previously thought Twitter was all about has turned out to not be the case at all. I assumed that this would be a teen environment, and I’d be the goofy dad embarrassing his daughter while tweeting about Yankee Opening Day.  After conducting some research my hunch regarding the demographic has been confirmed.  It seems that the largest demographic according to Quantcast on Twitter is 18-34 year olds.  I think this has to do with the idea that entrepreneurs can build a community via Twitter for FREE. They don’t have to bit on Google Key Words, they don’t have to pay per click on a PPC Network. Just generate killer content, have a voice, and people will follow you. there is a strong sentiment on Twitter of shared ideas, and good behavior. Rarely do you see anyone ranting. Take a look at these numbers – I’m sure they’ll change your opinion if your still on the fence about getting your business involved with Twitter.

#FeelGoodFriday

This afternoon I thought that I’d start something different VIA Twitter. Since everyone seems so excited about FollowFriday (which is awesome), I just felt the world needs some more positive energy, so I decided to start #feelgoodfriday where you tweet out the best Feel Good story you can find. Let’s spread some positivity!!

The Internet is the Truth Machine

About 10 years ago, my Uncle recommended a book to me called the Truth Machine
 by James Halprin.

The book is science fiction and truthfully, I wasn’t so intrigued.  The book was published in 1996.  The cover reads: It Could be the Greatest Blessing or The Most Terrible Curse.  The premise of the book is that in the not so distant future a “Truth Machine” is invented.  Over the course of generations borders are secured, individuals become more intelligent because they can no longer cheat, and the reality of life is brought to light in a glaring manner.  The “base line” of truth is brought to the forefront of society. Politicians must tell the truth – wow, what a world.

Last week I attended the Web 2.0 conference in San Fran, and it hit me….the Internet has become the Truth Machine!

Let me explain: for the past however many years, brands have been been doing well online selling goods, building brand awareness etc, but we all know that CPM is dead.  Brands can no longer just broadcast online and hope to win new/loyal customers.  Facebook, Youtube. MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Stubleupon, Yelp, are dominating the interactive landscape and brands need to rethink their strategy.  Listening, engaging, and cultivating a relationship with their customer is the only manner in which brands can communicate now. If not, the ecosystem of Social Media will flesh out the “posers” cough *Skittles* cough…and make sure the brands that aren’t doing it properly are burnt at the stake in the center square.  

What Social Media has effectively created (for Brands) is a Truth Machine.  

So why are so many brands panicking, and why are guys like Gary Vaynerchuk flourishing?  Yesterday I met with my good friend Alex Baydin CEO of Performline and we both agreed, that nomatter what business a guy like Gary Vaynerchuk is in, he will be successful.  Why?  Because he is genuine.  I was lucky enough to meet Gary in person and after fawning over him for the first few minutes of our meeting I commented “I love what your about” to which Gary replied “It was good parenting”….WOW.  When was the last time you heard that?

Brands need to get back to zero, start to listen to their consumer, and actually care. They need to understand that whatever they put out there will be read commented on, blogged about, Tweeted, and Re-tweeted, digested, and then either evangelized, or destroyed. 

The Internet is the ULTIMATE Truth Machine

EXCITED TO SAY THAT FACEBOOKSHOULDHIREME.COM WAS MENTIONED IN FORTUNE.COM

This past week Jamie Varon of “Twittershouldhireme.com” fame was featured in Fortune Magazine.  While Jamie and I have spoken before (considering I’ve shamelessly copied her wonderful idea to appeal to Twitter directly for employment), I only learned of the news from one of her ecstatic “tweets” regarding the coverage.  I was obviously super excited to see that my copy cat site “Facebookshoulhireme.com” was mentioned in the article as well.   Who would have thought that I’d have to be unemployed to get a mention in Fortune.  Outstanding! Oh yeah, if you’re reading this – follow me on Twitter!  @cdessi

What Varon did next made her feel a little crazy. But then, it’s a crazy time to be looking for a job. She created a website called twittershouldhireme.com, including her resume, recommendations, and a blog tracking her quest. Within 24 hours the company contacted her. She had a lunch meeting set up at Twitter, and in the meantime got two job offers from tech companies that had noticed her site, which has even spawned imitators: googleshouldhireme.com and facebookshouldhireme.com.

Check out the full article HERE – or just click on Jamie’s image:

In Response to Gary Vaynerchuk’s Good People Day!