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The Blogger Pyramid

2012-02-11T19:14:00.001+11:00

By Adam Justice There are just too many blogs out there.Blogging began as a way for experts to share some of the ... http://bit.ly/yeBtav

How Meta: An #Infographic Explains the Infographic Phenomenon | Articles

2012-02-11T15:46:00.001+11:00

By Michael SebastianThis was inevitable....it makes sense that someone created an Infographic about … Infographic ... http://bit.ly/xEXExJ

Why iPad Textbooks Are Still Too Expensive for Schools Plus #Infographic

2012-02-11T12:44:00.001+11:00

By Josh CatoneWhen Apple announced its initiative to bring iPads into schools, the reaction among many was enthusia ... http://bit.ly/yI4l7G

The State of Influencers Theory #Infographic

2012-02-10T22:15:00.001+11:00

By Leslie BradshawFrom Moses’ clay tablets, to the Old Spice Guy, to Fred Wilson’s blog, influencers have been ... http://bit.ly/xooKcQ

6 Things That Separate Good Content From Great Content - #OMS12

2012-02-10T18:07:00.001+11:00

By Ashley Zeckman If you are part of the online marketing or content marketing industry you have undoubtably heard ... http://bit.ly/zZwoe8

Social Media Personalities By Blood Type

2012-02-10T15:58:00.001+11:00

By Michael Sebastian and Robert CarusoEver wondered how your blood type is connected to your social media or marke ... http://bit.ly/xKQqaC

5 Essential Spreadsheets for Social Media Analytics

2012-02-10T13:38:00.001+11:00

By Ann SmartySocial media analytics and tracking can be very time-consuming and expensive.That’s why many social ... http://bit.ly/xUjKCP

Creating Minimalist Designs Makes You a Better Designer

2012-02-10T13:18:00.001+11:00

By Karol K.The trend of using minimalist designs has been with us for a while now. It seems like every day major d ... http://bit.ly/zmSl5k

How Brands Listen in the Digital Age #Infographic

2012-02-09T21:32:00.001+11:00

By Andy WibbelsIn the age of Facebook and cloud computing, listening to customers is more important than ever.It ... http://bit.ly/znVtGi

How To Build a Rockin’ LinkedIn Presence

2012-02-09T16:48:00.001+11:00

By Lisa BaroneLet’s face it: Too many of us spend a lot of time actively ignoring LinkedIn. We don’t intend to ... http://bit.ly/z76h50

17 Little Known Social Media Tools You Should Be Using (and Why)

2012-02-09T13:48:00.001+11:00

By Neil PatelEverywhere you look there is social media. It’s in our homes, businesses, places of worship and sch ... http://bit.ly/xoO6jJ

On-The-Job Training: Jobs That Require No College Degree | #Infographic

2012-02-09T11:45:00.001+11:00

By Colin DobrinWe've seen some of the greatest thinkers and entrepreneurs drop out of college, or just plain never ... http://bit.ly/x40LMQ

Mobile Workforce Management

2012-02-09T09:42:00.001+11:00

By NowsourcingThis powerful Infographic explores how the mobile revolution has connected people in business and li ... http://bit.ly/zsplb7

2011 Was the Year of the Mobile Consumer, What’s in Store for 2012? Value

2012-02-08T23:10:00.001+11:00

By Brian Solis Chris Silva, my colleague at Altimeter Group, released a useful report today that I wanted to sha ... http://bit.ly/zujATH

The Rise of Social Business – Broader than Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ Combined

2012-02-08T21:06:00.001+11:00

By Cheryl K. BurgessThe transformational trend of social business is disrupting and revolutionizing large and sm ... http://bit.ly/xp3683

Time for Mail: Services That Improve Gmail Productivity

2012-02-08T19:43:00.001+11:00

By Kevin MuldoonGmail exploded onto the internet in 2004 (beta) offering users a whopping 1GB of storage. This was ... http://bit.ly/yoDNLZ

Facebook Timeline: Disliked by the Masses #Infographic

2012-02-08T19:09:00.001+11:00

By Alissa SkeltonFacebook layout changes are rarely welcomed with open arms by the majority of users and Timeline ... http://bit.ly/wQdpba

Quora Marketing Guide

2012-02-08T10:01:00.001+11:00

By Kristi HinesIf you are looking to build up your professional brand as an authority in your niche or industry, o ... http://bit.ly/AjfmZo

History of Mobile App Stores #Infographic

2012-02-08T00:11:00.001+11:00

By Dan RowinskiThe rise of the app store has fundamentally changed the concept of software delivery. Gone are th ... http://bit.ly/wBgQym

25 Non-Financial Benefits of Business Blogging

2012-02-07T23:40:00.001+11:00

By Mark SchaeferWhile the use of blogging as a marketing and communications platform continues to grow for many or ... http://bit.ly/waVeMJ

Content Curation 101: What You Need To Know @AniseSmith

2012-02-07T22:33:00.001+11:00

One of the things that Social Media peeps battle on a regular basis is content creation, which is the ideal way to ... http://bit.ly/yAvmFW

Social Business: Social Media Integration / #Infographic / @RobinGrant

2012-02-07T22:15:00.001+11:00

Some useful research from InSites Consulting, who conducted a survey of 400 senior marketing managers in the US and ... http://bit.ly/Afymzo

DCC Curation Lifecycle Model | @digitalcuration

2012-02-07T20:29:00.001+11:00

The DCC Curation Lifecycle ModelHow to use the Curation Lifecycle ModelThis Curation Lifecycle Model provides a g ... http://bit.ly/yms6ku

How Social Media Could Improve Public Safety @toddpiett

2012-02-07T16:22:00.001+11:00

When it comes to public safety, forward-thinking government agencies are using social media to improve situational ... http://bit.ly/wVUK58

Congress is Rich, B*tch! | @The_Infographic @Online_Schools

2012-02-06T21:51:00.001+11:00

Yes, congress is obscenely wealthy. I like this Infographic because although it presents the congress members ridic ... http://bit.ly/w0sUTL

7 Essentials of an Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy | @DigiStreamMedia

2012-02-06T15:25:00.001+11:00

These days, every business needs to utilize the power of social media in order to compete successfully.The huge po ... http://bit.ly/xceuUY

5 Myths of Internet Marketing @technorati

2012-02-06T15:11:00.001+11:00

5 common misconceptions about internet marketing...Before you turn your nose away from internet marketing for your ... http://bit.ly/AChCuM

How Higher Education Uses Social Media #Infographic @Matt_Silverman

2012-02-05T23:54:00.001+11:00

As social media becomes more integral to students' lives, educational institutions are finally catching on, and cat ... http://bit.ly/yfOtp8

20 Free Tools to Evaluate Social Media | @dirktherabbit

2012-02-05T22:16:00.001+11:00

Not measurement, evaluation.Tools that will give you some form of meaningful data that you can use in reports. And ... http://bit.ly/z8sjsW

Twitter More Tempting Than Sex and Sleep, Study Says @EricCMack

2012-02-05T22:03:00.001+11:00

Tweeting harder to resist than sex, coffee, and alcohol, say researchers from the University of Chicago. Now, let's ... http://bit.ly/AeCjne

Facebook Facts: What's An Average Day on Facebook? @tmonhollon

2012-02-05T21:48:00.001+11:00

Did you know that American Internet users spend more time on Facebook than any other site? Not only is it the site ... http://bit.ly/zjMDC1

14 Free Wiki Content Management Systems (CMS) @cssreflex

2012-02-04T19:32:00.001+11:00

Ever wanted to create your own wiki cms? Now you can easily make one with using one of these 14 free content manage ... http://bit.ly/yBPrZa

Who's Best at B2B Marketing: Facebook vs LinkedIn @The_Infographic @BopDesignSD

2012-02-04T17:10:00.001+11:00

Facebook has made a major impact with its advertisements...B2B marketers use LinkedIn and B2C marketers use Facebo ... http://bit.ly/Aq6Nww

5 iPhone Twitter Apps that Do More Than Just Tweet @LeoWid

2012-02-04T12:06:00.001+11:00

When Twitter recently launched the newest version of its iPhone app, the company focused on streamlining and simpli ... http://bit.ly/wO3U0s

Blogging: 3 Secrets To An A-List Blog @HeidiCohen

2012-02-03T22:59:00.001+11:00

Every blogger wants their blog to break through the ever-growing number of blogs to be top in their category. It’ ... http://bit.ly/wPOylv

Internet Usage Predictions for 2012 #Infographic – Rose Pratt -- @slotsofvegas

2012-02-03T15:42:00.001+11:00

The internet is a wonderful thing but let’s faces it, we have become more and more dependent on the ability to st ... http://bit.ly/xkUsBe

A Practical Framework For Moving Your Business To The Cloud #Infographic - @Direct2Dell

2012-02-03T14:14:00.001+11:00

As we head into 2012 Small and Medium Businesses no longer see cloud computing as a trend, it’s now business as u ... http://bit.ly/w4YrwP

Goldilocks SEO ~ #Infographic ~ @seobook

2012-02-03T00:16:00.001+11:00

When search engineers fight spam they do not like to flag too many false positives, but they do want to flag as man ... http://bit.ly/wDhQvm

How to Prepare Your Social Game for Massive Growth @JamesMPhillips

2012-02-02T22:22:00.001+11:00

Social games, especially those on Facebook, can grow like wildfire. Make sure your data architecture is prepared fo ... http://bit.ly/wM6hhV

Twitter: 6 Ways To Get More Out Of It -- @shmayes

2012-02-02T21:47:00.001+11:00

Congrats: you graduated Twitter 101 cum laude. You now know the ins and outs of the @ symbol and RT like a rockstar ... http://bit.ly/A01kAJ

Where to Blog - The Advantages and Disadvantages of Major Blogging Platforms | @smedio

2012-02-02T21:04:00.001+11:00

Where to blog was initially limited to a few players, it’s now a keenly contested segment with several high profi ... http://bit.ly/ygnWdr

Social Media Usage Across Cultures @AnneEgros

2012-02-02T19:33:00.001+11:00

With the globalization we have seen an increase of usage of social media everywhere. According to Nielsen research ... http://bit.ly/wxRsWq

Google Panda in Plain English #Infographic - @sujanpatel

2012-02-02T12:36:00.001+11:00

In February of 2011, the Google Panda algorithm changed the SEO world forever.After a year of ripping through what ... http://bit.ly/wt4EQ1

Visual Thinking Archive

2012-01-14T13:22:00.001+11:00

Visual Thinking Archive , a set by David Armano on Flickr.This group of visuals have been either designed or direct ... http://bit.ly/wS8bju

11 Tools For Finding a Perfect Domain Name @cssreflex

2011-12-13T16:37:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-Design11 of the Best Domain name searching tools for the perfect domain name for your sit ... http://bit.ly/sZgPzU

Balancing Automation And Hands-On Review In E-Discovery - @resnickjon @Forbes

2011-12-13T15:36:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-DesignAccording to IDC’s “2011 Digital Universe Study: Extracting Value from Chaos” ... http://bit.ly/ugv1rY

WordPress 3.3 “Sonny” @WordPress

2011-12-13T14:02:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-Design The latest and greatest version of the WordPress software -- 3.3, named "Sonny" in ... http://bit.ly/sQG4aU

The Beginner’s Guide To Content Marketing @JosephPutnam @KISSmetrics

2011-12-13T12:03:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-Marketing Traditional ads rely on good placement, clever wording, and exceptional cr ... http://bit.ly/t5d25w

Marketers Struggle With Social Media @MediaPost @CMO_Council

2011-12-13T10:57:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-MarketingMarketers are struggling to fully integrate social into their overarching m ... http://bit.ly/rIpEHV

Hook Internet Wanderers With These Five Critical Steps | @lexilewtan @gocontently

2011-12-13T10:11:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-DesignWe break down one of our biggest questions – how in the world do you catch the at ... http://bit.ly/ty7aWk

4 Blogger Tools for Breaking Your Writing Block @jlcommunication @smexminer

2011-12-13T09:33:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-Marketing Blogs can be powerful marketing tools. Blogging can also be a highly deman ... http://bit.ly/u76Olv

[New Data] Higher Klout Scores Mean More Successful Websites | @danzarrella

2011-12-12T22:40:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-Design The recent launch of Marketing Grader is a boon for me because it gathers a ton mo ... http://bit.ly/va0vST

How Has Cloud Computing Changed Business? @matt_silverman @cscnews @mashable

2011-12-12T20:21:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-Marketing Now that companies have been floating around in the digital aether for a f ... http://bit.ly/uY6Iyu

The Slow And Steady Evolution Of A Successful Online Community - @RichMillington @FeverBee

2011-12-12T19:59:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Online-Communities What does the evolution of a successful community look like? Lets use the East Du ... http://bit.ly/tqnVtN

Forrester's "Three Social Thunderstorms" At LeWeb @armano

2011-12-12T19:24:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-Marketing I didn't attend LeWeb this year, but judging by the chatter, one of the mo ... http://bit.ly/utygMA

The Trap of Social Media Noise @thisissethsblog

2011-12-12T18:44:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-MarketingIf we put a number on it, people will try to make the number go up. Now tha ... http://bit.ly/u4WvAY

18 Most Useful Chat Widgets and Chat Client Tools @cssreflex

2011-12-12T16:36:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-Design Chatting with your client is a very important task. With these Most Useful Chat Wi ... http://bit.ly/w2O6mA

One-Third of Small and Mid-Size Businesses Plan to Use Social Media in 2012 | @Kevin_J_Allen @MarkRaganCEO

2011-12-11T18:37:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-Marketing While many companies stand in the face of economic hardship as a new year ... http://bit.ly/vizFyT

How the World Uses Social Networks @StephMBuck @nick_sigler @mashable

2011-12-11T18:29:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Culture We've taken a look at the social media breakdown of 10 countries -- how they're engaging wit ... http://bit.ly/sxNzrx

Tweet This, Deny That: Social Media and the End of Denial

2011-12-11T17:57:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Culture Digital shaming has become the newest form of public stocks, ensuring the wrongdoings of ind ... http://bit.ly/sFLCVG

15 Effective Social Media Monitoring Tools @cssreflex

2011-12-11T15:03:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-Design In this post you will find effective social media monitoring tools. Monitoring hel ... http://bit.ly/s8TYhM

The New, New Twitter and What It Means to You and Your Business - @briansolis

2011-12-11T14:55:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-MarketingThe new, new Twitter is upon us and while some of you already have access t ... http://bit.ly/uO1rVn

30 Brilliant Social Media Marketing Tips From 2011 @bwhalley @HubSpot

2011-12-11T10:55:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social-Business-Marketing Read the 30 best social media marketing tips from 2011 that will still ben ... http://bit.ly/toYP1F

Typography Meets Illustration | @houkedekwant @vesasammalisto @DayInspiration

2011-12-11T00:23:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-Design Typography Meets Illustration, a creative project called 'Alphabets' made by Vesa ... http://bit.ly/vsRH15

10 Projects That Challenge / Change the Concept of What Communication Is | @congbo @Futurelab_Blog

2011-12-10T23:38:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-Design Do we fail to see the extent of what communication is / has become? Here are 10 pr ... http://bit.ly/sOQJNp

Community Schools: Proving That 'Collective Impact' Works @HuffingtonPost

2011-12-10T22:55:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Online-Communities There comes a time when many fine examples of how to improve learning and life co ... http://bit.ly/t6bwzc

The Role of Social Media in Community Building and Development @GdnVoluntary

2011-12-10T22:27:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Online-Communities Despite the increasing importance of social networks, community development needs ... http://bit.ly/sPOOOI

IAB’s Lists Top 15 Mobile Shopping Cities @MarketingPilgrm @iab

2011-12-10T21:46:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Digital-By-Design Which US city has the most mobile savvy shoppers?Via www.marketingpilgrim.com ... http://bit.ly/tOg3si

Contact Us

2011-10-22T19:16:00.001+11:00

[widgets_on_pages id="Contact Us"] ... http://bit.ly/rdURFE

Contact Us

2011-10-22T16:13:00.001+11:00

[widgets_on_pages id="Contact Us"] ... http://bit.ly/qTbgJc

Top Marketers Look to Invest Big in Social Media - eMarketer

2011-10-22T11:44:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it - Social Business Marketing Companies are hiring, increasing spending and planning improvements for so ... http://bit.ly/qzdrdC

How Social Digital Is Your Company? – David Armano – Harvard Business Review

2011-10-22T00:56:00.001+11:00

Via Scoop.it Social Business Marketing Business bloggers at Harvard Business Re ... http://bit.ly/q8cKs5

Find Us

2011-10-20T12:27:00.001+11:00

Find Us ... http://bit.ly/r4ExXm

Search

2011-10-20T00:18:00.001+11:00

Search ... http://bit.ly/p0Wll3

Welcome

2011-10-17T21:33:00.001+11:00

Thanks for stopping by We will be fully operational and relaunching Monday 24th ... http://bit.ly/r474O6

Hello world!

2011-10-16T19:25:00.001+11:00

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blo ... http://bit.ly/qYTsDd

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2011-08-10T14:37:00.001+10:00

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2011-08-10T14:29:00.001+10:00

This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (e02589bb-b75d-43b9-928b-fe5c1a9aa55a - ... http://bit.ly/nabJ54

WebStory Test Draft{29C28FD771BA4B0D8693}

2011-06-08T22:08:00.001+10:00

This article is published by Chrysanth WebStory for blog template retrieval. Due to some unforeseen circumstances i ... http://bit.ly/k4deeZ

The Language of Love in Social Media-New Rules for Brand Engagement

2011-04-26T18:53:00.001+10:00

Firefly Millward Brown [fireflymb.com] has conducted the first global qualitative research study into consumers gen ... http://bit.ly/hY3R4B

Almost Ninety per cent of Australian Internet Users now Making Online Transactions

2011-04-26T15:44:00.001+10:00

New research by the Australian Communications and Media Authority reveals Australian consumers are increasingly emb ... http://bit.ly/gOu8H0

Social Technographics: Conversationalists get onto the ladder

2011-04-22T20:37:00.011+10:00

by Josh BernoffTwo and a half years ago, Charlene Li and I introduced Social Technographics, a way to analyze you ... http://bit.ly/hoojNT

The Business of Social Media: B2B and B2C Engagement by the Numbers Brian Solis

2011-04-22T20:37:00.009+10:00

byÂ Brian SolisI spend a great deal of time working within the B2B sector, among other things, and social media ... http://bit.ly/g3jTvw

Digital Morning

2011-04-22T20:37:00.007+10:00

To learn more about Social Media Marketing visit ExactTarget.com/SFF ... http://bit.ly/hfzdhC

How The INTERNET Works

2011-04-22T20:37:00.005+10:00

[Via: Online Schools] ... http://bit.ly/h6G9DN

Consumer Profile Tool

2011-04-22T20:37:00.003+10:00

A more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to ... http://bit.ly/fbtoPT

B2B Profile Tool

2011-04-22T20:37:00.001+10:00

B2B marketers, eager to know how social media fits into the marketing mix, can use the Social TechnographicsÂ® Pr ... http://bit.ly/ekd7LH

Put Your Best Tweet Forward-How to Schedule Tweets for Maximum Exposure

2011-04-22T20:33:00.005+10:00

by Flowtown, JD RuckerTwitter can be an amazing marketing tool. Some would say that strictly from a marketing p ... http://bit.ly/iaCr48

The 10 Stages of Social Media Integration in Business

2011-04-22T20:33:00.003+10:00

The 10 Stages of Social Media Integration in Business | Brian SolisWhat follows is the unabridged version of my ... http://bit.ly/dXnN9S

Contact

2011-04-22T20:33:00.001+10:00

TweetTweet ... http://bit.ly/ied9JQ

Australian Business Rush to Embrace Social Media

2011-04-22T20:20:00.001+10:00

Budgets move from traditional media to fund social mediaNew media critical to stakeholder connectionROI measureme ... http://bit.ly/9nREy6

Social Media Dominates Asia Pacific Internet Usage

2011-04-22T18:33:00.001+10:00

Social media usage has seen unprecedented growth in Asia Pacific in the past year and is now one of the most criti ... http://bit.ly/cfODfc

7 Step B2B Social Media Content Sharing Strategy | Social Media B2B

2011-04-22T13:40:00.001+10:00

Kipp BodnarI am in agreement with Kipp; sharing is definitely a key factor when it comes to Social Media. ... http://bit.ly/9ncs9r

First National Womens Chamber Launches on International Womens Day

2011-03-31T16:26:00.001+11:00

The Australian Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (the Chamber) has been established with the express purpo ... http://bit.ly/gu8RKV

The Socialization of Brands - Global Trends in Social Networks RT @askdebra & @UMWWtweets

2010-11-02T20:01:00.001+11:00

Amazing & Comprehensive Data, Check out the Full Report

Amplify’d from www.communityorganizer20.com

Global Trends in Social Networks: The Socialization of Brands

Posted by: Debra Askanase In: Twitter|demographics|social networks

I’m always on the lookout for good international data about the use of social media and social networks. Each year, I eagerly await the results of Universal McCann’s “Wave” study on social media. Since 2006, Universal McCann has been surveying active internet users worldwide about their use of the internet yearly. This year, 37,600 respondents from 53 countries told UM how they use the internet. The results, highlighting trends and changes from years past, show the domination and rise of both social networks and branded online social communities. So much so that this year’s report is entitled “Wave 5 – The Socialization of Brands.” The report, issued in October 2010, summarizes the latest Wave 5 survey data gathered in July 2010.

Here are some facts from the report that all organizations should take note of:

1. The Rise of the Social Network

According to the study, social network usage has risen from 52% to 70% by 25-34 year-olds worldwide. Three-quarters of active internet users worldwide have managed a social network profile. When asked the number of activities people use social networks for, that number has risen from 6.4 to eight activities since Wave 4 in 2009.

Wave 5 illustrates that social networks have broadened in the past several years to have effectively become the chosen online home of all your social media activities.

Looking at Figure 4 from the study, people prefer using a social network for almost every type of online experience. The one exception is that Message Boards top social networks when someone wants to “seek other people’s opinions.” This should serve to remind us of the power of a well-moderated, well-used message board, too!

All types of sharing are universally migrating to social networks. Looking more closely, uploading photos and videos to online sharing sites has leveled off but uploading photos and videos to social networking sits has grown over 200% in two years, as noted in Figure 11 from the study:

Additionally, while blogging has stabilized (or declined, in the case of reading personal blogs), writing a blog on a social network is the only form of blogging that has increased.

2. Twitter is not dead (at least not worldwide)

Ok, not actually a surprise. Though Twitter adoption has slowed in North America, it has jumped worldwide from 15% usage in July 2009 to almost 33% in July 2010. If you want to reach an international audience, use Twitter to reach new audiences and move people to care, and act.

3. Develop your branded online community

There is a BIG decline in the number of people who are visiting official brand websites. Contrary to that, Wave 5 notes the BIG rise in the number of people worldwide who have become an online fan of a brand. This would include a nonprofit organization’s Facebook Page, private online community, YouTube channel, etc. See Figure 21 from the Wave 5 study, below:

This study was not prepared with the nonprofit sector in mind, and was generalized across all segments of the population. That noted, over 50% of the respondents said that they affiliated with a branded online community in order to support a cause. I also found intriguing the other reasons listed for affiliating: to associate with something that is cool, to learn more about it, to get advance news on a product, and more. Think about these takeaways: If you run a youth-oriented nonprofit, how can you make it cool? If you offer nonprofit software, can you offer advance news about upcoming features and releases? Cross-apply Figure 24 with your organization’s audience to help focus your branded community.

4. When people join a brand community online, they feel more positive and loyal toward the brand

I’ve read this before, but it’s great to see it validated worldwide.

Clearly, online community supporters ARE your more loyal fans, they WILL visit the website from an online social network community, and they are a strong source for finding new online supporters. Treat them with respect, and grow your loyal fans into the online evangelists that they could become.

So much great data from Wave 5. What are your takeaways?
Read more at www.communityorganizer20.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/eewg

When Eyeballs and Dollars Don’t Match Up @eMarketer

2010-10-08T00:20:00.001+11:00

Again, Quality over Quantity

Amplify’d from www.emarketer.com

When Eyeballs and Dollars Don’t Match Up

Paul Verna, Senior Analyst

No one can be faulted for thinking that the size of someone’s Facebook friends list is a proxy for that person’s level of influence. After all, people who are influential are often also popular, and in a Facebook and Twitter world popularity is measured in friends and followers.

No one can be faulted for thinking that the size of someone’s Facebook friends list is a proxy for that person’s level of influence. After all, people who are influential are often also popular, and in a Facebook and Twitter world popularity is measured in friends and followers.

But a new report from Vocus and FutureWorks principal Brian Solis throws a healthy dose of skepticism on the supposed correlation between popularity and influence. The report—provocatively titled “Influencer Grudge Match: Lady Gaga versus Bono”—surveyed 739 marketing and communications professionals who work with influencers to gauge their perceptions of what makes an influencer.

A surprising 90% of respondents answered “yes” when asked whether there’s a big difference between popularity and influence.

Nearly the same percentage, 84%, believed that there was a correlation between an influencer’s reach and his or her ability to drive action. This indicates that respondents made a clear distinction between popularity and reach, and regarded the latter as the key that determines a person’s influence.

The survey did not define any of these terms, so it was up to the respondents to interpret them. From the results, it’s apparent that respondents regarded popularity as the sheer number of contacts on a social network and reach as the ability to actually communicate meaningfully with some number of those contacts. As one respondent put it, “A person can have only a few contacts and greatly influence just those few.”

Asked which type of social network participant would have the most measurable effect on an outcome, 57% picked someone who has “a handful of fans/friends/followers that are tightly connected,” versus 8% who picked someone with “millions of fans/friends/followers with little or no connection.” Quality over quantity.

Despite this data, many marketers are on a seemingly relentless quest to beef up their own social network profiles and reach users with lots of friends and followers. In the Vocus-Solis study, 57% of respondents said they’d be willing to pay for an influencer to help them “drive actions or outcomes.”

Further, Twitter recently unveiled its Promoted Accounts platform, which allows marketers to essentially pay for access to users based on the sizes of those users’ networks. Quantity over quality.

And an eROI study of social metrics tracked by US marketers found that two-thirds tracked changes in the numbers of friends, followers and fans. More qualitative measures such as reach of messaging were much lower on the scale. Again, quantity over quality.

For more on the correlation, or lack thereof, between the size of a person’s social network contact list and that person’s level of influence, stay tuned for the upcoming eMarketer report “Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Leveraging Trust Online and Offline.”

But a new report from Vocus and FutureWorks principal Brian Solis throws a healthy dose of skepticism on the supposed correlation between popularity and influence. The report—provocatively titled “Influencer Grudge Match: Lady Gaga versus Bono”—surveyed 739 marketing and communications professionals who work with influencers to gauge their perceptions of what makes an influencer.

A surprising 90% of respondents answered “yes” when asked whether there’s a big difference between popularity and influence.

Nearly the same percentage, 84%, believed that there was a correlation between an influencer’s reach and his or her ability to drive action. This indicates that respondents made a clear distinction between popularity and reach, and regarded the latter as the key that determines a person’s influence.

The survey did not define any of these terms, so it was up to the respondents to interpret them. From the results, it’s apparent that respondents regarded popularity as the sheer number of contacts on a social network and reach as the ability to actually communicate meaningfully with some number of those contacts. As one respondent put it, “A person can have only a few contacts and greatly influence just those few.”

Asked which type of social network participant would have the most measurable effect on an outcome, 57% picked someone who has “a handful of fans/friends/followers that are tightly connected,” versus 8% who picked someone with “millions of fans/friends/followers with little or no connection.” Quality over quantity.

Despite this data, many marketers are on a seemingly relentless quest to beef up their own social network profiles and reach users with lots of friends and followers. In the Vocus-Solis study, 57% of respondents said they’d be willing to pay for an influencer to help them “drive actions or outcomes.”

Further, Twitter recently unveiled its Promoted Accounts platform, which allows marketers to essentially pay for access to users based on the sizes of those users’ networks. Quantity over quality.

And an eROI study of social metrics tracked by US marketers found that two-thirds tracked changes in the numbers of friends, followers and fans. More qualitative measures such as reach of messaging were much lower on the scale. Again, quantity over quality.

See more at www.emarketer.com

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2010-10-07T10:08:00.001+11:00

I am looking to change my hosting provider, please submit your recommendations, many thanks http://bit.ly/bLJa7R

Numbers Don’t Lie: Why You Need to Use Social Media Marketing' @Growsmartbiz

2010-10-07T10:02:00.001+11:00

The opportunities available using the Internet and Social Media to grow your Brand and become more visible to your target market, enabling you to reach more people interested in your products and services faster, more effectively without the huge marketing budget that traditional media requires.

Social Media + Lead Generation Opportunities = New Clients

Amplify’d from growsmartbusiness.com

Numbers Don’t Lie: Why You Need to Use Social Media Marketing

The good folks over at HubSpot put together a great presentation on social media stats and sound bites that should convince you, once and for all, that you can’t afford to ignore social media marketing anymore.

Global Internet Users

The number of global internet users worldwide is, in a word, huge, making your potential audience very big no matter what industry you operate in, who your target market is, or whether you sell a product, service, or combination of both.

North America: 252,908,000

Latin American/Caribbean: 179,031,479

Europe: 418,029,796

Africa: 67,371,700

Asia: 738,257,230

Australian/Oceania: 20,970,490

Social Media Users

The volume of information being shared online is staggering. In 2009, 90 trillion emails were sent. The biggest, most popular social media platforms are not only generating a tremendous amount of information as well, but they’re also being used by tons of people. Again, this translates into a lot of potential customers.

There are 550 million Facebook users and counting.

Blogs on the Internet number 126 million.

Since 2006, over 10 billion tweets have been distributed on Twitter.

Every day, 2 billion videos are streamed on YouTube. Every. Day.

Even though I have the tendency to sound off on the fact that so much is written about social media at the expense of marketing in general, I happily acknowledge that social media is the future of marketing and advertising. Not only is it where the people are, it’s an easy way to share information about your company to a targeted audience and track the return on your marketing investment in the form of new clients.

Social Media + Lead Generation Opportunities = New Clients
Read more at growsmartbusiness.com

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smarter conversations: “how do i want to change the way i talk to people?” RT @gapingvoid

2010-09-04T21:25:00.001+10:00

"Start today. It’s never too late to begin a Smarter Conversation."

Amplify’d from gapingvoid.com

smarter conversations: “how do i want to change the way i talk to people?”

[The "Life Is Too Short" print...]

I first started playing with the idea of “Smarter-Conversations” way back in 2004, the same year gapingvoid really started getting traction in the blogopsphere.

Though not something I talk about day-in-day-out, it’s always been there somewhere in the background, informing everything I work on. Here are some notes:

1. In the seminal book, “The Cluetrain Manifesto”, the great Doc Searls famously declared, “Markets are conversations”. If you buy that premise (and I do, wholeheartedly), then quod erat demonstratum, if you want your marketing to be smarter (i.e. more effective), you need to be having a “Smarter Conversation”.

2. “Conversation” is a metaphor. Making your product sleek, elegant and graceful while all your other competitors make their product look cheap, plastic and clunky is a smarter conversation. Not all conversations need words.

3. It’s not just what you say, its how you say it. Calling it the “iPod” is a smarter conversation than say, the “MZT-2300-B Electronic Portable MP3 Digital Hand Device”.

4. Smarter Conversations scale. That’s what I really like about it. Anyone can have a smarter conversation- from a mom n’ pop pizza joint to a Fortune 500 company. It can happen in a Superbowl ad or on printed on the back of a paper napkin. You can start one on a blog today, for free. Or on Twitter or Facebook. The tools don’t necessarily have to change, the way you talk to people has to change.

5. Deciding to have a smarter conversation isn’t a business decision, it’s a moral decision. Like I said in the last point, the barriers to entry are zero. While your competition treats their customers like idiots, you treat your customers like intelligent human beings. You don’t do that because your accountant told you to, you do that because that’s who you are.

6. The Smarter Conversation’s value comes from, I believe, not by yet more increased business efficiencies, but by its humanity. For example, take two well-known airlines. They both perform a useful service. They both deliver value. They both cost about the same to fly to New York or Hong Kong. Both have nice Boeings and Airbuses. Both serve peanuts and drinks. Both serve “airline food”. Both use the same airports. But one airline has friendly people working for them, the other airline has surly people working for them. One airline has a sense of fun and adventure about it, one has a tired, jaded business-commuter vibe about it. Guess which one takes the human dimension of their business more seriously than the other? Guess which one still will be around in twenty years? Guess which one will lose billions of dollars worth of shareholder value over the next twenty years? What parallels do you see in your own industry? In your own company?

6. If Smarter Conversations work, it’s because they help humanize the company. I wrote about this years ago in an article I called “The Porous Membrane”. To paraphrase: Ideally, you want the conversation between customers [the external market] to be as identical as the conversation between yourselves [the internal market]. The things that your customer is passionate about, you should also be passionate about. This we call “alignment”. A good example would be Apple. The people at Apple think the iPod is cool, and so do their customers. They are aligned. When you are no longer aligned with your customers is when the company starts getting into trouble. When you start saying your gizmo is great and your customers are telling everybody it sucks, then you have serious misalignment. So how do you keep misalignment from happening? The answer lies the cultural membrane that separates you from them. The more porous the membrane, the easier it is for conversations between you and them, the internal and external, to happen. The easier for the conversations on both sides to adjust to the other, to become like the other. And nothing pokes holes in the membrane better than blogging.

7. Social Media is not about reaching a mass audience. Social Media is not about creating yet another sales channel. Social Media is about allowing the Smarter Conversation to happen. That’s all. Why do some companies lose, while other companies win? Because the latter has a smarter “conversation” with its customers. Zappos had a smarter conversation about the power of customer service and the power of company culture. Peet’s Coffee came along 20 years ago and began a smarter conversation about coffee with millions of people within a very short space of time. Target’s recent massive success started from a smarter conversation about good design. Savile Row tailor, Thomas Mahon came along and, with his blog, had a smarter conversation about $4000 English bespoke suits. Lucky’s Juice Joint had a smarter conversation about fresh-squeezed. Big companies, medium companies and tiny companies, whatever- it was never about size, it was never about the choice of media (social or otherwise), it was all about language.

8. Social Media allows you to cheaply and quickly begin a smarter conversation. And once you get it going, that conversation starts bleeding out into all other areas of your business- including advertising, PR and corporate communications.

9. Ask not what tools you want to use, ask how you want to change how you talk to people. All evolutions in marketing are evolutions in language. Those who can raise the level of conversation in any market, win.

10. Start today. It’s never too late to begin a Smarter Conversation. Like I said, money or time is not the issue. Making the decision is the issue, and only you can do that.
Read more at gapingvoid.com

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Untitled

2010-08-18T07:45:00.003+10:00

The Use of Social Marketing Tactics @MarketingSherpa http://amplify.com/u/8sk6

via Ping.fm