Social Media News of the Day: November 30, 2010

The Social Good Network is Here!

Today was the launch of Jumo, a new social network that brings users together with causes they’re passionate about. There has been a lot of talk recently about how we can use the power of social media to work for the social good, so much so that there was a whole summit dedicated to this idea.

There are already 3,500 organizations partnering so far and I can see many others to follow. A great example of why this network is so beneficial is Louie’s Kids located in Charleston, S.C. People outside of the  Charleston area might have never heard of this organization, but it’s the only nonprofit in the entire country that exclusively fights childhood obesity. So if your passion is health and wellness you could potentially find out about this organization with Jumo!

Jumo will allow you to enter issues you are passionate about, not just organizations you are familiar with, giving users the opportunity to find new and interesting non-profits.

Social Media Gift of the Week

Sticking with the spirit of giving back, this week’s gift is all about giving back. If you didn’t have the opportunity to see Oprah’s Favorite Things episode, you missed a lot of screaming, crying and jumping up and down over the free Uggs, Coach purses and the Cruise vacation. What you also missed is the great idea of giving a DonorsChoose.org gift card courtesy of Bing.

I’ve been thinking about this idea a lot recently after the success of the Pepsi Refresh Project, and I’m super impressed with DonorChoose. With this site you’re connected to a classroom that’s in need of school supplies or equipment to serve as teaching aids. There are tons of schools all over the country that are in need, and this site is the perfect way to get connected even if you live hundreds of miles apart.

This article from Mashable also provides some other wonderful organizations that make donating very easy online!

Facebook by the Numbers

Ok, so you have a Facebook page, you update it regularly and you interact daily. You’re doing everything right so far, but there’s one aspect of managing a Facebook page that you may have overlooked: Insights. Facebook Insights is a tool available to page administrators that gives you tons of information about your friends and their activity on your page.

Getting Started

When on your business page, you can look on the left hand column and see a quick overview of four insights, including monthly active users, daily new likes, daily post views and daily post feedback.

Facebook just started posting Insight numbers underneath each post, as well. After a post has been up long enough for Facebook to collect data (no longer than a few hours), you’ll be able to see how many people actually SAW your page and what percentage of them interacted with it (by clicking “like”, commenting, etc).

This can help you figure out what types of posts get the most views and interaction so you can tailor the content of future posts, as well as what times your friends are most active.

For the More Advanced

If you’d like even more information about your page and friends, simply click on the “see all” link in the Insights box. Here you’ll see all the pages you have admin access to on the left.

Under each page, there are two sets of Insights: one focused on user statistics, and the other on interaction statistics. The user statistics show you information on new likes or unlikes and friend demographics, including age, gender and location. The interactions page breaks down all your recent posts and compiles the impression (views) and feedback (number of interactions) information in one table. You can also view daily mentions, reviews and posts.

If you’ve been using Facebook Insights for sometime, then you may also be familiar with, and even prefer, the old Insights page. Both sets are available, and when we put together reports for our clients, we use graphs and statistics from both versions. You can access the old Insights page from a link at the top of the new page that says “View Old Page Insights”.

The old Insights page offers similar information, but it’s shown in different graphs. One of my favorite graphs is the “interactions over time” graph, which is very helpful when showing a new client the increase in interactions since we took over managing the page.

Spreadsheets and More!

Now, if that’s still not enough data for you, you go a step further and export more stats into an Excel spreadsheet. Just click on the “export data” link at the top of the page. I usually download the friend and interaction data, as that has most of the information needed to keep clients up to date and to keep your social media approach fresh.

The Excel data gives you information about the Facebook page all the way back to its creation, allowing you to easily compare months and years. To me, the most interesting numbers are the page views. Many clients are surprised to see how many page views their Facebook page is receiving.

Following Facebook by the numbers will help you do a better job managing your page, ultimately helping increase your page’s friends and thus improving the brand’s presence and success on Facebook.

Do you use Facebook Insights? What’s your favorite stat?

Social Media News of the Day: November 29, 2010

Facebook Just Keeps on Going

There appears to be evidence that Skype and Facebook could be partnering soon to bring video chat to the social media site. Some speculate that you’ll be able to Skype using Facebook’s existing chat application while others think this could be the next thing for Messages.

If Facebook is truly trying to bring all communication into one seamless “non-email,” then a partnership with Skype seems likely. My personal opinion of Messages goes against most of my social media peers, because I think it will fail. Bringing Skype on only deepens my thoughts that Facebook is looking to copycat Gmail and it just won’t work.

Not only do I not want another bailey@ or ebailey126@ email address but if I do crack and get the facebook.com account, I will forward it to my Gmail account defeating the whole purpose of it not being email.

What are your thoughts on Messages and the new Skype integration rumors?

Being Silent to Make Noise

A group of celebrities, including Alicia Keys, Kim Kardashian and Justin Timberlake, will be completely silent on social media later this week until everyone gathers together and raises $1 million for World Aids Day.

I know each of you follows at least one celebrity on Twitter or Facebook and you will miss their hourly updates on what they’re wearing today or how crazy their personal training session was. In order for you to know the ins and outs of your famous Twitter counterparts, you need to donate.

This is a great idea for a great cause!

Mobile Technologies Retailers Should Be Using to Sustain Sales After the Holidays

Guest Post by Houston Neal, Software Advice

It’s no secret that Cyber Monday has become the lifeblood of many online and offline businesses. Sales from this single day of shopping can help keep stores afloat during slower months of the year. But what if it was possible to sustain this traffic and dodge a Cyber Monday hangover? Mobile technologies might be the key ingredient to stave off post-holiday inertia…

Thousands of retailers are already using mobile technologies in marketing and sales campaigns. We won’t make any silver bullet claims, but it has become a proven channel for driving traffic and sales to retail stores. And while tech fads come and go, mobile commerce is here to stay. According to a study by ABI research, mobile shopping has increased from $396 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009. It is expected to continue growing to become a $119 billion industry worldwide by 2015. Retailers that can learn to harness this technology now stand to gain a competitive advantage, especially when the economy recovers.

So to help retailers make sense of the what’s available, Software Advice put together a report on “Mobile Technologies You Should Be Using Now.” They highlight five technologies that retailers are using successfully. Among the list are names like Foursquare, ShopAlerts and Groupon. Here is a quick break down of each:

Geolocation Apps (e.g. Foursquare, Gowalla)

Geolocation apps help retailers get increased exposure on social media and the web. Every “check in” gets pushed out to a user’s social network, which not only includes other Foursquare users, but Twitter followers and friends on Facebook. This exposure helps build brand awareness and ultimately generates more sales.

ShopAlerts

Developed by Placecast, ShopAlerts will deliver SMS text messages to consumers’ mobile phones when they enter inside the “geo-fence” or virtual boundary of a business. This has potential to be a sales-driving machine for retailers. Couple this technology with existing customer purchase information and ShopAlerts could be used to up-sell and cross-promote merchandise. For example, a sporting goods store could send you an alert to pick up an extra pair of socks for the running shoes you just purchased.

Group Buying (such as Groupon)

Group buying websites have been hugely successful. Groupon has already won the title of “fastest growing company ever.” Their success can be attributed to adoption by both consumers and retailers. Consumers love it for the deep discounts. Retailers love it for the increased foot traffic – and sales – they’re getting at their stores.

For more information, please visit: 5 Mobile Technologies Retailers Should Be Using Now

Top 10 Things I Learned at the 2010 Internet Summit

1. Your brand is what your customer remembers about you when you aren’t in front of them!
2. Smart social media advertising is “brand-lite”, has a little bit of mystery and includes participation.
3. Never have fake material in your social media campaign!! Walmart paid someone to write a blog about visiting all the Walmarts in the US, and the backlash was nasty and did more damage than good.
4. Retail seems to be exploding through social media campaigns!
5. $1 given to social media pay for itself over and over, but money put toward ads (TV, magazine, etc.) is a one-time deal.
6. Everyone should check out what the State of Arkansas has done with Gowalla.
7. Mobile is a boomin’ and 1/3 of the top grossing apps for the iPhone are free!
8. Emotion moves consumers from decision to action so we have to engage people emotionally on social media platforms, as well.
9. When starting a social media campaign for a company, make sure you know the rules: always talk to the company lawyers! Then create a social media policy for you and other employees.
10. Top 3 reasons companies feel they need social media: increased awareness, increase traffic to their website and a more favorable perception of the company and their products.

I learned so much beyond this top 10 so feel free to email me at bailey@stepaheadinc.com or tweet me @ebailey126 to ask me any questions!

Social Media News of the Day: November 26, 2010

What’s on Your Black Friday List?

This morning the stores were flooded with people trying to find the perfect deal. I’m personally waiting for Cyber Monday to do some shopping but I’ve already heard from friends who benefited from the great price cuts.

This season it appears to be all about the techy gadgets! This should be no surprise with everyone from 6-year-old children to grandparents asking for the iPad this year. Beyond that, you have the Kindle and other ereaders, iPod Touch, some great deals on laptops and several different Android devices.

Marketing Daily is predicting that people will spend more money this year on gadgets than they will on travel! Do you think this is true and what’s on your holiday wish list?

The Mobile Performance

As I’ve said in the past, I love music! I’m also an Apple fan and when you put these two loves together you get some great videos! Here are some fun videos provided by Mashable of talented iPad and iPhone musicians. Enjoy!

Social Media and Social Causes

It’s great when social media can bring attention to social causes. Urban Ministries of Durham (N.C.) is doing just that using Foursquare.

When people in Durham check in to their favorite shops and restaurants via Foursquare, they’ll also have the option of checking in to such spots as a trash can behind the restaurant, a tent under an overpass or a trashcan in a vacant lot. Foursquare tips will highlight information about Urban Ministries of Durham.

According to an article about the campaign, people will be sharing the message about homelessness with their friends. An example: “UMD serves 220,000 meals a year. But we’d rather keep people from being hungry in the first place. Check in to raise awareness for our cause, or learn more at umdurham.org.”

I love this idea and hope to ‘check in’ (I couldn’t resist) on it in a few months to see how it’s working.

So this article got me thinking, how can other nonprofits use tools like Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places to spread their mission? At Step Ahead, we help the Charleston Parks Conservancy with its Foursquare efforts. As people check in to parks they see tips about the park or upcoming events hosted by the Conservancy.

Surely there are other causes in Charleston that could benefit from Foursquare: literacy, hunger or even our city’s own efforts to curb homelessness. How would you use social media to solve a social issue? Have you seen other organizations doing this?

Facebook’s Best Idea Since Facebook

PERSPECTIVES

By Lyn Mettler, founder, Step Ahead Inc.

Early this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage to announce the latest feature from one of the most popular social networking sites in the world: Facebook Messages. While already coming under fire from folks across the country for privacy issues (again) and for what some think is essentially copying Gmail, I, for one, think it’s brilliant and what the much hyped Google Wave should have been.

Facebook  Messages aims to change the way we communicate online and via our mobile phones by consolidating email, text messages and instant messages all into one “social inbox.” Zuckerberg noted that when talking to the younger generation today, he discovered that they really don’t use email and that is absolutely true. They want instant communication without the formality of subject lines, cc:’s, greetings, etc. They want to get right to the point.

Messages does just this. It simplifies communication, allowing you to type in a friend’s name and dialogue with them instantly, while allowing them to receive that information however they prefer: text, IM or email. If your friend isn’t on Facebook, that’s fine too. They can email you using your new Facebook.com email address (it will be your Facebook username with @Facebook.com).

Another of my favorite parts of Messages is its “conversation history” capability. A new feature of my Facebook profile is a link to the history of communication I’ve had with any of my friends, whether it was a private message I sent them, a post to their wall, a comment on a picture, whatever. That’s pretty amazing to be able to track a relationship from the word go, essentially what Facebook says is the equivalent of your Grandma’s box of letters written to and from your Grandpa. Now it can all be digitized and captured forever, good or bad.

So what’s all the fuss about? Well, first off a lot of griping about how this is not practical, emails have a subject line for a reason, Gmail lets you IM, etc. etc. Keep in mind I don’t think Zuckerberg is after the over 35 crowd who is chained to their email and probably will never defect. Kids are not used to subject lines and they’re going to love this. And guess what, they’re the ones who are going to grow older, and if this works as good as it sounds, turn this into the new way to communicate. It’s also different from Gmail and other providers in that if you’re already a Facebook member, there’s no more remembering of emails, phone numbers or screen names. Simply type in the person’s name and it gets to them however they want to receive it.

There’s also Facebook’s attempt at world domination J. Now you’ll be visiting the site not just to see pictures of your niece, comment on your friend’s workout last night and for coupons for your favorite businesses, you may be going there to do all your communication too. That means more information Facebook has about you and the more they can sell to their advertisers. While I agree this is a bit scary, I don’t think it will stop most of the younger crowd from jumping on the bandwagon, and if they jump, those they communicate with probably will to, so it’s not likely to stop its success.

And lastly, privacy, an issue that always dogs Facebook. Critics say they aren’t doing enough to protect our sensitive information on the site, and if we start sharing all our personal, confidential messages, we could have a mess on our hands. I’ll let the techies argue that one out.

So, overall I think Facebook has come up with a concept that once again may change the world order, much like Facebook and the iPod did. We’ll have to see if it works as well in practice as it does in theory, and in the meantime, I will be anxiously awaiting my invitation to try messages.

See the piece on INside INdiana Business.

Social Media News of the Day: November 24, 2010

Facebook Getting Crazy

Facebook is in the process of trade marking the word “face” if it is used in online chat rooms or bulletin boards. There is a 6-month process ahead of them but this is not the first time they have been down the trademarking path. Earlier this year they requested to trademark the like button.

What do you think about Facebook’s decision to trademark such common terms as “face” or  “like”?

Social Media Gift of the Week

Most women are digging tights this winter. I for one wear them all the time because it’s just so easy and super cute! This year I have seen so many girls wearing tights that have a pattern or an elaborate fishnet design.  Well these Twitter inspired tights are perfect for the social media lady in your life!

7 Ways to Score Deals With Social Media

Are you looking to save money this holiday season? Who isn’t?! Well, don’t forget about social media as a great tool to save you some bucks on your holiday gift list.

In this week’s TwitterMoms.com post, I’ve got 7 ways you can score some deals using social media tools like blogs, Facebook, Foursquare and more. Read on!

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