20 Interesting Facts, Figures and Statistics Revealed by Facebook

Facebook is about to raise $5 billion from investors.

When you are ask for that amount of money then you need to produce some reliable evidence and facts and figures about the current state of play that are accurate.

So Facebook has recently revealed the latest statistics about its business in its S1 Filing for its upcoming IPO.

Facebook doesn’t appear to be struggling for cash as it has recently paid Instagram $1 billion to purchase its mobile photo app business and Microsoft $550 million  for 650 patents (that it recently bought off Yahoo)

In a knowledge economy that rewards innovators, patents are becoming increasingly valuable to protect your intellectual properties from potential imitators.

Facebook’s Growth not Slowing

If you have a look at this graph from its latest filing for the upcoming IPO, it seems apparent that its growth is not slowing anytime soon and with over 7 billion people on the planet it still has a lot of  headroom for future growth.

This is despite Facebook being banned in China and the English speaking countries such as the US, Australia and the UK having almost no growth.

The Facebook mission which states “To make the world more open and connected” is obviously resonating with the earth’s netizens.

Here are latest statistics revealed by Facebook.

The Facts and Figures from Facebook

What numbers surprise you on this list?

More Reading:

• 48 Significant Social Media Facts, Figures and Statistics – 7 Infographics
• 20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic
• 30 Terrific Twitter Facts and Figures
• 50 Awesome YouTube Facts and Figures
• 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google

Image by WebWizzard

How to Create and Grow Your Influence on a Global Social Web

We are living in a world where influence is migrating from offline to online.

The ability to influence is also moving from local to global. Its reach is also transitioning to mobile devices.

Reputation and influence can now be gained faster and reach further than in any other time in history.

One definition of Influence is “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development or behavior of someone or something”

To be truly successful you must have the ability and power to influence.

Mass Media was the Platform

The development and popularity of movies and mass media over the past century has provided people such as politicians, business people and movie stars the platforms for creating and sustaining influence.

But we are still used to the traditional paradigms and ideas of influence. In the past it was vital to enrol at the “right” school or university, attend the right networking events or cocktail parties or belong to the right golf club

These are still important but the power of online influence and new media is starting to make itself felt as the social web shares ideas and content globally in real time.

The Web is now Defining “You”

Have you Googled yourself lately? What do you see?

Potential employers will Google you, they will check your Linked In profile. Do the results influence their decisions?

We now live in a knowledge economy and knowledge is easily displayed and spread online. Using the right online tools and with focus you can define and carve out a reputation online.

Why Should I create Online Influence?

There are many reasons to establish an online presence and build your “brand“, whether you are personal brand or a business brand.

• Find a new career
• Grow your existing profession
• Connect with other influencers
• Protect your reputation
• Promote and sell products and services

To read and view more click here or on the image below to visit the Slideshare presentation “Online Reputation and Influence – How to Create, Grow and Maintain Influence on a Digital Social Web” that was a keynote that I presented at the BE-Wizard web conference in Italy.

Credibility First

Geoffrey Rush the Oscar winning actor said “In my career two things have been vital.. Credibility and Visibility”

Being credible first is the foundation to any successful career or business. In an information age your online content is what people will judge you on because that is all they will see.

Content that is focused and relevant to the category or subject that you want to be seen as influential about is the first step in gaining credibility.

It must be remembered that influence resides within categories and specializations not generalisations.

The First Challenge

There are many challenges in the journey of establishing online influence.

The first challenge is focus  which starts with the question “What do I want to be influential about?”

Essentially it comes down to the intersection of your innate talents and what you are passionate about. For a lot of people this is sometimes the hardest part of the journey and it is a lesson in “self discovery”.

I would recommend that if you just  have an inkling of what your talent and passion is about is to just start, as the Nike slogan goes “Just do it“.

True self discovery is in the “doing” not the procrastination. The feedback and the momentum of commencing and action will provide what you need to refine your direction as you move forward.

The other challenges are included in the presentation.

Where do you Start?

What has worked for me has been establishing my blog (or website) as my online content “influence” hub.

I own it and control it. Facebook can’t close me down!

It is your soap box to the world.

Once you have established a beachhead (blog or website) with defining content (it doesn’t have to be mountains of articles or videos) then the next stage is “visibility”

Visibility Requires Marketing

So how do gain that visibility?

The social media networks provide the free publishing and marketing tools to make your credibility “visible”. Other important elements in the art of creating visibility are covered in the presentation.

Also there is a twitter tool and secret that I cover that I have found to be very important in marketing your content and creating influence online.

How About You?

Have you taken control of your online presence and brand?

How have you established your online influence? Could you do better?

What have been the benefits for you? Look forward to hearing your stories.

More Reading:

• Is Your Social Media Influence Important in Finding that Dream Job?
• 10 Steps To Promote Brand “You” With Social Media
• Blogging For Dummies – An Opportunity For Personal Branding
• 10 Secrets To Being Insanely Successful
• 11 Ways To Lose Your Job On Facebook
• The Modern Executives Essential Social Media Toolkit Plus [INFOGRAPHIC]
• 7 Ways to Protect Your Brand’s Online Reputation
• The 14 Keys to Successful and Influential Global Blogging

How American Express is Integrating Social Media into its Marketing DNA

I remember my father gently chiding my grandfather as to his conservative approach to life. My grandfather was brought up when the world changed ever so slowly and never lived to see the mobile phone or the internet. He was a man who was very slow to adapt to change, which was common for his generation.

His conservative approach was evidenced by the “belt and braces” approach to life… If his belt broke his braces were always there to hold his pants up. My father said this was the perfect example of a pessimist!

Being slow to adapt to change is not necessarily a bad thing but if business conservatism is standing in the way of innovation and company growth then it is not a positive but often a hindrance.

Large global brands in traditional conservative industries very often see social media as a threat because they hear and see PR horror stories. They feel they have much more to lose than gain by participating and embracing “new media”.

The truth is that social media is becoming a vital asset that provides global publishing platforms with enormous reach and velocity that are searchable and available 24 hours a day.

The Crowd Sourcing of Marketing

Social networks additionally provide viral platforms that can create more stories about your brand than you could ever hope to achieve through your own advertising and marketing efforts with paid traditional marketing media.

This is because  it provides “crowd sourcing” of story telling and marketing.

So how does a traditionally conservative industry sector such as financial services participate, integrate and optimize on a social web.

Here is how American Express are embracing social.

Facebook

American Express knows that leveraging Facebook with its viral “many to many” social connections will create more stories about AMEX than they could ever achieve on their own as those followers share AMEX’s content including videos, images, and text articles.

In looking at the key metric on American Express’s Facebook page “Talking about this“,  the number of crowd sourced stories at a particular moment in time is 13,406 (this is the number of actions such as likes, comments and shares by AMEX’s fans).

If you multiply this by the number of friends each of these stories may reach (the average user has 234 friends according to an extrapolation of the n umbers in the S1 filing) then the “potential” reach of conversations on Facebook about AMEX is 3,137,004.

American Express did not have to pay a cent to reach those 3 million plus people apart from building the Facebook network and starting the dynamic stories by publishing their content on Facebook.

It did have to participate on Facebook and it did have to actively build its network of fans that currently stands at nearly 2.5 million. Essentially you have to be in it to win it!

If you look at  AMEX’s Facebook strategy, tactics and activities you will notice how they have woven Facebook into its marketing DNA because they know the power of marketing to a social network with the scale and size of Facebook.

These are the latest statistics released by Facebook and revealed by Huffington Post in its S1 Filing for its upcoming IPO that reveal the scale of the Facebook social network.

• Facebook as the worlds largest social network with nearly 1 in 2 people who are on the internet being users is the primary social channel that most brands and companies participate on.
• Monthly active users now total 901 million (up from 680 million a year ago)
• Daily active users are up to 526 million (up from 372 million last year)
• Monthly mobile users now total 488 million
• 300 million photos are uploaded to the site each day
• 3.2 billion Likes and Comments are posted daily
• 125 billion friendships are forged per day.
• Revenue for the first quarter of 2012 was $1.058 billion, up from $731 last year

Here are some key activities American Express utilize to engage with their fans on Facebook

1. Their images and photos are not just about American Express but about their members and partners.
2. They build their fan base by offering specials and exclusive offers to those that “like” their AMEX Facebook page. They know that a larger network gives them more reach, leverage and crowd sourced stories and marketing that money cannot buy.
3. American Express understand that “entertaining” not just informing is essential on the social web and have one of their key tabs all about entertainment
4. AMEX also knows that its Facebook fans need incentives to participate and one of the main reasons fans “like a page is so they can receive savings and special offers and so feature this tab in their visible tabs on their Facebook page

Americans Express also prides itself on innovation and this is evidenced by the fact that they were included in the “World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Finance Companies” by Fast Company.

Twitter

American Express uses its Twitter account to distribute its content and also uses it to engage with followers and answer questions.

They understand the power of  online video to engage the user and understand that an entertaining or humorous video is more likely to be shared than just a piece of text.

It is obvious from the interaction I have highlighted below that they are using a community manager to interact in real time to questions inquiries by Twitter followers.

LinkedIn

American Express knows the  value of having social networks where their target audiences are hanging out.

LinkedIn with its 150 million high earning and sizable net worth professionals are a social media network channel that  is worth establishing and participating on for AMEX.

It also integrates its other social networks by linking and embedding other social networks such as YouTube.

YouTube

American Express’s branded YouTube channel reveals more about the weaving of social into their marketing strategy.

Firstly they have created videos that are made for social networks and traditional media like television.

The success and social proof evidence is shown by the sizable number of views (nearly 18 million).

Social media networks are not just about being serious but having some fun because at the end of the day they are “social” and “human” networks, they just happen to be online rather than offline!

The YouTube channel is about entertainment and lifestyle not just about a corporate message.

THey also make it easy to click through to your social network of choice by having them obvious and linked in the YouTube home page.

Foursquare

American Express are using the location based technologies of the social game Foursquare to provide incentives for merchants and customers to use the American Express card to obtain savings when they visit participating merchants and use their AMEX credit card . It uses the Foursquare mobile app to power this marketing campaign.

This strategy is also about creating crowd sourced conversations and stories on this social network of 15 million users.

By actively participating on Foursquare AMEX have built a sizeable network of over 65, 000 followers that leverages their brand. Size does matter and should be a priority in your social media marketing strategy.

What About You?

Are you integrating your social networks into the marketing DNA of your brand and business? What social networks work for you with your customers and prospects?

Look forward to hearing your experiences and stories

More Reading

• 5 Lessons from Coca Colas New Content Marketing Strategy
• 10 Reasons why Liquid Content Should be Included in your Social Media Marketing
• How To Take Your Company’s Facebook Fan Page from Zero to 40,000 Fans
• The Top 10 Brands on Facebook and What You Can Learn from them to Grow your Fans [Plus Infographic]
• Starbucks And The 4 Keys To Social Media Engagement
• The World’s 10 Most Popular Company Facebook Pages

10 Top Trends in Social Media

I visited Italy recently and as we know the Italians are a very stylish bunch. They seem to know what fashion is really about.

They can wear a scarf with fabulous flair, choose the cool hat that sets off the outfit or select a pair of sexy shoes that make them look like a fashion model and that is just the men!

The Italians have taken “style” to a level that the rest of the world can only aspire to.

Trends in Shoes

Now on the topic of shoes it appears that there is a trend that if it doesn’t stop very soon, it is going to lead to many injuries and even possible death as fashionista women fall from great heights after stumbling in their 30 centimeter high heels!

This will lend a whole new meaning to the term “Fashion Tragics“.

I have to admit though that the shoes in the windows of the fashion brand stores of Rome and Florence were not just fashion items but objects of style, art and creativity. Just not very comfortable or sensible to wear but who said that fashion should be sensible.

The Trends in Social Media

My trip to Italy was not just for looking at shoes but to provide four keynote presentations to the BE-Wizard web conference.

One of these topics was on the “Top 10 Trends in Social  Media” and how business can adapt and use these trends to their commercial advantage.

Social media that was initially seen as a fad 2-3 years ago is now firmly embedded in the fabric of the web and is impacting how business markets, communicates and publishes.

Trend #1  Social Mobile

The first trend we looked at was the the rise of the social mobile. The synergy of mobile and social networks is combining to make us addicted to our socially networked enabled smart phones that allow us to view our Facebook or Twitter account anywhere at anytime.

The numbers

• Current research puts the number of mobiles at north of 5.5 billion devices
• 1,2 billion have internet connected phones (smart phones)
• 425 million users use their mobile to check in to Facebook
• 55% of Twitter traffic is from the mobile
• 400 million YouTube views are from mobile devices

The implications

• Huge growth potential
• Create content for mobile devices
• Design and develop websites and blogs for mobile viewing
• Make it easy for viewers to act on that mobile content in a social manner (sharing)

In essence make it easy for people to buy and share your products and services from your mobile phones.

(Click here or on the image to view to view all  ” Top 10 Social Media Trends” on Slideshare)

Trend #2 Socialization of Search

Google has realized that social networks are here to stay and consequently invested over half a billion dollars in designing and developing Google+ which they launched in June of 2011.

They have realized that in the battle to stay relevant, social networks need to be prioritized when producing search results.

Google considers social as “core” to its strategy and is using the capture of social signals when delivering information from search engines. Consequently you will see the top social networks appearing high in search results pages.

Also it is embedding Google+ into all its web properties including YouTube and Picassa.

Hence the introduction of the “+1″ button in 2011.

The implications

• Create accounts on relevant social media
• Create content for social networks
• Publish and promote on social media
• Treat Facebook as an extension of website
• Optimize social networks for “Search”
• Place Your Media “Everywhere”

If you want to see the other eight trends they can be viewed on the Slideshare presentation.

What About You?

What other social media trends do you think are important?

How can you adapt your business to take advantage of these shifts in communication and marketing?

Look forward to hearing your views and stories.

More Reading

• Why Design Matters
• 5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s New Content Marketing Strategy
• 10 Reasons Why “Liquid” Content Should be Included in Your Social Media Marketing
• What are 10 Addictive Types of Content?
• How to Increase Your Blog Traffic by 55% with One Button
• 5 Motivations for Sharing Content
• 20 Ideas for Social Media Content that Engages
• Is it Better to Share on Google+, Facebook or Twitter
• 9 Questions to Ask your Customers When Creating Content

Image by Jeff Bullas in Rome, Italy

48 Significant Social Media Facts, Figures and Statistics Plus 7 Infographics

I came across some interesting statistics that has me quite concerned about the dental hygiene levels on this planet.

Apparently there are 600 million more people that own a mobile phone compared to those who own a toothbrush.

Some research reveals that there are 4.8 billion mobile users but only 4.2 billion people with a toothbrush.

Does that mean that every mobile should be sold with a free toothbrush or should you need to produce your toothbrush before you are given possession of your new mobile phone to ensure that future personal close encounters are engaging and pleasant?

Another interpretation of those statistic is that toothbrushes are too expensive.

The Importance of Statistics

Statistics are used to make important decisions and social media statistics, facts and figures are often used to justify new media marketing strategies and tactics to the CEO.

The social media landscape changes rapidly and keeping up with the latest numbers is an essential part of continuing to make your marketing relevant and focused.

Here are the latest facts, figures and statistics for seven major social networks that marketers need to take notice of.

I have also embedded an infographic for each social media network.

Facebook

Facebook continues to innovate and evolve and the the last 12 months have seen the new timeline introduced to personal profiles and brand pages as well as the purchase of Instagram, the  mobile photo app platform, which has never made any money and has only 13 employees for a generous price of $1 billion.

This underlines two key elements that  emerging as pivotal to the continuing evolution of the social web.

1. Mobile
2. Visual engagement

These two factors will continue to wield sizable impact and disruption to social networks and business marketing.

So what other numbers are important to take notice of when it comes to Facebook?

Some more Facebook Facts and Figures

• Monthly active users now total nearly 850 million
• 250 million photos are uploaded every day
• 20% of all page views on the web are on Facebook
• 425 million mobile users
• 100 billion connections
• Zygna’s games revenue is currently 12% of Facebook’s total income
• 2.7 billion “likes” per day
• 57% of users are female

Source: InfographicLabs.com

Twitter

Twitter is still the enigma of the social networking fraternity with its usefulness questioned by a lot of people. Its simplicity is still its main attraction along with its immediacy in breaking  news about the latest  ”events”.

Research shows that the main reason people retweet is due to interesting content.

As it approaches its sixth birthday its revenue is slowly climbing with projections that in 2012 its income will  hit $260 million.

Some facts and figures to note about Twitter are:

• There are over 465 million accounts
• 175 million tweets a day
• 1 million accounts are added to Twitter every day
• Top 3 countries on Twitter are USA at 107 million, Brazil 33 million and Japan at nearly 30 million
• Busiest event in Twitter’s history is now “Castle in the Sky” TV screening 25,088 tweets per second (previous record was the last minutes of the 2012 Superbowl with 10,245 tweets per second).

Source: Infographic labs

LinkedIn

LinkedIn started in 2003 as a professional business social network and as of  February 2012, has over 150 million members according to the official press release from LinkedIn.

More facts and figures:

• 2 new members join every second
• USA leads membership at more than 57 million, Europe has more than 34 million members
• 60% of its members live outside the USA
• In 2011 there were 4.2 billion professionally oriented searches on the LinkedIn platform
• LinkedIn now has over 2,116 employees (at the beginning of 2010 it had only 500)
• The fastest growing demographics are students and recent college graduates
• Revenues for 2011 reached $522 million
• LinkedIn is the 36th most visited website in the world

Source: Infographic Labs

YouTube

Communication and engagement is much more than talking or writing and the popularity of  YouTube is evidence of that. The availability of cost effective high speed internet access is making it easy for people to express themselves via video. Brands have seized on its power to be a viral media that augments traditional advertising media such as TV. YouTube’s advantage is it is always available and searchable. (it is the worlds second largest search engine after Google.

This capability has been displayed by the success of the Old Spice  marketing campaign amongst many others.

Some facts and figures:

• 3rd most visited website according to Alexa
• 2 billion views per day
• It handles 10% of the internet’s traffic
• Average YouTube user spends 900 seconds per day
• 44% of YouTube’s users are aged between 12 and 34
• Over 829,000 videos are uploaded every day
• Average video duration is 2 minutes 46 seconds

Source: Speakymagazine.com

Instagram

Instagram on the surface appears very simple. It is an app for your mobile phone that allows you to take a photo, apply a filter to make it look awesome and then you can share it on Twitter, Facebook or to your email straight from the phone.

The headline about this social network was its acquisition for $1 billion by Facebook. This was despite the fact that it hadn’t made a dollar of profit. Despite this sizable investment  it could be a very strategic and savvy move by Facebook that confirms its crown as the top photo site in the world. It also reminds me of Google’s purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006 which proved to be a great decision in hindsight.

Instagram Facts and Figures

• Founded in March 2010 with the initial name of “Burbn” by Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger with the $500,000 in seed funding. It was launched in the Apple “app” store in November of 2010. In February of 2011 they raised an additional $7 million including an investor called Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame.
• Instagram reached the milestone of 1 million users in December 2010 (only 9 months after being founded and only 1 month after going live in the Apple “app” store)
• In August 2011 Instagram users had uploaded 150 million photos
• 10 million users were using the app by September 2011
• Version 2.0 released including high resolution photo capability
• The release of the Android app version saw 1 million downloads in 1 day!
• April 2012, Instagram reaches the new milestone of 30 million users

Source: Visual.ly

Pinterest

It appears that simple ideas are sometimes the best.

Twitter is a minimalist 14o character social network, Instagram is a simple social sharing photo sharing app and Pintrest is about pinning images and videos that you like to an online pin board.

Maybe it is evidence of a cry for simplicity and efficiency in a time poor society.

Pinterest was established in December 2009 and launched as a closed beta in March 2010. It is barely 2 years old.

It wasn’t until the beginning of 2011 that it reached 10,000 users. Its breakthrough moment appears to be the inclusion in Time magazine’s “50 Best Websites of 2011”

Some more Pinterest Facts and Figures

• December of 2011 Pinterest became one of the top 10 largest social networks with 11 million visits per week
• In January it was driving more referral traffic traffic to retailers than LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+
• Over 10.4 million registered users
• Nearly 12 million monthly unique vistors
• Most of the sites users are female
• 97% of the site’s Facebook “likes” are by females
• It is the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark

Source: Sandbox

Google+

It is expected that Google’s new social network Google+ will hit 400 million users by the end of 2012. It needs to be kept in mind that Google+ is more about being “core” to Google’s social web strategy as it aims to embed social signals into its whole web and search strategy as it aims to continue to be relevant in an increasingly social and mobile web.

Google makes it mandatory to join Google+ when you register for a Gmail account which really amounts to it being a forced membership. This non organic strategy means that its engagement levels are extremely low at 3 minutes per month compared to Facebook at 405 minutes, in fact they are less than MySpace.

It must be also kept in mind that Google+ is the glue that connects Google’s other social and web properties such as YouTube, Android and of course search.

Some Google+ Facts and Figures

• It was launched on June 28, 2011
• Google+ reached 10 million users by July 14, 2011
• 67% of Google+ users are male
• Google “+1″ button is served more than 5 billion times daily
• It is gaining 625,000 users per day
• In less than one day the Google+ iPhone app became the most popular free application in the Apple App store

Source: Website Monitoring.com

More Reading:

• 20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic
• 30 Terrific Twitter Facts and Figures
• 50 Awesome YouTube Facts and Figures
• 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google

Image by socialmediahq

How to Win in a Digital Economy

I suppose I would describe myself as a product of the digital age. One of my first jobs was working for the first Australian personal computer company in 1985 that sold the first IBM personal computer.

In the late 1980’s I remember installing and using my brand new mobile and chatting to my grandfather (who was brought up in an age of milk being delivered by horse and cart).

Ten years later I remember firing up my PC and connecting to the internet with a very slow modem and hooked into the web using one of the first search engines “Alta Vista”

It was about another decade later that I registered on Facebook for the first time and connected to people I had gone through college with, some looking considerably grayer and others with a lot less hair.

These technologies are now intersecting with high impact in an increasingly digital economy.

The Age of Disruption

There are technologies and events that are disrupting our world.

Nassim Taleb in his book “Fooled by Randomness”  gave the title to these events, “Black Swan Events” .

The black swan was a mythological creature that was not thought to exist but this bird was in fact discovered in the 1600′s by the Dutch when they landed in Western Australia.

What are Black Swan Events?

Three attributes define  Black Swan events.

• They are unexpected
• They have major impact
• In hindsight it was predictable

Examples of Black Swan events include: Einstein’s theory of relativity, the invention of penicillin and the September 11 attacks.

Black Swan Digital Events

In the digital world four major events (technologies) are disrupting business and how we communicate.

1. The invention of the personal computer
2. The Internet and world wide web
3. Social networks
4. Internet connected smart phone

The intersection of these technologies is creating a tidal wave of change that threatens “business as usual”

The question an entrepreneur or a CEO has to ask is “What are these challenges and how can we innovate and adapt to take advantage of these events?”

The Challenges of  the Digital Economy

To win in a digital world there are many challenges to overcome.

This presentation was the keynote at Turkish Time magazine’s 10th anniversary event  in Istanbul, Turkey and provides a visual journey of “How to Win in a Digital Economy“.

[Click on the image below to view the presentation on Slideshare]

Challenge One: Humans Change Slowly

We have a fast changing world but the challenge is that humans are slow to change and our thinking and habits are still trapped in traditional habitual thinking and customs. A lot of senior managers are still acting as if we are still living in an industrial and traditional mass media economy.

The pace of change is accelerating.

To reach 50 million users

• Radio took 38 years
• TV took 13 years
• Internet took 4 years
• iPod took 3 years

Facebook added over 200 million users in less than 12 months!

The pace of this change is creating fear for executives that  were not educated or familiar in this new digital economy

Challenge Two: We Think Local not Global

You competitor is no longer in your local district, city or country. International couriers and modern logistics enable products to be flown around the world in 24 hours. Online stores in the UK, USA or Europe are now your competitors.

The opportunities to expand your market to the world is now possible with the new online media which includes social networks, online banner ads and search engine optimization.

Challenge Three: It is Disruptive

Who would have thought 10 years ago that Kodak would be in bankruptcy and Apple would turn the music industry, the publishing industry and the phone market on their heads

Challenge Four: It is a Noisy and Crowded Web

In a digital universe of 500 million plus websites, 150 million blogs and 200 billion display ads every 90 days, the challenge for any business is to cut through all the clutter and noise.

In just one day we create

• 1.5 billion pieces of content
• Tweet 200 million times
• Post 2 million new videos online

So how do we change our thinking, adapt, be found online and  play to win in a digital and increasingly global economy?

Step One: Build your Digital Assets

We need to establish and optimize our online assets.

What are Digital Assets?

Any online web properties that you have your name and brand on.

• Website
• Blog
• Online Store
• Social Networks
• Mobile apps

In the past having a website was considered enough but the game has changed! You need to be everywhere and on a variety of digital platforms.

Websites in the past were static and considered to be optional. In 2012 they are mandatory and need to be an integral part of a business and constantly updated and interactive.

A small business can look big on the web.

Digital Asset One: Website

They are your online digital front door and reception  that you own and control, more people visit your digital property than your physical reception or office.
So invest appropriately and treat it as important as your physical assets.
Building an online digital asset is not a zero sum game, the sooner you start  and optimise the further ahead of the competition you will be as you continue to create content that brings people back to your website and Google pushes you further up the rankings.
Websites should not be set and forget – it is an active environment that requires constant and persistent updating. It informs and educates while you sleep. This is something that a salesperson cannot do.

1. Business content website

1. E-Commerce website

There are 2 main types of websites.

1. Business Website

How do you go from a “Basic and Boring” online web presence to a “Stunning and Special” online brand?

It starts with a great design and that is not just how it looks!

Steve Jobs when interviewed by “Wired”magazine in 1997, said that “intuitive and usable design  goes much deeper than how it looks, it is how it works! –  you really need to to “Grok” it, this means to intuitively understand and to empathise with your users and your target audience.

A great website should have these attributes.

• Integrated to your companies systems and backend databse systems such as your CRM or email database.
• Designed and developed for search engines
• Calls to action to capture those important leads
• Socialised – built for sharing and subscribing to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+
• Have 2 way communication. Create an interactive blog as part of your website – It needs to move from static to interactive and allow comments and feedback. Provide a platform for engagement.
• Write and develop content that is addictive, liquid and linked
• Publish high impact images and multimedia that brings your viewers back and  compels them to share with their friends and colleagues

2.  E-Commerce Website
Online retail and e-Commerce is growing fast all around the world. It is challenging the traditional bricks and mortar stores.
Consideration must be given to making it easy for customers to buy your products at your physical store, your online store and other ecommerce distribution outlets such as Ebay. It is about Omni commerce, having your products everywhere. It is about making it easy for your customers to buy no matter where they are and no matter what digital device they are using, whether that is a mobile phone tablet or laptop

What are the key elements for a successful online store?

• Build it on a robust technology platform that you can easily update and control yourself. (CMS or Content management Systems, allow you to change your website without having to be a programmer)
• Intuitive design it so you don’t make people think
• Make it easy for people to check out – each page you make customers click through to you lose 15%.
• Create Trust – credibility through awards and obvious security features
• Offer a choice of widely accepted payment methods
• Provide discounts and incentives
• Personalize it – eg Amazon. Registering as a guest using Facebook connect  allows your visit to personalized
• Make it social – allow reviews and sharing

Digital Asset Two: Mobile Platforms

I don’t know about you, but if you walk the street, ride a bus or a train have a look at what people are doing. They are checking their smart phone or tablet. People commuting to work or watching TV at home are browsing on the mobile devices, checking their Facebook or even buying products from Ebay or an online store.

The growth of the social networks over the last few years has been matched by the mobile internet with smart phones sales approaching nearly 500 million units in 2011. The synergy that these 2 fast tracking trends provide is changing how we work and play.

So what are some mobile statistics worth noting?

• The smart phone sales were up over 63% in 2011 from 2010 (488.5 million)
• 5.9 billion people now use mobile phones globally
• Over 500,000 apps have been developed in the past 3 years and downloaded more than 10.9 Billion times
• 77% use mobile phones for search
• Social networking accounted for 50% of all page views on mobile phones in 2011
• Facebook mobile users quadrupled in 2 years from 50 million to 200 million•
• There are 200 million mobile video playbacks from YouTube every day
• There are 1.2 billion internet connected smart phones
• In the US, 50% of the population with a phone now has an internet connected smart phone

The upside for mobile commerce and smart phone growth is enormous as all mobile phones will eventually become internet connected. On current numbers that means that 4.7 billion smart phones are yet to  be sold and connected!

So how do you plan for this increasingly mobile web?

• Accept the fact that the world is going “Mobile”
• Build a mobile optimized website
• Build mobile apps that make it easy to buy from a mobile device from your online store

Is your business ready for the mobile web?

Digital Asset Three: Social Networks

As we mentioned earlier having just a website is not enough in a digital economy. You need to have your brand and digital assets in as many places as time and resources allows.

Secure your brand on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and LinkedIn. If you are a professional services company then you must also be on LinkedIn and Slideshare as a minimum.

Design and brand these networks to ensure that they are congruent with your brand image on your website and blogs.

So are you Done?

You have created a great website, built an online store, optimized your websites for mobile platforms, built a mobile app, secured and branded your social networks.

They look great! So sit back and wait for customers and prospects to find you and the money to roll in?

You are not done…Your work has only begun!

You need to be “found” and attract traffic so you can convert those leads and sell your products and services.

Step Two: Marketing your Digital Assets to Win

There are two core elements that are your foundation for your digital marketing.

1. Create a Digital Marketing Strategy.

This starts with a strategic approach not just tactics. A top level strategy includes the following steps .

• Create a clear vision
• Know who your audience is
• Know what your goals are
• Create tactics to achieve those goals
• Persist and be patient

2. Develop and Publish Multi-Media Content

It also requires the foundation of creating liquid and linked content that is published everywhere and in a variety of media formats such as articles, images and videos.

We all consume information differently so provide content in a variety of multimedia formats that communicates to as many people as possible. It is about spreading your brand and being found everywhere. – be ubiquitous!

After creating your strategy and starting to build your content library you then need to commence your multi-channel marketing.

Channel One: Search

Business often does not give enough priority to being found by search engines. Here are some top level facts that display the importance of optimizing for search

Some Facts

• Up to 90% of purchasing decisions start with an online search
• Organic online clicks account for 75% of all clicks to websites
• 25% of all clicks are paid eg. Google Adwords.

How important is it to be at the top of Google’s search results?

• Ranking first on Google gets over 40% of all clicks
• Ranking second receives just over 11% – coming second has distinct disadvantage as you only obtain ¼ of all clicks compared to first ranking.
• 90% of all clicks occur on first page of search results

So if you are not on page one you will only receive a fraction of the remaining 10%.

2 Keys for Optimizing your Websites for Search Engines

There are two core activities  to optimize your website.

1. Onsite SEO – Designing and developing your website so that Google’s crawlers can find the keywords and phrases that people will  use to find you. This requires key words in the titles, descriptions, words and phrases that are included when you build, code and update your website
2. Off site SEO – Core activities here is “Link building” – this is where you get other websites to link to your website. The more important the website that links to you the greater value Google places on your website and pushes your site up the rankings.

Some Resources

10 Facts Reveal the Importance of ranking High in Google

Channel Two: Email Marketing

Don’t forget amongst the shiny toy syndrome of social media marketing the power and control of email marketing. Building and using an email database for communicating with your customers is a tool that you own and control.

Building an email database is an asset that is powerful and targeted.

Its importance is often underrated by marketing managers and business owners.

Tips

• Make it easy – Just ask for a name and email
• Provide incentives for prospects to opt-in to your email list – Eg A free ebook

Channel Three: Paid Online Marketing

Building a highly ranked website that Google can find takes time, patience and persistence. So paid online marketing can accelerate the process.

Provide a catalyst to your organic marketing and SEO activities that enables you to fast track your digital brand. It can be targeted and increasingly localized.

Examples of this type of marketing

• Google Adwords
• Facebook Ads
• Banner ads on websites where your customers hang out

These can create instant results. So if you are needing to fast track your brands online presence, obtain a marketing budget for paid digital advertising and accelerate the velocity of your marketing!

Channel Four: Social Media Marketing

This the biggest change to the web since the invention of the search engine.
It is democratizing marketing. It is putting marketing power in the hands of business people that has never occurred in the history of business marketing.

What are the Key Benefits of Social Media?

• It amplifies your content
• Makes you stand out from the crowd
• It puts your business networking on steroids
• Accelerates the spread of your brand through “Global word of mouth”
• It can position your company as a thought leader in its industry
• Your business can self publish
• Creates trust
• Improves search engine rankings

So what social networks should you market on?

The short answer. Where your audience is, whether that is Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or Slideshare or other social networks such as Pinterest or Instagram.

8 Keys to Success with Social Media Marketing

1. Treat your social networks as an extension of your websites
2. Build your networks – big numbers matter!
3. Optimise social networks for search
4. Engage with your audience
5. Publish multimedia content regularly
6. Create content for your audience that educates, informs, entertains and inspires
7. Share and subscribe buttons everywhere
8. Drive traffic to your website and “call to action” landing pages

Social media marketing is not a silver bullet but integrated with your traditional marketing it can accelerate the reach and velocity of your marketing.

It crowd sources and empowers your tribe and social network followers to create more conversations and stories about your brand than you could ever achieve.

Takeaways for Winning in a Digital Economy

• Build, optimize and maintain your online assets
• Market your online assets relentlessly, everywhere
• Don’t ignore the growth of mobile
• Optimize for search engines
• Don’t underestimate the value of email
• Create Multimedia “Liquid” content
• Publish and promote your content on social networks

What About You?

So is your business  and brand making the most of the new digital economy? How many digital assets do you own?

Is the content on your website compelling and contagious so that people want to share it with friends and colleagues.

Are you making it easy for Google to find you or have you forgotten to optimize your website, digital assets and social networks for search engines?

Is email marketing in your  mix or have you left it on the shelf ?

Are you taking advantage of the leverage of  social media to break through the clutter and noise of 500 million websites and 200 billion display ads.

Look forward to hearing your stories.

More Reading

• Why Design Matters
• 5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s New Content Marketing Strategy
• 10 Reasons Why “Liquid” Content Should be Included in Your Social Media Marketing
• What are 10 Addictive Types of Content?
• How to Increase Your Blog Traffic by 55% with One Button
• 5 Motivations for Sharing Content
• 20 Ideas for Social Media Content that Engages
• Is it Better to Share on Google+, Facebook or Twitter
• 9 Questions to Ask your Customers When Creating Content

Image by DrChino

Your Social Media Success Toolkit: 10 Must-Have Resources

“A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.” ~Robert Hughes

Hughes is right on the money. Sometimes I feel like we rely too heavily on tools and technologies to do the work for us, when the real truth about social media is that it’s not a media. It’s a human relationship. Like love, it takes time, passion, consistency and effort. That said, there are some standout tools that will allow you to get the most out of social media—while simplifying your life!

In our quest to provide the very best service to our clients, our agency has spent countless hours trying and testing every conceivable social media tool and technology. There are the good, the bad, the ugly and, well, the downright heinous! Here are 10 of the most effective (and cost-effective) tools and resources we’ve discovered:

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is at the top of the social engagement dashboards. The accompanying mobile app allows you to monitor social media from your phone, which you must do, since social media never sleeps. You need to know what people are saying, seven days a week, so that you can put out fires before they grow. Cost: Their Basic plan is free, yet ad supported. It includes 5 social profiles. Their Pro plan is just $5.99 with enhanced social analytics, unlimited social profiles, Google Analytics integration and more.

2. Klout

The current gold standard for measuring online influence. If you want to know if someone truly has influence, Klout ‘em. Keep your eye not so much on their overall Klout score, but on their “Net- work Influence” score. This is the influence of one’s engaged audience, in other words, how influential their audience is and how much they actually listen to them. That’s a “metric that matters!” Cost: Free

3. Tweetreach

Remember: followers don’t matter as much as “reach,” which takes into account how engaged and influential your followers are. The Tweetreach tool allows you to calculate that reach in seconds. Cost: Free. “Tweetreach Pro” has a variety of plans ranging from $84/month to $899/month, based on number of reports and users.

4. Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights provides a wealth of information about your Facebook community: everything from post quality to the demo- graphic information of your active fans (sorry, “likes”). Very robust. Cost: Free.

5. Chartbeat

I cannot say enough good things about this tool. It’s a real-time dashboard that gives insights into how your website and online presence are driving your key business objectives. Cost for ChartBeat: $9 to $149 based on the size of your website.

6. YouTube Insight

It’s hard to believe that these analytics are free. Just 10 years ago, you’d pay thousands of dollars a month to get this information. Learn who is watching your videos, where they live, how old they are, even how long they watch each video with YouTube Insight!

7. Postling

“Get smarter, faster and better at social media in 5 minutes a day.” Compelling value proposition—and one on which Postling delivers. For small businesses that are strapped for time, this tool offers a one-stop place for staying in contact with your customers and staying on top of what people are saying about your business. Cost: Free trial that moves to $1/month per social media account after 30 days. You’ll pay $1 to save up to 10 hours a month.

8. Google Keyword Tool

If online marketing is important to driving your business, it is absolutely critical to understand how to use this tool. You simply enter trial keywords or a website name, and the Google Keyword Tool returns a list of related search counts and advertiser competition. For example, if you own a real estate company in San Francisco, you might type in “San Francisco real estate.” As of today, there are 74,000 people entering that keyword string into Google—every month! Is your real estate company figuring into those results? You’d better be! Cost: Free

9. PitchEngine

The “Social Media Release” is Press Release 2.0. It starts with the text release and adds multimedia content (photos, logos, videos and links) to allow people and journalists to share con- tent in their preferred way. PitchEngine makes is easy, efficient and cost-effective.

10. Manymoon

Our agency has used a variety of online collaboration tools, but none are as simple and easy to use as Manymoon. And the price is right; currently, it’s free!

I just finished the Ironman Triathlon World Championships on Saturday. Since I’m in that mode, I’ll draw an athletic analogy here.

My coach always says: “It’s not the amount of hours you put in; it’s what you put into those hours.”

Same applies to social media. Apply yourself to social media more effectively and efficiently. I truly hope these tools and resources help you!

How About You?

What tools do you use? What works for you?

What is your favourite tool? Look forward to hearing your stories

Guest Author: Eric Harr is the Founder & President of Resonate Social Media, a leading, integrated social media agency in San Francisco. He is an award-winning TV host on CBS News and the best-selling author of the new book “The REAL TRUTH About Social Media: 8 Timeless Truths Uncovered & 8 Monumental Myths Revealed” available now in ebook or print edition.

8 Great Twitter Tools That Will Get You Tweeting Like A Pro

How to Get Targeted Twitter Followers

The Marketing Secret About Twitter that Most People Don’t Know

How To Write A Mind Blowing Headline For Twitter So People Will Read Your Blog

30 Terrific Twitter Facts and Figures

Do Shared Links Last Longer on Twitter or Facebook

How to Increase Your Blog Traffic by 55% with One Button

Is it Better to Share on Google, Facebook or Twitter?

Image by SFDenverLV

How to Make Money with Content Marketing

There’s been a lot of buzz this year around content marketing but no one is really talking about how to directly make money from a campaign.

If you want to generate revenue, it’s important to understand how information spreads on the internet. StumbleUpon and BuzzFeed recently teamed up to figure this out.

How to Shield Your Brand’s Social Reputation

Mom taught me not to care about what others think. She also said that sticks and stones could break my bones, but a bad name… Well, that could never hurt me.

As it turns out, mom was wrong.

Entire product lines have been wiped out. Vacation destinations and hotels have been left with only the sound  of crickets, simply because a group of customers rallied together and called them a bad name. According to eMarketer, consumers trust other consumer reviews nearly 12 times more than do the manufacturers own celebrity pitches and technical jargon. A company’s worst nightmare is for a customer to say, “your product sucks, and I’m going to tell.”

If it concerns your customer, it should concern you. This is a tough lesson to overcome for those of us who still look up to mom’s advice. The simple truth is that your brand… your reputation… Is on the line each and every time a customer walks away unhappy.

It’s not only the negative reviews that can hurt your reputation. Unanswered questions can be just as bad. According to New York University, as many as 90 percent of your customers will be less likely to buy from you if you leave unanswered queries on your blog or website. Rather than talk about how great your brand is; show your customer how important they are, and how significant it is that they be a part of it.

There are three ways to accomplish this.

3 Tips on Shielding Your Online Reputation

1. Monitor Your Brand

You wouldn’t leave a five-year-old in a swimming pool unattended, and in today’s social marketing platform, you shouldn’t leave your image without keeping an eye on what is being said about it, both good and bad. Remember, a poor review is always only one Tweet away, and 40 percent of these come from mobile devices.

2. Quick Response

When a customer is unsatisfied with your service, you still have a chance to turn things around. In fact, you can make a negative situation into a positive, just by taking the necessary effort to make sure that each customer complaint is handled promptly. 90 percent of disgruntled customers will stay with a company, so long as their complaint is resolved promptly. Even more amazing, 50 percent will become an advocate of your brand.

3. Personal Attention

The automated service center has devastated consumers by de-humanizing their problems into pressing numbers on their telephone until they become so frustrated they just hang up. Today’s consumer wants you to speak to them in their language. They want to know you care.

You only get one shot at your brand’s reputation… Make it count! And don’t be reactionary it a time of crisis, build equity through a proactive approach to fortify your reputation, or it can easily be toppled. You know what they say about first impressions, and its amplified online.

Guest Author: Mark Nicholson is the founder of reactorr, an online branding/search and social marketing consultancy where his blog about online branding reputation management and social media lives. He can be found on Twitter @markjnicholson .

More Reading and Viewing

• Is Social Media a Serious Threat to Your Privacy? – Infographic
• Online Reputation and Influence – How to Create, Grow and Maintain Influence on a Digital Social Web (Slideshare Presentation)
• 10 Types of Social Proof to Turbo Charge Your Blog, Business and Brand
• How to Create Credibility and Trust on Twitter
• 7 Ways to Protect Your Brand’s Online Reputation

Image by Pryere

5 Ways to Turn Facebook Likes into Marketing Results

More often than not, Facebook marketing is a numbers game and the goal is to get as many “Likes” as possible.  It’s human nature.  We always want more, and the same certainly applies to social media marketing.

However, the true value of social media is not about how many fans and followers you have—it’s about what you do with them.  Many tend to forget the “marketing” in social media marketing and think social media success is just about posting content and getting as many Likes as possible.  It’s not.

Marketers today need to go beyond just getting Likes and create real engagement opportunities that keep their business top of mind with their loyal customers and make it really easy for them to share with their networks and friends.  While an increased number of Likes leads to a bigger audience for you to market to on Facebook, it’s only the first step in deriving real value from your investment in social media marketing.

The following are five things you can do to help turn Likes into real results on Facebook.

1. Create a compelling offer

This may sound like a no-brainer, yet all too often campaigns miss the mark because they’re not aligned with the interests of customers. Before you send out that offer, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask yourself if you would act on it. If you find that it’s more skewed to benefiting your business as opposed to providing a real benefit to your customer, you may need to rethink the parameters of the offer. If an offer is designed with the customer in mind, they’re more likely to respond and tell their friends about it.

2. Build a full campaign plan

The most successful campaigns on Facebook span a two-to-three week period. During this time, there is a cadence that flows around publishing, promoting and driving action. Before you go live, consider how you’re going to sustain the momentum during those weeks and continue to drive traffic to your Facebook page. This includes all the ways you connect with your target audience online and offline including your email list, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, Google+ circles and even in person.

3. Promote your offer across all of your communications channels

There’s no single method for promoting your campaign that guarantees results, so you’ll want to reach your audience where they’re most active and likely to engage—and in today’s world, that’s everywhere (look at all the options in #2 alone!). This can be in your email newsletters, other social media channels, your blog, or even in-person at an upcoming tradeshow. While the core of the offer will remain the same, don’t forget that the way you communicate needs to reflect the medium you’re using. For example, the 140 characters you use on Twitter are going to be different than your Facebook status update. When you tailor your messages, customers are more likely to respond, especially when they realize there’s an actual human behind it as opposed to an automated message feed.

4. Encourage fans to keep in touch

Getting fans to maintain contact after a campaign has ended is what sets great marketers apart from everyone else.  While you have their attention during a campaign, ask fans to join your email list or follow you on Twitter, for example, so you can keep in touch, keep a two-way conversation going, and begin building a long-term relationship.

5. Repeat successful results, not campaigns

You won’t want to do the same thing every time, but you will want to keep engaging your audience and encouraging them to share. You can do this by presenting new offers every month. These could be special deals for fans or exclusive content, for example. By mixing it up each time, you’ll increase responses while making campaigns more engaging.

Guest Author: Mark Schmulen is the general manager of social media at Constant Contact and the co-founder of NutshellMail.  He can be found on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mschmulen.

More Reading

• 6 Fantastic Facebook Marketing Infographics
• Do Shared Links Last Longer on Twitter or Facebook
• What 3 Content Types Drive the Most Interaction on Facebook
• How to Increase Your Blog Traffic by 55% with One Button
• 5 Motivations for Sharing Content
• 20 Ideas for Social Media Content that Engages
• Is it Better to Share on Google, Facebook or Twitter?
• 9 Questions to Ask your Customers When Creating Content

Image by Eveline314

« Previous Page — Next Page »