25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

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• Fact Checking Facebook: How to Do it and Why You Should
• What Makes a Social Media Metric Stand Up To Scrutiny?
• 6 Great Ways To Utilize Facebook Timeline For Business Marketing
• 5 Tips for Running Photo Contests on Instagram
• Which Social Network Should Your Business Key on? Selecting your Focus Networks
• 3 Tips for Viral Social Media Marketing Using Memes & Storytelling
• Instagram Is Thankful: Record Posting Volume On Thanksgiving Day
• Why September’s EdgeRank Algorithm Change is Bad for Facebook
• Beyond Social Media: Three Advanced Branding Ideas
• Blogging Does Work for Technology Companies
• How Social Media Usage Will Change In 2013
• Who is the Socially Conscious Consumer?
• An Expert’s View on How to Monitor Social Media
• The Most and Least Desirable Places to Live for 2012
• The Perfect Football Fan
• 14 Tips for Using Live Chats to Engage Your Customers
• 6 Blogging For Business Mistakes You Might be Making
• Why Do I Need Google+ ?
• 15 Different Ways to Increase Facebook Engagement on Your Company Page in 2013
• 5 Most Liked Brands on Facebook and How They Got There
• 5 Simple Social Media Skills All Marketers Need
• Five Top 2013 Trends for Small Business Social Media Engagement Using Content Marketing
• Social Media DIY Myths Hurting Small Businesses
• Improve SEO and Get Highly Targeted Visitors
• Dell Launches Social Business Services

Fact Checking Facebook: How to Do it and Why You Should Posted: 05 Dec 2012 02:35 PM PST It's back. Last week grandma posted the old, "With this status I hereby declare that all my Facebook content belongs to me and only me…" and all of a sudden the mythical Berner convention is gunking up your Facebook feed again. First off, this is a hoax. All major media outlets have now reported it as a hoax. You can't copyright your Facebook content with a status, but luckily you don't have to – you already own it. Don't worry. Lately I've taken it upon myself to, politely, call out people who have posted bad information on a public forum like Facebook. Yes, I'm that person. But being argumentative isn't in my nature. Wouldn't it be better if everybody was armed with the tools to fact check Facebook themselves? Couldn't they save themselves from posting a picture of a baby with a horrible tumor and promising us all that Bill Gates has offered a dollar for every "like"? Here are some of the erroneous posts I've recently ran across and how I fact checked them. I hope you'll share your favorite fact checking methods in the comments. (Because politics and general worldview are two of the more frequent hobgoblins of misinformation on Facebook, this post will deal with both, but I promise to pick on reds and blues equally.) Example #1: The Inflammatory Picture The other day a friend posted this picture of dark-skinned youth in camouflage holding guns with the caption, "Obama just graduated a class of 40 'Department of Homeland Security Youth.'" The post went on to compare this alleged fighting force to Hitler's Brownshirts and warned us all to be very afraid for our guns and women. Immediate clues that something was amiss: a.) The "youth" looked very, very young. b.) "Department of Homeland Security Youth" doesn't sound like any U.S. government department I've ever heard of c.) Hitler made an appearance. Any mention of that guy should raise a red flag when it comes to the veracity of a Facebook post. How to fact check? I downloaded the photo and submitted it to trusty TinEye.com. It turned out the "youth" are Explorers, a group affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America. The picture was taken after a training exercise simulating a Border Patrol exercise. In 2009. Example #2: The Inflammatory Video Back around the time of the U.S. political conventions, I very nearly shared a video on my Facebook page showing a group of delegates at the Republican National Convention shouting "USA! USA!" over the Puerto Rican delegate as she tried to speak. We all have our own areas of sensitivity, and racism is one of mine. "Wow, look at these racists!" I almost posted. Except I mentioned it to a colleague who quickly told me there was more to the story. How to fact check? Look at the context. Get the whole story. If I had bothered to check before marveling to my colleague, I would have seen that the chanting had to do with seating arrangements. While this one has been in hot dispute, an article in the well-respected Harper's magazine sets the record straight that the delegates were not trying to shout the Latina delegate down. The Sniff Test The moral of this story? Before you go sharing something on Facebook, ask yourself a few questions to make sure you're not just perpetuating another rumor or hoax. 1.) Is the source trustworthy? Does it say, come from a Facebook group called "Kill all the Pandas"? This is an easy way to find clues about the veracity of a source. 2.) Does this jibe way too firmly with my worldview? You might hate Paris Hilton but chances are she wasn't caught on camera actually consuming an adorable puppy. You might want to check the provenance of that doctored image before you share it. 3.) Is it on Snopes? Or can you Google it and quickly see that it's been debunked by reputable sources? (I.e. the Facebook copyright notice.) 4.) Is it accredited to a famous person? Abraham Lincoln was a quotable guy, sure, but the 16th president didn't say this. Or lots of other things you've probably seen attributed to him on Facebook. 5.) Was Hitler mentioned? Seriously, Godwin's Law should always end the discussion. Think before you hit "share." If it passes all these tests, it just might be real and ready to share. Remember: Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. – Mark Twain. Or did he? The next time you see someone post something about copyrighting their Facebook statuses or terrorizing your feed with images of Boy Scouts, maybe instead of being "that person" you can just link them to this post. Or just make like this guy and give up.

What Makes a Social Media Metric Stand Up To Scrutiny? Posted: 05 Dec 2012 02:30 PM PST Social media land is jam-packed with metrics. If you haven't had a week with a new metric and whitepaper arriving – well, you probably just haven't been checking your email. The million dollar question is: how can you work out if any of these metrics are any good? They've all got some some number-filled tables and graphs, lots of percentage signs, and probably overuse words like 'attribution'. But if there was just one measure that could be used to assess whether a metric was likely to be of any practical use to you and your business, I would say it is this: openness. Of course, it's going to be hard to find a metric that is 100% open. If one has been devised in any part by an agency, they will be keen to keep a little something back as proprietary. But that doesn't change the judgement of how the metric was formed. Having openness as your key measure means you're judging a metric that others before you have seen, had input into and judged. An open metric will be one that has been created with some measure of collaboration. Who should a metric be open to? To clients, for a start. But also, to academia – academics are used to dealing with the hard numbers, and are tackling this problem with or without industry input. And finally, metrics should be open to peers – and yes, that means competitors too. Finding a metric that has been created in this way means it's just that bit more likely to be robust, workable, tested and valuable. Ultimately, the reason that openness is such an important metric is because social media is still in its infancy. It's very hard for anyone to claim to have 'The Answer' to anything – because the correct answers change every day. Social media is a young field – and the best answer will come from those that learn from each other – by being open.

6 Great Ways To Utilize Facebook Timeline For Business Marketing Posted: 05 Dec 2012 01:35 PM PST Facebook has recently made some changes to its Edgerank algorithm that controls how many of your Facebook business pages updates appear in your fans timelines. This Edgrerank uses several calculations to determine the marketing effectiveness of the Facebook page and who will receive the updates such as: Affinity – which measures the relationship between the viewing user and the creator of the story. The closer the relationship the higher the score. Weight – Different types of posts carry different weights. The higher the weight, the higher the score. Time Decay – As a post ages it continually loses value. The effect of these changes are that even less of them are now showing up. Most research is saying that it can be less than 15%. Despite this Facebook remains the popular choice in terms of social media marketing platforms. While this platform continues to make innovative updates, the majority of the changes are meant to benefit regular users rather than business pages. Still, the latest update to the timeline look has some businesses excited and at the same time confused about how to put this to use for them. If you are still unsure of how the Facebook timeline look and feel can benefit your brand, here are a few easy ways to help. 1. Add Milestones Your Users Will Want to Know About How long have you been in business? How has your product evolved in looks and features? And when was it that your top selling product reached new sales records? Believe it or not, your customers love to see this stuff. Posting milestones on your wall brings your customers behind the scenes of your company and shows them just how far your business has come. This approach to showing milestones gives customers a unique way to bond with your brand helping encourage loyalty to you instead of companies they know nothing about. 2. Make Your Profile Photo Work With Your Cover Photo The look of the new Facebook timeline is perhaps the biggest change seen – and one of the biggest opportunities for brands to use images to give their page a stunning look. One way to do this is to make your profile photo work with the cover photo. A good example of a brand that has done this well is Ford with their Mustang fan page. On their cover photo, an image of a Ford Mustang appears. Their profile picture is then just the front emblem that distinguishes them so well of the mustang itself. When you put your profile picture as a part of your cover picture, your page takes on a new look and you are better able to brand your product. 3. Use Images More Aggressively The internet is quickly becoming a place to share and consume images and photos. So it makes sense that consumers are more drawn to company pages that are filled with a variety of pictures. Perhaps the most obvious type of image to place on your Facebook page is pictures of the product itself. This is important to have as it gives people new to your Facebook page a quick glimpse into what you provide. But go deeper than that and you can maximize your image properties. For example, put pictures of your team at work in the office. Or, encourage people to tag themselves using your product. These images will appear on your page and help tell more of a story than just simple product pictures can. 4. Use Apps for Branding Apps have also become more visible. Whenever your company uses an app to promote a certain contest, photos or anything else, the apps are displayed with images on the top of your page. The way you use apps can help you brand your product and distinguish your page from others. Now that these apps are more visible, going out and finding some to give your page more interaction and visual appeal will help you engage users on a new level and create more excitement around your brand on Facebook. 5. Put Your Contact Info in the About Us Section The About Us section is located just underneath your cover photo and profile picture. In this prime real estate, you can place your call to action and encourage people to call your store or office directly and go to your website. By making your contact information and specific actions of what you want your users to perform clearer, you can increase your return on investment from social media. This is an easy way for businesses to drive traffic and generate leads simply by making it easier for customers to get in touch. 6. Talk Directly to Your Customers Facebook pages are notorious for people posting public complaints about a brand and difficulties. When these complaints appear, page administrators can now contact people directly and engage with them on a one on one basis. Before the timeline feature, this was left to require personal accounts to interact with fans. When you use your Facebook timeline in the way Facebook intended it for business use, you can maximize your reach and get more personal with your fans.

5 Tips for Running Photo Contests on Instagram Posted: 05 Dec 2012 12:50 PM PST Instagram photo contests are a great way to engage your brand audience and create a memorable experience for your fans; however, maximizing engagement and growing your audience requires some planning. Before you launch your contest on Instagram, give thought to the following five areas and you'll be better prepared to run a successful campaign: Choose The Right Hashtag Your fans need a way to submit photos and picking the right Instagram hashtag to promote as part of your contest is critical. When selecting your contest hashtag, two considerations to keep in mind are: is your chosen hashtag brandable/ownable? is it easy to remember and simple? While you can't really 'own' a hashtag on Instagram, or any social network for that matter, take some time to choose a hashtag that is not likely to be used by anyone else. There are lots of tools out there for you to check hashtags ahead of time, including our built in hashtag checker, but the point is to strike a balance between choosing something no one else is likely to use but to also keep it simple and related to your brand or campaign.Some ideas could include: Incorporate your brands slogan Abbreviate your brand name (if appropriate – i.e., Lululemon becomes #Lulu) Incorporate the name of your contest (Fall for Lifetime becomes #FallforLFTM) Use dates and places for campaigns at live events (i.e., #CanucksGame6 Choosing the right hashtag doesn't have to be overly complicated, just remember that you're asking fans to type it into their mobile devices each time they snap a photo to participate. Making your hashtags catchy and easy for them to remember will help you maximize the number of photos you receive. Choose an Appropriate Theme / Challenge Ok, so you've decided to launch a photo contest…great….but what are you asking people to take a picture of? Seems easy, but before you start asking people to snap pictures of the moon at midnight, putting yourself in your audiences shoes can help you think logistically about what you're asking them to do. While you want your contest to be brand relevant, you also want to consider your current reach, the prize you're giving away, and the ease or difficulty of participating. Meaning, if you're Ford and giving away a car you can probably ask fans for slightly more challenging submissions; however, a good rule to remember is that the more difficult it is for a fan to take the type of photo you're asking them for, the less participation you'll have in your campaign. On the other hand, making your contest theme too broad might get a lot of submissions but the content won't work cohesively in a campaign and may lose its relevancy to your brand. This is especially important if you’re displaying photos in a gallery. The less constraints you put around your photo contests, the more varied the submissions you'll receive and, generally speaking, the greater number of submissions you’ll receive. It's really about what your objectives are as a brand and the goal of your campaign. Finding a balance will be directly tied the brand you're promoting. For example, Starbucks will have an easier time getting people to snap photos of their mocha frappucino's than a fashion label getting people to snap photos of themselves wearing a specific accessory. Both can be very successful, but something to ask yourself is: Do you want people to have to go out of their way to participate or should the opportunity to participate be present in their daily lives? The point is to consider your audience and how easy or difficult you want to make it for them to be able to snap the type of photo you're looking for. Plan Ahead to Share Your Fan Photos While many brands are beginning to use Instagram for photo contests and campaigns, we've seen many campaigns fall short and miss the opportunity to share fan photos through a brands own social networks (Twitter and Facebook). When your audience goes out of their way to snap a photo for your brand, sharing their submissions with your wider audience serves two purposes. Firstly, it makes your fans feel rewarded for participating and, secondly, it helps promote your campaign and increase participation. Imagine you've submitted a photo to Starbucks, and they tweet out a link to your photo to their +3 million followers…..as a consumer you'd be pretty pumped about all the people checking out your photo.  Obviously, you can't and probably don't want to share every photo but sharing select submissions for the duration of your campaign is a simple way to make your campaign more successful. Engage Your Audience Yes, engaging fans seems like it should be obvious by now but while brands seem to have Facebook and Twitter dialled, Instagram has remained a bit of a challenge for many brands. Partly because there aren't many tools / platforms available to make engaging fans on Instagram easy (until Fanbase of course) but we'd be remiss to mention that if you're running a contest or campaign on Instagram, make sure you're engaging with fans directly through Instagram. In addition to sharing fan photos through your brands' social networks, don't forget to like and comment on fan submissions through Instagram and even follow users back. The great thing about using a visual platform like Instagram is that it allows you to really personalize and tailor your comments on fan submissions. You can skip the boilerplate "Thanks for participating" message and demonstrate a more genuine approach by customizing your comments to each photo. Your fans will appreciate these more than the copy and paste standardized message. Give Your Contest A Home If you want to truly give your fans a memorable brand experience, give your contest a place to live online where fans can view other fan submissions as well as their own. In many cases, brands have been hesitant to aggregate and display contest submissions from Instagram because of the potential for undesirable content to appear in the gallery which could have a negative impact for the brand. With tools like Fanbase that offer photo moderation for aggregating hash-tagged photos, this risk is diminished. Giving your contest/campaign a place to live online (web, mobile, and Facebook) has several benefits including: Increases awareness and reach of your campaign Increases the opportunity for your audience to share content and increase impressions Gives your fans a branded environment to browse photos and engage with your campaign Conclusion With over 100 million people that have Instagram installed on their mobile devices, it's never been easier to engage your audience in participative campaigns; however, maximizing the return on your campaign efforts requires you to think through and plan your execution to create value for your brand as well as your audience.

Which Social Network Should Your Business Key on? Selecting your Focus Networks Posted: 05 Dec 2012 12:40 PM PST Social Media and Your Business: Selecting your Focus Networks Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google +, and the list of social media sites goes on! Sometimes the sheer volume of social media possibilities can overwhelm a business from getting started and involved in marketing on social networks.  With so many possibilities, how can a Here’s a breakdown of some of the most widely used social media networks and some general information on what types of people are using each.  These can guide your business in knowing where to spend time in social media based on who your general customer profile.business know where they should start and where their target market can be reached? First, let’s answer the basic question of whether your business should consider having a presence in social media. Some recent stats compiled by the blog “The Social Skinny” outlines that: 91% of online adults use social media regularly Internet users spend 22.5% of their online time social networking 70% of adult social networkers shop online So the short answer is that social media is where adult Americans are spending significant time per month.  If your goal is to be visible where potential customers are, then social media is a place to be! Social Networks general user overview and guide:  Facebook This is the big boy!  Over 1 billion global users.  The average Facebook user has 130 friends and each user spends an average of over 6 hours per month using the service.  This average use is far more than any other Internet location.  Facebook is used greatly by all age brackets and has the greatest use by middle-aged adults and older adults than any other social network.  This is pretty much a social media “must be” location for a business.  Twitter This micro-blogging service which limits each user post to a maximum of 140 characters has over 500 million users, of which 140 million are active users.  15% of online adults use Twitter.  Twitter is typically used by more tech savvy users and not as much by the general population.  The 18-29 year old demographic is most represented on Twitter.  If your company is trying to reach less tech savvy 45-65 year olds, this is likely not the place for your company to invest time.  LinkedIn LinkedIn is the strongest “business first” social network and a good place for business-to-business companies to have a presence.   LinkedIn has over 175 million users and 81% of users belong to a group.  A Group can be created for free and is a way to build a community around your industry and become a “go-to” source for users looking for information in your field.  Businesses should consider having employees have LinkedIn profiles and the company having a business page.  However, it should not be considered as the total place your business should be represented on social media.  Pinterest This is the image-first social network where users load (pin) images of interest with a brief description.  Users can create “boards” which are topics or categories of images and users can follow the boards and pins of other users.  Users can also “re-pin” images of interest that others have pinned to their own boards.  Pinterest has grown by leaps and bounds this year.  It was the fastest of all social network to reach 3 million users.  More women than men are heavy Pinterest users, though the gap is closing slightly.  Top U.S. user interests on Pinterest are photography, crafts, gifts, interior design, fashion, and collections.  If your products fit generally in any of these areas, Pinterest is a smart place to be and post pictures to of your products.  Google + The social network by Google, Google Plus added hundreds of thousands of users right from the start with its built-in Google Account user base.  The most common occupations of users are engineers, developers, and designers, and 50% of Google + users are age 24 or younger.  Many large brands have a presence on Google + and bloggers are also heavy users.  So if your audience is tech minded, young professionals, this might be a great target location for your business!  Instagram This photo sharing social network  geared for mobile users was acquired by Facebook earlier this year for $1 billion.  It’s been on a strong growth curve this year with over 100 million users.  The Instagram App is available for Apple devices and Android powered devices.  Users load images, add filters to the images and share with descriptions and tags.  Events, destination locations, apparel, art, and fashion locations are using Instagram to showcase their products and engage with their followers. Are their others?  Absolutely.   We could add YouTube, Tumblr, MySpace, and more to this list for sure. Each business should evaluate their target customer types and use this to help them make decisions on where they should have a social media presence.  The more a customer sees and learns about your products and services, the more your company will be in consideration when that person makes their next purchase.  A key is not over-extending your efforts so that your invested time across too many results in doing none well. What social networks would you add to this list for consideration?  Comment below!

3 Tips for Viral Social Media Marketing Using Memes & Storytelling Posted: 05 Dec 2012 12:35 PM PST As social media has grown over the past ten years, so have business’s desires to achieve virality on the Web. While making content viral is not easy and certainly not predictable, there are techniques that might help marketers get somewhere close. Two that have become extremely popular are memes and storytelling. An Overview of Memes & Stories Both storytelling and meme production have applications in many aspects of the Web, but for the purposes of marketing, I like to think of them as gifts that keep on giving. For memes, this is certainly true. Memes are elements of culture that pass on because of their own inherent value. When a meme catches on, it can last for years, and not just for you, but for other groups too. Here's one really old example. In 1939, the British government produced a propaganda poster to encourage British citizens in the wake of Nazi air strikes on London. The poster proudly displayed the British crown with the words, "Keep Calm and Carry On." Now well known as a meme for t-shirts, beer producers, and various blogs, the meme carries on two and three generations later because it is constantly being reproduced. Storytelling is similar in that strong storytelling can be retold and reproduced with increasing levels of creativity. One of the most famous marketing examples of this, of course, occurred during the 1984 Super Bowl. Apple's immediately famous "1984" TV ad aired only once, but the story told in the commercial was reproduced over and over by word-of-mouth, which propelled the expectation surrounding Apple's release of the first Macintosh computer. It was a bold story that captivated the audience with seriousness rather than good humor, and it proved how effectively a good narrative can captivate an entire market. (Macintosh's release completely reset the computer world at that time, limiting IBM's grip on the market and opening an opportunity for Apple.) In the preceding paragraphs, I've essentially provided "old media" archetypes of what memes and stories can do in a marketing context. However, neither example is from today’s fast-paced marketplace, driven by the Internet, mobile devices, and growing social media. Today, meme usage and new media storytelling are becoming near-standards of marketing content creation—and it's clear that being innovative with old techniques is becoming increasingly difficult. If obtaining viral appeal is your goal, coming up with new presentations of strong content is key. To help get started, here are three tips for making your memes and storytelling standout as different! Tips for Giving Memes & Stories Viral Appeal 1. Take a tip from Apple's 1984 ad for how to make storytelling catch a wide audience. 1984 had absolutely nothing to do with the Macintosh. Computers had very little to do with the Super Bowl. The lesson is that not all social media marketing has to directly connect with your brand. Here at Weidert Group, we publish a lot of information on marketing, but every now and again we venture into a completely random field. Sometimes these creative excursions are exactly what draws in a wider audience of users. While Apple took an extreme creative excursion, it worked beautifully because they stuck to strong storytelling. By balancing good technique with a strong context, you can build similar appeal in a variety of online situations. 2. With memes, it’s important to keep in mind that nobody really owns them. Even if you stumble into creating one (e.g. the Dos Equis spokesman), the thing that makes something a meme is its shared adaptability across situations. This means that drawing on current memes while creating new concepts is perfectly acceptable. Furthermore, I'd argue that it will help build your creative appeal. In a recent online contest between non-profits called the American Giving Awards, memes were thrown about incessantly. Every organization was trying to appeal to a wide range of people. In doing so, they didn't just join in meme culture—many organizations became increasingly more creative. 3. Often we think of memes and storytelling as pieces of content. In practice, they are more akin to social media interactions. As I said before, they don’t need to relate directly to a brand or a company’s mission. Instead, connect them to your social media strategy. If your using Pinterest, try throwing in some memes that show your business’ personality. On Twitter, tell a hashtag story that draws people in to your regular flow of content updates. The best way to use memes is to tie them directly to your online social presence. The Wrap-Up These three tips are aimed to provide some basic parameters for how to use memes and storytelling effectively. They overall takeaway: memes and storytelling are just two ways to add a viral component to your social media marketing strategy. They don’t have to connect directly to your content because creativity is key for gaining a larger audience. Memes and stories are meant to be shared, so be sure to participate actively and with personality. Of course, maybe you just want a firm foundation for your social media. In that case, a key tool is our guide to social media optimization. Make your social media presence bloom by utilizing our top-notch tips for building a strong social media base.

Instagram Is Thankful: Record Posting Volume On Thanksgiving Day Posted: 05 Dec 2012 12:05 PM PST For better or worse, cameras have long been a staple at holiday dinners this time of year. Since the advent of camera phones, though, it's easier than ever to grab a shot of youngsters decked out in their holiday attire, the perfectly-basted turkey or Grandpa sleeping off the tryptophan in front of the big game. Now those same shots are finding their way to the internet, thanks to platforms like Facebook, Twitter and one of the most popular phone apps out today, Facebook-owned Instagram. Today, people don't just take pictures. They share pictures. And photostreams offer a fascinating window into people's lives in real time. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons A look at Instagram stats from Thanksgiving 2012 illustrates my point. On Thanksgiving Day last month, Instagram saw record numbers of images posted with its app: More than 10 million over the course of the day, and at some points, more than 200 photos per second. 200 photos per second of relatives helping out in the kitchen, of family sitting around the table, of pets trying to sneak pies off the counter, of traffic trying to get from home to dinner and back again . . . you name it. Instagram tallied the results by searching on "Thanksgiving-themed words," and announced its results once the holiday had passed. This level of volume confirms that sharing media has become one of the most popular functions of social platforms—and it also presents the question all marketers should be asking when trends emerge: How could I be putting this to work? Since Instagram won't be slowing its climb to the top anytime soon, and since photo sharing consistently ranks as a favorite activity across social media platforms, here are a few tips for marketing pros who want to make the most of the snap-happy: Find opportunities to put user-generated content front and center.Companies stress about creating the content their target markets will love, but why not shift some of that burden to your customers? User-generated content is often more popular than marketer-created content, and while you'll likely have to do a bit of censoring to ensure everything is on the up and up, you'll find you actually save time if you're encouraging and sharing, rather than constantly developing.Ask your customers to share pictures of your product tagged with a special phrase you can track. Hold a contest for the most creative use of your product, captured for all to see. Invite your community to share images of their family or friends around a particular theme that relates to your product, and after they do, make sure to re-share, re-Tweet and reward their efforts. Ben and Jerry's Instagram stream is a great example of how a company can make the most of user-generated content. Interact with visual "mentions" of you and your products.Search the most popular platforms for visual content sharing using your product name, your company name or even related activity or object words that your market might be using. When you find relevant images, offer a response, say "Thank you," click "re-Tweet" or "like" to reward a specific mention. Even better, start a conversation with a simple question or comment.When customers and potential customers know you're paying attention, it makes them more curious about the content and messages you're producing, and that encourages further interaction. Also, always remember to "favorite" or save evidence of your mentions! Data like this will help you track and gauge your digital marketing efforts. Get a leg up on your market research. Want to know more about customer opinion regarding your brand? Curious about how consumers feel about your competitors? Search for images posted of your products and/or images related to your brand. As we all know, a picture can tell a thousand words –even if they're not always the words you want to hear. If you see problems or complaints emerge, be sure to reach out to offer help. Give customers a peek into your company culture and inspiration. UK clothing retailer Topshop shares its style inspirations—gorgeous pictures, favorite art, stylish people on the street, great vintage finds—with fans who use Instagram. But, the company doesn't stop there. Topshop also has a page on its website dedicated to encouraging fan photo interaction and contribution across multiple platforms (including the best way to ensure those contributions get recognized: #topshop). If your target market enjoys a particular form of social engagement online, it makes sense to engage there, too—whether you're starting a presence of your own, or affirming your customers' efforts. So, don't be camera shy. Give photo sharing a try. Who doesn't love an online image of some traditional offline holiday cheer?

Why September’s EdgeRank Algorithm Change is Bad for Facebook Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:59 AM PST In September, Facebook tweaked their EdgeRank algorithm and drastically reduced the reach of posts for businesses' fans. Businesses that spent years attracting fans to their Facebook page were hit with the option to "promote" their posts to reach their fans for a fee. The real question is, 'Is Facebook's new revenue model shortsighted?' Pay your toll From a marketing perspective, Facebook was designed to serve as an online "road" for brands to reach and interact with their consumers. However, in September, Mr. Zuckerberg and his gang of engineers essentially built "toll booths" on these "roads" without ever installing any "Road Work Coming Soon" signs. Not surprisingly, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wasn't shy about expressing his dissatisfaction with Facebook's algorithm change. In a blog post titled "What I Really Think About Facebook," Cuban alleged that "FB doesn't seem to want to accept that its best purpose in life is as a huge time suck platform that we use to keep up with friends, interests and stuff…In a perfect FB world every post enters the friends/likes/subscriber's timeline. If they log in and want to spend the time searching their timeline they see it, if not, not." Mark, like some Facebook users, believes Facebook users should naturally see posts from every person and business they either "friended" or "liked." It shouldn't be up to Facebook to decide which posts users should see based on paid promotions. Quick cash The EdgeRank algorithm change seems to be focused more around Facebook's stockholders and less around its users. This update poses some interesting questions about the future of Facebook Fan Pages. Will it discourage brands from continuing to build their fan database if they now know they will have to pay to reach them? Will it cause brands to explore other social networking sites where they can reach their audiences for free? Is a "pay-to-play" platform giving big brands even more ability to dominate the market over small businesses? Mark Cuban has expressed that he will be scaling back his efforts to reach consumers on Facebook. Is he just the first of many to refocus his company's social media efforts away from Facebook? Maybe it's just temporary, and Mark is upset by the lack of transparency from the company and their bait-and-switch techniques. Either way, it will be interesting to watch and see if this EdgeRank update will help Facebook win the sprint or the marathon. For help using social media channels like Facebook for lead capture, download our Increasing Conversions with Social Media guide.

Beyond Social Media: Three Advanced Branding Ideas Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:55 AM PST When you start to brand your own name or your business, there are some first steps to take. Social media accounts. Websites. A logo. Maybe even some business cards. If you are job seeking, you want to build your resume based on the image that you want to portray as an individual and expert in your chosen field. Once you have the basics of branding down, you may reach a plateau of sorts. It takes a lot of work to build on the reputation you have put in place. Never stop looking for new ways to make a bigger, better name for yourself or your business, however. Here are three "next step" branding ideas to take once your image is established: Write a book. The days of waiting for a publishing house to accept your manuscript for publication are gone. Today, anyone can self-publish thoughts and expertise and reach an audience easily online. Even if your book is not a bestseller, it is something else searchable with your name on it, establishing you as an expert. It is also a great way to collect all of your thoughts and present what you stand for in a concise manner, instead of sending potential employers or clients all over the Web trying to piece your image together. Entrepreneur Magazine suggests the self-publishing companies Lulu, Booktango, CreateSpace and Blurb as reputable places to get started in your book-writing endeavors. Create an app. If your business has an online presence, then it really should have a mobile application. The thought here is that however people interact with your brand online should be duplicated in a smartphone-friendly manner. You might think that app development is a cost that is way out of your price range, but a mobile marketing company, like Mobile Roadie, offers easy and inexpensive routes for small businesses that want to participate in the mobile app arena. Since many customers just assume that only large companies have the resources to provide mobile apps, it is all the more impressive when a small business can compete in this rapidly growing category. Get published. In addition to writing a book, find other reputable entities that want to publish you too. You can start by approaching other industry blogs and asking to guest post. Think beyond the blogosphere, however, if you really want to earn some industry cred. Seek out well-established journals and magazines, like Huffington Post. You may also want to write an opinion-editorial piece based on trends in your industry and shop it around to newspaper outlets. The more outside sources that consider your voice to be an expert one, the more your customer base and future employees will agree. Take stock of where your brand exists and where you want it to go. Develop a strategy for moving forward that incorporates a variety of branding techniques and maximizes the image of you or your company. Author: Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com which is the largest business directory on the web. Megan also writes business news. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Blogging Does Work for Technology Companies Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:40 AM PST Blogging is no longer a personal publication medium that allows bloggers to write about anything that takes their fancy. Its is a flexible and influential marketing tool that software companies should be using as part of their marketing and communication mix. The Technorati 'State of the Blogsphere' survey showed that there are now more than 133 million blogs out there, emphasising how important blogging is if you needed any convincing. In today's web savvy world, the first stage of the software buying process often starts on search engines. It is therefore essential that potential clients can find you quickly and easily online. Blogging provides an excellent opportunity for your organisation to be found more easily. By optimising blogs with specifically targeted keywords that your potential customers will use, your blog can help you achieve higher search engine rankings and increased visibility will draw traffic to your web estate. Appearing in search engines will drive traffic, but to ensure that individuals stay there and return in the future, it is essential that you create valued content. The only person who really cares about how great your product is, is you. Your customers are more interested in what your product can do for them. What problems do your customers have and how can your product can help solve them? It is imperative that you become a valuable resource for your target audience by offering thought provoking, informative and educational articles and not simply use your blog purely as a promotional tool. Establishing thought leadership within your field is a worthy objective of any software company's blog. This can help your business differentiate itself from the competition. By helping resolve issues, visitors will start to see your blog as a valuable resource and this will allow your organisation to create a dialogue with your key personas and help build relationships within the software market place. Bringing more people to your blog is great! But in the world of business it is essential that you get your blog to do something for you. Technorati report that 53% of professional bloggers aim to attract new clients, so it is essential that your blog also acts as a lead generation tool. All of the points laid out previously will help attract visitors and get them returning, but in order to achieve a blog ROI, you need to create relevant and valuable calls to action (CTAs) on relevant blog posts – a link to another piece or content or a clear instruction to your potential customer of what his or her next steps should be. In this way you can seek to drive deeper engagement with your audience and convert a portion of your audience to marketing leads. How successful can blogging be? Look no further than Hubspot, Brightfire's partner for the provision of some marketing services. Hubspot are seeing a huge 55% increase in web traffic to companies who blog, and more importantly a 57% can attribute revenue generation to blogging activity. Also compelling is that Hubspot can credit 15% of their leads generated by inbound marketing to blogging. The question isn't 'should you be blogging' – its more like 'can you afford not to be blogging?'

How Social Media Usage Will Change In 2013 Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:32 AM PST Social media has truly become a daily part of most people’s lives, with usage patterns changing dramatically over the past few years. The editors of the Socially Aware Blog put together a great infographic outlining how social media is currently being used today (see below).  See my top 4 takeways below, along with where things are going to go in 2013. 1.  Time spent on new entrant Pinterest is almost 5x of that spent on Twitter   Where it will go in 2013:  Time spent on Pinterest will only continue to grow as user base increases and it becomes the go-to place for visual inspiration. I predict time spent will at least double to 3 hours per month as people find it easier to cram in more ‘visual’ engagement versus reading. 2. Time spent on Facebook is 135x that spent on Google+ Where it will go in 2013:  While I don’t expect people to check-in to Google+ anywhere near as much as Facebook, the definition of time spent on Google+ will be blurry since any one who uses Google Apps (Gmail, Maps, Google Search, etc) or Android will be sort of always checked-in with the social layer being seamlessly integrated into their experience.  So, don’t expect Google+ to be a destination like Facebook is in 2013, rather think of it as something you are going to see a lot of as an amplification of activities you already do online. 3. 100% of Ad Age top 100 advertisers have established Facebook pages for brands Where it will go in 2013:  Well, you can’t go much past 100% as it relates to the top 100 advertisers, but what this signals is that we have moved past the early adopter phase for social media marketing. In 2013, we will see a massive tipping point in exceptional activations within social media by businesses – versus simply being present.  Now that businesses are more comfortable with social media as a valid marketing platform, we will also see a much more strategic approach and more comfort as it relates to total integration into the business.  (**We still have a long way to go though!) 4. 61% surf the web while watching TV Where it will go in 2013: This is a biggie. The big transition that will happen over the next year is that rather than surfing websites completely unrelated to the programs they are watching, we will see a big shift to integration between activity on the tablet/laptop/phone and the activity on the TV.  Lines will blur significantly between what is a TV and what is not.  People will become increasingly comfortable with doing ‘internet-like’ tasks on the TV (Photos, Email, Social Networking, Skype) while they will also become more comfortable doing ‘TV-like’ activities on their mobile device or laptop (watching TV programs, netflix, hulu etc). This will continue to occur until the term TV may need to be redefined all together .  While I don’t think it will go to that length in 2013, it will make some huge steps towards this. Where do you think social media will go in 2013?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Who is the Socially Conscious Consumer? Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:25 AM PST A 2012 Nielsen report showed that nearly two-thirds of consumers say they prefer to buy from companies that have implemented programs that give back to society. The holiday shopping season is shifting into full gear, and with the roaring success of companies like Toms and Warby Parker, it’s no surprise that other companies are following suit and defining themselves around an ethos of giving back to society. Millennials, and families with Millennials, are starting to think twice about what companies deserve their time and money. We’re seeing a boom in people producing products whose intent is to also aim at a bigger picture — helping people around the world. Our society is defined around our need to consume everything around us. Even if we don’t need a specific product, we buy it because marketing behemoths have convinced us that our lives wouldn’t be the same without it. So we might as well buy products that support worthy causes, or look to have less impact on the environment. The Mighty Wallet is made from a single, folded-sheet of Tyvek, which is a strong micro fiber material known to be tear and water resistant, super strong and incredibly long lasting. WeWOOD are watches created from wood, that creates a timepiece as natural as your wrist. They partner with American Forests to plant one tree for every WeWOOD watch purchased. Wakami (bracelet) works with artists from disconnected rural Guatemalan communities and helps generate a sustainable income for them. These are just a few of the socially conscious consumers featured in the graphic, so if you consider personal shopping as an opportunity to do charity work, then look to support others with like-minded ideals. Click here for full-sized view of the graphic from Roozt.

An Expert’s View on How to Monitor Social Media Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:15 AM PST I think it's absolutely amazing what we marketers can do with tools and technologies these days. There's no shortage of data and information we can track and monitor, and there are plenty of great tools (such as Brandwatch) helping us deliver and interpret this information. However, data and information is nothing more than just that unless it is acted upon. Especially when it comes to social media monitoring, companies need to have a process in place for making use of all the social media monitoring data they find. A few times I've bumped into companies that use fantastic (and expensive) social media monitoring tools, or agencies, only to find that all that happens is an executive is left with a social media monitoring 'report' collecting dust on his desk. My point is is this: you shouldn't invest in social media monitoring just to tick off a box. You should invest in it because you want to act on the data, and ultimately do better business with your customers and prospects. A simple-to-implement 4-step process You really don't want to be that company that spends money on a social media monitoring tool but does nothing with it, so here's a 4-step process that is both simple to follow and simple to implement in your organisation, yet will help you do better business: 1. Listen 2. Analyze 3. Engage 4. Evaluate Listen The first thing I'd advise you to do is identify your customers and prospects on the web. Use your social media monitoring solution to search for your brand and product-related terms to figure out where on the internet people are mentioning you. You want to figure out who they are, and where they are. Analyze Knowing where they are and who they are is essential. But the next step is to look into what these people are actually saying. Are they complaining or praising your products? Can you find any worthy feedback, suggestions or ideas? Is anything being said about your competition, and how does that relate to you? Based on what you find in your social media monitoring data, you need to use this information and turn it into opportunities. Are people complaining about your products and services? Then there's an opportunity for your customer service team to step in and help. Your product department would probably also be interested in this type of information. Did you find product feedback? Then there's an opportunity to make sure that such information reaches the correct internal stakeholder. Were competitors mentioned in the same conversations as your brand? Could there be an opportunity to sell? Engage As you've seen in the above examples, it's possible to create plenty of opportunities from social media monitoring data. Now your job is to take these opportunities and define actionable tasks to execute. Take the case of customers complaining on social media; this is an opportunity for your customer service team to rectify issues. However, this requires that you develop a program of education and clear processes of how your customer service team should engage in social media. Product feedback only reaches the right people in the organisation if there's a process in place. Your task is now to ensure such process exists. How about setting up a daily report with mentions that include competitors and deliver it to your sales department? By looking at your social media monitoring data and analyzing the opportunities, you should be able to come up with good actionable tasks that will help you do better business. Evaluate So how do you ensure that the things you take action on actually make you do better business? It's a delicate exercise of value attribution which is not always straightforward. But if we look at the examples above, we can easily identify a few desirable outcomes: Customer service outreach on social media should lower the number of inbound calls and positively impact the brand reputation Delivering product feedback to the right people should increase customer satisfaction and better-targeted products Your report with sales opportunities should help increase sales

The Most and Least Desirable Places to Live for 2012 Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:05 AM PST Mercer just released a visualization of their 2012 Quality of Living Survey and subsequently formulated a list of the most–and least–desirable places to live from around the world. Living conditions were analyzed based on 39 factors grouped into 10 categories, “ranging from economic environment and schools/education to housing, recreation, safety/health and public services.” The results? Eight of the world’s top-ranked cities for expatriate quality of living are in Europe. Vancouver, Canada also breaks the list at #5 and Sydney, Australia is noted as #10. It’s not good everywhere, as cities with the lowest quality of living seem to be mostly in Africa and the Middle East. #221 on the list is Baghdad, Iraq, ousted by quality only by cities in the Central African Republic, Haiti and Chad, to name a few where quality of living is lacking. Here’s a complete look at the visualization of Mercer’s 2012 survey: Infographic by Mercer

The Perfect Football Fan Posted: 05 Dec 2012 10:35 AM PST Football season is upon us. So, with smartphones being so popular and a majority of people owning them, why not incorporate America’s favorite sport with your mobile phone? Football Connect is the only app made to integrate all the live NFL game scores and highlights with a fun social football game you can play with your friends. The Fantasy Football app includes a board with updates in real time based on live, televised game events. The mobile gamecast includes real time field updates, play by play and stats as well. The Atlanta Falcons are the most strategic team, meaning the most successful swaps that result in ‘connects’ with 35%. While the Falcons are being strategic, the New York Jets are running their mouths – this team has the most chats with smack talk, accounting for 25% of all chat on Football Connect. With all the trash talk going on in Fantasy Football, you can’t forget about the loyal fans. The most loyal of fans, 55% to be exact, play the Pats week over week. However, the heart of the game goes to the Denver Broncos with logs in the longest for a 12 minute average session per game. While the Arizona Cardinals trust their instincts the most with only 2% total swaps, the Patriots have the female fan base. Of all the female Football Connect players, 20% of them root for the Pats. Speaking of females, we’re all familiar with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders – which brings us to the armory of Dallas. Dallas fans use the most firepower against other teams in gameplay at 11% of total weapons used. It’s not a game without a little money spent. Pittsburgh Steelers fans purchase 15% of the tokens on Football Connect. And the number 1 fan on the Fantasy Football app goes to Julian Roland who won almost 50,000 tokens while playing. So, get your head in the game. With Football Connect you can enjoy supporting your team and playing against fellow fans and rivals. Play by yourself or with others, but it’s sure to be a touchdown. Courtesy of OneUp

14 Tips for Using Live Chats to Engage Your Customers Posted: 05 Dec 2012 10:20 AM PST Question: How should small businesses leverage live chats to reach customers or clients? Question by: Ashley Ready, Set, Launch! “If 24/7 live chat is not an option for your business, make the most of the option by using it during launches, preview calls and promotions to answer questions from interested buyers.” - Kelly Azevedo | Founder, She’s Got Systems Fill the Sales Gaps “Live chat is one of the most useful tools for conversion optimization. While you can come up with ideas about what to change on your site, only by engaging with dozens or hundreds of prospective customers as they come to your website can you gain an in-depth understanding as to what part of the buying cycle they’re on, what concerns they have and what questions your pages don’t answer.” - Matt Mickiewicz | Co-Founder, Flippa and 99designs Just Listen “The best way to leverage live chat is by listening to your customers’ needs and asking even more questions to get down the the nitty gritty details of who they are and how you can best serve them. You also show that you care and aren’t just attempting to force them into a sale.” - Danny Wong | Co-Founder, Blank Label Group, Inc. Engage Customers “Set up certain triggers that will invite the customer to chat with you. One that we find works well is if a customer remains on one page for an extended period of time. Often times, the customer is confused and will accept the chat and ask you the questions that he/she has about your site.” - Josh Weiss | Founder and President, Bluegala Be Accessible “Live chats are all about client and customer perception, so let them perceive that you’re available and accessible to answer questions and offer help. Just make sure that if you offer live chat, you can follow through and have a knowledgeable team that knows the product/service you’re selling extremely well.” - Matt Cheuvront | Founder, Proof Branding Pop Up! “Just like how a salesman might approach a customer inside of a shoe store to ask them what size they’d like to try on, website owners shouldn’t be afraid to use the same approach on their websites. At the risk of being too aggressive, you’ll find that any slightly confused customers will convert at a much higher rate if they are nudged in the right direction and have their questions answered.” - Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon Tease the Product “Live chats are a great way to source potential clients. We use them in our mentor service but make sure not to oversell. We profile a mentor and have him or her talk about a topic that is helpful to the potential clients. If they want more engagement or one-on-one, then they can buy the service. Live chats are a great form to reach potential customers and convert them into happy clients.” - Patrick Curtis | Chief Monkey and Founder, WallStreetOasis.com Don’t Be a Lot Lurker! “Ever been to a car lot and looked at a car by yourself when suddenly, before you know it, a salesman pops up from behind a car? You remember the cringe you felt? I’ve felt that same thing online when companies use chat to push customers rather than just be there as a resource when customers need them. Make the chat box clearly visible and let visitors start the chat. Also provide an FAQ nearby.” - Trevor Mauch | CEO (Chief Entrepreneurial Officer), Automize, LLC Open Webinars “Every company should be hosting monthly open sessions with their clients. This can be done on a webinar or teleseminar to get feedback, answer questions and foster the relationships that you have with your clients. The best way to retain a client is to make them feel accepted and appreciated and that their voice matters. Webinars are a cheap and easy way to give that to them.” - Greg Rollett | CEO, The ProductPros Hang Out! “Google+ Hangouts is a well designed platform that you can use to host Q&As with your customers. People love being able to ask questions and interact with a real person from your company as opposed to reading information on a website or speaking to an agent on the phone. Bonus points if you bring on experts in your niche that your customers otherwise wouldn’t have access to!” - Natalie MacNeil | Emmy Award Winning Producer & Entrepreneur, She Takes on the World Available in the Moment “Today, it’s simple to install a chat channel for any customer/client to reach you, and not doing so is leaving them cold in the wind right at the moment at which you’re most invested in them being happy. Your sales pages and support offering should include chat for immediate answers and clarification. There’s nothing more valuable than correcting confusion right at the moment of confusion.” - Derek Shanahan | Co-Founder, Foodtree Create Real Relationships “Nothing is more annoying than when someone starts chatting with you on an e-commerce site and really is unable to help you. If you are going to start a live chat feature, make sure the person chatting has the capabilities to help the customer. You also need to make sure you set expectations about the availability of chat. Nothing worse than expecting to chat at 3 a.m. and getting silence.” - Lucas Sommer | Founder CEO, Audimated True Customer Service “I have a live chat option on my blog and it’s only available when I’m online to respond. I have seen very positive results — people love to talk to the author before ordering a book, or talk to the coach and get help in making the right buying decision. What’s best is I get to connect with my future clients directly.” - Devesh Dwivedi | CEO, Breaking The 9 To 5 Jail Startups Know Best! “Small businesses need to realize that live chats can be one of their best advantages over large businesses. Use them! Engage your audience, show your brand's personality and answer all questions with an individual response. Clients will absolutely see this extra effort and customer service care that is impossible for larger companies to provide.” - John Hall | CEO, Digital Talent Agents The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

6 Blogging For Business Mistakes You Might be Making Posted: 05 Dec 2012 10:05 AM PST When you evaluate the effectiveness of your website, and ask a digital marketing expert how you can drive more traffic, the first suggestion will always be the same. You'll be told to start a blog. Blogging for business means you're creating new content, which is great for search engines, and allows you to add value to your current website, which is great for users. The problem is that too many businesses start blogging without much of an idea of how to do it. That can lead to some great blogs, but it also leads to mistakes. Let's look at a few common blogging for business mistakes that are really easy to avoid. Trying to Sound Too Smart When you're blogging for business, you should always remember that you are blogging. You're not submitting a quarterly report, you're not submitting a thesis; you're writing a blog. Blogs are informal, conversational pieces of writing. They don't need to make you sound like a poet laureate or F100 CEO. It should make you sound like a human. Even though you're blogging for business, it shouldn't read like a business meeting, it should feel like a chat at the water cooler. Don't try to hard to sound clever, just write your ideas down. It's easier for you, easier for your readers and usually creates much more interesting writing. Over-Explaining An extension of the above mistake is over-explaining. When you make a point or state a fact in a blog, you don't have to run into a paragraph explaining where you got that fact. Blog readers don't have time to read that. You just state the facts, and back them up with links. Which actually leads to another minor blogging for business mistake. Don't tell people to click a link to read a supporting article, just link to it. Both readers and Google prefer natural links that fit seamlessly into the blog copy. Readers are used to links in blogs, when they see a portion of the text highlighted in blue they will understand why it's there. Worried about Word Count Because you're blogging for business, you will no doubt be following SEO guidelines too. That can mean requirements for keyword density and word count. If you're allowing either of these to change what you're writing, stop and stop now. With the rise of social media and the focus on quality content, keyword density is rapidly losing its importance. By all means write with keywords in mind, but don't let them influence what you write. The same goes for word count. Blogs can be effective at any length, the quality of the content is far more important. One tip would be to keep things brief. There's no perfect word count but 300 words are better than 1,000. Bad Images or None at All Be careful with images. They are the first thing your readers will see, so you need to make sure you use good ones. A bad image can send readers away before they've even looked at the text. No images at all can have a similar effect, so it's important you have at least one image. Just don't throw any old thing. Think about your images and always try to use them to compliment the post. Narrow Topics Blogging for business often leads writers down the same roads over and over. If you're writing a twice-weekly blog on data backup, it can be hard to come up with new topics. You need to take care not to regurgitate the same posts over and over. The point of a business blog is to capture the interest of potential customers. You don't have to blog directly about the product to do that. The only requirement is that you blog about things that your prospects might be interested in. Data backup is an IT concern, which opens up the opportunity to blog on wider IT topics. Risk-o-phobia Whether you go over the same topics over and over or not, every business blog could do with taking a few more risks. Post videos, post pictorial blogs, bring in guest bloggers or write outside your comfort zone. This has two effects, it can be really energizing to create something new, and it can lead to some great ideas. It also keeps your readers interested. After a few posts, they come to know what to expect from you. Changing it up lets them know that you have the potential to surprise and keeps them interested. Blogging for business isn't easy. It takes a long time to build a readership and even longer to master. Before you do that, you need to make a few mistakes and avoid some too. Discover also the rules of content with this free whitepaper and create that winning online material for your business. Download our free whitepaper now!

Why Do I Need Google+ ? Posted: 05 Dec 2012 08:24 AM PST Google+ has changed the search engines forever = FACT! When you go into Google, as over 85% of us do in the UK, you will notice that the search engine results pages (SERPs) without exception have Google+ results spanning page 1 – 3 and pretty much every SERP thereafter. This means that part of the Google algorithm for organic listings includes Google+ and more significantly a weighting towards wanting to include a mixed set of results to the user that in most instances will include Google+ pages/results. This means that IF you want to increase the likelihood of having your business appear in Google then you should start thinking very seriously about marketing your business on Google+. I haven't mentioned ROI yet but a heads up.. ROI for Google+ marketing is amazing – mainly because it's FREE'. Image courtesy of – http://www.stockfreeimages.com Let's take a look at Google+ results displaying on page 1 of Google then – this time it's me for a recent blog post on content marketing http://www.redrocketmedia.co.uk/blog/why-do-i-need-content-marketing/ – typing in the phrase 'why do I need content' displays the following in Google UK. Top 4 Google UK organic search results for the phrase 'why do I need content': And YES, shamelessly that is me at the top! Above Forbes and over 4 billion other competing results!!! There are so many other reasons why you should be marketing on Google+ ASAP and the following are just a snippet from the myriad: It is the FASTEST growing social media network EVER! You want to get more results in the top pages of Google With Google+ marketing you will reach out to more people Google+ integrates Google Local/Places listings Need Advice? If you'd like advice on how to get started on Google+ or want to get more return from your exisiting profile, them give our team of experts a call today!

15 Different Ways to Increase Facebook Engagement on Your Company Page in 2013 Posted: 05 Dec 2012 08:10 AM PST It's that time of year again! 2013 is quickly approaching which means it's time to reevaluate your social media endeavors including your Facebook Page engagement strategy. So whip out your pens, pencils and tablets and let's start making some plans for next year on how to increase Facebook engagement! In 2012, we've seen a number of updates and changes at Facebook. For example, in March of 2012, Facebook launched the App Center, an online mobile store where you can purchase applications for Facebook. Then there was the initial public offering on May 17, 2012 where the company was valued at $104 billion. On July 12, 2012, Facebook added a Gay Marriage icon to its timeline feature and finally, Facebook released an update to its iOS app which didn't impress all users. It's important to stay up-to-date on all the changes going on over at Facebook so your business can exploit each feature accordingly. Here are 15 different ways you can boost Facebook engagement on your Company Page: 1. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas which means it's time to start giving to your local charity. Why not give a donation to a charity or cause each time someone likes your Facebook Business Page? Amassing likes is a whole lot easier when the "Liker" associate the 'Like' as being a step in the right direction for a movement or cause that they agree with. 2. Join relevant Facebook Groups relating to your industry and contribute something of value to the community. Do you have a white paper or resource they might find useful? Be a good neighbor and add to their discussion. Down the road you can ask people within the group to like your Facebook Page and you can do likewise for them. 3. Get involved with Facebook advertising. Facebook is the master when it comes to targeted ads. Where else can you target people by relationship status, age, location, interests, etc.? Facebook ads are easy to use and you can spend as little (or as much) as you like. 4. Consider using the "Suggest to Friends" feature of your Facebook Business Page. A word of caution, you should only invite people that will find your page useful. 5. Don't be boring and bland (unless that's your branded style). Consider being a tad controversial to get noticed. Make your Facebook Business Page interesting so it stands out from the rest. Write about hot topics. Don't be afraid to share your opinion and start discussions. 6. Ensure that all information on your Business Page is correct and up-to-date. This includes addresses, phone numbers, web addresses, summaries and about sections. I don't need to explain why this is important! 7. Encourage discussion and be the fun and interactive person everyone knows and loves! Talk to your readers and keep them coming back. Reply to their questions in a timely manner, "like" their comments and start engaging discussions. Ask your fans for feedback relating to your business. You'll be surprised with the great advice you get! 8. Hold a contest. Here are the Facebook Rules on how to hold a contest. If done correctly, this can lead to tons of exposure for your page. You can use apps like Booshaka or Shortstack. There's a lot of talk about how Gamification is increasing Facebook Page Engagement. Get involved. 9. Come up with engaging status updates that include the words "Click Like or Share if…." This is a very simple formula and it's all about whether people agree with you or not. Choose something that you're sure 50% to 100% of your fans like. Including images in these updates is a great way to increase engagement. A number of our clients have had great success with this strategy. 10. Ask open-ended questions that get your fans thinking. Some of these questions include: What do you think about…. ? How do you feel about…. ? What happens when you…. ? What are your goals related to… ? Why do you…. ? 11. Consider creating status updates using these words: "Click this link..." to get fans to read a story or perform a particular action. These can include: Check out this blog because… Check out our latest press release… 12. Invite your newsletter list or email subscribers to like your Facebook Business Page. If your company has a newsletter list through Constant Contact or MailChimp, write a newsletter article asking people to like your page. Make sure to include a link to your Facebook Page. You can also import email lists. 13. Add your Facebook Fan URL to your email signature. Wisestamp offers a free and simple way to do this for Gmail. 14. Offer an incentive to people to "Like" the your Facebook Page. The more valuable the incentive is, the more people will be compelled to do so. Examples of exclusive content could be a video, an exclusive whitepaper, PDF, picture, etc. 15. Ask all of your employees to link back to your Facebook Page as their place of employment and encourage them to get their friends to "Like" the page as well. If you hold Facebook Contests, encourage your employees to share the promotion with their friends. So you want to increase engagement on your Facebook Business Page. You want to be engaging and keep your fans coming back. You want to actually improve your bottom line via your Facebook endeavors. These 15 tips are a great way to get started. Do you have any tips to add? Please feel free to share them in the comments below!

5 Most Liked Brands on Facebook and How They Got There Posted: 05 Dec 2012 08:05 AM PST Facebook, Coca-Cola, MTV, Disney, and Redbull have become the 5 most "liked" brand pages on Facebook, according to Fan Page List, which is a useful resource for regularly updated statistics on social media statistics and brands. Today, I'll examine how each of these brands made it to the top of this list, and I'll draw lessons about how to build a strong Facebook marketing strategy. Facebook: 81,614,333 Likes Facebook gets a "gimme" at the number one spot on this list. Facebook's own Facebook Page posts big news on the company and points users towards cool new features of the site. It also shares interesting media and info about Facebook, including user generated content and stories about the site. The Facebook page is accessible to a broad audience and shares news that could be relevant to any Facebook user from around the world. The Facebook page usually only posts every couple of days. The posts are simple and accessible, and they are mainly geared towards highlighting the features of Facebook. Facebook encourages new users to get started by "liking" things with their page first, so they kind of get a shoe-in to first place, but they are a good resource for news that is relevant to anyone with an interest in the site. Coca-Cola: 55,578,263 Likes Coca-cola is obviously another household name, but how did a soft drink company land the second most likes on Facebook? The truth is, it wasn't really the company's doing, but rather its fans. Two serious fans, brand evangelists actually, Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski, decided to create a fan page for Coke that quickly went viral with fan-generated content. It quickly passed 1,000,000 views. When Facebook started enforcing a policy allowing only official representatives to manage branded pages, Coke took over Dusty and Michael's page, but hired the two as marketing "consultants." Since Coke took control of the page, it held on to the ideas that made Dusty and Michael's page so successful in the first place – they kept it about the fans. Rather than sales and promotions for Coke products, the page instead garners brand loyalty and encourages fans to participate. Coke shares fan pictures and encourages them to contribute to conversations. Coke also spreads its brand by getting involved with many causes and creative projects. Posts will call attention, or even ask for donations, to humanitarian and social causes that Coca-Cola sponsors, which helps remind fans that Coke is more than just a soft drink company – its a lifestyle brand that wants to use its resources to make positive changes in the world. MTV: 39,366,113 Likes In 2011, the MTV Facebook Page really began climbing this list. It was at a mere 1 million likes in 2010, but has since skyrocketed to the number three position with over 39 million likes. MTV owes its Facebook success to its strong understanding of the wants of its target audience. It has achieved this by positioning itself as the voice of pop culture on Facebook. According to Thomas Fisher, director of social marketing for MTV, "Our Facebook page is trying to tell the cohesive story of what's going on in pop culture." It's a rather lofty goal, but MTV defines so much of pop culture through its branding and programming that it's one it is well suited for. The page's posts are casual, hip, and personal, and they link to lots of media (most of it under MTV's production, but some other pop culture tidbits as well). They are well geared towards MTV's target audience – males and females between the ages of 13 and 24 years. By posting about the latest news and creating celebrity topics that pick up lots of comments and likes, MTV uses its page to not only cater to the latest trends in pop culture, but to create them as well. Disney: 39,189,347 Likes Disney has been a household name since Steamboat Willie cruised into the silver screen in 1928. But how does such a large and multi-faceted company reach out to its fans in the social media age? Disney's Facebook page owes much of its success to the nostalgia around the brand, and a majority of its posts capitalize on this. A lot of posts are just pictures and quotes from Disney's expansive film library. There are occasional posts on new Disney films and products, but the focus remains on Disney's past rather than the present. For a company that makes films primarily targeted towards children, the nostalgia factor works well and feels inclusive to anyone who grew up watching Disney films. Red Bull: 34,089,778 Likes Redbull used to "give you wings," according to the commercials that helped bring the energy drink to the public. But the company shifted this approach in the social media age and started challenging fans to create their own wings. Or boats. Or all sorts of outlandish, entertaining and over-the-top acts of human triumph. Red Bull turned to its fans to get creative for contests like their Candola home-made boat race and Flugtag aircraft making competitions. These competitions are edgy, ridiculous, and really fun to follow and watch. And they've got the Red Bull name all over them. Their Facebook page serves as the hub for updates, media, news, and fan interaction around these contests. Red Bull continues to push the limits with events and publicity stunts. Redbull's strategy has been to create big news about extreme feats of human accomplishment. Whether it's on a relatively small scale, such as getting a couple buddies to band together and build a flying machine, or orchestrating enormous stunts, like Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking 2012 jump from the Earth's stratosphere, the content Red Bull creates drives the Facebook page. Each new event attracts new fans and keeps existing fans engaged with new stories, contests, and more outlandish feats. Keys to Branding Success Each of these 5 massively successful brands has employed different strategies to reach the highest numbers of Facebook likes, but each strategy is well suited with the brand, its image, and its message. Each of these pages has a strong sense of brand identity, as well as a good understanding of the target audience. All of these brands (with the obvious exception of Facebook) were around well before the days of social media, but their Facebook pages today show how they have adapted to the digital age of marketing. Discovering how to reach and connect with a target audience through social media is the key to success. Whether reaching for a broad market, like Facebook's own page, or a highly targeted demographic, such as MTV's, the pages are accessible and engaging. They update with posts that aren't so much about trying to sell the brands' products, but instead post about capturing the image and spirit of the brand.

5 Simple Social Media Skills All Marketers Need Posted: 05 Dec 2012 07:55 AM PST Do You Have What it Takes? Social media sites can be daunting for the beginner marketer or small business owner. Social media is no longer optional – Twitter users are 6% more likely to purchase from a brand by simply being exposed to the company’s content. Each sites’ interfaces are so different, and it can often feel like they are populated by small armies of vengeful peasants with pitchforks. But they are by all accounts, one of the most effective ways to connect with like-minded people and prospects, preferably sans pitchfork. Here are some basic skills that business owners should master on social media: 1. Cool the Rage Business owners should be able to interact with readers and casual commenters on sites like Twitter and Facebook without becoming defensive. There’s no shortage of both intelligent criticism and internet trolls! If you respond hastily or angrily to criticism, your rage (instead of your work), will become the focus of your social media pages. 83% of social media users have stopped making a purchase due to poor customer service on social channels – and they tell on average of 53 people about the negative experience. Social media can be an unfriendly place littered with misspelled insults, but it can also be a group-hug where you salvage relationships. Just acknowledge that both are possible, and be sure to anticipate both. The best way to respond to irrational hate messages or mail is to be polite, offer resolution and move on. 2. Be Active No one likes to see a dead Twitter profile or Facebook page, it’s tragic. You will be unfollowed and ignored if you aren’t posting actively. It’s not like the diary that you stopped keeping after two weeks in sixth grade; you don’t have to write a novel on your pages, but be active. People tend to pay attention to and click-through to the blog that’s always popping up on their “feed.” You should aim to post on your social media pages daily. HubSpot recommends you post once an hour to Twitter and every other hour to Facebook and adjust frequency according to what works best for your followers. You can be active without spamming your followers. Find your perfect pace and get used to using scheduling tools and putting out content even when you’re away from the computer. 3. Know Your Readers You wouldn’t walk into a karaoke bar and try to start a dance off, so don’t post blindly on social media sites without seeing how other people in your field write and interact with their prospects. What kind of content does your blog have? Check out writers of similar content and follow them. Learn what’s trending and what people are most excited about. Who is getting all of the retweets when they talk about a similar subject? Work on imitating their style and “fitting in” with the tone of your niche on social media 4. Become a Pro Twitter, Tumblr, Linkedin, Pinterest and Facebook. I’m just getting started! There are a lot of social media sites to become acquainted withe. Start out with a few you are interested in, and spend some time getting to know the site and their users before you start posting up a storm. You may find that only a few kinds of social media sites work for your goals. Go with them! Don’t worry about being a presence on every social media page. It’s better to use just one really well than maintain a spotty presence on every site. Use the ones that work for you and use them well – 0.05% of Twitter’s members attract almost 50% of attention on the channel. 5. Don’t Be a Salesman No matter what you are writing about, make sure that your social media interactions don’t sound like a cheesy, low-budget commercial for yourself. Be authentic and make real connections; that is what social media is about. Add some personal details to balance out a bunch of links and “read this” arrow signs to your blog or web page. Your audience is inviting your brand into their Facebook or Twitter feed, and they don’t want to feel like they’ve just invited a creepy car salesman into their kitchen. Avoid this approach and engage in real conversations. In Conclusion… Yes, this may all seem like instructions for fitting in on the first day of school. But as a business owner entering into a social media realm, you are trying to reach out to people to use social media in a very personal way. So yes, it is a little like entering a cafeteria with no friends at first. But as mothers around the world tend to say, in order to make friends, you must be friendly.

Five Top 2013 Trends for Small Business Social Media Engagement Using Content Marketing Posted: 05 Dec 2012 07:50 AM PST With 2013 right around the corner, it's time to start looking at the social media marketing trends likely to take center stage in the coming year.  As predicted by marketing experts in early 2012, powerful trends such as content marketing are already reorienting and rewiring the business world in this digital bazaar.It's not just that social media is exploding; it's how brands communicate.  Empowered consumers with their expanding arsenals of social technology devices are going to change the landscape in 2013, too. This holiday season, consumers are going to be buying more new gadgets that will change the marketing dialogue between brands and consumers and test businesses' ability to engage. #1: Tech Adoption If 2012 didn't already prove that tablet computing isn't just a passing fad, the coming years should leave no doubt.  Tablets, smartphones and e-readers have become the primary media source for thousands of users.  eMarketer even estimates that tablet users will reach 89.5 by 2014. With this trend, brands will have to rise to meet the additional demand in content—including apps, video and social media—that this trend is likely to produce. #2: Explosion in blog traffic and leads A new survey by HubSpot, "Uncovering Marketing Benchmarks from 7,000 Businesses," reveals that small business benefit the greatest from blog articles in terms of both new leads and traffic. #3: Employee branding creating rich content development Today's socially-enabled employees like to share content, including content related to their employers.  Employee branding has been dancing on the periphery over the past few years, but it's poised to be a big player in the social arena in the coming year.  With proper guidance, employee branding can be an asset to a brand's image, but managers must establish social guidelines to keep the individual brands from eclipsing the company's own brand image. #4: Innovative Strategies for Marketing SMB Blogs While it would be wonderful if blog content could just market itself, employees and brands must accept that part of their job after producing content is finding an audience for it.  Good, well-promoted content attracts vibrant communities, which are usually more than happy to pass the content on to their other networks.  In fact, platforms such as Triberr have sprouted up on the Web specifically to aid content producers in this process. #5: Curation Syndication Once just for TV, the syndication model is now being successfully adapted to Web content.  In fact, it has proven quite successful for smaller businesses looking to boost their visibility and generate more leads.  To implement a successful curation syndication program, brands should find other blogs, websites or news sources that actively curate and republish content from around the Web.  The reasoning is simple: the more places your content appears, the more visibility you will earn.  In his article "How to Get More Blog Traffic," Tom Pick mentions B2B Marketing Zone, Social Media Informer, and Social Media Today as particularly strong syndication sources.

Social Media DIY Myths Hurting Small Businesses Posted: 05 Dec 2012 07:40 AM PST That social media is an effective tool to engage your customers in conversation and attract new customers is an accepted fact. Leading B2C organizations started flocking to the social media networks as soon as the user base ballooned to billions and conversation spanning generations and national borders became apparent. Small businesses were comparatively late entrants to this online party. This could be partly because of lack of resources – the owners had to not only invest time to understand and learn this new animal, but also devise a strategy to tame the social media beast. DIY is the way to go for most small businesses. But it is not always the answer! Juggling a shortage of resources and manpower, the typical small business owner is trying to do everything himself. After all, anyone can use Facebook or Twitter. And they are free! This is perhaps the worst misconception out there. Building a brand or a business is hard work. And it takes time, money, sweat and grime. We take a look at some of the most common myths associated with using social media networks for business. Myth 1: It's Inexpensive Any successful businessman will tell you 'Time is Money'. First, Creating accounts on different networks and populating your profile may be free, but you still need to put in time to do that. Second, social media is not static. It is not like creating a website for your business and going back to it only when there is something important that you need to change – like product information or contact numbers. Social media is like a flowing river, and your customers see everything only when they are sitting on the river shores. To ensure that your customers see your message in networks like Twitter you need to invest in automated tools or visit every hour at the least. So, no, it is not inexpensive. These are some of the costs involved - Cost of your time Cost of Tools Cost of missing out on professional advice Cost of time spent doing something more productive (opportunity cost) It can be inexpensive if you get your existing staff to work with social media accounts, or hire a consultant who can design a solution specific to your needs. Myth 2: It's easy to use Posting a comment or a wall post may be easy, but if you want to exploit the social media networks to make new connections and generate leads, you need to be aware and learn advanced tools. But the problem is, this is not a one time job. The social media networks are constantly evolving. For example, Facebook has changed its Reach and EdgeRank algorithm many a time in the past few months. And these are just the features you need to use social media channels for your business. Well, there is nothing that you can't learn if you give it time, but do you have that much time? Ties in with my first point that it is not inexpensive. But you can have a dedicated resource whose job is to know what's happening in the social media world and keep learning new things. Myth 3: It doesn't take a lot of time Really! I don't think so. To begin with you have to invest a lot of time in initial analysis to choose the right networks for your business and products. It also takes considerable time to create profiles that can engage new customers. These are the one-time activities. The recurring tasks, the true time gobbler, is the constant analysis of what you're gaining, re-evaluating your strategy, and maintaining your accounts. Let's say you have accounts on at least the three major networks – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – then, depending on your engagement rate (followers and conversation, new posts) you may need to spend around 10 hrs a week on these. That is roughly 25% on your work-week! No less. We understand that hiring someone full-time to get only 25% of the effort, or 50% at the most, is a great burden for a small business. Getting a consultant to do this job can get you 100% of your money in terms of the effort the resource puts in, and you also get a premium service from people who know what they are doing and are always on top of things. What is the Solution? It is easy to post photos on Facebook, or just write on your friends' wall. Or tweet about where you had dinner. When generating business and building a brand is your objective, you add a whole new dimension to the process. Creating a social media presence for your business is a specialized skill. It needs careful analysis, strategy and execution. Delegation can be the answer in this case. You can either hire a social media strategist or engage a consultant. Social Media consultants generally offer various levels of service. Most are ready to create a custom package for your needs. Getting a quote from someone should be easy enough! Have you tried to build your business via social media yourself? How did it work out for you. Did you spend a lot of time. Did you enjoy learning the nitty gritties of all the different networks out there? We want to know what you think. Please leave a comment below and tweet or share this with your friends. You can also check out our various services for any packages that may suit you.

Improve SEO and Get Highly Targeted Visitors Posted: 05 Dec 2012 07:30 AM PST Small businesses often make classic mistakes with their websites, assuming that having built one, even a custom designed solution, that they will instantly appear highly in Google and win loads of new business. While this can be the case in some situations, it is far more likely that you are going to have to put in some work to improve SEO. With an average click through rate (CTR) of 36.4%, you'll benefit from more than a third of clicks from a search engine if you can rank a keyword term in the first position. The top three listings take 58.4% of all the searches! That is why seo is something that all business should take very seriously. [Source Optify CTR Study] 5 Tips to Improve SEO and Rise to the Top! To make your website rise to the top you need to follow these tips. 1. Keyword Selection The keyword phrase (a term longer than one word, for example "Employment Solicitors Manchester") that the user will enter into the search engine is hugely important and sits at the very foundation of getting top search engine rankings. Think about the term your ideal client will enter into the search engine when they are looking for the results that your service can provide. Your company name and your location are good for brand awareness but it is not addressing the scores of people that don't yet know about you. 2. Quality content that is keyword optimised In order for Google to fully understand what your content is about, it first of all sends a spider along to crawl your pages. The spider looks at pre defined areas of the page that help it translate the content and report back as to what the content is about. The areas that you need to consider are: Page Title Heading Sub headings Alt tags for images URL of the page All of these elements of the page are considered by the search engines when indexing your content in the correct place so that your ideal visitor can find it. But remember that if your page is over optimised, in other words you are writing for the search engines, then it may not be easily decipherable for a human reader. Think about the user experience first. 3. Internal Linking Internal linking is about how and where you link a page or post to other content that is relevant within your website. The point being that the search engines want to provide the user with the best possible experience they can. Continuing with the "Employment Solicitors Manchester" search term earlier, it would be of benefit if you could then link to pages containing information and references to employment tribunals, constructive dismissal cases, and workplace discrimination. By doing this you are providing greater detail for the user, which will help them make a judgement on your suitability to help them and the search engines will also appreciate. If the internal linking is managed correctly it will contribute to improving SEO, edging your content closer and closer to the very top search engine rankings where all the clicks happen. 4. Attracting Inbound links. Google and the other search engines rely highly on other people linking to your website in order for them to establish how popular your website is. The more popular the website, the higher your return in the search results. The goal here is to create highly valuable, unique, entertaining, thought provoking, controversial content that people want to talk about and share. The more people that link back to your site signifies to the search engines the popularity and value of the piece of content. Over time generating more links back to your content will result in greater search engine traffic. However, this does not mean that all links are equal; the quality and relevance of the link is highly important too. Google takes into consideration where the link has come from. If your content is about employment solicitors then a link from the law society is a valuable link. If you receive a link back from a Comedy Club blog then as complimentary as it is that you have received a link it is less relevant and holds less authority. 5. Have a Social Media plan Social signals such as being liked, tweeted or +1'd now impact your search engine rankings. That is why you need to have a social media plan that includes identifying which social channels your customers frequent, tracking social conversations, trending topics, managing your online reputation and developing and sharing optimised content. By ensuring you can easily create and post relevant content to social channels on a regular basis, you will not only improve your search rankings, but reach more potential customers when your content is linked to, liked, or shared. Search engine optimisation techniques are constantly changing. What doesn't change, and in fact becomes more prominent, is the fact that if you invest the time creating quality content that has value with the readers on a regular basis you will be able to improve seo and find your site and pages getting top search engine rankings, driving more clicks and ultimately converting to a higher number of sales.

Dell Launches Social Business Services Posted: 05 Dec 2012 07:29 AM PST Much lauded for its own social business transformation, Dell is now taking its social media expertise to market, launching a new range of offerings through a collaboration between its marketing and services teams. Targeting enterprise and medium sized business customers, the first offerings provide: Education – best practice seminars for a range of industries Advisory – strategy and optimisation Listening and insights – social media monitoring and reporting Listening Command Center – on-premise build out of a social media listening command center Responding to the chaotic social media space, Maribel Sierra, Director Social Media Services at Dell explained that Dell's customers are struggling to go beyond Facebook and Twitter. Customers are asking for Dell's expertise in choosing tools, building training and scaling social media within the enterprise. But it is not all about social media maturity. Customers are also wanting to understand how and where to get started with enterprise social media and how to gain executive support for social programs. Pilot customers like Kraft Foods, Clemson University and Aetna have helped prove out the Dell model over the last year – and the range of services are expected to grow with demand. Right now, there are over 20 courses available through the Dell Social Media University – and they're delivered either face to face or virtually. These new offerings mark a decisive shift for Dell, providing a strategic services offering at the pointy end of customer experience for their customers. Working in this trusted space will keep Dell top of mind across their customers executive ranks. This will bring Dell into direct competition with organisations like IBM, Salesforce and the big consulting firms. As 2013 begins to take shape, the future of social media innovation looks set to play out within the enterprise. On the customer side, expect more services firms to flood in as enterprises begin to transform social engagement into business value.

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