Social Media badges on every page?
Why?
Once customers come in your shop, would you send them down to the coffee shop (where all their friends hang out) just to sign up for your mailing list?
Heck no.
So, now that they’re on your website, why would you make it easy for them to go to Facebook where there are a thousand other distractions?
Once they visit your site, you’ve got their attention. Do something quick or you’ll lose it.
I’ve noticed several inconsistencies in the way businesses are using Facebook and I think a lot of it comes from not really understanding the different types of Facebook accounts/pages and how they work. If you get caught doing the wrong thing, Facebook can delete all of your accounts and that would mean the loss of a lot of hard work & followers. So, it pays to do a little research before you jump in.
Yeah, I know. It’s confusing. The best way that I know to explain it is to tell a story about a familiar character.
Jethro Bodine moves with his uncle’s family from the Ozarks to Beverly Hills. In this strange & wonderful new land, Jethro makes a lot of new friends, but he finds himself missing the friends and family that he left back home. One of his new California friends (Miss Jane) suggests to Jethro that he join Facebook to keep in touch with them. This sounds like a great idea, so he signs up for a Facebook Personal Account. Unfortunately, no one from back home has indoor plumbing much less a computer with an internet connection, so Jethro’s friend list mainly consists of his really weird Hollywood friends and all of the animals that his cousin Ellie May has created accounts for.
Eventually, Jethro’s Uncle Jed gets tired of seeing him sitting around watching TV while eating cereal out of a mixing bowl and tells him that he needs to go out and get a career. He tries a lot of different jobs (bookkeeper, brain surgeon, street car conductor…), but settles on the role of Hollywood Producer. None of the big studios will hire him, so he starts his own production company and names it JBP Studios. Uncle Jed gives him a little cash for marketing, so Jethro creates a Facebook Page for his studio & put the money in ads on Facebook. He also tells his weird Hollywood friends about the page and they all become fans. Their friends see that they’ve become fans and they join up as well. Pretty soon Jethro has the most fans of any business on Facebook before he’s even released a single movie.
After many months of hard work, JBP Studios releases their first movie titled, The Double-Naught Spy and despite the massive push on Twitter, it’s a tremendous failure. It has such abysmal numbers on the first weekend that the distribution company decides to immediately pull it in hopes that the general public will not hear the horrendous reviews and buy it on DVD because the cover looks cool. However, no one buys the DVDs and the movie is forgotten until several years later when a programming director for TNT uses it to fill gaps in programming for five nights in a row.
Then, something odd happens.
A young man in Akron, Ohio sees The Double-Naught Spy on the last night of the TNT run, and is immediately inspired by it. He finds a copy of the DVD in the discount bin at Wal-Mart and begins organizing viewing parties for all of his friends. One of them starts a Facebook Group called Fans of the Double-Naught Spy and word of the movie goes international. Soon, it becomes a cult classic and Jethro returns to the Ozarks as a hero. Parades are held, keys to the city are presented, and Jethro retires on the income from the licensing rights for Double-Naught action figures, lunch boxes & t-shirts.
If you managed to make it this far, then bravo for you. Here’s what you need to remember:
1. Facebook Personal Account – Individual People
2. Facebook Page – Official Business
3. Facebook Group – Unofficial Representation
4. Never under estimate the power of TNT reruns.
140 Characters is just too short a space to recommend people to follow on Twitter. So, Here are my #FollowFriday recommendations. This isn’t a comprehensive list & I’ll try to do this on a regular basis.
Congrats to all the guys at StarNewsOnline.com! The MyReporter.com website recently won the Citizen Media Award in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.
And what can you take away from this? A little quote from their announcement says it all…
“Executive Editor Robyn Tomlin had noticed editors and reporters were connecting with readers on Twitter and other social networking sites, and she saw that readers appreciated the personal connection to people who reported the news.”**
Using social media isn’t about just blatantly promoting yourself. Tootin’ your own horn a bit is ok, but if you’re not making personal connections then you’re probably not going to get a whole lot out of it. In fact, if all you do is toot away, you’re probably going to come off doing a good bit of damage.
link: MyReporter.com wins national media award
** BTW, local TV stations should take note. Simply tweeting teases like you’re tossing to break isn’t going to cut it.
Kevin Spacey explains Twitter to David Letterman.
I just downloaded a new Adobe Air app (in the ever popular “beta”) called Skimmer. As of right now, it puts Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube & Blogger accounts all in one place. Since it’s beta, I’m assuming that more features are to come.
Oh, look. I can upload an avatar! I gotta do that *now*.
Go see it here: http://www.fallon.com/skimmer
We take clean drinking water for granted. We go to the sink, fill up a cup and off we go, but 1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water.
This Thursday night, the social media types in Wilmington will be gathering for the Wilmington Twestival to raise money for charity:water. Charity:Water is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing clean water to developing nations where unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease.
One of my favorite clients, Indo Jax Surf School, has generously donated a week long group surf lesson to be raffled off. There will be other prizes, drinks, food and the chance to meet a lot of local people that you may only know by their screen names & avatars. Plus, you’ll literally be saving lives.
Tickets are $15 online & you can get them at http://www.amiando.com/twestivalwilmington.html.
Credit goes to Ty Downing of Perspective Internet Marketing for kicking this event off locally at well as the Star News and a whole slew of volunteers & local businesses that are donating their time and resources.
What: Wilmington Twestival
Where: Port City Pub – Wilmington, NC
When: February 12, 2009 – 6:00 PM
Why: Charity:Water
Congratulations to client Abba First Mortgage for breaking the top 10 in number of mortgage applications submitted by a XSites customer.
Abba First is also now on Twitter where they can be followed for mortgage related news.
Now, I’ve just got to get that twitter feed on their blog…
I do a lot of social media. I’ve got accounts set up on just about every major social media site I could find, but I concentrate mainly on Twitter and Facebook. I don’t do a lot of shameless self-promotion not because I think it’s evil, but because I find it to be a personal turn-off. God didn’t wire me to be P.T. Barnum and it turns my stomach to see half-truths thrown out in the name of marketing.
Then I start getting followers on Twitter. They’re linking and pimping and demanding that I act NOW! There’s so many of them and, gee, they seem to be doing pretty well. Maybe I should do a little of that?
But I find a scrap of wisdom in my RSS feeds this morning. A quote from the prophet of social media marketing:
“Either you are on the path of the TV Industrial complex, and you’re prepared to promote and spam and spend and make average stuff for average people… or you are busy embracing the new media for everything it can offer.”
Read More: Seth’s Blog: What to do when the new thing doesn’t work
Ah, Seth, you are my hero.
I got the below item from Chris Andrews at City Buddha today (disclosure: City Buddha is a client) :
I would like to take this last oppourtunity to remind all of you about the fundraiser we’ve been having here at City Buddha.
We’ve joined forces with some of our fellow downtown business’ to help provide a little support to two very important organizations here in the Wilmington area. We’re accepting womens and childrens clothing, as well as personal type items for the Domestic Violence Shelter and Services. In addition to them, we’re also accepting pet items for the Pender County Humane Society(a no-kill shelter), pet food, collars, used blankets(can be used as bedding), as well as monitary donations for either group.
We know it’s tuff times for all of us, but please consider those who are less fortunate then us, and let’s try to pitch in. In return for helping out, we here at City Buddha are willing to give you 5% off your entire purchase for every item you donate, up to 8 items(or 40% off). Also for every purchase you make with donations, we’ll give you an entry for a chance to win a free nite stay at the Wilmingtonian B & B, a gift certificate at Caffe’ Phoenix, and a gift basket fillied with goodies for you to enjoy! Other partcipating business’ include,
Dog Gone Crazy
Edge Of Urge
Finkelsteins
So you can also go into any of these business and take advantage of various discounts with them as well. The drawing for the above mentioned prizes will be held this Sunday, Dec.21st, at 3:00pm at Slice of Life, 122 Market St. and Mayor Bill Saffo will be there to draw the lucky winner!
So again, you have thru this Sunday,to take advantage of this discount reward, and a chance to enter the contest. But more importantly, let’s try to help these people and animals out.
Chris Andrews / City Buddha
Things I’m Reading