How to Ensure Your Facebook Application & Page will Crush it! 3 Tips for Advertisers

Freshness and relevance is appropriate regarding anything in social media, but are especially important for brand pages, and applications.  Even though Social Media offers a unique manner of communication with your consumer, that’s not to say it’s easy to engage said users.  Pages must have a dedicated page manager to update posts, and content.  Content management by a third partly is also strongly recommended. Full Disclosure – I work at Buddy Media which provides these services.  I fully feel they are essential if you’re to engage with your users appropriately.  Management, and tracking of these activities will place your Brand ahead of the game.

Consider this: Branded Social Media Applications or App-Vertising campaigns, deliver six times the number of impressions that traditional banner display campaigns.  SIX TIMES!  Essentially what you get as an advertiser is an accelorator.  Applications surpass banner placement on social networks.  When utilizing an appropriately designed, well thoughtout and appropriately implemented application a brand is paying almost 80% less for each engaged user than if they were to purchase display advertising on a social media network.  

1. Applications should have a fresh “hook” to them to facilitate viral growth

2. Don’t reinvent the wheel – if your current UI is loved by your users, request that your application developers replicate the look and feel

3. Give the users a reason to re-visit the application. Anything where they may be competing against friends always works. 

Social media: Whose job is it anyway? (page 2 of 5) – iMediaConnection.com

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Why Facebook has a $10billion dollar valuation – Network Neighbors

Brands leveraging only demographic, geographic and psychographic information about a consumer is dead. This type of information is certainly powerful to gain insight into your consumer, but my belief is that this is only the tip of the proverbial ice berg.

While studying direct marketing at NYU in the late 90’s this information was the holy grail of marketing.  Today, it’s no longer the case.  As social media has become ubiquitous the manner in which people interact with each-other is now available.  This information is certainly more powerful, and more telling to a large brand regarding the consumers likes, dislikes and potential purchasing habits.

I’d argue that the more compelling information that’s available to a brand is who are Network Neighbors.  These network neighbors are consumers linked to a prior consumer. They adopt a service at a rate 3-5 times greater than baseline groups selected by the best practices of the firm’s marketing team. Analyzing the network allows the firm to acquire new customers who otherwise would have fallen through the cracks, because they would have not been identified based on traditional attributes. – Statistical models, built with geo demo and prior purchase data are significantly and substantially improved by including network information. More sophisticated network information allows the ranking of the network neighbors so as to permit the selection of small sets of individuals. with very high probabilities of adoption. As a traditional direct marketer within the Social Media world, this is very exciting.  This is why every brand needs to be engaging with their consumers in Social Media.

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.

What’s the Difference Between Widgets and Social Media Applications?

I keep hearing this question, so I thought I’d attempt to offer some brief insight:

Applications are platform-specific. (facebook or myspace). Widgets can function on any site that accepts external content. This includes social networks, blog platforms, start pages, desktop platforms personal web sites –

Widgets can function differently on different platforms. So for example a widget may not fully integrate with a specific social network, or deliver varying degrees of integration with a social network like accessing an using certain social data. The benefits of Widgets are that they encourage connectivity, self-expression or collaboration think – GAMES – TOOLS – INTERACTIVE CONTENT

Applications tap into sharing and data via a social network like facebook or myspace via friends, locations etc.

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

Why I think Gary Vaynerchuk Missed this One

Times are hard, companies are strapped, and people should get used to seeing more and more changes like this. Until the recession lifts, this will have to be the way it goes. I’m sure the person that made the decision to make that change saved a few ESPN jobs by doing so.

Originally posted as a comment by Chris Dessi on Gary Vaynerchuk using Disqus.

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

Master your Tweetabolism: How to Trim your Follow Fat

As I continue to immerse myself in Twitter I find there are some problems that have started to rear their ugly head. I’ve been lucky thus far in so much as I’ve been able to resolve said problems relatively quickly.  Currently and issue I’m encountering is how do I figure out who was really worthy of a Follow, and who’s been a lame duck, er..tweeter?

Tweetdeck has been great at letting me see the bigger picture of what’s occurring throughout the day on Twitter, tracking and monitoring certain topics that I’m interested in. For example, search for “social media” and you can view a stream of anyone that mentions Social Media in their Tweets.  I’ll check out someones profile, see if I have interest in following them, make a decision and go for it. This has worked pretty well so far, but what I’m finding is that now I’m following almost 1500 people, and I can’t really keep track of who I want to follow?

There’s a service called Tweepular that’s been a big help with “bulk un-follows”.  It’s perfect to sift through the “get rich quick” guys you may have given a knee-jerk “follow”, and want to remove from your Twitter stream.  You can check them out here: Tweepular

Happy Trimming!