Are Social Gaming And Real World Commerce About To Marry?
You have to hand it to the companies that create these applications for Facebook where you can play games, send gifts and enjoy the company of friends in far away places right across your Internet connection. Zynga is one of those companies that has truly made a name for itself in social gaming.
Virtual gifts through these gaming applications has really caught on. But what if you could send real world gifts through these games, would you? If you could make real world purchases through social games, would you do that?
32% of social gamers said they would.
I don’t know about you, but I think that’s enough of a market that social gaming creators could introduce the opportunities and see what happens. Here’s a quick example of numbers:
Let’s say your social gaming application has 100,000 users. If you create an opportunity for them to make a real world purchase through the game and 32,000 of them do so within the first year. If you make just $1 profit off of each of those gamers then that’s a nice increase in your bottom line. Grow your application by 10%-15% per year and in just a few years you’ll have a pretty nice income from one real world purchase opportunity. Diversify and, well, you know ….
What’s your take? Do you think social gaming and real world commerce have a chance? Is this the new wave of social media optimization?
Social Media: Monitoring Vs. Measurement
Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgrim asks, Would you search for social media monitoring or social media measurement? It’s a good question and it must be pointed out that the two are distinctly different. However, I wouldn’t say either is more important than the other.
His Twitter audience overwhelmingly favored monitoring. Some of the responses were quite interesting:
@schachin monitoring… social sounds like it needs monitoring not measurement like ROI or CTR
Point well taken, but I think social media needs both.
@tonicarr I think I would be more apt to search “social media analytics”, then I would vote for your “social media measurement”
Here’s another point well taken, but not everyone knows to search for a term like “analytics”. But that’s essentially what the term “measurement” implies.
@SurjGish Depends, monitoring & measurement are 2 different things
Let’s see, where have I heard that before? ;-)
@1000cigarettes would depend on my intentions. measurement if i were looking for my own results, monitoring if looking to see cumulative mentions
This is perhaps the most revealing of all the responses. If I was looking for ways to measure and analyze data acquired from social media then I’d search for “social media measurement”. But if I was looking for ways to monitor mentions of my company brand then “social media monitoring” would be the more appropriate phrase.
@jimmyrey Social Media Monitoring is what I search for when looking for people who want to buy it
I’m not sure why you’d search for that term when looking for people to buy, but it’s an interesting response.
@chriskovac I’d search for “”social media monitoring” — “measurement” seems to vague, especially to people that are just now experimenting
Social media measurement is a rather vague term. If you don’t know what it means or you aren’t sure what it might mean then you likely would not search for it.
@EvanKRob social media monitoring. Seems to project a proactive philosophy where measurement suggests reactive.
Here’s another very telling response. I’m not sure that “social media measurement” is reactive. It depends on whether you intend to act on the data you collect.
@KidQuick my vote goes to social media monitoring. But, my 1st search query on that topic would be something else “social media analytics”
Another interesting response that favors “analytics” over either of the other two terms.
Personally, I think which search term you’d use depends on your knowledge and experience of social media marketing in particular and Internet marketing in general. If you’re familiar with the terms then you’d likely search for the term that is most appropriate to your needs. If you’re only familiar with one of the terms then you’d like search for that one. I doubt that anyone would search for any of the terms unless they’d heard them before somewhere.
But Andy Beal’s point shouldn’t be missed. What’s important when marketing to search engines is what people will search for. You may provide social media analytics, but if more people will search for social media monitoring then you should probably include that in your keyword list and target the phrase.
Are You Ready For Location-Based Networking?
Location-based networking, using your cell phone to notify others of your current location so that they meet up with you (for God knows what), is beginning to take off. This is a spin off of the Twitter and Facebook geographic networking phenomenon. So what’s the difference?
With geographic networking you are networking with others in the same city or area. For instance, Facebook has local groups you can join that are based on the city in which you live. It’s one way to use Facebook and has worked well for many small businesses. Twitter, too, has been used for geographic networking.
Location-based networking takes this concept one step further. You can narrow your location down to a specific point within your city and let others know where you are right now. You can then hook up, make a connection, hang out, or whatever it is you choose to do based on your networking. So what’s the benefit?
Actually, there are a number of benefits. If you’ve been following someone on Twitter and you know they are in the same city as you then you find them on Foursquare, one of the many location-based social networking sites to emerge, and you see that they are just around the corner from you having lunch, you could send them a quick message, “Mind if I join you?” Your networking then has just taken on a new dimension. You’ve met in person.
Of course, this can happen in other ways as well. Meetup groups allow local Twitterers to connect in a similar fashion, but usually as a group. With Foursquare you can hook up with a contact one on one. It might mean the difference between closing that sale and letting one slip through.
ChannelWeb lists eight other location-based social networking sites (besides Foursquare). While the idea hasn’t exactly caught on yet, it’s just a matter of time before it does. Are you poised to be there?
Try these eight location-based networks and see what happens.
- Brightkite
- Citysense
- GyPSii
- MobiLuck
- Loopt
- Plazes
- Whrrl
- iPling
And, of course, don’t forget about Foursquare. Take your local social networking one level deep.
17 Rules Of Social Media Optimization
Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a phrase that was coined by search pioneer Rohit Bhargava in 2006. Since then the term has grown and expanded and millions of people are now practicing this science (art?) every day. Many practitioners, I presume, may not even know where the term came from.
Rohit originally introduced 5 rules of social media optimization. Then someone added a 6th and 7th. Someone else came along and added rules 8 through 11. Another pioneer amended the list to include rules 12 and 13. Then there were rules 14, 15 and 16. Rohit rounded it out to include the 17th rule. And, of course, there have been many translations into languages other than English.
The purpose of this blog post is two-fold:
- To recognize the SMO pioneers who introduced and expanded this ever-evolving area of Internet marketing;
- To list all 17 rules in one place for easy reference.
With that in mind, here is the list of 17 rules of social media optimization and recognition of the person who introduced each rule to the growing conversation.
17 Rules Of Social Media Optimization
- Increase Your Linkability – In a sense, SMO is SEO. If you do it right then your content will be more linkable. Any inbound links you gain will increase your SEO advantage. (Rohit Bhargava)
- Make Tagging And Bookmarking Easy – This rule is so commonplace that many people do it without knowing they’re practicing SMO. (Rohit Bhargava)
- Reward Inbound Links - People who link to you are helping you out. It’s only right that you should reward them for their kindness. (Rohit Bhargava)
- Help Your Content Travel – Put it out there and watch it fly. (Rohit Bhargava)
- Encourage The Mashup – This one has been a bit controversial as there are still companies online who are stuck in the traditional mode of thinking about content ownership and copyright infringement. While those are legitimate concerns, a reasonable letting go of your content to allow it to evolve into something more powerful and with SEO and SMO benefits attached is a good thing. Don’t fight it. (Rohit Bhargava)
- Be A User Resource Even If It Doesn’t Help You – Providing unselfish value has a way of coming back to reward you. It’s the old “what goes around, comes around rule”. Or call it karma, if you wish. Either way, become a resource for others without regard to how it benefits you and you’ll see the benefits come back manifold. (Jeremiah Owyang)
- Reward Helpful And Valuable Users – If your site visitors take the time to interact with you and leave valuable comments and boost the community then show your appreciation by giving rewards. A simple “thank you” is often enough. (Jeremiah Owyang)
- Participate – Social media is not just about producing your own content. Interact with other people’s content as well. Be a contributor across multiple websites. (Cameron Olthuis)
- Know How To Target Your Audience – Instead of just throwing paint on the wall and seeing what sticks, interact with your audience in their hangouts. Otherwise, you’re wasting your own time. (Cameron Olthuis)
- Create Content - It may seem like a no-brainer, but if you don’t create then you can’t optimize. Social media is as much about creating content as it is about distributing it and it is just as much about creating content as SEO is. (Cameron Olthuis)
- Be Real – You can put on an act for only so long and when you are discovered your reputation is shot. Be genuine, be real. (Cameron Olthuis)
- Be Humble – Be respectful of others and don’t get a bighead. No one likes a self-congratulatory know it all. (Loren Baker)
- Try New Things – Just because there are rules doesn’t mean they should always be followed with no innovation. The rules are always changing anyway so embrace the change and try something new. (Loren Baker)
- Develop A Strategy – Don’t just wing it. Have a plan and stick to it. (Lee Odden)
- Choose Your SMO Tactics Wisely – Just because someone else is doing it doesn’t mean you should too. Not every tactic will work for every business. Analyze your strategy and choose the tactics that show the most promise for reaching your target audience. (Lee Odden)
- Make SMO A Part Of Your Every Day Process – Add it to your list of things to do each day. Make it a part of your best practices. (Lee Odden)
- Don’t Be Afraid To Let Go Of The Message – Back to Rohit Bhargava. If you have a great idea, let others own it. Let it go and develop on its own, just like Rohit Bhargava did with Social Media Optimization.
I hope these 17 rules of social media optimization are helpful to you. Social media is about three things really: 1) Creating Content, 2) Sharing Content, and 3) Distributing Content. It’s all about the content and what you can do with it.
Will Twitter Kill Your URL Shortener?
One thing that all of us who use Twitter will need to keep an eye on in the near future is whether or not the URL shortening service we are using on Twitter is going to survive Twitter’s growth. According to Website Magazine – August 2010 issue – Twitter will be rolling out its own URL shortener soon. If that happens, look out. We could see an epidemic of URL shortening services going under.
If that happens then there will be thousands of links from tweets to web pages that will be broken. You’ll either have to go back and change the URL shortening service for those tweets or just eat it. Of course, if that happens then Twitter could automatically default to its own URL shortener.
If you use the same URL shortening service for other social media sites that you use for Twitter and Twitter drives that service out of business then you’ll also lose the links from those other services. There likely will not be any default to fall back on at those services – depending on the service, of course.
One of the benefits to Twitter’s URL shortening service will be metrics. You’ll be able to see how many people are clicking the link, retweeting the link and interacting with it in other ways. It’s possible that this could be a paid service so not everyone will have access to the metrics. Possibly. Keep in mind that I don’t have inside information.
Still, if Twitter does go public with its own URL shortening service, you can expect the way we all tweet to change accordingly.
Don’t Mention Twitter On Facebook
Evidently, if you mention Twitter on Facebook then you’ll be ignored like the plague. That’s what HubSpot said today in a webinar.
By contrast, if you mention Facebook on Twitter then you’ll be retweeted. Mention Twitter on Twitter and you are more likely to be retweeted. Mention Facebook on Facebook and your status updates are likely to live on forever.
So does that mean you should start talking about Facebook more on your Facebook status updates? Not necessarily. If it isn’t relevant to you or your audience then don’t do it just because you think your updates will be shared. Instead, look for other words that your Facebook audience will seize upon and share with their friends.
One hint is the word “video”. If you use the word “video” in your status update on Facebook then your update is more likely to be shared by a huge percentage. On Twitter, less likely.
This just illustrates the differences between the audiences on these two social networks. Facebook has more of a mainstream audience whereas Twitter has more of a tech-oriented audience.
When it comes to social media optimization, the key is to know your audience – and to know the network.
SMO Begins With Metrics
Metrics are one of the most important aspects to doing business online. If you don’t measure your results then you can’t analyze them or change them. That’s why it is important to measure what you are doing and how it is helping (or hurting) you. This is true in social media as well as search.
One of the things that you want to measure in your social media strategy is your authority ranking. How do you stack up against your competition and how does the social marketplace perceive your brand?
Social media metrics is not about how many followers you can attract. It’s really about how influential you are and how influential your connections are. Here’s what I mean:
Most celebrities who start a Twitter account amass a large number of followers and many of them do it quickly. That doesn’t do much for their social media authority since most of their followers are Twitter users with low authority. That is, those users don’t follow to many other users nor do they have many followers themselves. Likewise, they don’t do much retweeting or posting of updates, which lowers their social authority.
In business, you want to attract followers who are engaging an audience themselves. You don’t want a large number of followers who are just there to listen. You want followers who are engaged. Why? Because they are more likely to retweet your updates and engage in conversation with you as well as about you with their followers.
When you start engaging in social media, pay attention to the authority of your followers. They will lead to increasing your own authority.
How Important Is Measuring Twitter ROI?
One of the more difficult kind of campaigns to measure the ROI for is a social media campaign. Twitter can be included in that.
One of the things that makes Twitter so difficult for measuring ROI is that there is not analytics program that integrates with Twitter for that purpose. At least, there hasn’t been. Not until now.
Twitter has acquired an analytics company, which should make a lot of social media marketers happy. But until Twitter announces that analytics is available for businesses that want to measure their marketing results, we can’t say how effective it is. It may be something that businesses will have to pay for (remember, Twitter is looking for a monetization plan).
But is it important to measure the ROI of Twitter? Understand that Twitter is a tool and you cannot measure its ROI any more than you can measure the ROI of a hammer when building your house. You measure the ROI of strategies, not tools.
When it comes to Twitter, measuring ROI is as important as measuring ROI for anything else. But to do it correctly, you need to first have a strategy. Do you have a Twitter marketing strategy?
Do SMO and SEO Go Hand In Hand?
Social media optimization also carries search engine optimization benefits. Or, to shorten it, SMO is SEO.
But the vice-versa isn’t necessarily true. SEO does not equate to SMO. Search engine optimization and social media optimization are two different things. They achieve different purposes and as such require different strategies and approaches. Nevertheless, there is a search engine optimization component to SMO.
But what does that mean exactly?
In truth, it means different things depending on the social media platform. For instance, with Facebook, your profile can end up in the search engine results pages for your name. And many of them do. For Twitter, however, your tweets will likely end up in the search engine results pages for real-time keyword queries. Other social media services have their own ranking positives.
But what you need to understand about social media optimization is that it does come with search engine optimization benefits. If you perform your SMO tasks correctly then you’ll get a double-pronged benefit.
OExchange And The Reduction Of APIs
Google and a few other large websites have been racing to a more open Web for some time. OExchange is the latest protocol in that race and it could be a deciding factor in how social sharing ends up on everybody’s top priority list.
Currently, if you want your website visitors to share your content to multiple sharing sites then you have to provide them with multiple buttons or a single button with access to multiple APIs. For instance, Share This and AddThis utilize the API of the various social sharing sites they support, but that can often be cumbersome. OExchange would be a single protocol that is accessible across multiple platforms and reduces the need for multiple APIs.
In other words, your site visitors will be able to share your content to every service that supports OExchange with a simple click. The need for services like ShareThis and AddThis would be reduced.
One benefit to this would be an increased load time for your website as the multiple API protocols won’t be necessary for sharing the data and slowing down the speed of your site. Another benefit would be site visitor happiness.
What do you think? Is OExchange another step in the evolution of social media optimization? Is it necessary?
Twitter, But Don’t Be Boring
An article in the New York Times about small businesses that Twitter offers a few tips on how to Twitter as a small business owner and one of the rules is “Don’t be boring.”
In fact, we summarize this article with the following points:
- First, listen – Twitter is great for listening to your target audience. You can get some great feedback from your followers.
- Don’t be boring – Emphasis mine. Hey, keep it interesting, or entertaining.
- A live FAQ – Answering questions that your followers submit is better than having an FAQ on your website. It’s live and interactive.
- Create a focus group – This format takes getting feedback a step further. It’s an interactive focus group. The example in the NYT is a bakery that invited followers to show up at the store and taste a recipe then give feedback on it. That’s one way to get them into your store!
- Start a soapbox (for thinkers) – This is a pretty popular Twitter strategy, but one that works. Submit links to interesting articles about your niche. Make them interesting! But you are getting people thinking and if you do this well you’ll turn those links into interesting questions that your followers can answer.
- Start small – Really, there’s no shame in being small. You don’t have to have 100,000 followers to be successful with Twitter. Some of the most successful Twitterers have only 1,000 followers, or less.
Twitter is a useful tool and nothing to be afraid of. Take some time to familiarize yourself with it before you jump in. Then, when you’re ready, develop a social media strategy for your Twittering.
Facebook Privacy: A Business App Killer?
Facebook has officially announced that it has changed its privacy protections for users. Specifically, the changes indicated will
- (Source)
- Provide one click blocking of third party sites
- Give users one click blocking options regarding Facebook applications
- Make it simpler to customize your profile’s privacy settings
While the jury is still out on whether or not these changes will be effective in giving users the privacy they want, from the face of it there could be a slight hindrance to marketing through Facebook. The question is, by how much?
And the answer is, no one knows. Not yet.
But if users can block third party sites more easily then your marketing efforts through Facebook could be hampered to a degree. If users can block your applications more easily then that could hamper your marketing to a degree as well. Now it’s up to you to figure out how you will navigate those hurdles.
The only sure way to overcome these types of user-control hurdles is to build trust your brand. If users trust you then they will recommend you to their friends. If they trust their friends then you’re in like Flynn. That’s not really any different than it has been in the past. The only real difference is you’ll have to work harder to build that trust. Are you up to the task?
Would You Pay Twitter For Its Data Streams?
Twitter has changed its policies to let publishers and developers know that if they make money from advertising by publishing Twitter data as a primary function of their website then they could be paying Twitter for the privilege of using that data. Do you think that’s a fair deal?
Of course, Twitter is talking about charging only the large publishers at this time, but whose to say that wouldn’t eventually trickle down to the small fellow? After all, data licensure is data licensure.
If I understand this correctly, this would be akin to buying the rights to use movies in your business presentations. That happens all the time. If the licensure fee is worth it to you and you can profit from it then it’s a good thing, right? Well, many online publishers are already making money off of Twitter data and it seems that Twitter is getting tired of not getting any of it.
What do you think? Should Twitter get a piece of the action?
How To Twitter Effectively
Twitter is one of the most misunderstood social media platforms. On the one hand, you can’t really call it social networking. It’s got some social networking qualities, to be sure, but it’s more like blogging in a real sense. That’s why it has been a category all to itself – and the many Twitter clones on the market – called microblogging.
Twitter is a great place to start, and join, conversations. But too many marketers are flocking to Twitter to “build a list”. However, many of those lists are unqualified lists of followers that have no interest in the person they are following. On Twitter, reciprocal following has little value.
The value in Twitter comes from the marketer’s ability to attract people who are interested – truly interested – in them as a personality. You could call it “personality marketing”. Some people call it “conversational marketing”.
To be most effective on Twitter, don’t focus on gathering a quantity of followers. Rather, focus on spreading useful niche information and draw people interested in that information to you. That’s how you win followers who will buy from you.
Facebook Could Have Made A Huge Mistake
When you’re approaching 500 million users is not the time to make a move like this. Of course, because of Facebook’s unprecedented growth, I’m reasonably sure that this would not have followed were it not for nearly 500 million users.
You don’t need 10,000 fans to know that Facebook almost cut out over half of its fan page customers and maybe more. I think they may have realized that themselves after the backlash.
But keep something in mind. When you’re in the growth stage of a business, you can’t afford to step on as many toes as this decision would have done. And certainly not on a segment of the market as vocal as the small business community, a community that tends to vote with its feet.
Did Facebook make a mistake? Yes, in all likelihood it was a big mistake. But it could have been bigger. At least they relented.
17 Million Reasons To Follow Competitors On Twitter
That title may sound a little far fetched and, compared to Facebook, 17 million US Twitter users isn’t a lot. But then, it really does depend on what those 17 million users are actually doing. Edison Research has releases an interesting three year study on Twitter usage and the numbers are looking good for marketers.
When it comes to awareness, 87% of Americans are aware of Twitter (88% for Facebook) so the brand is out there. We all know that Twitter is growing at a fairly fast rate, but how valuable is it for your business? To begin with, two-thirds of Twitter users access the site using their mobile phone. This often means they are accessing information while they are out and about – that’s a great time to hit them with special offers if you have a bricks and mortar business.
Other interesting stats include:
- 42 percent use Twitter to learn about products/services;
- 41 percent user Twitter to provide opinions about products and services;
- 31 percent use Twitter to ask for opinions about products and services;
- 28 percent use Twitter to look for discounts or sales;
- 21 percent use Twitter to purchase products/services; and
- 19 percent use Twitter to seek customer support.
That data suggests that Twitter users are more open to receiving product information than perhaps those on Facebook. It also means that Twitter could be a valuable tool for keeping an eye open your competition. With 31% of users looking for opinions on products and services, you want your brand or business being recommended, not your opposition. If it isn’t, you do at least have an indication of what online marketing areas need a boost.
Twitter is small compared to Facebook, but it is still a valuable resource when it comes to marketing and getting your brand out there. It is also a great resource for spying on the competition. Can you afford to ignore it?
Your Two-Pronged Facebook Strategy
As a business, you can’t have a Facebook profile. In fact, many businesses have been banned from Facebook or had their profiles deleted because they tried marketing themselves through Facebook’s profile channels. That’s not good.
What you can do is, and should do, is start a Facebook fan page. But before you do that you should start a Facebook profile.
If that sounds contradictory, forgive me. It’s not intended to. What I mean is you should start a Facebook profile for your personal name. Then you can become a fan of your own Facebook fan page for your business. This is your two-pronged Facebook approach.
Your Facebook fan page for your business can be jazzed up a bit with videos, audio, widgets, photos and other cool features. You can promote it through your personal Facebook profile and through other channels as well – even Twitter and social bookmarking. Instead of risking your profile being deleted as a spam tool, start your own Facebook fan page. It’s the way to go.
Should You Ride The StumbleUpon Wave?
WebProNews reports that StumbleUpon – not Twitter, not YouTube and not Digg, but StumbleUpon – is the No. 2 driver of social media traffic globally. Did you figure on that?
StumbleUpon is a curious mix of social bookmarking and social networking. It is based on quite a unique concept. I consider it a bit of a hybrid among social media brands. But it has its negative points as well as its positives.
On the positive side, StumbleUpon is great for driving new traffic to your website. On the negative, most of that traffic bounces.
Unless you have something that SU visitors really want to see, don’t expect them to visit more than one page on your website. They’ll visit, and they might even give you a thumbs up (many SU users actually give you charity thumbs up in hopes that you’ll do the same for them), but don’t expect them to stick around.
Is that good? It depends on what you mean by good. It’s bad only if you value a high bounce rate. But the real test is, does that StumbleUpon traffic make you money? If it does then you’re gold.
Is Twitter Considered Social Media?
I’ve head of Twitter being called social media, but I’ve also heard people say it’s not social media. So which is it?
I think it certainly has some qualities of social media. I mean, you can follow people and they can follow you. You can directly contact individual users, send private messages and make lists of your favorite Twitterers. There certainly are some social media qualities.
But in other ways Twitter does not resemble social media. For instance, you can follow people who never follow you back and you’ll both get along fine. Or vice versa. You can have people follow you that you don’t follow back and everyone’s still cool. Your public messages can be broadcast to hundreds or thousands of people with no reciprocation and no response. You can still be effective on Twitter as a mass publisher.
But which strategy is most effective for Twitter? Is the social media strategy where you connect and interact? Or is it the non-interactive strategy where you simply publish and expect no responses?
Personally, I think that’s a question that every Twitterer has to answer for him or herself. There seem to be people on Twitter making both strategies work quite well. The bottom line is, What works for your business?
A Sign Social Media Optimization Is The Future Of Marketing
When a major international political power lays off aging workers because they don’t understand social media, that’s a sign. Of course, we already knew that social media optimization was the future of Web marketing, but this kind of reinforces that message for us.
Why? Why, you might ask, is espionage social media habits a sign that this is the way of the future?
Well, here’s the way I see it. If the spy agencies rely on social media and they are doing it undercover, how much so should those of us with nothing to hide (literally and figuratively) be open to the power of this new technology?
The devil, as they say, is in the details. But social media marketing is still a new form of marketing and is virtually untapped. I see other important agencies the world over going the way of MI5 and migrating its work force to social media marketing and social media operations, including social media optimization. Social media is not just for marketers any more. It’s for all of us.
Is Twitter Too Big For Its Breeches?
You’d think that the way some people talk about Twitter that it’s huge, huge, HUGE. But it’s not that huge, really.
When Bill Gates joined Twitter in January of this year the service reached overcapacity in just a short time. The same thing happened when Oprah Winfrey joined last year. That sounds to me like it’s too small.
Twitter is growing in popularity and every day it seems that another celebrity discovers the service. But few of them actually tweet about anything really worth hanging on your seat over. Ashton Kutcher rose to Twitter prominence fairly quickly as have several other celebrities. But we average Joes have to do it at a steady, even pace.
Twitter does have its purposes. It can be fun. And you can drive traffic to your website rather quickly. If you have enough followers. But you do have to be careful of the “I’ll follow you if you follow me” crowd. There’s not a lot of value there. There is value, however, if you attract a lot of followers who like you because you’re you.
Twitter may not be too big for its breeches, but it is big and getting bigger. And it looks as if it will be a powerhouse of a marketing vehicle. What do you think?
Should You Join A Social Community Or Start One?
Social communities are a dime a dozen, but existing ones are not always the best ones. YouTube, for instance, has a lot of competition. Some of the competition even bills itself as an alternative to YouTube, like the conservative-leaning political video sharing website QubeTv.
The big question is, should you join one or start your own. And the answer is “yes”. Or, more friendly, “both”.
There really is no reason you should shun other social communities, even if they compete with you. If you find a social community that fits in with your niche and you can see value in connecting with people through that community then you should join it. But you don’t have to limit yourself to that community. If you see some shortcomings in that community that can be rectified with one of your own then feel free to start your own. There are benefits to doing so.
Some benefits to starting your own social community are:
- You become the owner, you set the rules
- As the owner of the community you can brand it
- Owners of social communities become experts in their niches
- It’s another vehicle through which to sell your products and services
- You can earn revenue through social communities in other ways
- Being the owner of your own social community means people will want to build a relationship with you
Of course, managing a social community is hard work and time consuming. But the benefits can be worth the expense and the hassle. Still, it’s just one way. Join a few other communities in your niche to get a feel for what the playing field is like before starting your own.
The Biggest Social Media Pitfall
Social media is great for finding new customers and companies who use social media report great gains from its use. However, there is one pitfall to social media that just as many companies report and that cut into your company’s ROI.
The biggest pitfall to using social media for business promotion is to let it waste your time. Social media is so fun that you can get caught up in the fun and games and completely forget about business. What was to be a 15-minute “check in” to see how things are going end up being a two or three hour rabbit trail and nothing gets done.
This is one reason to outsource your social media campaigns. Instead of wasting your time playing around on the sites and not achieving the full effect of great marketing, have a social media expert conduct your marketing campaign. They will know where to draw the line on the fun and execute a sound business and marketing strategy for a positive ROI.
Yahoo! Offers Another Avenue For SMO
Yahoo! is still full of surprises. On its Yodel Anecdotal Blog, the veteran Web portal has announced a deal with Twitter. But this deal is a bit different than the previous deals struck between Twitter and search engines Bing and Google. This deal actually offers Twitterers a way to update their Twitter status from Yahoo!
But will users actually use it that way? That remains to be seen, but I’m betting that some users will.
Still, that’s not even the best part of the deal. The real meat of the deal, and the part that offers the best social media optimization benefit, is this:
Whenever you produce social actions on any website (like comments on articles, ratings, buzzes on Yahoo! Buzz) that you’ve allowed to appear on Yahoo! Updates, those actions can also be shared automatically with your friends on Twitter.
What I think this means is that Yahoo! users will soon have more ways to expand their social networks. I see a day when marketers will spend most of their day and their marketing efforts updating their statuses on Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo! and their other important social networks. Or, they could just head right to Yahoo! and update all of their social networks at one time. In the near future, you’ll at least be able to update your Twitter status and take care of a few other social actions from Yahoo!
How’s that for a heightened sense of social media optimization?
Would SMO Be Better If Facebook Offered Blogging?
Chris Crum at WebProNews suggested that Facebook replace it Notes tab with a Blog tab. It’s not a bad idea.
Facebook users would gain an immediate benefit if Facebook offered blogging. No. 1, the built in Facebook user base would be incredible. This is now the second most visited site online, right behind Google. Facebook could compete head on with Google’s Blogger and actually do well.
Not only would users of Facebook benefit with that feature, but Facebook itself would benefit as it would see an immediate increase in user-generated content, improve its search engine friendliness and more people would stay on the website longer. But would a Facebook blog improve social media optimization (SMO)?
I believe it would improve search engine optimization for anyone who had a Facebook blog. I also believe it would improve SMO in a number of ways.
- First and foremost, Facebook users would likely connect more through a blog
- A blog could be brandable just like a Facebook page
- With thousands of Facebook blogs pumping out content on a regular basis, Facebook would likely see more Twitter traffic
- Widgetized blogs would likely lead to more video sharing on Facebook
I don’t really see any negatives in the prospect of adding a Facebook blog. Do you?
Should You Social Media Optimize For Google?
Yesterday we discussed whether you should optimize your website for Facebook in light of the social media leader’s relationship with Bing. Today I’d like to discuss whether you should get ready to optimize your social media campaigns for Google.
Well, I’ve been reading a few places today that Google is launching its own social network through Gmail. So does that mean you should go all out and plan a social media marketing campaign to target Google?
Not so fast. Give them a chance to prove themselves first.
Personally, I think you’d do better to spend your time optimizing web pages for Facebook. Google may have some nice social features, but it’s not a social network. And I think it will be a long time before it will compete with Facebook and Twitter.
Will Social Media Overtake SEO As The Primary Driver Of Web Traffic?
An excellent article on social media by Greg Sterling got me to thinking. In the second paragraph he says:
One day in the very near future Facebook is likely to supplant Yahoo as one of the top two Internet destinations, the other being Google.
At first, I didn’t think anything of it. But then I got to thinking on it. He’s right. Facebook and Twitter continue to grow (though Twitter is a long way off from overtaking Yahoo! in traffic while Facebook is within driving distance). It is quite possible, and maybe even likely, that Facebook will become the second most trafficked site on the Web. And if that happens then it is feasible that it could become the No. 1 site as well.
Spammers continue to bombard the search engines with bad results and the search engines find it more difficult to filter the spam out. Several popular SEOs have pointed this out. Given that, the mood of the public could shift from confidence in search to confidence in social media. But when will that happen? Could that happen? What do you think?
The Simplest SMO On The Planet
Social media optimization (SMO) has come into its own. Not only do most webmasters today try to learn everything they can about search engine optimization and the methods the pros use to get ranked for their most important keywords, but they are also learning everything they can about social media optimization. Some webmasters actually spend more time on the latter than on the former.
The best SMO in the world is also the simplest. You don’t even have to leave your website. The goal is to get your site visitors to do the work for you.
If you’ve visited many websites at all then you’ve likely seen the share buttons. They come in various sizes, shapes and colors. Some say “share”, some say “bookmark this” and some use another phrase. But there is almost always an icon, a chicklet, and a link that allows your site visitors to easily share your content on their favorite social sites. And some even allow your visitors to e-mail your content to their friends.
The key is to learn your audience. Are they heavy Digg users or Stumblers? Are they Twitterers? Do you use e-mail more frequently?
If you learn the online social habits of your visitors and provide them an easy way to share content in their preferred content and at their preferred online haunts then you’ve got a big piece of the social media puzzle solved. The rest, as they say, gravy.
Is Twitter Necessary?
Chris Crum of WebProNews interviewed Matt Bailey, who said that you can run a successful business online without Twitter. Really? I thought Twitter was all that and a bag of chips.
Actually, he’s right. You CAN run a successful business online without Twitter. In fact, everyone did before 2005.
When it comes to social media, there’s a new brand of hype. What happens is, the online equivalent of the jet set (the early adopters) do some experimenting. When one of them finds a workable formula for a new social tool they start to tell their friends. Their friends do an experiment and confirm the report. They tell their friends. Before you know it, the news steam rolls and the spammers start moving in. Hype builds more hype.
But the reality is, you can do without the hype. What I mean, don’t get sucked into it. You should start the hype, not follow it.
Hype is really another word for viral marketing. It works. When you are the subject of the hype you’ll know it works. When you are the one being dragged around by the hype, all you can think about is, “Man, this sucks.”
Well, let’s not get dramatic. Social media optimization is not about following the hype. It’s about creating it. And you can run a successful business without Twitter. Of course, you can run a successful business with it too.
Social Networking, Social Breaks
Coffee breaks are refreshing. Take a short walk, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, fill your coffee cup and head back to the desk for a second wind and a great second half of your work day. More productivity, higher morale, and a happier disposition.
It works the same way in social networking.
You could consider the social networking a part of your recreation. It’s so fun you don’t want to give it up. But if it’s that much fun then you may not be getting any work done. On the other hand, if it’s too much work then how social is it?
The fact is, if you are social networking to make contacts for your business then it is work just like any other work. That’s not to say you are spending the entire day networking, but some people do. You start your day a-Twittering and it just doesn’t stop. Take a break. Refresh yourself.
It’s OK to take a day off of Facebook and come back refreshed. You might even take a full week. But don’t be gone too long. Any momentum you’ve built up by networking can be destroyed with too long off. So measure your days and refresh your energy. You deserve it.