Below the Line

How to Market Your Product/Service Using Cutting Edge Social Media

"You're on Facebook whether you want to be or not."
- Dan Rose, Facebook VP

Last night I attended a social media forum hosted by Kellogg. It was moderated by Tom Bedecarre and featured: Dan Rose, Vice President at Facebook; Seth Goldstein, CEO at Social Media; Jeremiah Owyang, Partner at Altimeter Group; Marisa Gallagher Vice President User Experience at Razorfish; and Clara Shih, Author of The Facebook Era.

I "live tweeted" the event and earned some geek cred (not quite as cool as "street cred") when Tom Bedecarre gave me a free copy of Shih's book for being the most prolific tweeter.

Here are some of the highlights of what the panel had to say to the roomful of MBAs: 

On the state of the industry:

Goldstien: Advertising is changing. Ads need to be real messages from real people; otherwise people ignore them.

Shih: Facebook is still dominating. There are more users on Facebook Mobile alone than on Twitter.

Owyang: Facebook's biggest competitor is Google. 

He mentioned that Google has set up a stealth social network, referencing Google Profile (here's mine) and highlighting the fact that users interact through e-mail, IM, Google SideWiki and Google Wave. Shih also mentioned Google Latitude. Later in the evening Owyang claimed that e-mail itself is a social network, an idea which had Goldstein shaking his head in disagreement, but a debate did not ensue.

Owyang: Social media impacts all of your digital marketing assets. Social media is a horizontal in your strategy, not a vertical.

Owyang: Social search will be very disruptive to the SEO/SEM industry.

On brands getting involved in social media: 

Rose: You're on Facebook whether you want to be or not.

Owyang: The earliest brands that got punk'd on social media are now the most successful.

Gallagher: You shouldn't use Facebook and Twitter for the same thing. The content should be different.

Gallagher: Customers are looking to engage with brands. And they want discounts. 

Who's doing it right?:

Shih: BestBuy and 1-800 Flowers are doing a good job of letting you buy on Facebook.

Owyang: Volkswagen uses your Facebook profile information to recommend a car for you.

Rose: Sprinkles gives away a free cupcake to the first 25 people who mention a secret word revealed on their Facebook fan page.

On new tools:

Rose: Brands with Facebook pages can now send messages targeted by geography and language, so you don't spam all of your fans.

Owyang: Flowtown will find all of the social networks a person is on, based on their e-mail address.

Goldstein: There are 100 thousand people on FourSquare. Checking in on FourSquare is even easer than tweeting.

Gallagher: Yelp's augmented reality iPhone app uses the phone's camera and GPS to show reviews of the businesses right in front of them.

On data and privacy:
Owyang: I believe Facebook has more information on Gen Y than the U.S. government.

Shih: Use privacy settings in Facebook to segment friends because "our Facebook profiles represent our personal brand."

There was a lot of discussion on privacy, what information Facebook and other sites have access to, and how individuals and brands should manage data-related risks. There were many people in the room who don't trust Facebook to keep their personal photos and information in a silo if they also set up a business presence on Facebook.

Although the panelists noted that using Facebook's privacy settings is easy, the attendees did not agree. Some users even admitted to setting up fake individual Facebook profiles to use in order to set up fan pages for their business. Rose's response was "why wouldn't you want to be associated with your business on Facebook?"

Actually, there are many reasons someone might want to keep their personal and professional lives in iron silos. For instance, those in certain professions need to avoid any crossover: psychologists, prosecuting attorneys, etc. Those types of professionals might want a Facebook page where they post resources, etc., but they don't want their patients or clients to have any chance of window into their personal lives.

Overall, the panel did a great job of discussing what's going on in the industry today and Bedecarre did a great job as moderator, getting the attendees involved in the discussion. Below is a (blurry) picture of me and Jeremiah Owyang at the event.

Affiliate Links:
The Facebook Era - Amazon US
The Facebook Era - Amazon UK

Are women's groups going bust?

Are women's networking groups becoming obsolete? I noticed that a few women’s networks, both online and offline, recently closed shop and I wondered if it was a trend.

Will online networks replace offline groups?
In London, the Women Writers Network was a group of women – many of whom were successful, published authors making a living from writing – who got together once per month to listen to a guest speaker and meet other writers. Although they tried to make a move into the online space, their ill-fated attempt may have actually contributed to their downfall. The usability on their web site was so bad, it rendered the site useless for the majority of members who could not actually access the forum. They also seemed unable to make the move from a costly printed bi-monthly newsletter, to a more frequent (and more useful) e-mail newsletter. While they were stuck in the past, the writers were getting their needs met elsewhere. In London alone, there are several web sites and groups that cater to writers, and send e-mails with tips, opportunities, etc. – for free. So it became less appealing for new members to pay an annual fee to see an occasional speaker.

But more importantly, the WWN stopped actively recruiting new members. For instance, they did not use free resources such as the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s weekly e-newsletter, to let people know about their group and events.

With the changing environment around them, the WWN needed to reassess their USP and energize the organization with new members.

Women’s groups – that men can join, too!
Remember that store called “Just Jeans”? I think they had a tagline at one point which was something to the effect of “we sell more than just jeans”. Really? Then don’t call yourselves Just Jeans!

I felt the same way when Chicago Women in Technology became about not just technology, but about, well, everything, and not a women’s network but, well, for everyone. “ChicWIT” started as a listserv (remember those?) and quickly expanded to 80 cities around the world. At first members would ask questions related to technology, but soon the e-mails were filled with people wanting to find an apartment, get a babysitter or ask for restaurant recommendations. The group then moved online and the site had columns from women and men bloggers. Although they had a member base of over 40,000, founder Liz Ryan was unable to convert this to cash and closed the site down. If she had stuck to her core proposition of women in technology or at least one of the two, she should have been able to sell rights to her web site for a tidy profit. Now it has gone the way of 404 Not Found.

Women’s group The Executives’ Council recently folded after 19 years. Leanne Hoagland-Smith, a past president of the group, said that over the years the group changed from executives to entrepreneurs. “The entrepreneurs wanted more quality content while some of the other members wanted more socializing.” She said it was difficult to make two different groups happy.

Fresh blood
It seems the most important thing for any group to stay vital, online or offline, is to engage with new members. Stevie Wilson, of LA-Story.com, has participated in several women's forums launches. She says "the sites that have folded are because of lack of advertising and fresh blood. You can't have the same people day after day. Sites need to evolve with open minds about what readers want to see."

That sentiment was echoed by Paige Gold, who was on the board of L.A. List, an offline women's group dedicated to increasing campaign contributions to pro-choice women running for local, nonpartisan offices within L.A. County. "After a while," she said, "it became apparent that the only people writing checks were board members."

The small matter of the bill
For any group to survive, they need a business model that works. In the online world, there are many ways to connect online at no cost these days (Facebook, LinkedIn, NING, etc.). Therefore, the only requirement is that some members dedicate some time to doing the admin for the group. But you can’t put up a forum or group page and hope people will join. It’s promote or perish.

In the offline world, there are often still costs involved – renting space, refreshments, speaker fees, etc. That means managing cash flow and ensuring there is a way for the group to have incoming revenue.

Penny Haynes, of the Commercial Creation Center said her favorite online women's group folded because the owner wasn't making any money from it. “[She] went another direction and started another group which she thought would be more relevant (and would make more money). Many of us paid for lifetime memberships in the first group, and therefore she wasn't getting any continual income from us.”

Lessons

• Actively reach out to get others involved, and interact with the people who do take an interest.
• If you’re starting a forum or online group, you can't just put it up and expect people to come.
• Use technology to keep costs down, and make sure it is usable and accessible.
• Know your USP and stick to it. Be aware of changing factors around you, and don’t be afraid to change with the times.

So are women’s groups going bust?
I know there are still many thriving women’s groups. Are men’s groups having the same issues? Have your say – leave a comment or e-mail me.

Can social networking make you rich?

Can social networking make you rich? Maybe, according to an article in USA Today. This article quotes stats from Anderson Analytics that show LinkedIn users have a higher-than-average income:

• Users with incomes of $200,000 and $350,000 are seven times more likely than those with lower incomes to have more than 150 LinkedIn connections.
• Executives make up 28% of users, with an average annual income of $104,000.
• Casual or new users had incomes of $88,000 or less.

So start social networking -- it's worth a try!

Before you get the axe: six quick things to do on LinkedIn

With the U.S. officially in recession, and more job cuts announced every week, now is a great time to get ahead of the curve and use social media tools to ensure you are well placed for future networking.

Here are six quick things you can do on LinkedIn:

1. LinkedIn now has a “status” message – similar to Facebook. Your contacts who subscribe to the weekly updates from LinkedIn will see what you’re up to. Get your name out there - but stick to business updates. No one cares that you just fed your cat.
2. Add new contacts to LinkedIn. LinkedIn can search your personal e-mail address book to find your contacts who are already on LinkedIn.
3. It’s important to get LinkedIn now with people in your organization – if they leave and you don’t have their personal e-mail address it will become much more difficult to find them and connect.
4. Join any groups from your current or former employers. Many companies now have a “alumni” groups – often set up by individuals rather than the company – so you can continue to network with former colleagues. Do this now as it'll be easier for the group administrator to verify that you work for the relevant company.
5. Add previous jobs to your profile - it will be easier for former colleagues, and recruiters, to find you.
6. If you have an industry-related blog, connect your blog's feed to your LinkedIn profile.

Rumours of Facebook apps' death have been greatly exaggerated

Back in April, New Media Age* reported that branded apps on Facebook were struggling to attract users. While I do think that any brand getting ready to jump on the bandwagon must offer something truly unique, engaging and relevant to make any headway, branded apps still hold possibilities on Facebook.

Though the initial investment to create and promote an app, according to NMA, is anywhere between £2k and  £30k, brands should take a long-term view. Perhaps this is why Facebook is now reporting on monthly active users, rather than daily active users. Do you really care if your users are interacting with your app every single day?

Take a look at how the apps NMA reported on are doing now (below). MTV, which looked like a loser at 115 daily active users, looks to have gained a following. Even if you assume it was 115 different people each day over the course of the month (say 3,450 daily users), they have experienced a 50% jump in numbers in six+ months.

Other apps, such as Woolworths' Catapult Game and Handbag.com have failed to gain ground.

The lesson is that, while Facebook apps may be a risk, don't give up on them (or fire your agency prematurely!). Some may take time to gain a following. 

*NMA's site requires registration.

Online Marketing & Media: Creating a Blended Search Strategy

I recently attended the Online Marketing & Media Conference at the Business Design Center in London. One of the seminars was hosted by Neil McCarthy, the Chief Marketing and Sales Officer for Lattitude. According to McCarthy, 60% of search traffic comes from organic search and 40% comes from paid search (thereby contributing to Google’s millions). However, the breakdown varies depending on your industry and what you’re selling.

75% of traffic from general searches comes from natural search results (according to Google)

For companies trying to sell products, this is reduced to 60%

For the financial service sector the traffic from natural search is only 50%

To maximize your natural search results, I do recommend that most clients get “professional help”. There is some science to it. Focus on maximizing your natural search results using techniques on your own site and external web sites.

Your site should have unique content. Merely replicating or consolidating information that can be found elsewhere will not help your search ranking. Google will ignore it, or worse, think you are a spammer.

Don’t use Flash on your site (for the content portions anyway) – Google can’t read it.

Outside of your own site, work on getting other sites to link to you – but they must be relevant to your business.

Create “link bait”. Give people a reason to link to you by providing something useful (for example, a mortgage calculator may encourage real estate agents to link to you).

In terms of paid search, some useful tips are:

Create ad copy relevant to the keyword on which you are bidding. Sounds obvious, but you could very quickly amass hundreds of keywords to bid on. Group relevant keywords together and create a series of highly targeted, relevant ads.

Ideally, each should click through to a relevant landing page which is not necessarily going to be your home page or a product page.

You have 1.8 seconds to convince people to click on your PPC ad. The copy must be convincing. Test frequently – PPC is one of the most testable mediums out there.

The copy should also pre-qualify your lead. It’s better if no one clicks on your ad than having the wrong people click because the latter costs you money.

As of May 2008, you can bid on competitor names in the UK (this has been the case for a while in the U.S.). Use this strategy with caution however and ensure it doesn’t tarnish your brand image.

You can also bid on words that will help your exposure. For instance, Gillette bid on spokesman Roger Federer during Wimbledon. So, anyone who searched for “Roger Federer” would have seen a PPC ad that read “Roger Federer and Gillette”. It really doesn’t matter whether people clicked through – thousands would have seen the ad and now associate Federer with Gillette.

Another interesting fact was that social media now accounts for more traffic than e-mail and creates one third of the traffic of search.

I’ll cover a session by Nielsen Online at the Online Marketing & Media conference in my next post.

Social Media: what Clinton should be doing

Recently the Hillary Clinton campaign asked for ideas on how they might do things differently. Here are my top-of-mind thoughts:

Clinton needs to up her game in blogging and social media. Obama is getting a lot of support from the "young" people online, but Hillary could tap into certain social networks and make an impact – social networks that are topic specific rather than just a generic MySpace / Facebook presence.

Clinton's campaign should appoint someone on staff to take the lead on social networking. They should:

• Identify blogs with a mid-level of readership (forgetting about the likes of Huffington post) and engage with them.
• Offer these bloggers content and/or access not available to others.
• Consider hosting an online chat with Hillary that is available only to key bloggers, or create a video / commercial that they can post on their blogs prior to being aired on TV – this could in turn become a "news" story and garner the campaign some free press.
• Search for relevant blogs based on popularity on www.technorati.com – it is free to do, but labor intensive – a perfect opportunity to use some volunteer resources.

Other groups they could focus on are topic-specific social networks. For instance, they could approach women's groups on sites like NING or gather.com.

There is a Hillary Clinton blog on the campaign site. The campaign should promote the blog at the bottom every e-mail they send. They should encourage people to sign up via RSS, digg the posts, etc.

However, I'd advise that this blog from a cursory view just looks like a diary of events. The blogosphere is more about a person showing their own voice and letting their personality come through. If Clinton is too busy, then have a staffer write an official – yet uncensored – blog, giving people a real behind-the-scenes view. This will also encourage other blogs to link to yours

These were my top of mind suggestions. I'd be interested to hear what other ideas people have. I also think the Democratic Party has a long way to go in terms of branding, an area where the Republicans have them beat hands down. This is something the party should think about in advance of the general election.

Micro Social Networking

While MySpace currently dominates social networking in the U.S. and Facebook dominates in the UK, many wonder how long they’ll cling to their user bases. The online audience can be fickle, as Friendster can attest. I think they’ll be around for awhile because many users have already “invested” in the sites by creating customized profiles in MySpace and adding copious applications on their Facebook pages. It’s hard to imagine another major player overtaking these sites any time soon (in the online space, let’s call that six months).

A trend I’m seeing is smaller social networks around particular interest groups or areas, e.g. CafeMom and Green Thing (a site I’ve just helped to launch). While these sites won’t be the next Facebook, they will attract users and engage them with relevant content. Brands often aim to increase their “share of wallet” – what they’ll be facing online is a challenge to increase their “share of week” and the micro social networks may be the real threat to the current behemoths.