Want privacy on Facebook? Here is how to get some

"... Facebook has given users many granular controls over their privacy, more than what's available on other major social networks."

Facebook is a site that can offer substantial benefits, under the right circumstances, to people promoting businesses or services over the web. It also presents some challenges, often due to the mingling of personal information with commercial purposes. The article referenced here provides some help in understanding what privacy controls are available and how to use them. With this information in hand, one is in a much better position to assess the situation in light of one's own circumstances, and to set up controls that can help bridge the gap between the demands of different uses.

The key here seems to be in understanding what privacy controls one can set in connection with custom groups that define the status of persons in your friends list. Making clear which of your friends is personal and which is commercial might make using Facebook more productive.

Another point that strikes me in this article is the caution about joining groups and how that can compromise what you have done with other privacy settings.

Finally, games and "fun things" sent by friends introduce real dangers to your system because of how your response can allow other applications access to your information. Personally, I am reluctant to participate in any of these games for that reason.

To read the complete article, click on the title above.

Bloggers and (Personal) Brand-Building

 "Nearly six in 10 of all the bloggers surveyed said they were better known in their industry because of their blog..."

Blogging is showing a very high success rate in improving the visibility of a business, for those who use it as a tool for that purpose! Performance is particularly high for part-timers and self employed. These groups report that over two thirds of the respondents have sold products or services as a result of their blogging, and definitely improved their visibility on the Internet. It seems to me that most of the small business users that I deal with in my practice would share important characteristics with those two categories that would indicate that they could expect the same level of positive performance.

I advocate blogging as a promotional tool for all my clients since everyone in business has some kind of story to tell that is potentially interesting and valuable to their prospects. The key to success with this tool is, first and foremost, to begin using it on a regular basis. A blog without content is not going to do anything for your business, so one has to start by creating content. There must be some commitment by the blogger to regular posting to the blog. With that commitment made, the next step is develop a "voice" on the blog that conveys a sense of personal communication with the prospects or clients.

Everyone who is successful in business has a voice that their clients know. The key here is to learn the technique of carrying that voice over to a new medium, the blog. The only way I know of to do that is to begin regular blogging and let the voice develop! Like most any tool, blogging does nothing for you if you don't utilize it!

Does Social Media Work for Small Biz?

"More than three-quarters of US small-business executives surveyed did not find social networks helpful for generating leads or expanding their business."

This chart from a recent study shows that social media are not helping small businesses very much at this point. Only 3% of respondents said that they found social media to be very helpful. The article makes the observation that limited manpower seems to be a root cause of small businesses not making b better use of these new tools. To me, that also implies a certain lack of familiarity as well. The question this raises in my mind is, "Could social media be more helpful to small businesses, and how could the problems with using it effectively be overcome?"

My other reading on this subject suggests that certain kinds of businesses have more opportunity to benefit from social media than others. It seems that businesses targeting a younger demographic can do more with the medium because that is where the largest user audience comes from. The trick seems to be to offer something on the social medium that attracts the attention of the audience and encourages them to forward the information about the offer to their network of friends. What you are attempting to do is to generate the "viral effect" that the medium makes available to you.

I would certainly be interested in hearing from anyone who has used social media to good purpose in their business. After all, some 3% of respondents have said they are getting good results. What is it that they are doing that works for them, and how can the rest of us learn something from that?

Synergy of Search and Social Media

"Research has shown that display ad exposure can lift consumer response to paid search."

This research refers to paid search activity, but it seems fair to assume that organic search activity would be influenced in the same way. The point to take away from this article is that your marketing efforts through different approaches support and enhance one another. It is not a good idea to conduct all your marketing efforts through a single vehicle. The success that you have in each approach reinforces the success that you have in other approaches.

To put it another way, look at all the tools that you have available to promote your site and make use of several of them simultaneously rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. Your web site itself, is the core around which your other marketing revolves. This core effort is then supplemented and strengthened by your activities with blogging, newsletters, article publication, press releases, social media sites, reciprocal links, and, yes, even paid Internet ads! Plan to use several of these tools in concert based on your personal and business characteristics and capacities to support different approaches.

While our focus here is on Internet tools, don't overlook the importance of what you do in more traditional marketing through your use of business cards, letterhead, brochures, promotional gifts, and networking, which also reinforce your online marketing efforts. A well managed mixture of approaches could be more effective for your business than a single-minded focus on one strategy alone!

How to Build Links Fast: 101 Tips & Strategies

"Link Building... Time-intensive. Frustrating. Sometimes confusing. Yet Unavoidable. Because ultimately, it's still the trump card for higher rankings."

The authors of this article have provided a very useful list of ways to get links for your web site, and illustrated it by starting with a tip that really works! This blog post proves that it works!

Reviewing this list is definitely worth your time. You won't find every item useful for your own business, but there are plenty of things that can be very helpful to you, and work in your specific environment. Within the 101 items on the list are about 30 bad ideas pointing out bad practices, so be sure that you note the point in the list where it switches from things-to-do to things-to-NOT-do!

You do need to go through the list to get the details, but I will summarize some of the key ideas here.

• Become an authority and create lists. There are a number of specifics listed in this general concept, but the basic idea is to put something on your site that is worth linking to. Observe that I am proving this concept by blogging about this list and linking you to it!
• Use PPC judiciously. This is the most interesting idea I have come across giving a reason to use PPC ("Pay Per Click")! The idea is that, after you have created a "link magnet" (see the first point!), you promote that page by purchasing some keyword phrases that will get traffic directly to that information. If it works for you, you will get a lot of leverage for the money spent on PPC.
• Use news and syndication. We talk about this technique all the time in our search engine marketing clinic. The list provides several specific ideas that you can use in pursuing this approach. Basically, you are planting links all around the web with this approach.
• Directories, social media, etc. Many directories can be really helpful to you, and all social media are becoming much more important and useful.
• Join local organizations that provide links. Many professional associations include a link to your site on the membership lists. Look into these in your business field and consider local chambers of commerce, networking groups, etc., etc., etc.....

There are many more concepts in the list, but this should be enough to give you the idea. Near the bottom of the list, the authors switch to telling you things to avoid. Many  of these just have to be tongue in cheek to fill out their total of 101 ideas, but many of them are practices that used to work or techniques that people actively use today, but that can get you in trouble if you get caught at it. These are worth your time to review, but make sure you have mentally switched gears to put a big "X" through each of these points as you absorb them!

Addendum: I posted this article on 10/3, and set up a PPC campaign to send traffic to it. On 10/17, when I checked my traffic, this page had ten times the pageviews of the next highest page on my blog! I have to believe this works!!

Social Media Measurement Lags Adoption

"The vast majority of professionals worldwide are using social technologies for business purposes..."

 The chart shown here breaks down the uses that professionals are making of social media. The article talks about the fact that measurement of ROI remains a bit of a mystery to most users. There are ways to get some measurements, and they include both "soft" measures like the statistics showing followers or friends, and harder statistics that one creates on the site by actions like offering coupons only through the specific media being evaluated. When these coupons are used, you get a "hard" measure of the impact of the media.

The full article contains some other data in charts and some additional discussion. To read it, click on the title link above.

Demographics of Facebook Growth

"Facebook may have started as a site geared toward the college crowd, but as the most popular social network in the US, it has broadened its user base considerably."

Things are always changing on the web, and it is important to keep up! This report discusses the growth of users of Facebook and the shift in the descroiption of who is on the service.

What we see is a growth in older users and in female users. Facebook, like much of the web, began with a larger component of young male users. As their demographic appeal changes, so do the opportunities to make use of the medium to reach diferent audiences. Always remember that you have to go where your prospects are! If they are now on Facebook, you need to be there too!

Social Network Marketing Expands Sphere

"Social networks can be used for branding, improving customer loyalty, lead generation, direct marketing and e-commerce."

Previous postings have indicated that social media are being used effectively for creating brand awareness. This latest research confirms that use, but also points out that some marketers are having success in generating sales activities using the media. This seems to be largely through offering promotions that draw attention and response, but the major point is that the usage expands as people learn more about hos to exploit the services for their own needs.

Another article I recently referred to said that the primary reason that marketers were not using social media was a lack of understanding of how it worked or could be used. This latest article shows how things change as users learn more.

On another front, I have seen some indications that some people are beginning to move away from Facebook, in part, at least, because of its effort to exploit the service more aggressively for marketing purposes. This is part of the Facebook effort to monetize the application, but it seems to be creating some negative reaction among users. Whether this movement will continue or become significant remains to be seen, but illustrates the need to remain current with your understanding of what is going on in the online environment. It is changing every day, and those users who stay on top of the changes will do better in their efforts to make creative use of the tools!

Brand Marketers Embrace Social Media

"The survey of US brand marketers found the majority already using social media."

Interestingly, the top reason for not using social media seems to be a lack of understanding of how best to do it. That would seem to be a gap that could be easily closed, and leads me to believe that we will see a much greater adoption of social media by businesses in the near future.

It seems to have too much power and potential to be allowed to languish because of a lack of understanding.

At the same time, the method given as the best means of measuring effectiveness is tracking website traffic.

My own investigation so far leads me to believe that social media can have a huge impact on certain kinds of businesses, while it is problematic for other types. One report I read about who is effectively using social media pointed toward what I would consider very connected communities like high tech businesses and people in communication-oriented businesses. In the cases described, people within the industry kept up with one another to stay on top of their field. This is more a "community" function than a "business to consumer" model, but still an important and beneficial use of the tools.

In fields where businesses are looking for a B2C function, it seemed to depend upon the demographics of the target audience and the characteristics of the business product or service. For example, younger consumers clearly have adopted these tools much more fully than older consumers, and businesses trying to reach that audience will have more opportunities. Also, products or services that can generate some excitement or "buzz" within their audience have much more to work with in using these tools.

For a better view of the charts or more discussion, visit eMarketer by clicking on the title of this posting.

Companies in new age of networking

"Social media can be very helpful for a company to get ideas and receive instant feedback, and it's a way to get the word out about products and events. It's a publicity technique but more importantly, it's an engagement technique to make people feel connected."

A June survey conducted by The Internal Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and Buck Consultants reported almost 80 percent of organizations frequently use social media, outranking even e-mail. The most used form is blogs, which have become a very common feature of business web sites.

Businesses have an opportunity to reach their clients and prospects in a new way. If your business or organization is not using some form of social media to communicate your message, you are "leaving something on the table". In this competitive world, that is not a good idea.

Julie Freeman, president of International Association of Business Communicators, who was interviewed for this article, emphasizes the importance of thinking through what you want to communicate and what you want to accomplish before you undertake an effort to use this medium. That sounds like good advice for just about anything you do!

The basic message here is that the world is constantly changing, and to keep up with it, you have to be changing as well. Stay on top of these types of developments and make use of them as you determine they work best for you. You will be glad that you did!

Social Media for the Executive

"How many times have you heard, 'Not on Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn? You're way behind.'"

Pierpont Communications, a leading marketing firm here in Houston, recently took a look at social media from the perspective of a business executive and posted some interesting reactions to their blog.

The author made four points:

1. You expand your reach with these tools and can learn more about the people that you are dealing with in your business. That is always helpful.
2. Social media provide an inexpensive and efficient means of gathering information and maintaining contact.
3. Social networks are growing every day and more and more of the people you would like to reach are becoming available through this medium.
4. These media can provide you with early warnings about negative comments about your business that can give you an opportunity to take some action to counter the effect of the comments on your business.

In another blog entry on the same date, other authors from the same company provided more suggestions about how to think about and integrate these new media resources into your marketing strategy.

Keep in mind that the world is always changing and it is important to keep up with the changes if you want to be in the action. The growth of what we call "social media" is only one of the recent developments that is having an impact on business. Look into it and think about how it can be useful to you and your business or you may be falling behind your competitors without realizing it!

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn

"All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees."

I found the statement above intriguing because I had always thought of LinkedIn as a way that small businesses and individuals were interacting on the web rather than large corporations. While that may be true, what this statistic reveals is that the individuals who are on LinkedIn are connected to all these large organizations, and, importantly, in significant roles! That has a lot of implications when thinking about how this tool might be useful to someone using it for networking.

This blog entry outlines a short list of ways to make use of LinkedIn:

1. Increase your visibility.
2. Improve your connectability.
3. Improve your Google PageRank.
4. Enhance your search engine results.
5. Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.
6. Increase the relevancy of your job search.
7. Make your interview go smoother.
8. Gauge the health of a company.
9. Gauge the health of an industry.
10. Track startups.
11. Ask for advice.
12. Integrate into a new job.
13. Scope out the competition, customers, partners, etc.

For a more detailed discussion on each of these ideas, click on the title of this posting to go directly to the original blog that I have quoted.

These are just ideas that others have collected, and they will be more effective for some people than for others. For example, it appears to me that there is a definite "age bias" inherent in this kind of tool. My connections who are over 55 do not seem to have as many connections as my connections who are under 55. With a networking tool like this, it becomes more powerful and useful as more people use it more fully.

The message for us all in this article is that there is a new tool available to anyone who can make something of it, and using it is free and relatively easy. Keep in mind that LinkedIn also has a paid option that offers more features and power, so if you are in the group (or want to get into the group) for which this tool works better, you have the opportunity to "gear it up" a notch.

The Future of the Internet?

"Today, the Google-Facebook rivalry isn't just going strong, it has evolved into a full-blown battle over the future of the Internet—its structure, design, and utility. For the last decade or so, the Web has been defined by Google's algorithms—rigorous and efficient equations that parse practically every byte of online activity to build a dispassionate atlas of the online world. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions a more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline. In Zuckerberg's vision, users will query this "social graph" to find a doctor, the best camera, or someone to hire—rather than tapping the cold mathematics of a Google search. It is a complete rethinking of how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the center. In other words, right where Google is now."

Here is some food for thought! This article describes how Facebook is building a huge database of information about people and their activities and relationships. As described in this article, this platform could become the new way that people find information on the web, that is, by referrals from friends and connections rather than by search!

There is a lot of speculation in this article, and many things that might happen never do, but it appears that Google is taking this kind of threat seriously, indicating that there is something to the idea.

We are all aware that social media, of which Facebook is only one outstanding example, is playing a more and more significant role in marketing on the web. As active marketers, we all need to be aware of this new phenomenon, but the idea that Facebook could actually replace Google as the primary source of new traffic is a real paradigm shift.

Social Media: Mixing Business with Pleasure?

"One of the questions I hear most often when I'm teaching a social media seminar is how to balance their professional social media presence with their personal one. People ask me if they should blog and Tweet as themselves or as their business. They ask if they should mix business contacts with friends on Facebook and LinkedIn. They want to know if they can talk about their hobbies on their business profiles. Basically, they want to know the pros and cons of mixing business with pleasure in the blurry-lined landscape of social media."

Social Media is (are??) intruding in our lives more and more every day. All of these new forms of communication and interaction pose new challenges and opportunities for us to consider. Jennifer has written an interesting article exploring some of the issues that arise in this area that we all need to think about seriously before we become active in this arena. A big point to remember is, "you can't take things back!" Once you have put something out into this environment, you have lost all control over it.

In my own experience, I find I am mixing business and social more and more on the web, but I tend to be a pretty private person anyway, and I am very cautious about the personal things that I post. Even so, this information, especially over some time, can become quite revealing, and you can inadvertently tell people things that you might not always be comfortable with.

One suggestion that I might make to newcomers to this field is to do some "lurking" before you become active. What this refers to is the practice of hanging around and reading what other people are saying without participating yourself. There are many forums on the web where this practice is really frowned upon and discouraged, but the newer forms of the social media are so wide open that I have not seen that same sort of attitude expressed. What it does for you is it gives you a chance to see what other people are doing so you can form your own impression of what is appropriate and comfortable for you before you commit yourself. When you see the material that other people are putting up on the web, I guarantee you will have a personal reaction to what you see. This reaction will help to inform you about your personal comfort zone, and you can use that information to guide your own participation.

As Jennifer's piece makes clear, it has to be a personal choice for each of us to determine the correct balance between these different interests. My own decision is to continue as I have been doing, but always remember that there is no private conversation taking place here and anything that I say can be seen by anyone else on the web, today or tomorrow, into the indefinite future! If you are not comfortable thinking about that prospect when you get ready to post something, don't post it! I want to err on the side of caution at all times.

Beware of spam!

I have just received a particularly insidious scam that is going around now. It is described further in the attached link:

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/phishing_Tagged_dot_com.php

What this thing does is send messages to everyone that you have ever emailed, inviting them to look at photos from you. I received one from a friend, and the inclination is to say, "How nice that they sent me this!" Below the invitation is a message saying "Please respond or Nancy may think you said no :(", using your friends name. The idea is to make you feel guilty if you don't respond! That is a big tipoff.

I have only gotten a couple of these, but my wife has gotten more recently, and a friend last night at dinner told me about receiving one (that he did not respond to!)

Be very careful about responding to anything that you did not expect to receive, even from people that you know. If the message makes you feel guilty, be extra careful!

My reaction to this message was just what the scammer wanted me to think, "Oh, this is from a friend, it must be okay." Fortunately (maybe because another friend had just mentioned this to me a few hours before), I paused and thought about it further. I had never heard of this site that I got the message from, so I opened another window and googled it, where I found the link above. Everything was pretty clear after that.

I sent a message to my friend (her real email) telling her what I thought had happened to her and got an immediate response saying, "Yes, that is exactly what happened, and she now was working frantically to try to undo the damage". Unfortunately, it is pretty hard to undo! Anyone who received it and opened it has already spread it further! In addition to that, it is pretty hard to send an email to everyone in your own address book. I am trying now, and there are so many bad addresses accumulated in the book that I am having a lot of trouble sending a legitimate message to all the good addresses!!

Always be suspicious and use caution before responding to mail that you weren't expecting. These things are playing on natural responses and on a moment's inattention on your part. Believe me, if you get tricked into responding, you will feel terrible as sooon as you realize it, but it is too late at that point!

Marketers Moving to Social Media

"Companies are learning how to leverage social media and tap into the rising tide of consumers participating in social network sites, blogs, wikis and Twitter."

This article documents the continuing trend toward businesses utilizing social media for reaching their prospects. As with any new movement, there are still issues about how best to use the medium in any individual business, and how to evaluate the results. The trend is driven by the continuing increase in the sue of these media sites by the public. As always, effective marketing means that you have to go where your customers are!

The article illustrates the research findings with several charts showing the rate of growth projected through 2013, and the kinds of issues that businesses are finding with using social media effectively. To see the article, click on the title, above.

Social Nets and Blogs More Popular Than E-Mail

"... time spent on social networks and blogging sites is growing at over three times the rate of overall Internet growth."

A new segment of the Internet is experiencing substantial growth with implications for all Internet marketing. This announcement shows the change in participation for various segments of the web. The segment showing the most growth from December 2007 to December 2008 is "Member Communities", otherwise known as "social media". This information is important to marketers because it indicates the movement of the audience to a new area of the web.

At the same time, the article has more statistics that document the fact that e-mail is still the most effective medium in terms of customer acquisition. It seems that the rates of people on social media clicking on ads and following through with purchases is quite low.

All this information focuses on ads and selling. The article does not mention search engine optimization or its place in this environment. What all this information suggest to me is that search engine optimization and social media are both important in reaching an audience, educating the audience, and establishing an image for a business, with the actual sale or production of revenue assumed as a natural outgrowth of that kind of positioning.

Search is listed as the top sector in terms of "reach", moving from 84% in 2007 to 85.9% in 2008. The statistic refers to the "popularity of activity" of five sectors. The significant change that is being reported here is that in 2008, "Member Communities" moved up above "E-mail" in the rankings for the first time.

As different sectors become more or less important, the savvy marketer will make adjustments in his or her program to stay ahead of those competitors who are not as responsive to the changes.

Click on the title at the top to see the article.

Is SEO no longer important?

Here is an article with a catchy title that goes on to make the point that, "... search engine optimization is not the be-all end-all of Internet success that it was a few years ago."

The author's point is that there are a lot of techniques available on the Internet now that one can use to market that are not technically "SEO". His discussion focused on the question of readable url's and how and why they are important. He did talk about the fact that these url's are not read as thoroughly by the search engines as the dynamic url's (for example, www.jamseed.com/ musicianProfile.php?id=126). This is a point that we have covered often in our Internet Marketing Clinic sessions, but he went on to describe how more readable url's attract more quotes in the social media. This is a valuable point that we have not really taken up much in the clinic. Social media is a rapidly developing and fairly recent phenomenon with a lot of opportunities for productive marketing efforts. We have only begun to touch on methods of exploiting this new arena effectively.

Just to make the point clear, SEO is still very important to your success! The techniques that you employ to make your site search engine friendly create the foundation that all your other marketing techniques can rest upon.

The world of Internet marketing is constantly changing presenting new challenges and opportunities. Our clinic is one of the best ways available for keeping in touch with that changing environment to help you stay on top of your field!

One Social Network I Couldn't Work Without

"... if I had to pick just one, LinkedIn would win, hands down."

We recently had a presentation in our Internet marketing clinic on social media and how small businesses can use it to their advantage. In this presentation, there seemed to be a bias toward Facebook. For a different point of view, check out this link.

Jennifer, who has been around a while and has lots of good advice, gives a good example of how to use LinkedIn as a business tool. She provides the kind of concrete detail that makes it easy to see how to relate her experience to your own situation. No two people have exactly the same situation or circumstances to deal with. We all have to adjust these stories to our own needs, and this is the kind of report that makes it easy to do so.

The bigger point, of course, is that the Internet is a huge resource, and the trick is to figure out how to exploit it most effectively for your own business requirements.