The State of Online Word of Mouth Marketing [STATS] In a session yesterday at Forrester's Marketing Forum, Forrester analysts Josh Bernoff and Augie Ray presented research findings on peer influence and word of mouth marketing. Some of the statistics were surprising, and the presentation was rife with practical tips for marketers we thought worth sharing. Influencers are Diverse Ray said that when marketers think about targeting influencers, they tend to think of them "like a stew": tasty, but undefined. He advises thinking about them instead as a "delicious 3-course meal" in which it's important to savor the flavors of each. He outlined a Peer Influence Pyramid that breaks down influencers into three types: Social Broadcasters (at the top), Mass Influencers (middle), and Potential Influencers (bottom of the pyramid). Social Broadcasters are few in number but great in scale — they are the top bloggers, most well-connected individuals, and have a lot of followers looking to them for news and advice on the latest and greatest.
How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media for Real Results The Real Results series is supported by Gist, an online service that helps you build stronger relationships. By connecting your inbox to the web, you get business-critical information about key people and companies. See how it works here. Social media can be a scary prospect for small businesses; unlike traditional marketing methods, it puts part of the message in the hands of the customers. But while it's easy to be concerned that the message will go the wrong way, the benefits can outweigh the risks if you use the available services wisely. The most obvious benefits are increased customer loyalty and engagement. We spoke with small business owners and social media managers around the world who have successfully used social media to increase business performance, and we asked them for their stories and their tips. It's About Relationships, Not Pitches Blatz Market & Liquor's Joe Woelfle employs a similar strategy. Social Media Exposure: Better Than Ads and Cheaper, Too
Mozilla Firefox Personal branding is a relatively new concept and is thought to have emerged in 1997 after a ground breaking article was published on the Fast Company website by Tom Peters. We are in the age of the ‘knowledge worker‘ and the days of being an anonymous cog in the wheel of a faceless corporation are fast disappearing. The opportunity to stand out as a personal brand without having to know a politician, grey and grizzled powerbrokers or gnarly gatekeepers is now a reality and it is possible to accelerate the time it takes to make it happen. Firstly what are the key elements and the questions that we need to consider to become a visible and effective personal brand. 1. What makes you different? What is it that makes my product or service does, that makes it different? Here some questions to ask and honestly answer to help you with this task. What makes you distinctive from your competitors? Finally you need to ask a rather brash question ‘What do I want to be famous for? 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Web 2.0 Versus Service 1.0 - Tom Davenport - Harvard Business Re by Tom Davenport | 9:13 AM April 2, 2010 I went to a CIMS (Center for Information Management Studies) conference at Babson last week on social media. It was interesting and the speakers were good: Nigel Fenwick of Forrester, Carl Frappaolo of Information Architected who was formerly at Delphi,and Kate Ehrlich of IBM Research. There have been lots of stories about the Comcast Twitter initiative, which seems to have been not a planned corporate program but a bottom-up idea (from Frank Eliason) that the company embraced. Nigel Fenwick praised the “My Starbucks Idea” social-innovation site in his presentation. When I checked the My Starbucks Idea site, I found out that I was not alone — there were 70 or so comments about the lack of lemons for tea. As with Comcast, I concluded that I’d rather not be reminded through social media that Starbucks doesn’t really care much about me and my preferences as a customer.
HOW TO: Manage Multiple Social Media Profiles Start counting the number of social media websites you have a profile with, right now. Out of fingers yet? Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube are just the start of it - for people active on social websites, you could have several dozen social media profiles, half of them using a really old picture of you. Heck, some of them probably have inboxes filled with strange messages from some girl named "Leota" who wants you to visit her sexy singles website. While inbox spam and old pictures may not be the end of the world, keeping up a consistent image across the web and keeping your content fresh is vital to good business and strong relationships. Step 1. The first step is to exactly know where you have a social media profile and where you do not. Tip: Always keep note of other people using your most common username. Step 2. People may disagree with me, but I believe you should sign up for the most popular social networks regardless of whether you are going to use them all. Step 3.
Why Your Brand Needs to Be on Facebook Now Dallas Lawrence is Chair of the Social and Digital Media Practice at Levick Strategic Communications, the nation’s top crisis communications firm. He blogs on emerging digital media trends and best practices for social media engagement on Bulletproof Blog. Connect with him on Twitter @dallaslawrence. With 450 million users globally (and millions more being added each week) Facebook is dominating the web in unparalleled ways. Facebook was the most visited site on the web for the week ending on March 13, 2010, surpassing even Google in week-long stats for the first time in history, according to Hitwise. A Social Media Parable In many ways, the fundamental decision facing those looking to compete in the next decade of social media dominance is reminiscent of Dr. As the fable unfolds, the book's four main characters arrive in their maze one day to find that their once abundant cheese supply has disappeared. Hem and Haw, on the other hand, hadn't noticed that their cheese was running out.
Develop a Strong Personal Brand Online Part 1 Gary Vaynerchuk could tell you that his personal brand is worth millions, but he’s modest. My friend and PodCamp co-founder, Christopher S. Penn, often refers to branding by ZeFrank’s definition: “an emotional aftertaste.” ( See the The Show with ZeFrank episode here.) I have some thoughts on how one might develop a strong personal brand online, and what you might do with one, once you build it. It turns out that I have so many thoughts, that I’m going to break this post up into 3. Why Build a Personal Brand? You might already know the answer to this question. The easiest answer is that you might want to be memorable, and you might want to transfer your real world reputation into the online world. A personal brand gives you the ability to stand out in a sea of similar products. Hints About Brand in General What’s the difference between Coke and Pepsi? Remember that trying to develop a personal brand involves differentiating in a Coke vs. The Human Side of Brand Photo Credit, Brian Solis
Three Ways To Ensure Your Social Media Efforts Create Profitable Recently, I ranted about how blogging and tweeting are often incompatible with generating qualified leads or closed sales (" To Tweet or to March 11, 2010 Recently, I ranted about how blogging and tweeting are often incompatible with generating qualified leads or closed sales (“To Tweet or to Sell”). But if you run a business, how do you know if your tweeting and blogging are making you money? When thinking about how social media can lead to profitable growth to write this article, I first had to convince myself it can. Here are three ways social media can create profitable growth: If you can monetize your audience. Here are three ways social media can’t create profitable growth: If you can’t turn voyeurs into participants. Warren Buffett is famous for saying, “I don’t invest in anything I don’t understand.”