Archive for September, 2009

Facebook’s @ feature

Published by
Don
11 months, 1 week ago in Internet, Noteworthy, Tools and Whatever. 0 Comments

With so many people having facebook accounts, and facebook’s user base significantly growing as well as twitter rejecting facebook’s offers to buy them, it was only a matter of time before facebook decided to implement the ‘@’ feature in some form or fashion.

Today facebook launched the @mention feature which takes the basic principle of twitter’s @username piece and implemented it on facebook. Now you can @your-friends-name and have your post/status/etc post on your friends wall as well. In addition to being able to @-tag your friends, you can also do the same to groups, fan pages, etc.

Let’s try an example shall we:

@mention facebook feature

@mention facebook feature

So what does this mean for us?

Well, first lets think about this new facebook feature as an extension of the already popular “tag” function. From images to videos to now basic posts and status updates, this will allow you to offer a more social connection to your posts. Instead of saying “I went to lunch with the people at Evolve Media”, now you can do something like “I went to lunch with my brother @evolvemedia today” * The @evolvemedia would be replaced with the link to the company’s account. The update will post on both yours and “joe’s” walls.

Call is saving some time.

I have to admit, I really don’t go around reading who said what on the main wall when I log in, but it would be of some value to be able to quickly see any mention of me on my own profile. Which you would probably already know about since you will get a notification of this action.

Pros:

* Could be used for tracking information later on.
* Posts about you, your company etc, that were missed could quickly be seen and response with customers, friends and such would be faster.

Cons:

* Maybe the other person does not want to be mentioned.
* The world is losing its privacy.
* I can just write on the other persons wall.

The Reality of Social Media Marketing

Published by
Don
11 months, 3 weeks ago in Advertising, Business and Marketing. 0 Comments

Your company may have hundreds or even thousands of “friends” on Facebook and “followers” on Twitter, but does this really translate into real dollars and bottom-line results? A deeper dive into the realities of social media marketing may surprise you. Let’s do the numbers.

A recent study by Marketing Sherpa found that the average visitor to a site is 20 times more likely to purchase than someone coming from a social media site; and the average visitor to a site is 50 times more likely to place an order than someone coming from either social news (Twitter) or social bookmarking origins (Digg).

So if they’re not spending, what’s the value of investing in social media? The reality is consumers are very weary of brands that try and sell in a space reserved for friends and socializing. However, if done correctly, the real value of social media is building brand awareness, and creating an authentic dialogue with your customers.

For many brands, online opinion has turned into a kind of virtual currency that can make or break their products in the marketplace. Now there are a handful of solutions that allow you to monitor blogs, news articles, online forums and social networking sites for trends and opinions about your company.

The bottom line: If you’re using or planning to use social media, put it into perspective and listen to your customers. Look for opportunities to engage in a smart dialogue with your fans and detractors and ultimately improve your brand perception. Social media outreach combined with a strong SEO (search engine optimization) strategy is the fastest path to conversion.

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