Shared by JoAnne
Did you know that 90% of the people who click your Facebook fan page don’t come back to your Facebook page? They are more likely to read your content in their own Facebook news feed IF you know how to make sure it shows up there…

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What does it mean for social media and your business? Mobile ads will overtake social ads and email marketing already this year: They’ll hit $8.2 billion in revenues by 2016 as advertisers will want to reach people while they’re on mobile phones and tablets, not just searching at their desk.

Shared by JoAnne
What does it mean for social media and your business? Mobile ads will overtake social ads and email marketing already this year: They’ll hit $8.2 billion in revenues by 2016 as advertisers will want to reach people while they’re on mobile phones and tablets, not just searching at their desk.

Shared by JoAnne
LinkedIn Groups are one of the most powerful ways to learn, discuss and network – and even potentially develop business

In consulting with businesses on their social media strategy, I often use success stories from LinkedIn’s own blog to illustrate how business can be developed on LinkedIn.  I also talk about my own success story, which is included in full detail in my new LinkedIn marketing book, and summarized as follows:

As my job involves staying abreast of the latest discussions and news concerning social media, I am a member of a number of LinkedIn Groups that relate to the topic.  I learn a lot from these groups, develop relationships with new people, and engage in discussions where appropriate as well.  In order to keep up with all of the updates, I sign up for daily or weekly digests from my favorite groups to keep better track of the discussions.

One day I noticed that there was one discussion on one group that was gathering a lot of comments.  When I navigated from the Weekly Digest email to the group’s website page, I noticed the last comment was from someone who asked, “Prove to me the ROI of social media.”  I was intrigued by the comment and went to visit this person’s profile.I was surprised to find 1) this professional lived in the same Orange County that I did and 2) he was already connected to my brother, who is in the wine industry, as apparently he is also involved in event marketing where he hosts wine-tasting events.

I decided to reply privately saying that, since we live close by, I would love to meet him and I would be more than happy to explain to him the ROI of social media over a cup of coffee.  I also mentioned the relationship with my brother to improve my chances at establishing rapport.  I shortly thereafter received a reply that he was actually a marketing consultant and one of his clients was looking for someone with social media expertise.  He introduced me to his client and one week later the deal was closed.  Shortly thereafter he introduced me to another opportunity which also resulted in new business.

LinkedIn Groups are one of the most powerful ways to learn, discuss and network – and even potentially develop business.  If you are a member of groups where professionals are discussing business problems that you have answers to, I am confident that you too can develop business.  I include more than 15 similar case studies in my new book to prove to you that business is being developed every day on LinkedIn.

Now it’s time for you to share your LinkedIn success story and allow it to become a case study for the world to learn from.  Whether it’s been developing new business, a lead, a networking opportunity, or even a job, what success story do you have to share with us?  The 5 best success stories shared by commenting on this blog post before Tuesday, September 6 will be chosen to win a free copy of Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing as well as potential inclusion into my future books!

What are you waiting for?

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Shared by JoAnne
If you haven’t joined Empire Avenue yet, I think it’s time you look into it and at least scan the profiles of users to see if some of your target audience is there.

Social media websites are filled with communities and large numbers of people, and most businesses decide to strategically market to the largest websites that exist: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  There are many more social networks outside of the “Big Three,” so for some companies it might make sense to look into targeting up-and-coming networks such as Google+ (although it is limited until Google releases Business Profiles) or, if you were a restaurant, to look into Foursquare marketing.

The central doctrine of social media marketing is that you need to be where your customers are, and sometimes these customers are spending more time on other platforms that might be under your radar.  That’s why it’s always worthwhile to spend sometime researching what other social networks your network might be and look into investing some time there to engage.  A good example is Ravelry, a social network for knitters. Empire Avenue is a similar type of niche social networking site for those that are active in social media.  With the advent of Google+ and it disruptive forces, many feel that these niche sites, which include Empire Avenue, will lose out to the growing competition for our limited time.  My own experience with Empire Avenue is that, with time, it is actually getting stronger as those who are members of the site find it enjoyable to engage with each other in a game that involves social media activity and true community begins to blossom.  Let’s take a deeper look into Empire Avenue and see as to why it matters to social media marketers.  This blog post will not cover tips as to how to play Empire Avenue as a game, but based on the feedback from this post I will be more than happy to cover my “gaming” advice in a future blog post. 1) Empire Avenue is Niche but Not Too Niche

Looking at Alexa.com statistics, we can see that website traffic to Empire Avenue is below the major 3 sites as well as the 3 largest social bookmarking sites: (all are 3-month global rankings as of 8/15/2011)

1. Facebook #2
2. YouTube #3
3. Twitter #9
4. LinkedIn #13
5. StumbleUpon #104
6. Reddit #126
7. Digg #147
8. Empire Avenue #2,177

A look at the below graph shows that Empire Avenue did have a spike of traffic in mid-April to late-May, which is exactly when I joined, and despite the emergence of Google+, its numbers are fairly steady in-between the 2,000 and 3,000 ranking.  This number means that Empire Avenue is still in one of the 2 to 3 thousand most popular websites in the world, meaning that it is niche but not too niche.  In other words, it hasn’t crossed the chasm yet, but it may some day be inside the tornado, should an event or series of events spark a tipping point in its membership. 2) Empire Avenue is Sticky

Facebook is exciting for social media marketers for many reasons, including the fact that the site is sticky and people spend a lot of time there.  Outside of Facebook, people are spending on average more time on Empire Avenue than any other of the above leading social media websites, spending even more time on average than on YouTube:

1. Facebook 32.3 minutes
2. Empire Avenue 25.1 minutes
3. YouTube 17.8 minutes
4. Reddit 10.1 minutes
5. LinkedIn 7.6 minutes
6. Twitter 7.3 minutes
7. StumbleUpon 5.9 minutes
8. Digg 4.1 minutes

3) Unique Engagement Platform

The fact of the matter is that  not everyone is active on all platforms all of the time.  If some of your target customers are on niches sites such as Empire Avenue, you have the opportunity to engage with them there in unique ways.  I won’t name names, but I have had the opportunity to engage with people that have never responded to me on Twitter, Google+, or even when I mentioned them in an actual blog post, but through the act of buying each other’s stock, joining similar communities, or even sending and receiving “Shareholder Mail” within Empire Avenue I have been able to interact and develop new relationships.  There is also something to be said when a company buys stock in you.  If you are a user competing in a game, that investment on a mental and emotional level is fundamentally different than when a company merely follows you on Twitter.  If social media engagement is like conducting an orchestra and finding out which instruments fit which people best, Empire Avenue gives you another instrument to add in to your social media marketing mix.

4) Social Media Influence is the Theme

One tactic of many a social media marketers strategy is to engage the “influencers.”  I won’t say that all of them are on Empire Avenue, but since the “game” is centered around your social activity on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, your own Facebook Page, your blog(s), as well as your own Empire Avenue activity, users are scored by their activity on each platform.  This information on social scores, which is broken down by platform, is then given for every user.  Not even Klout or PeerIndex break down “influence” scores by platform.

What do these scores look like?  A good example is to look at my social scores below.  They give you an example as to where I am most active and therefore more probable to respond to you:

1. LinkedIn 89
2. Twitter 64
3. Facebook 50
4. Empire Avenue 46
5. Facebook Page 15
6. YouTube 7
7. Flickr 1

All of these scores are completely public for any user, so it gives you an idea as to which platforms social media users are most active on and as such gives a clue as to where it is best to engage with them. Furthermore, with Empire Avenue’s new profile pages user interface, you can get a snapshot tag cloud of each person’s interests.  Part of this is definitely user-generated, as users can determine their own interests or “tags” to add to their profile.  However, as you can see from my tag cloud, and the fact that Empire Avenue is connected to all of my social media platforms, they have undoubtedly created an algorithm to display those subjects which I am truly passionate about and often mention in my social media conversations: Would you say that this tag cloud is spot on?  Outside of Empire Avenue, are their any other free social media profile analytical services that can offer scores for each social media platform activity as well as generate easy-to-understand tag clouds for a given person’s interest?  I didn’t think so, but let me know if I’m missing any in the comments.

5) Companies are Already Investing

Believe it or not, there are some companies who believe in investing in the niche and already quite active.  Empire Avenue offers companies a variety of  ways to invest to attain mindshare for brands or directly engage with social media users in a variety of ways:

• Buy “stock” in users
• Promote your own “stock” by buying stock in others
• PPC Ads of your own “stock”
• Create a user community
• Sell a virtual good which is branded with your company
• Offer a perk or coupon for goods and services in exchange for virtual currency (“Super Rewards”)

To prove my point, I had a chance to interview one such company who is making an investment into social media marketing on the Empire Avenue platform and has already found, among other benefits, that the cost per impression for their campaign is competitive.  In his words, this is Jim Wendt, eCommerce Marketing Manager from Big Train, a leading provider of gourmet specialty beverages and delicious edibles, on why Big Train is investing in Empire Avenue:

My wife and I were hosting a invite-only “Eats and Geeks” (an exclusive group founded by Claudia Yuskoff) get together in July in Irvine, California. Attending that night were Calvin Lee, Chris Voss, Jim Alden, and other influential social media celebrities from in and around Southern California. Calvin and Jim spoke relentlessly about Empire Avenue. I had to check it out. The next day I did. I was hooked.

EmpireAvenue.com is clearly one of the stickiest sites ever. I also saw that early adopters were heavy social media users from around the world. After purchasing my first luxury item, I quickly realized the amazing potential to target well connected people. I reached out to the business development team at Empire Avenue eager to see what we could do test advertising in a compelling way. So on July 13th Big Train and Xbox were the first companies to promote branded luxury items on EAV (Empire Avenue). While Xbox offered badges for achievement, their price was very high. I wanted to lower the price of the luxury item even if it meant less impact on a user’s net wealth. The results? So far Big Train has reached over 45,000 EAV shareholders, and over 600 users have bought a virtual “Big Train Kona Mocha” in the EAv summer items shop according to the EAV team.

When you think of social media and integrated marketing, EAV opens the doors to direct engagement with some great people while providing interactive communities and off-shoot groups on Facebook. Big Train follows and interactions are up quite a bit across all of our channels – YouTube, Facebook, twitter, and our blog as a result. And with free shareholder messaging, there are some fun things we can do there. This week we launched a new protein coffee mix product line called FitFrappe™. By the time this blog is published, EAV will be updating our branded luxury item to promote our new products as part of a multi-faceted online marketing effort. On the day we launched Fit Frappe™, we offered a free sample pack care package to all shareholders that maxed out on Big Train. Not only did it boost our share price $2.00+, we created a fun way to engage with our influential shareholders. This in turn resulted in more tweets, more Facebook posts, and more Big Train website traffic, and more sales on our Facebook page ecommerce store.

Finally, while EAV is a cool and has amazing potential, it is just one piece of integrated marketing efforts. This promotion will be happening in conjunction with a KLOUT Promotion, blogger giveaway, online press releases, and trade show efforts. Big Train is certainly becoming more progressive in order to tap into social media to create better relationships with customers, build awareness, and have some fun (while selling more products in return.)

The interesting thing is that Big Train is primarily a B2B company, servicing the retail and foodservice segments worldwide, and does not sell directly to consumers.  Why would Big Train want to reach out directly to consumers?  Jim’s answer:

For 20 years we have had a push strategy – make a product send to distributors – classic B2B model. We are now also trying to engage directly with consumers – understand what people want in beverages, and ultimately support a dual B2C and B2C strategy to help our B2B customers be more successful (offering the products customers want) and get consumers to ask more for Big Train (pull strategy to build on our retail and foodservice channels)

Jim’s speaks about one of the intangible benefits of engaging in social media: Getting direct feedback from your end users. For that purpose, even a niche social networking site like Empire Avenue can be invaluable in the high quality feedback that can be provided simply by engaging.

If you haven’t joined Empire Avenue yet, I think it’s time you look into it and at least scan the profiles of users to see if some of your target audience is there.  Just click on this link to join Empire Avenue and explore for yourself. The heavy players are very active throughout social media, and just by looking at their profiles as mentioned above you’ll get a feel for what platforms they are most active on and what topics they are commonly discussing.

If you’re curious, because of the above circumstances, I decided to do my first social media campaign for my new LinkedIn marketing book not on the larger platforms but on Empire Avenue as part of my own series of social media experiments (my “shareholders” will be notified of the details today directly on the platform through “shareholder mail”.)  If quality and relevance in social media is more important than quantity, it shouldn’t matter what particular platform those individuals are on because everyone is already a member of most of the major platforms, right?  That was my thought process, and by targeting those that are truly active throughout social media, I felt it would aid in not only getting the word out about my new book, but also in building long-term relationships with others like myself who are truly invested in social media – and in Empire Avenue!

Would love to hear your feedback on if your company invests in niche social networking websites or your own feedback on Empire Avenue.  Please chime in!

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Shared by JoAnne
See www.red-brand-media.com

Shared by JoAnne
The meteoric launch of Google+ (20-million users in less than 3 weeks) can be seen as the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes of such failures as Buzz and Wave – the word ‘Circles’ immediately comes to mind here.

Shared by JoAnne
There are four social media mistakes common to small business owners and how you can maneuver around them. Because once you do, you’ve got this social media thing down.

Shared by JoAnne
We agree with this dissection fundamentals of a good blog. Appearance and ease of use goes without saying.

As we talked about a few weeks ago, every time a visitor comes to your blog, they have expectations of your site that, if you fail to meet, could cause them to go away and forget about you almost instantly. All of the SEO and content generation efforts mean nothing if you can’t retain a decent number of your visitors.

The problem is that, though most bloggers carry those same expectations when visiting other sites, they simply don’t look at their work with the same level of objectivity and, as a result, often times forget to add key elements to their sites that keep visitors coming back.

But in addition to having the standard things like predictable navigation and a lack of distractions, there’s also certain content that you need to have on your site. These are pages that, while you might initially overlook them, can become incredibly important to new visitors who are trying to learn about you and your site.

So, if you don’t want your visitors to leave confused and disgusted, here’s what you need to make sure your site has.

The Pitfall

It’s important to remember that, when most visitors land on your site, they are doing so from a search result or a link. When they arrive at your site, they don’t know you, they don’t know your site and they don’t know where they are. In fact, there’s a good chance that your site and even the post they landed on is only indirectly related to what they were expecting or looking for.

Still, every visitor to your site is a chance to hook someone in and earn a repeat visitor. But while your content is what piques their interest, you have to have a well-rounded site to keep them clicking on links and, eventually, bookmarking, subscribing or otherwise becoming a member of your community.

Basically, if you don’t have the content your visitors want and need, it doesn’t matter how good your SEO is or how great your content is, visitors aren’t likely to come back for a second or third bite at the apple.

Instead, you have to be able to lure them in with good promotion, impress them with good content and then keep them by giving them what they want to know. Without the third step, the first two often go to waste.

So what are visitors looking for? You can likely glean much of that information from your surfing habits, but here are 5 pages your site definitely should have in order to keep the visitors you worked so hard to earn.

How to Avoid it

In order to avoid this pitfall, you need to make sure that you have all of the content your visitors want and expect of you. Fortunately, the actual amount you have to write, especially when stacked up to just a few weeks of blogging, is fairly minimal.

It’s important to note that every blog is going to be somewhat different in the added content it needs to provide. Some will need a call to action page, for example, where others won’t. However, there are a few pages that are a good idea for pretty much all blogs and those include the following:

1. About Page: This one is fairly straightforward but almost every blog needs an about page. When I come to your site, I don’t know you, I don’t know what your site is about and I don’t know why I should care. The about page is supposed to explain all three things. It might not be highly-trafficked but those who do visit it are clearly very interested.
2. Keystone Content: Keystone content is static content that is evergreen and lives outside your regular blog. It should be central to your blog’s theme and something that almost every visitor would be likely interested in. For example, a fitness blog might want to have a guide on basic exercises and a cooking blog might want to have definitions of commonly used terms. Basically, this is content to bookmark, not subscribe to.
3. Archives: Nothing is more frustrating to visitor and blogger alike than a visitor who wants to read more of the site but can’t easily find out where. Have a link to your archives in a predictable place and encourage readers to access it if they like your material, they might spend a lot of time clicking around.
4. Social Media/Other Sites: Every visitor is going to leave your site but where are they going to go? If they want to see more of what you do, make sure they have access to your relevant social media profiles and any other sites you write for. This ay not always require a separate page itself, but rather a sidebar element, but is often better broken out if there are many different such destinations to chose from.
5. Contact: If a visitor wants to get in touch with you, whether to pay a compliment, talk business or just ask a question, how can they do so? Offering a good contact page, ideally with a form, encourages good communication and helps create a personal connection with your visitors.

What you do with these pages is, of course, up to you. Though most about pages should include a photo if possible, for the most part these pages should be as unique as your site is.

As long as they meet the criteria these pages were meant to fulfill, these pages can be as much an expression of your creativity as the rest of your blog.

Bottom Line

These pages don’t have to be mundane, but they do have to be present. Otherwise, you are almost certainly turning visitors away inadvertently.

It’s important to remember that your site is more than just a place where you post your thoughts, it’s a reflection of you and your work. To be able to do that, especially for visitors who know nothing about you, your site needs to provide access to the information they need to understand exactly that.

Fortunately, the actual time and energy required to set up and maintain these pages is minimal, especially when compared to the rest of your blog. However, if you fail to do it, the rest of that work could be wasted on visitors that never return.