Quantity

A 78-character tweet or SMS/text in English is 24 characters long in Chinese and about 110 characters long in French or German.

The graph (click for more information) indicates that compared to Chinese, most translations will make a text longer. But even in English, things should be shorter than, for example, in German, French or Italian.

In short: When you translate your next blog post or sales brochure from English into Spanish, remember it will take more words to convey the message properly.

Join our subscribers – get the next blog post first. Just provide your email address.

New, wrong or different meaning(s) gained in translation

Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word. But sometimes we use irony, whereby we say something but mean the opposite. Irony travels badly across languages. Unfortunately, giving something a different meaning than intended (humor) does not mean that a non-native speaker understands it. It certainly makes things harder for your translator.

To illustrate this further, countries use different words to achieve similar things. For instance, Tuesday May 1 was the date when trade unionists across the world joined May Day marches and other events to mark International Workers’ Day. In Germany the term used is Tag der Arbeit, which fits better with the term Labor Day. However, the latter is usually observed on the first Monday of September in Canada and the US – nowhere near May 1.

See also History of Labor Day – Chicago – Tuesday, May 4, 1886 – strike for 8-hour workday.

In short: Some things are hard to translate. Nevertheless, failing to communicate properly will neither help your reputation nor gain your clients’ trust.

Nuances

In addition to the above, the simple fact is that languages do not really translate very well or easily from one to the other. For instance, translating the nuances of French into American English idioms is really hard. The denotations of words are one thing. The connotations (i.e. an idea that is implied or suggested) are a whole other story, and never really parallel from one language to another.

In short: Things may lose some of their intended meaning when they get translated, so best practice means double-check to be sure (Auswertung der Februar-Umfrage – Evaluation of our February Survey – Technical Documentation blog from Britta Görs).

Good practice or best practice?

Needless to say, one person may translate things and the next one edits your brochure to ensure the right message comes across. Some translating services call this paying for the use of four eyes, because often the translation means that you basically need to re-write the document, whatever it is, to make sure it conveys the message you want to share. Here are some benchmarks to consider:

1. Computer dilemma: Remember the last time you wanted to fix a computer problem? The same thing tends to happen with properly translating your brochure – it will take more time and effort than you first thought.
2. Beware making risky, if not stupid, choices: People increasingly choose online translation servies without having any idea who ends up doing the work. Do you not wish to know who is teaching your child?
3. Making it work: Finding a great translator and editor takes time, requires that they understand your product/service and necessitates a close working relationship. It is worth it, however, because a bad translation may confuse your potential client, thereby causing you to lose the sale, something you do not want.

More resources on this topic:

- Don’t forget the language factor
- Why less targeted traffic is better than more drive-by traffic
- Does your translation account for non-native speakers?
- What is social media – definition by Andy Warhol
- Control, mediating and moderator variable – why they matter
- Why RSS fails with most blog readers
- Why culture and language matter and Twitter is no longer an option

A question for YOU

How do you decide what translation service to use and, most important, how do you make sure it gets done well? Please leave a comment!

Tip: Search for more ComMetrics and CyTRAP sources on best practice, benchmark, social CRM, SME, reputation, ROI, SEO Google, social media (click to query).

TL:DR
@ComMetrics Social media: Lost in translation? | (click on Tweet This, and voilà!)

The author: This post was written by social media marketing and strategy expert Urs E. Gattiker, who also writes about issues that connect social media with compliance, and thrives on the challenge of measuring how it all affects your bottom line.
His latest book, Social Media Audit: Measure for Impact, is scheduled to appear from Springer Science Publishers in Summer, 2012.
Connect with ComMetrics on Google+ or with the author using: Email | Twitter | Google+ | Xing

Companies may blog on WordPress or Tumblr, and/or have a presence somewhere else, such as Facebook and Google Plus.

But how do you ensure your blog is great?

Some experts say it is all about quality, quantity, audience marketing, impact and SEO (search engine optimization).

Great advice. However, the crux of the matter is, knowing that is only a first step. Getting there is what really matters – and that is FAR from guaranteed.
Like our blog - please subscribe yourself here:

Subscribe to our newsletter

1. Where is the beef?

In order to give your target audience what they want, you must know them. Let us assume that your target audience is CEOs, so you want to produce blog posts or white papers that add value for that demographic. CEOs have limited time, so ensure whatever you send their way is a ‘must-read’ in their eyes. Otherwise, you have no hope of getting their attention.

1.1 Strategy for delivering quality content: We provide content that helps with effective social media measurement, so you know if your efforts affect your bottom line. If your managers care about that, we are the blog to watch. For example, Avinash Kaushik only posts once a month, but it’s always relevant for measurement types – a must-read.

2. Readers are not customers

As in sales, what seems like a promising prospect may never develop into anything concrete, while someone you do not consider a prospect at all (e.g., they found out about you via your blog posts and/or books), becomes a very important customer.

The question is whether you are reaching your target audience. If that is your clients and potential customers, are they in fact reading the things you send their way? And how do you know? Are they commenting? Are they sharing your content? If so, is it via Twitter and/or Facebook? All of this can tell you more about whether potential clients actually care about your content.

2.1 Why the SME (small- and medium-sized enterprise) does this: What are we trying to accomplish with our LinkedIn group, corporate blog or published white papers? Unless it yeilds economic value, why do this work?

3. Economic value

Because your readers are not necessarily those who order from you, focusing on social media’s micro- and macro-conversions is important. Micro-conversions might be measured by tracking the number of clicks to Print This Page, new subscribers to the newsletter, number of people who download a checklist, etc.

As shown in the graphic below, for a macro-conversion might be measured by tracking the number of requests for a quote in a given period, etc. Some would even suggest that total number of newsletter/email sign-ups counts as a macro-conversion, which is why the chart’s y-axis is a continuum, not a dichotomy (yes or no).

Accordingly, when a micro-conversion becomes a macro-conversion depends on the context: type of business (e.g., consumer versus capital goods, services), industry (i.e. tourism versus oil exploration), and organization (for-profit, charity, non-government organization).

3.1 Micro-conversions are key to success: It could take many micro-conversions to finally get a reader to hire you for bigger or more personal job, but far fewer for them to make a small purchase. Learning which micro-conversions help move people through your business’ sales funnel is crucial, because only this way can we get them to expand their relationship with your organization.

4. Bottom line – take-aways: Make an impact with the right eyeballs

Most important here is that we convert the right people who eventually make a purchase. Unfortunately, even in recruiting, some people believe that it is all about numbers (i.e. how many fans your Facebook page has). This is a common – but huge – mistake.

As Guy Kawasaki’s tweets demonstrate, it all depends. Will the 70 people that clicked on his link eventually hire him? If the answer is yes, we might have Twitter Followers that are willing to spend money on us and should continue to serve them with tweets they care about.

4.1 Identify the key driver(s) – those metrics that matter to your bottom line. To illustrate, the key driver in recruiting is not getting 1 million viewers, but reaching a better applicant pool through the use of social media than without it.

Put differently, if eight of the 20 trainees you hired applied because they read your career development and training blog entries, you may have done something right. If none applied because of your blog, did you do something wrong? If so, what was it?

Online recruiting

On a final note, successful use of social media for recruitment requires investment – it is NOT cost-free. Moreover, it demands creativity. To make it worthwhile, you must reach so-called ‘passive’ candidates who are not necessarily looking for a position, but would be ideal for your purposes. The example below shows that even Oxfam, a leader in terms of advocacy and brand building, may post recruitment videos that only just have 100 views. But if those 100 applied and one got the job, it was all worth it, right?

Click here to view the embedded video.

A question for YOU

How do you decide that your blog is adding value to your bottom line? Please leave a comment!

Tip: Search for more ComMetrics and CyTRAP sources on micro-conversion, macro-conversion, ROI (return on investment) and social media (click to query).

TL:DR
@ComMetrics Is YOUR blog a failure? | (click on Tweet This, and voilà!)

The author: This post was written by social media marketing and strategy expert Urs E. Gattiker, who also writes about issues that connect social media with compliance, and thrives on the challenge of measuring how it all affects your bottom line.
His latest book, Social Media Audit: Measure for Impact, is scheduled to appear from Springer Science Publishers in Summer, 2012.
Connect with ComMetrics on Google+ or with the author using: Email | Twitter | Google+ | Xing

This is the first post in a series of blog posts that address some surefire tips for making your blog successful.

Let me start with last year’s back to back earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown disasters in Japan. It shattered Japanese faith in most of the country’s government agencies. But the death of trust is an issue everywhere – even social media. For instance, Stephanie Schwab’s post talks about the so-called decline of blogs or, can we trust these bloggers, as referred to in Karen Russel‘s Teaching PR – March 20, 2012 newsletter. Stephanie raises some very pertinent issues regarding blogging ethics and trust.

After sharing a post entitled, Bloggers: Can I trust you, I decided to investigate this a bit further. Here I discuss four critical points that will affect your brand, reputation and the trust your readers or customers put in your content.

1. Give credit where it’s due

I recently received an email message for guest contributors. Among other things, it reminded us of the importance of copyright:

“We encourage your inclusion of photos, charts, cartoons, drawings and other embedded content in your posts, but if they are not your own creations we have to be strict about crediting the images and only using those to which we have proper rights,” (from SmartData Collective Contributor Newsletter | March 29th, 2012).

Whatever we write, it will be out there and we might be measured against the original sooner than we think, regardless of whether we blog professionally or personally. This also means we must acknowledge our sources.

You read until here, so read the rest (just click below) but first, sign up with your email (5,000 people have already done so) to get the next blog post first in your inbox.

Semmelweis University, Hungary’s oldest medical school stripped Hungarian president Pál Schmitt of his 1992 doctorate on March 29, 2012, for plagiarism. Yes, books benefit from eReader technologies and Luther’s friend’s re-published his works to help spread them across German-speaking lands, but now we have copyright, because we want people to acknowledge our work.

By the way, last year German defense minister Guttenberg resigned over a PhD plagiarism row that ultimately led to him being stripped of his academic title.

2. Without trust, you’ve got nothing

Almost 500 years before Facebook and the Arab Spring Luther’s friends already knew how to launch multimedia campaigns. Social media helped him spread his ideas and start the Reformation. In the same way, today’s blogger wants their entry to go viral and be read by as many people as possible. Guy Kawasaki calls this the battle for eyeballs.

Personally, I think it is all about trust: can you trust these bloggers? Will their book review really tell you the truth or are they just slapping each other on the back?

Did Luther stand by his principles or sell his soul? Was his social customer relationship management (sCRM) just, fair, truthful? If he had simply been trying for more eyeballs or readers, he certainly would not have written his disputations in Latin. Instead, Luther would probably have used a sexier, even misleading title to get attention. But honesty is what it’s all about.

Unfortunately, considering the 2008 financial crisis, bankers bonus mania, etc., ethics seems not to be very important for many. Nevertheless, once people feel they can no longer trust you, past efforts that helped you build your reputation are useless, because reputation is lost much faster than it is built.

3. Disclosure 101

Of course, disclosing possible conflicts of interest is a good beginning for transparency and keeping your readers’ trust. For this reason, the US FTC (Federal Trade Commission) wants bloggers to reveal if they got paid to write something or received a free product to write a review about it. Naturally, I wonder why the FTC did not feel this was necessary for print journalists – they are not asked to reveal the goodies they receive or what they were paid to write about something.

For a corporate blog this means you better write a disclosure policy that deals with this issue. Some publications now require authors to submit official declarations, such as the example below:

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declares that they had no conflict of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this blog post at the time of publication.

Of course, this is not a bad thing considering that even researchers at universities receive external funding that should not, but might influence the work (think pharmaceutical industry).

Also check out the US FTC – November 2008 guidelines or the UK’s rules regarding fair dealings.

4. Reputation and brand are everything

Brand and reputation are two sides of the same coin:

- brand is what we want people to believe about us, and
- reputation is what people say about you when you have left the room.

These days I often wonder if social media gurus are trying too hard to make their content go viral, simply slapping each other’s backs in the hope of reaching more eyeballs.

Does this really mean that doing quality work, calling a spade a spade and being honest could get you into trouble? Possibly true, and being nice and popular is today’s mantra for success, while quality seems less of an issue (Brian Solis – research – Is social media un-social? 6 keys to success).

Also check out Social media marketing: Can I trust you?, When did good journalism die?, and 3 lessons for bloggers: Fashion, BP and the FTC

Bottom line

As we all know, building your reputation and brand takes a lot of effort, time and probably some money, too. However, getting it tarnished happens in the blink of an eye and can cause serious damage to your bottom line.

So tend your garden carefully, water the flowers and please, keep up your weeding, or your trust with readers and customers might be gone in a flash.

A question for YOU

How do you decide which blogger, product reviewer or product recommendation from a friend to trust and which ones not to? Please leave a comment!

Tip: Search for more ComMetrics and CyTRAP sources on
trust, business ethics and social media (click to query).

TL:DR
@ComMetrics Blogging: The death of trust? | Tweet This

The author: This post was written by social media marketing and strategy expert Urs E. Gattiker, who also writes about issues that connect social media with compliance, and thrives on the challenge of measuring how it all affects your bottom line.
His latest book, Social Media Audit: Measure for Impact, is scheduled to appear from Springer Science Publishers in Summer, 2012.
Connect with the author using: Email | Twitter | Google+ | Xing

The author: This post was written by social media marketing and strategy expert Urs E. Gattiker, who also writes about issues that connect social media with compliance, and thrives on the challenge of measuring how it all affects your bottom line.
His latest book, Social Media Audit: Measure for Impact, is scheduled to appear from Springer Science Publishers in Summer, 2012.
Connect with the author using: Email | Twitter | Google+ | Xing

Others have said one should not dream about finding clients through Twitter conversations. What is your opinion? I outline why caution is important and what you can do to succeed.

1. Do not trust user numbers

By the end of 2009, the number of Twitter users reached over 75 million, with 6.2 million new user accounts every month. But even then, a large number of Twitter accounts were inactive: about 25 percent had zero followers and 40 percent had not sent a single tweet.

In March 2011, Twitter still stated on its About page that it had 175 million registered users, but only 56 million followed eight or more accounts. By that time, Facebook had 600 million users, all active at least once every month…

By February 2012 it was reported that Twitter boasts 50 million daily users. However, if 5 percent of accounts are responsible for 95 percent of all tweets, does this make sense for your business? Can you trust these numbers? We explain the problem below.

In the meantime, sign up like thousands of others to get our trend reports – before your competitors do:

2. KLM urban legends – Twitter is not scaleable

Twitter afficionado try to convince us that Twitter is great for sCRM (social customer relationship management) – except it fails in practice. One reported example shows the power of social media: a KLM passenger got stranded in Schiphol and complained on Twitter about not having any water to drink.

Within an hour, a KLM representative found and gave him a bottle of water. This kind of Twitter ‘water courier’ service is certainly not scaleable or logical.

However, the better customer experience means that KLM’s flight does not get delayed or cancelled, either.

By the way, why wait an hour for water when Schiphol’s facilities offer perfectly drinkable and FREE tap-water? If everyone whines about water, will KLM start employing hundreds of water carriers to patrol the departure lounge? Doubtful.

3. Guy Kawasaki is wrong – eyeballs don’t matter

Guy Kawasaki is a really smart guy, and likeable, too. I recently watched another of his speeches where he pointed out that social media is all about eyeballs, and Twitter in particular. So I decided to do an acid test, and checked to see how many people click on Guy’s links.

We collected about 100 examples but let me just show an average one for a day in February where he tweeted a link for his daily ‘digital newspaper’. What a surprise, 70 clicks. Okay Bit.ly always understimates these links. Even if we double this number, only 150 out of about 500,000 followers means a click-through rate of less than 0.03 percent.

Is that impressive as a rate of engagement on Twitter?

Of course, if those 150 people pay top dollar to attend another speech he gives the next week, this really matters. Put differently, 80 to 200 of my Twitter followers generally click a link. All I care about is that some of these people (eventually) use our software, read our blog, hire CyTRAP Technology Services in the near future, etc. Those who just want my news, I do not fancy that much because those people will likely never ever hire us, or use our benchmarking service.

4. Forget measuring your tweets’ ROI

I love social media gurus that tell you to define your goals. But going on to write something like, Your goals should be achievable and measurable… Have realistic expections. After campaigns prepare your reports, is too vague and sounds a bit theoretical to me. You?

Yes, it works if you are a food truck or restaurant. To illustrate, if you want to limit waiting lines during rush hour at lunch, you can use Twitter to get your regulars in early to ease seating pressure for walk-ins. In return, offer them a beverage or dessert if they order before 11:30 or after 13:30. Is it measurable? You bet.

But what about if you have a carpenter shop or a firm with ten chartered accountants; will it work? Nope. Because I do not think you will get the kind of clients you want by tweeting a discount coupon. Do you?

Bottom line

Should you go on using navel gazing metrics or should you drop it all? Consider the above four points, be realistic and decide. I use Twitter to get information from those I follow, and share what I find interesting for my work. Nothing more, nothing less. Is it worth it? It is for me to learn, but to get clients? I do not know, but it is also not critical, because I did not begin using Twitter for this purpose, and I do not intend to start now. For me it is about intelligence-gathering and that I surely get with my lists.

Tip:

More about Twitter success, failure and having an impact – search (click to query).
Blog posts in category: micro-blogging and Twitter (click to query).

The author: This post was written by social media marketing and strategy expert Urs E. Gattiker, who also writes about issues that connect social media with compliance, and thrives on the challenge of measuring how it all affects your bottom line.
His latest book, Social Media Audit: Measure for Impact, is scheduled to appear from Springer Science Publishers in Summer, 2012.
Connect with the author using: Email | Twitter | Google+ | Xing

What got me going on this topic was a fellow member’s post in our Social Media Monitoring group’s conversation on Cebit and going viral that included a link to a salesforce.com video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This suggests that all it takes is to reach and infect as many people as you can with the bug, in this case to watch the video and share it with friends. But is it really that easy?

Below are four points you need to consider to ensure you have a chance at going viral with your video.

By the way, most people stop watching your YouTube video within 5 seconds. Accordingly, do not waste precious seconds, but cut to the chase – NOW.

1. The cause: Accentuate the positive

A cause is a powerful motivator that can get people to rally, such as helping refugees, the homeless, child vaccinations and so forth.

Cause marketing refers to campaigns that combine efforts of both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Social media cause campaigns are similar ways to inform, raise awareness and funds for the cause (e.g., fighting cancer, eradicating malaria).

Popularity, reach and affordability make social media an attractive vehicle for non-profits, charities, schools, hospitals and other organizations with a cause.

Non-profits have access to the story and the constituents that care. The latter represent the passion behind the cause and can bring a program to life. To find out more about how you can succeed with social media cause marketing, follow over 5,000 people who have already subscribed to this blog:

2. Human angle: Empathy and cool-factor are it

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s 45-second Born HIV Free Campaign video is simple, short, and powerful, with a call to action no one can refuse.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Videos such as, Why Red Bull does not need Facebook to go viral, illustate that your message can be for a commercial product. As long as it is interesting and exciting to your target audience, it could go viral.

Article source – Strategizing: Remember your building blocks?

3. Freebies = Success

There are always people who love getting another discount or freebie. This has long worked with timeshares, where you listen to a sales pitch to get a gift. Of course, the seller hopes they can rope you into purchasing another timeshare week.

Does this work in social media? Of course it does, as Starbucks and others have demonstrated over and over.

4. Story it well

This two-minute commercial features the 81-year-old Clint Eastwood (a movie hero revered by both conservatives and liberals) as the face of this new spirit of American industry. It tells a story about Detroit with his voice and moody shots of everyday American life. Aired during SuperBowl 2012, this 2:01 half-time commercial has a superficial purpose of selling cars, but the story also tries to encapsulate rising optimism about US industry. Not until the last six seconds do Chrysler’s brands appear on screen.

Click here to view the embedded video.

By the way, no matter what, even the above superb video cannot beat people’s interest in watching the funniest Superbowl ads online instead And the winner is?

Bottom line: Beware diminishing returns

In the EU, 99 percent of all companies have 250 or fewer employees, while 96 percent of US companies have 100 or fewer employees. For them, the point where we reach diminishing marginal returns with viral marketing is sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, for large businesses and non-profits such as charities, I continue to believe there is value in trying to go viral with a video – if you follow these four points.

Of course, having the budget to do any of the above or getting your famous ambassador to promote your product for a fee or free does make things a bit easier…

Finally, if you have cult status like Apple, your product – Siri – is part of a sketch comedian Robin Williams does on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Are you with me on these trends? Please share your thoughts below (click to write)!

TL:DR
@ComMetrics Going viral? 4 must-haves | Tweet This

Tip: Search for more ComMetrics and CyTRAP sources on viral marketing and branding (click to query).

More information about viral marketing

- I wish our product videos would go viral like this one from Cebu Air
- ComMetrics social media cost classification model (see also 2011 trends: The social media cost-benefit pyramid)
- The social business maturity model
- Achieving better cost management
- Peter Kim – Is social media free?
- Going viral or selling product: ROI anyone?

This guest post by Deborah Drake shares her experiences of the Startup Conference in Seattle last week… Find some interesting tidbits below – and we would welcome your thoughts in a comment!

February 16, 2012 was a crisp, cold, grey day in Seattle, Washington. Yet again, but I didn’t care at all.

Lucky and local me was attending the latest offering of The Startup Conference, organized in partnership with the Founders Institute. As the non-tech entrepreneur that I am, I had registered on an intuitive whim back in December.

I was personally interested in the sessions on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Building a Tribe, Fixing Elevator Pitches, and Attracting Media Attention. I was particularly looking forward to hearing Rich Barton of Zillow (who originally founded Expedia) and Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz (the web’s most popular SEO software provider and resource) speak.

It was the idea of hearing Rich Barton and Rand Fishkin speak about their Seattle-based startup experiences that initially got me to register in a flash. And, it would turn out to be a content-rich, dense, and well-organized day-long conference that introduced me to other fine examples of brilliant wisdom and business smarts that honored people consistently.

I enjoyed every minute, all day, furiously taking notes as I listened intently. I was a sponge.

They were smart in how they ran the day. Held from start to finish in one large ballroom at the Westin in downtown Seattle, I spent the day with 350 other eager students, entrepreneurs, investors and a handful of media representatives. With wide open interest and no expectations, I discovered each and every presenter had valuable perspectives and insights and there was a common underlying theme.

It comes down to PEOPLE and who we partner with as we leverage emerging and evolving technology to solve the big problems in business and living. The vision of the founders and the team incubating that vision make all the difference in the end. People using technology. People make it happen.

Still with us? Get the next post sooner, like over 5,000 subscribers do via email:

Alan Raynaud, organizer of the Startup Conference and Director of the Founders Institute Paris warmed up the room with opening remarks that addressed ‘finding a co-founder’ by way of illustrating the five mistakes many founders make. (I couldn’t help but ponder how finding a co-founder and dating and marriage (aka a long-term relationship) seem to have a lot in common.)

Take it or leave it; his best advice garnered from all the years he’s been starting and growing and selling companies (for profit) goes something like this:

1. Work with someone you know for a month without agreement, before you lock in (sounds like dating to me).
2. Remember that people don’t copy ideas, they copy success, so don’t be afraid to talk about your idea with potential co-founders (have an attitude of abundance not scarcity).
3. Gather good people with skills who complement and supplement each other (those who are needed for your dream team).
4. Splitting equity fairly is not always a simple matter of equal division (division of labor in relationships is seldom 50/50) – a mix of full-time and part-time founders seldom works long-term (all parties must be fully invested in success).
5. Choose a CEO (so there is a head of household when needed).

And what if you are an ideas person who needs a developer to join your project? To attract that technical rockstar to the team when necessary (that potential investors will also care about), consider these enticements:

• Can you show evidence of traction?
• Are customers signing up to your beta version?
• Are investors interested, but asking for specifics?

What struck me about EVERYTHING Alan Raynaud suggested is that it is ultimately about choosing GREAT PEOPLE to work with. People you could imagine spending years with in times of struggle and hard work and celebration (again, to me this is sounding like a REAL marriage or long-term relationship)!

I was now officially primed to spend the day listening to successful business founders share stories of trials, tribulations and success, meaningful tips, smart strategies and practical tactics for creating my own venture.

But what would fascinate me even more this day was the fact that every CEO’s story of an idea (a grand problem to solve) that became a company that succeeded and became profitable had its roots and story of origin in passion, determination, resilience, creativity, and adaptability, to name a few of the key qualities present from almost the very beginning.

And the Opening Keynote by Zillow CEO Rich Barton hasn’t even happened yet…

************************************************************

From Botox to travel

Serial Entrepreneur and CEO Rich Barton has started a series of businesses with a common theme: maintaining transparency for the everyday person. This allows them to access information previously available only to members of an inner circle. As he put it:

Empower the people with information so they can make good decisions.

He’s got quite the list of projects he is or has been a part of!

http://expedia.com  (created from within Microsoft, the first spin-off company)
http://zillow.com (making real estate data transparent for all)
http://glassdoor.com (what is going on inside companies regarding jobs/salaries)
http://trover.com (up and coming – this idea is a social, local, mobile travel resource)
http://realself.com (in short, the truth about boobs and botox services and fees)
http://avvo.com (start here to find a good lawyer/doctor/dentist)

Entrepreneur versus intrapreneur

I didn’t realize that Expedia began as a ‘travel version of Encarta’, backed by Bill Gates and Paul Allen and developed within Microsoft. It was inspired by Barton’s awareness of a functional but ugly Prodigy product used primarily by travel agents. Expedia would also be the first company to spin off of Microsoft. Apparently, creating the separation agreements and contracts was also a first and an interesting process in itself.

Barton’s suggestion based on his experience: You don’t need to leave the company you are with to build your own (at least not prematurely). If you are casting about for something to do (inside or outside a company) and come up with an idea you want to pursue, consider incubating it while still employed! (Now that makes great sense, doesn’t it?)

Have an idea? Need a co-founder? Start with people you know. (Again, that people theme.)

How do you tell whether it is a big idea? Be advised, whatever you think it will be is never the end result. Focus on the pond and the fisherman. How big is the pond? How many fishermen? How much dysfunction in the industry? The BIGGER the dysfunction, the BETTER the prospects for creating a winning SOLUTION that could attract INVESTORS.

It’s who you climb in the boat with and those you add as you grow that matter. It’s the people, people!

And according to Barton, where two co-founders are concerned, never 50/50, better 49/51. Someone must have the deciding vote in tough calls (translation for me: check your ego at the start and make it about the bigger vision). And being flexible is key, so build that in from the start. (You’ll last longer and weather more storms that way.)

Reality check: ”Most people don’t have what it takes to make it through any weather like the mail… rain, sleet, or snow. The best way to make something happen is to be a sharer, a communicator, involve others to engage in giving you feedback.” (Yes. Yes. Yes.)

For Rich Barton, his success as the Serial Entrepreneur and CEO he is is all about PET: people, empowerment, transparency. His Opening Keynote was a home run for this participant who couldn’t take notes fast enough.

And what came next was inspiring to me on a whole other level…

************************************************************

Earn customers without spending

Rand Fishkin, founder and CEO of SEOmoz, is not only smart and personable, his commitment to transparency is evidenced by his slides. He shared the financial story of SEOmoz, which is projected to earn over 18 million in revenue this year, creating and maintaining online SEO software tools, so that customers big and small can improve their organic position in search results.

You and I and Dell can pay US$99 a month for membership and access to the brilliance of SEOmoz’s brain trust on organic search and how to get it for yourself!

From what I can see, he developed a passion into a service right from the beginning. That became a product anyone could access and all the while he cultivated a passionate community of users.

- Fishkin has never spent a dime on paid search.
- US$35 billion is spent on paid search for 18 percent of click-throughs.
- Google Search grows at 18 percent a year – organically.

That means there is a big opportunity for attracting customers who find you through their search. Why not attract customers rather than buy them?

I loved the definition of search he offered: “I want this thing right now.”

So besides becoming a member/user of SEOmoz, what can one do to attract customers without spending a dime?

a) Realize a need (for which you are the solution).
b) Do research on search by acting like the searcher (explore and take note of what you discover).
c) Ask some friends how they search (again, starting with people you know).
d) What tactics will earn people’s attention to start a relationship (may they earn people’s business for you)?

Bottom line: It’s about content. Content influences everything (including people) and comes in many forms. Content that takes key words into account is smart, and content that inspires online community and conversation is golden. When these come together to inspire trust and connection, and go viral, they are really golden – or platinum? Product developed out of this collective conversation that solves big problems is bound to be well-received.

The writer, marketer and community builder that I do my best to be was grinning from ear to ear. Why? Because each Tuesday at the Writers Support Group for the Reticent Blogger (that I facilitate – two years and counting), I am – in a word – preaching the same message. Build strong relationships through the content we create/share and in the dialogue that follows, and ALWAYS be real, generous, and transparent and see what is attracted to you.

Content. Community creates content. Product or distribution may be the content. It all serves as content that people may be compelled to talk about and share, bringing you potential customers with less outbound marketing effort.

The sort-of truth is

Search (done by real people) continues to grow.
Social (media activity and participation) is discovery prior to interest. It demands great content and rewards it.
Social (media activity and participation) can spread a message like nothing else.
Social (media activity and participation) has a huge influence on search and how people change the way they do things.

Rand’s short list

Stumbleupon (Yes, once upon a time I opened an account.)
Reddit (Um, can I handle one more on my list?!)
Digg (Yes, I dig it.)
Delicious (Great name, I always thought.)
Tumblr (May make my future short list.)
Twitter (Still hasn’t enchanted me, though I know it is time to say yes to that relationship.)
Wikipedia (My favorite resource!)
Pinterest (Gaining eyeballs daily!)
Quora (Here begins the conversion funnel, says Rand.)

So what is an ambitious yet busy entrepreneur with a great idea that wants to be found by its users to do?

1. Blog – check!
2. Social networking – check!
3. Social bookmarking – on my way
4. Post video - not there yet

I am (for the present) good with my 2.5 out of four key activities as suggested by the creator of the web’s most popular SEO software for the do-it-yourselfer (DIY). And I think I will read The Art of SEO while on winter break in Denver!

Remember, says Rand, a lot of conversion comes from soft metrics - content, search and community.

I so agree with that. Which makes me intensely curious: how do I improve searchability on the community blog I co-founded that is filled to the brim with awesome content?

Tip: Search for more ComMetrics and CyTRAP sources on start-ups, soft metrics, SEO  (click to query).

************************************************************

It’s only 11:00 and there are still six more compelling topics awaiting a room of eager listeners… This attendee’s review of her experience to be continued after a short intermission and coffee break!

Disagree? Agree? Sure. Leave a comment!

Update 2012-02-08 – this original blog post has been cross-posted on “socialmediatoday – the world’s best thinkers on social media,” as well as “SmartData Collective – the world’s best thinkers on business intelligence and analytics.”

I just got back from another convention where an ad agency tried to convince the audience that Facebook was a fantastic way to improve your bottom line. Are you sceptical? So am I.

We can probably agree that if a company wants to use social media effectively, it must evaluate its current position with the help of a social media audit (Gattiker, 2012 – coming soon). Moreover, if you run a huge marketing campaign that implies customers are cool and have exciting lives, nobody cares about the brand, as evidenced by this Red Bull branding video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. Facebook engagement up to 0.90 percent

But the Red Bull video also suggests that we must audit how well you do with social media. For instance, a very small percentage of fans that Like your competitor’s Facebook page see the carefully crafted status updates. Accordingly, Facebook status updates are similar to broadcasting a message to an empty football stadium – imagine the Super Bowl without an audience.

In the Mercedes-Benz video below, people call for a cab and get picked up by a trailer truck. If you can afford the €200,000 to hire VonMatt to script the story and make the video, you might get 8000 views for the English version and 20,000 for the German one. The question is whether this is a flop. Measure for impact, anyone?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Research, based on 400 million Facebook fans, indicates that only 3.5 to 7.49 percent see your status update (Parker, Brian, June 21, 2011). Also, just 0.25 to 0.90 percent interact with the status update.

To put this in email campaign terms, only 3 to 7 percent open it. Moreover, less than one percent click-through on one of the links you provide in your email newsletter. That sounds like a nightmare for any marketer.

Therefore, 50,000 Facebook fans (or email newsletter subscribers) represent just 3,750 active Facebook likes (or newsletter subscribers). The rest is deadweight, fake user accounts or robots who certainly are not potential clients.

Reference: Parker, Brian. (June 21, 2011). SHOCKER: 3% to 7.5% of fans see your page’s posts. [Blog post – All Facebook]. Retrieved January 25, 2012 from, http://www.allfacebook.com/shocker-3-to-7-5-of-fans-see-your-pages-posts-2011-06

Does this suggest that we are producing content that represents added value for the client?

Want to get trends like this one first? Enter your email address and join over 5,000 followers who already subscribe.

2. Facebook engagement drops to 0.45 percent

Just to wrap things up, let me ask you: how many fans actually bother to have a conversation with brands on Facebook? One metric we can look at is People Talking About This, the awkwardly-named running count of:

- likes,
- posts,
- comments,
- tags,
- shares and
- other ways a user of the social network can interact with branded pages.

A recent study used this metric as a proportion of overall fan growth of the top 200 brands on Facebook over a six-week period in October 2011.

Data revealed that the proportion of overall fans who were People Talking About This was 1.3 percent. But it gets worse: if one subtracts new likes, which only require a click (somewhat akin to TV ratings) and focuses on the forms that suggest greater interaction, one is left with only 0.45 percent.

Accordingly, less than half a percent of Facebook fans that identify themselves as ‘liking’ a brand actually bother to create any content with regard to it.

Reference: I would have liked to give you the reference for the above study from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science UniSA, but neither Dr. Nelson-Fields nor Professor Byron Sharp provided a draft or working paper. Do they understand how social media works or just pretend to? You be the judge!

Article source – Facebook: Why is nobody listening?

No one got anything else besides a short press release, but unless you can read a study about Facebook, Twitter or social media usage in full, how can you trust it? I explain this challenge for anyone who dislikes statistics here:

FREE ebook: Raise your hand if you hate research. ComMetrics eBook series #2011-01 (783 KB – pdf)

Bottom line – take-aways

We should conclude by listing three take-aways that this material provides. A company like Red Bull does not acquire 26 million fans without any engagement. However, 0.5 percent means only 13,000 actively engage and produce content from Red Bull’s offerings (okay, maybe 1.5 percent because it is cool, but that’s still less than 500,000 people). Do you really want to know how many full-time equivalent (FTE) personnel were required to create all this buzz?

1. Brand growth requires reaching medium and light buyers. Facebook fans tend to be heavy buyers. While Facebook is a useful channel to reach them, it might not be the right place to engage potential and light or medium buyers.
2. Searching for a Facebook audience may be futile. The research presented here shows that Facebook status updates are more like broadcasting news to an empty stadium. People want a freebie or to participate in a sweepstakes. But will they buy more product from you because they are a fan? No, your favorite butter need not apply.
3. Engage with clients on your webpage or blog. If Unilever’s Magnum ice cream, Coca-Cola or Gillette find Facebook a great platform, good for them and even better for Facebook’s early-stage investors.
   Facebook is the icing on the cake! Nonetheless, provide content that your target audience wants (the cake) on your homepage/blog.
   There are too many examples where companies have wasted resources on Facebook by ignoring the basics any good marketing strategy must encompass (e.g., Swiss Post Office).

PLUS, why would anybody spend money to attract Facebook fans? Fans are not known to purchase more product after clicking the Like button!

Are you with me on these trends? Please share your thoughts below (click to write)!

TL:DR
@ComMetrics 2012 marketing trendwatch – Facebook:  Why is nobody listening? | Tweet This

More information about Facebook and social media – measure for impact
- What makes a baseline review effective?
- ComMetrics social media cost classification model (see also 2011 trends: The social media cost-benefit pyramid)
- The social business maturity model
- Achieving better cost management
- Maintaining a high-quality Facebook page
- Setting up a Facebook fanpage
- Improving cost control of your Facebook activities
- Promote your brand on Facebook while staying on budget (watch another of our award-winning webinars and check out the slides)
- Measuring Facebook engagement: What is good?
- Measuring Facebook impact: Focus and ROI
- Measuring Facebook impact: 9 audience fundamentals
- Measuring Facebook engagement: Scoring the conversation
- Peter Kim – Is social media free?
- Going viral or selling product: ROI anyone?

By the way, when it comes to the Facebook IPO, investors may be paying for the world’s most over-priced photo-sharing, gaming and social networking site. What they do pay for is something old-fashioned: reach (or just eyeballs – many of them).

(See the papers filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 1, 2012 – Facebook’s eighth birthday was on February 4, 2012) and Google’s 2004 IPO filing.)

What do YOU think?

Infographics are increasingly popular but more often than not it is a matter of lies, infographics, and unverified numbers. However, even if numbers can be verified and the infographic tells you more than 1,000 words, you need a good story to go with it.

As this guest post by Karen Dietz explains, one method to improve the impact of your infographic is telling a story with it.

Why this, why now?

This blog post came from discussions on Google+ between technology and nonprofit colleagues about which infographics really work, and which don’t. Since I work in business storytelling and organizational narrative, my comments tended to point out if an infographic actually told a story, or contained story devices to make the piece memorable, understandable, and more effective. People wanted to know more and kept asking for a blog post.

Even if you are not a creator of infographics, hopefully the material below will give you ideas for displaying visual information in more compelling ways. I’m not a formally trained graphic designer, but have had to learn many design principles over the years. I eagerly read Edward Tufte’s work years ago. Alas, I do not create the type of gorgeous infographics so popular today. Think of me more as an outside reviewer cross-pollinating different fields. I take my lessons from the infographics world back to my business colleagues and clients so we can improve our own visual storytelling materials.

Why bother?

Why would you want to incorporate story elements into your infographic? Or why would you want to have your infographic actually tell a story? Because our brains are hard-wired for stories. It is how we make sense of data and how we make sense of the world. When we are engaged with a story our brains release oxytocin, dopamine, and seratonin, stimulating feelings of reward and connection. Infographics can spark the same. When information is conveyed visually and also employs story elements, viewers will more easily grasp the meaning of the data and be able to act on it. And they will share it.

As Nathan Yau says in the chapter entitled Telling stories with Data in his book Visualize This; The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics (2011), “It’s  not just a bucket of numbers. There are stories in that bucket. There’s meaning, truth, and beauty” (page 2). He goes on to say, “Sometimes you’re not looking for analytical insight. Rather, sometimes you can tell the story from an emotional point of view that encourages viewers to reflect on the data.
Not all movies have to be documentaries, and not all visualization has to be traditional charts and graphs” (page 5).

From time to time, infographics are meant to feed urgency and stir people to action. Sometimes in building an infographic, all that needs to be done is make sense of complex data. Sometimes a story needs to be told to make the data more meaningful and inspire action. It all depends on what work you want the infographic to do. To continue:

1. First, we will look at the difference between storied and non-storied infographics.
2. Second, we will delve into story elements that can be used in infographics.
3. Third, we will examine the strategic thinking that needs to go into figuring out whether to use story elements or not. And I will share some of my favorite storied infographics.
4. Fourth, we will wrap it up.

1. What is the difference between storied and non-storied infographics?

Visual displays of data are sense-making tools. It is all about making sense of complex data so it is easily understandable. The typical reaction of the reader is, “Oh, I get it.” Storied infographics go a step beyond sense-making to meaning-making. The viewer says, “Aha! I get it, this is how it relates to me, and I now know how to take action.”

What we also need to know is what neuroscience is teaching us about the brain and how it processes information. In simplistic terms, it is commonly known that the left brain is linear, logical, skeptical, processes numbers and facts. It is also emotionally neutral (this is important), often seeking more information. If you’ve ever been in a room of engineers doing over data, you know a lot of debate about the numbers goes on, and it is easy to get stuck there. The right brain however, is relational, imaginative, fills gaps where information is missing, and is emotionally engaged. Being emotionally neutral or emotionally engaged is hugely significant. It has been said that we make decisions emotionally (in a nanosecond) and then justify our decisions with logical reasons. So if you want someone to take action on the data that’s provided, incorporate meaning-making story elements to enroll them.

2. What are the story elements to include?

Adding story elements into an infographic will have it connect more with your readers, make it memorable, more shareable, and potentially go viral. The first graphic lists commonly used sense-making tools (I’m sure there are others to add).

The second graphic adds the available story elements that could be added to an infographic.

Here’s more on each story element, with examples. Story elements include metaphors, which I am sure you are familiar with. I often find these in infographics, but not all the time. When they are used, they make the data so much easier to digest. I now have a framework to relate to, a framework for the data so I can understand it more easily. Below are two examples that effectively use metaphors to frame the material.

1. The Authority Building Machine
2. Blueprint for the Perfect Blog Post

Compare this to the infographic on The Size of the Mobile Market that does not use a metaphor. Not all brains are alike, but for me, framing these data with a metaphor would have made this a lot simpler to grasp. Stories often have characters and many infographics include representations / profiles of people to help draw us in, make their point, or relate to the data. People connect to people (or dogs, or cats…) more than numbers. Here are two good examples:

1. Which Female Tech Influencer Are You?
2. What if Social Media Sites Were Your Neighbors?

So far, so good. Let’s continue. As you well know, novelty is also key. Without novelty, there is no story. It builds interest, makes us smile, and pings our brain to pay attention. We all know that color, typeface, and design create contrast and catch the eye. Finding novel ways to display data is fun and catches the reader. In a world where we are bombarded with stimuli that we mostly tune out, our brain hunts for – and delights in – novelty. When we find it, we engage. As I explore the best of the best infographics, I find lots of novelty. It’s fun to see how creative designers are. Here’s a great example that includes both novelty and contrast between the computer geek and action hero:

• Bill Gates is Better Than Batman

Emotional triggers are visual and data display devices that evoke emotion. Think of how we feel when we see data about people going hungry – usually not so good. But here is the important point about evoking emotions: you never ever want to leave someone feeling bad. There always needs to be a way to resolve the emotion. This happens in two ways: through building the infographic around a story arc, or by presenting a problem and its resolution. A story arc is not just having a beginning, middle and end to your visual story. It is about moving viewers from dismay / despair to heartened / hope.

Story triggers lead to the ultimate infographic experience. Stories work so well because they remind people of their own experiences and spark the reliving of stories within their own minds. Infographic designers can trigger stories within the viewer’s mind by adding words or images that trigger personal memories. Story triggers create strong connections to your data and help people make the material meaningful. Here is an example using birthdays:

• How Your Birthday Can Change The World

All great content (stories, blog posts, ebooks, etc.) present a problem / challenge and its resolution. This is not necessarily offering a solution (i.e. “Do this.”), but by offering ways to shift / change / act on an issue so it is resolved. So many infographics present a problem but no resolution. We anticipate an ending but there is none. It abruptly ends and readers are left hanging without a way to easily finish the story. The reader has to do all the work to finish interpreting the data in their own minds, making it meaningful and applicable to their own lives. Plus, without a resolution, the data does not stick. The infographic that took so much time and labor to create is quickly forgotten or ignored. Here are two examples of simplistic infographics without a resolution:

1. Ending Malaria
2. Reinvent the Toilet

You have read up to here, get the next post sooner, like 5,000+ subscribers do via email, subscribe here:

Okay, let’s talk about beginnings-middles-ends, also known as sotry arcs. The easiest infographic visual layout to use for this element is the popular long vertical form. Works for me. I know where to begin and where to end, and I anticipate lots of good data to digest in the middle with transitions that help move the story along. Some data is displayed in such a way that we get it by simply viewing it, so beginnings, middles and ends don’t apply. Like a subway map. But if you want more information on creating story arcs and effective transitions, check out Nancy Duarte‘s book Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. It has great diagrams and structures and her thoughts can easily be applied to infographic designs when needed.

Now we are getting to the end and the question remains, what is the key message to convey with any infographic? I am sure this is familiar territory. And of course, this has to be figured out before figuring out how to display the data.

1. What insight do you want people to gain?
2. How do you want them to feel?
3. What do you want them to do?
4. What is the point of the infographic?

Here is an okay infographic without a key message that is relegated to ‘bland land’:

• Blah

As I have said before, by the time you reach the end of the infographic, there is the opportunity to inspire people to action. Here are a couple of my favorite storied infographics that include all the story elements mentioned above:

1. Storytelling Is Just Not For Campfires
2. Inbound Marketing Rising

3. How to determine if an infographic should tell a story

Consider these questions:

1. What is the purpose in putting the infographic together?
2. Who are you trying to reach?
3. What personas or archetypes do they reflect? Understanding this helps select graphic design elements and metaphors.
4. Are there characters that could be added that reflect the personas/archetypes to make the data more meaningful to readers?
5. What emotions do you want viewers to feel?
6. Where do you want them to start?
7. How do you want them to move through the material?
8. What is the key message?
9. What do you want readers to do?

4. I think this all comes down to one of my favorite quotes:

“The role of the storyteller is to ‘Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted’.”. This is from professional storyteller Elizabeth Ellis. I can see how infographics can do the same. I bet you are already using some of the story elements above as you design your infographics. Hopefully by collecting them all together in one place they can be more consciously used. If you do decide to add more story elements to your infographics, may you inspire people, go viral, and have more fun!

Tip: Search for more ComMetrics and CyTRAP sources on infographics, statistics, report writing or storying it (click to query).

Disagree? Agree? Sure. Leave a comment!

About the author: This post was written by guest blogger Karen Dietz, an experienced business story and organizational narrative expert. She writes about the intersection of story, marketing, branding, social media, and technology and curates content on business storytelling at Just Story It. You can find her on Google+ and Twitter @kdietz.

Incorporating story elements into infographics for greater effect, promoting your cause, and shareability | Tweet This

Who does not love sin-free seduction that allows someone to consume luxury goods without guilt, since part of the purchase price is donated to charity. The parvenus (from the Latin perveniō, meaning arrive or reach) – those affluent people who crave status – may use Vuitton’s distinctive LV monogram, since the more subtle details of a Hermès bag’s price tag may not be recognized by all.

What sets these luxury brands apart is clever marketing that covers the product in fairy dust to accentuate the positive. This golden rule of advertising requires portraying the product in its best light.

You may ask why Lady Gaga cannot sell luxury goods… Well, she can and sometimes it even works, but predicting public taste remains as hazardous as ever, while enduring it is even more so.

1. Usability could be average

Recently a friend of mine bought a pocket calendar from Freitag, a hip Swiss brand that makes bags and accessories out of old tarpaulins. The pocket calendar smells of old tarpaulin, was expensive and does not measure up to other pocket calendars (features, etc.).

Nevertheless, since it is Freitag, it is covered in fairy dust that allows some people to justify spending that kind of money. Therefore, lack of features is not important - just having a product made of used tarpaulin makes it cool.

2. Features may differ

Nokia is known for its sturdy, user-friendly phones, but decided to start its own luxury brand. To tap into a niche mobile device market, Nokia launched one of the world’s most expensive mobile phones in 1998 (the price rivals luxury watches, around €250,000, and units typically contain precious metals).

The phone is sold in more than 60 countries, with the strongest following in Russia, Asia and the Middle East, and though the units are technologically modest, they reportedly delivered double-digit sales growth in 2010 – outperforming the rest of Nokia.

Clients also benefit from a concierge service that makes taxi and restaurant bookings, etc., all at the touch of a direct-dial button on the phone. Features are one thing, exclusive concierge service is what makes this product special.

3. Soul of the brand

Vertu’s luxury handset did not overlap with Nokia’s reliable mass-market device offerings that include Microsoft’s smartphone software, but this was not extended to Vertu handsets. Because Vertu fails to fit Nokia’s brand image, is has been put up for sale.

Volkswagen is another example of too many brands to keep straight, such as:

• Bugatti, which produces 40 cars each year;
• Lamborghini, with about 1300;
• Bentley, at 5,000 units;
• Porsche, with a respectable 97,000; and
• Audi, which offers 1.3 million ‘luxury cars for the masses’.

How does Volkswagen ensure that these brands remain distinct?  Why should I pay more for an Audi when 60 percent of its components are found in a Volkswagen or Skoda at a far lower price?

Besides the challenge of differentiating in-house brands, social media sends your advertising campaigns beyond their intended geographical region. Unfortunately, humor fails to travel, as this video intended for pet and Star Wars lovers illustrates (Beth Kanter kindly explained the video’s cultural issues).

Click here to view the embedded video.

What do you think?

Nevertheless, we can leverage a luxury brand’s image, as Bugatti does in this video of a drag race between their Veyron and the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Euro Fighter Typhoon jet. But does this help your brand? It certainly increases your brand’s exposure to different people, and the content travels well across cultural borders, so the video will likely be appreciated by the product’s target audience.

If you want to stay abreast of the latest trends and figure out how to make them work for you, join our 5,000+ subscribers – enter your email here.

Bottom line – take-aways

The above examples suggest three things to remember:

1. Best-of-both-worlds marketing – have your cake and eat it, too: Louis Vuitton uses celebrities in its advertising campaigns whose fee goes to a worthy cause. Or jet to an exotic hot spot while off-setting your flight emissions with CO2 certificates… Sin-free seduction allows clients to enjoy the product without feeling guilty.
2. Manage and leverage the brand’s image carefully: The Bugatti Veyron vs Euro Fighter Typhoon drag race is distinct, exclusive and exciting, even for non-car buffs. Getting the RAF to join the race was a bonus, enabling both brands’ support of each other’s efforts to be perceived as authentic and exclusive.
3. Today’s game is being a connoisseur: Once your luxury watch is ready, visit the Swiss atelier where the watch is hand-made. Chat with the workman finishing your piece, while listening to a story about how the company has made watches for posh global citizens forever. What was once sold as a timepiece is now an artistic and engineering masterpiece.

Picasso said that art tells lies to help us see the truth. It seems luxury brands use sin-free seduction to realize a hefty profit. And yes, the logo on your handbag or sports car may say far more about your social status and aspirations than the brand name itself.

More resources on this topic:

- Google Me teams up with Louis Vuitton
- Difference between a data scientist and a data analyst
- Affluent consumers to increase travel spending in 2012
- Christmas and luxury brands
- Luxury brands and social media ROI
- Ferrari loses, WEF blunders as Asia soars
- 2011 trendwatch webinar: Luxury brands and social media ROI

Tip: Search for more ComMetrics and CyTRAP sources on luxury, marketing and branding (click to query).

Questions

1. What is your favorite luxury brand?
2. How do they use social media smartly?

Please share your thoughts below (click to write)!

If you like this post, please share it with your friends.

TL:DR
@ComMetrics 2012 marketing trendwatch – Luxury brands: Does sin-free equal failure? | Tweet This

Click here to view the embedded video.

Some time ago, I posted Sentiment analysis for online content: Honest?, and moderated a discussion about it in our Xing Social Media Monitoring group. This is another update in our 2012 marketing trend series.

1. Mother tongue – what mother tongue?

The biggest challenge for marketers is that people’s mother tongue is increasingly something other than the locally spoken language, and people also increasingly learn English as a second or third language to facilitate communication across borders. This means that at least 80 percent of those who read your English sales brochure have a different first language.

Accordingly, many of your readers may not be very familiar with the language, so they may fail to understand the nuances and complexities in the user guidelines you offer for your product (see Don’t forget the language factor).

In short: Your sentiment analysis software does not understand your local slang – and neither do many of your customers, trust me.

2. Humor and irony fall flat

Besides the innuendo I may fail to comprehend, humor tends to travel not at all.

One reason may be that we lack comprehension, plus, innuendos and black humor may even upset some people. What makes your British readers smile, may trigger a yawn from a Canadian or cause misunderstanding and upset a non-native speaker.

In short: Your sentiment analysis software cannot account for humour or irony when analyzing the meaning of text.

3. Risqué marketing

Risqué marketing can certainly lift your profile, but beware.

Sex is how we got here and death is how we will leave, but these two facts of life are rarely comfortable together, especially not in countries like Poland and Italy, where the Catholic Church strongly influences public life.

Nevertheless, that has not stopped Polish coffin maker Lindner from copying their Italian counterpart CofaniFunebri‘s use of scantily clad models to advertise coffins (see 2012 version).

And yes, watching a Lindner video on YouTube is most certainly less interesting for many men than viewing the company’s calendar. For those who do not believe me, numbers do not lie: Lindner’s professional two-minute video about how it manufactures coffins has only 569 views after over 2.5 years, while millions viewed the images on both companies’ websites. Many also purchased the calendars, certainly helping to build brand recognition with male consumers across Europe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Whatever we think, it appears that the male species likes to watch images of beautiful women. Remember Cebu Pacific Air’s dancing flight attendants? Just before its initial public offering, Cebu made a video about dancing flight attendants giving safety instructions that grabbed over 10 million views. A male version soon followed, but its 45,000 views seem paltry in comparison (see below).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Unfortunately, sentiment analysis fails to see these things in context. When I wrote a blog post entitled, Sex, Lies and Infographics, I was surprised to have the software on the hotel guest PC I was using prevent me from accessing the page – inappropriate content. I am pretty sure this blog post will also be blocked, because it uses the word sex.

In short: Your sentiment analysis software cannot distinguish between risqué marketing and porn or sexually inappropriate content.

4. Dishonest marketing: Tell me why

In Why Sentiment Doesn’t Matter – If You Don’t Know Why, the author’s basic message is that sentiment does not matter without knowing the reason behind it. I fully agree. Looking at HSBC subsidiary first direct’s website indicates things are even worse.

Tracking customers’ online views and opinions is wonderful, but using single positive or negative words (see right) to suggest we like or dislike something is ludicrous, or what I would call dishonest marketing.

The friendly support guy from the savings bank showed us why support and technical support are two different things.

Since the above sentence uses all the positive words as listed, except for ‘plus’, does that make it a positive statement?

Of course, if people are dissatisfied with my service I want to know why. Is it

a) the free coffee for those waiting in line is no longer available, or
b) the increased monthly account charges are too high?

In short: Your sentiment analysis software will do most of what you ask it to do. Nonetheless, without knowing why your clients said great things about your brand or product, how are you supposed to improve?

Article source – What satisfies your customer?

If you want to stay abreast of the latest trends and figure out how to make them work for you, join our 5,000+ subscribers.

Bottom line

Social media monitoring can be used to determine how often a company is mentioned, but to help you improve, sentiment analysis must go beyond this.

Online views about your products’ performance as experienced by clients are important. Most companies will try to collect this information to ensure that future releases include these suggestions for improvement.

We agree with this marketing trend, but always remember:

1. Focus on the why: If you use sentiment analysis, take the time and make the effort to understand the context, such as what sexy means in ‘sleek and sexy design’.
2. Forget navel gazing metrics: In itself, having only 10 comments compared to your client’s 222 does not mean you are doing badly – you must analyze these comments to understand whether they represent engagement or just opinions.

More resources on this topic

Kommboutique - Why Twitter is not Facebook is not LinkedIn… and how to use them right for business!
Claudia Thomas - Test & Tutorial ‘Google Alerts’ and Test & Tutorial ‘Social Mention’
ComMetrics weekly review – sentiment analysis in social media
ComMetrics weekly review: IBM to SPSS and stats in social media
ComMetrics - Using semantic analysis to identify smear tactics on Twitter
Goldbach Interactive - Best Performer Tools in Social-Media-Monitoring: Report 2011

Start here to learn how to walk the walk and measure for impact – it’s the quickest way to empower change.

Tip: Search for ComMetrics and CyTRAP sources on sentiment analysis, KPI, strategy and reputation management (click to query).

Please share your thoughts with a comment below!

TL:DR
@ComMetrics 2012 marketing trendwatch: What satisfies your customer? | Tweet This

I know comparing commercials to social media is not apples to apples but it’s close enough for my purposes. Flash forward to 2011: with over 300 million Twitter users, it offers an even bigger audience than TV did back in the day.

So why isn’t everyone advertising on social media? The reasons range from lack of staff or time to lack of analysis or return on investment (ROI).

This guest post by Carly Gentry addresses the social media advertising issue and why we need focus and measurement to reap the rewards.

1. Let’s tackle a commercial’s ROI

As humans, we are generally skeptical of new things. No one believed that advertising on television would be as successful as it is now, nor did the Internet grow by leaps and bounds when it first started. Advertising on social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is relatively new, but it is no more an instantaneous lift than a burger commercial: no one runs out to buy the burger right then.

Like planting a seed, one must wait for social media advertising to grow and mature. Unless your product, service or advertising sucks, you will realize traffic, and in turn sales. Do not become a slave to the peaks and trends of your Twitter analytics. Instead, use your energy to establish yourself.

2. Have a strategy

Gather a strong group of followers by posting for a few weeks before you start selling yourself or your product, and repost subject matter that interests you. You now have a foothold to build on, and should learn from mom-and-pop stores:

a) Treat each customer with respect and you can count on their return business.
b) Show you have nothing to hide and your honesty by settling complaints immediately and publicly.

Track your social media efforts with tools like Google Analytics Social or Twitalyzer. Paid versions are available, but if you are a small business why spend money when it’s not necessary?

Tools like Crowdbooster will tell you the best times to post or tweet to increase engagement. What you post is up to you, but ensure it is not garbage that leaves readers wanting more (you know what I mean). If you present yourself in a professional manner, respect others, engage and share great content, you won’t have any problems attracting followers and making sales.

If you follow thousands, have thousands of followers without sales, you made some errors in judgment on who to follow; you need to find your target audience.

3. Did you do your research?

No way, research!?

Yes, way. Topsy, Kurrently and even Twitter have sentiment search capabilities: see who comes up in a search for your service and/or product, and follow or engage them.

Snow shovels don’t sell in Florida, so don’t follow ‘robots’ and expect to run up your sales. Be logical and market smart – if you have a niche, follow it. Analytics, search sentiment, good curation of relevant stories to share and timing may be the difference between open for, or out of business.

Since you have read this far, we suggest you enter your email below and join our 5,000 subscribers who get updates about ComMetrics direct to their inbox:

Bottom line

Consider what was going through Joseph Bulova’s mind when he signed a contract for the first-ever tv commercial. Did people think he was wasting his time? Bulova went on to become a household name and the man himself was considered a great business mind…

Be a pioneer – do not let lack of ROI stop you when you see potential value, but always do your homework. The great ones always had a well thought out business plan even when the value was unknown.

Article source – Commercials: What ROI?

Think of those who, at the time, reached millions through little-known channels like billboards, magazines and direct mail. Look at Jay Baer and Peter Cashmore, who make great livings from advertising on relative newcomer social media. I am sure they both would say they treated social media as a business capable of great profits because they saw value.

Tip: Search for more information about social media measurement, strategy, purpose from CyTRAP – ComMetrics (click to query).

Disagree? Agree? Sure. Leave a comment!

About the author: This post was written by guest blogger and experienced measurement expert Carla Gentry. She writes about the intersection of technology, social media, and measurement on her blog, Analytical Solution.

More information about this topic:
- What makes a baseline review effective?
- Why non-profit social media efforts fail?
- Why do social media audits fail?
- Focusing on SMART metrics and your key drivers
- Are you building your Twitter reputation?

TL:DR. @ComMetrics with guest post by @data_nerd – Commercials: What ROI? | Tweet This

Good luck and be social!
@data_nerd

By the end of Quarter 3 of 2011 Android had a 52.5 percent share of the global smartphone market, up from 25.3 percent in Quarter 3 of 2010.

In contrast, iOS’s share has declined from 16.6 to 15 percent, and BlackBerry’s from 15.4 to 11 percent over the same period.

More often than not, predictions are wrong or obvious. For instance, it is obvious that netbooks – introduced in 2008 with a 10-inch screen for about €400 - are being replaced by notebooks with more computing power for hardly more money, so netbooks will disappear in a year.

And Facebook’s failure as a retail platform will persist in 2012, defying retail experts’ recent excited predictions that ‘social commerce’ – jargon for shopping via social media sites – would be the next big thing.

Finally, it is clear that Apple may well begin offering television sets in 2012.

However, the above predictions seem obvious and fail to threaten or challenge your business model. But here are three trends you should keep in mind.

1. Handset manufacturers continue expansion into value added mobile services – big time

Apple showed us how it is done by forcing mobile operators into revenue-sharing deals for iPhone. Now, small handset manufacturers have discovered that there might be more money to be made by providing users with value added mobile services.

For instance, Xiaomi’s Mi 1 handset sells for half the price of other devices with similar processing power (about US$315). Despite not making a profit at this price, the company has introduced mobile messaging tool Michat, as well as other free (so far) applications. Xiaomi hopes to increase profits through accessories sales and value added mobile services in China, as well as abroad.

Prediction 1: Handset manufacturers’ response to continually shrinking profit margins will increasingly include offering smartphone users value-added services and accessories, in a bid for a bigger slice of telecom providers’ revenue pies.

2. Blackberry falls further behind

Android recently hit the 10 billion mark, narrowing the gap with Apple. Nevertheless, Apple users download twice as many apps, making them more engaged.

In 2010, we stated that smartphone pricing would fall to about US$100 by the end of the year, and the market for low-price smartphones continues to grow in 2012.

Some firms have even publicized that, in a typical month, they make 10 to 20 times more revenue from an iOS user than an Android one!

By contrast, BlackBerry has had a terrible year. First, a service outage that infuriated customers; second, its PlayBook tablet has flopped since its April 2011 launch, selling just 800,000 units globally in the first nine months of the 2011-2012 fiscal year. In comparison, Apple has sold over 11 million iPads globally during the quarter ending September 2011, forcing RIM (Research in Motion) to offer steep discounts on its tablet (India enjoyed a 50 percent discount until the end of 2011).

BlackBerry used to be more than a device; it was cool and addictive. One reason was that it allows users to send free text messages (SMS) to other BlackBerry users (all you need is their PIN), making it especially attractive to youth.

Third, RIM had to delay the release of BlackBerry London, the first unit to run on RIM’s new BBX mobile OS, until Quarter 3 of 2012. On top of all that, RIM’s stock price fell from US$80 to about US$18 from March to December 2011.

Prediction 2: BlackBerry is falling further behind the competition, so unless RIM’s newest device becomes a hit with corporate customers around the globe (release scheduled for late 2012), we predict that RIM will collapse or be taken over.

3. Swisscom and Co. take on Groupon in m-commerce

Telecom companies have faced consistent regulatory pressure, resulting in two things: profit margin erosion and others encroaching on their territory, including cable companies.

To gain market share, telecom providers have offered mobile Internet at competitive prices that have further reduced profit margins. Plus, increasing bandwidth use by smartphone users have made network upgrades a must.

The industry has pursued a three-pronged strategy to counter this:

A. Lobbying Brussels in the hope of gaining permission to charge Google or Spotify for bandwidth (zero success so far).
B. Offering users various add-ons and product bundles, which provide a discount when ordering more than one service (working, but at the expense of profit margins).
C. Getting into the m-commerce business, such as paying a yearly fee of CHF20 for a 30-35 percent discount at the movies (looks very promising).

Instead of taking over, Swisscom, Telefonica and Vodafone might just begin dominating Groupon’s business space.

Prediction 3: Groupon-type deals offering subscribers out on the town hot deals for the evening or weekend (e.g., get 30 percent discount for up to 10 friends if ordering at restaurant X within the next hour) will bring increasing revenue for telecom providers.

More than encroaching on this business model, telecom providers will begin dominating this space, thereby making their mobile Internet services more profitable.

Since you have read this far, we suggest you enter your email below and join our 5,000 subscribers who get updates about ComMetrics direct to their inbox:

Bottom Line – the more things change, the more they stay the same

The trends we foresee for 2012 indicate the increasing integration of communication, entertainment and mobile Internet and the increasing cost associated with switching from Facebook to Google+ or iPhone to BlackBerry, etc.

The video below features Muppets Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy etc. promoting the Google+ video chat component, and was aired in the US during primetime shows in the week before Christmas.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The above reminds us of two important business realities or lessons:

1. Google’s fight to get your Facebook friends illustrates the winner-take-all syndrome, whereby many consumers see little benefit from switching services; because it is time-consuming to re-connect with Facebook friends on Google+, few users will try.

2. Whoever controls access to the consumer (e.g., telecom provider, handset manufacturer, Amazon, Apple, Skype) has the best chance of creating, growing and controlling new revenue streams.

How do you see it? What are your predictions for 2012?

See also, ComMetrics poll: Key trends for 2012

Tip: Search for more information about mobile communication, video and music trends in 2012 from CyTRAP and ComMetrics (click to query).

Please share your thoughts with a comment below!

TL:DR
@ComMetrics trendwatch: 2012 trends: What makes a failure? | Tweet This

“I’m thinking more and more that our technology is hindering our ability to experience the life in front of us.” As this hilarious video asks, who needs Siri?

Click here to view the embedded video.

We just completed a poll we launched a few weeks back about what you, our readers, perceive as the most critical social media marketing trends for 2012, and these are our findings.

Whether you work for a non-profit, government agency, Fortune 500 company, or are self-employed, if you use social media in your job (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, blog, discussion forum, Tumblr, YouTube, Slideshare, Google+, Weibo, etc.), you will want to know the results of this poll!

Article source – ComMetrics poll: Key trends for 2012?

To manage these trends and stay ahead of your competition we suggest that, if you have not already done so, you join our 5,000 subscribers.

It always amuses me when people claim to know the future, and I assume they gaze into their crystal ball or read tea leaves. Unfortunately, their thoughts and insights usually fail social media 101 in audience engagement, for instance by disabling comments. Go figure!

Instead of going that route, I decided to ask you for your insights and draw on your expertise (see poll below). Thanks to all who participated; I really appreciate your help and support.

Since we used an online poll, our findings are neither representative nor do they allow us to generalize. Nevertheless, they indicate some things that might cause you to reflect and re-assess your organization’s situation.

The map below shows what countries our 105 respondents came from (online answers & some replies via email).

We also feel it important to mention that some respondents made the effort to let us know why they felt they should not participate in our poll, primarily because they did not use social media for their job. We appreciate your letting us know.

1. Converting metrics into business value is NOT the biggest challenge

A study I recently came across stated the number one issue for 2012 for businesses and non-profits would be demonstrating how social media metrics would affect business value or insights. But according to our poll results, except for companies with 50 to 499 full-time employees, more effectively quantifying the value created for customers is not most critical for 2012.

We could consider this a surprise, but it may simply indicate that our respondents are aware of the challenge and find others more critical to ensuring success in 2012 (see discussion below).

2. Lack of resources

Most find it understandable when companies with less than 10 full-time employees consider lack of resources a challenge, including but not limited to money, and time. As someone who runs a micro-business, I know that cash can be an issue for financing growth and it often seems there is never enough time to do as well as you want to with social media.

But learning that large companies, such as Fortune 500 and FT Global 500 firms, agree the critical issue for 2012 is lack of resources really surprised me. I have no explanation for this. Do you? Please share your ideas in a comment below!

3. Finding the best engagement metrics

Companies with 10 to 49 full-time employees reported their biggest challenge for 2012 is finding the right engagement metrics (33 percent, see table above). By contrast, only 13 percent of large companies in our sample felt this is most critical.

4. Speed

Along with finding engagement metrics, some organizations (including non-profits) with 50 to 499 staff chose speed as the most critical factor in 2012 (27 percent respectively). This is definitely interesting for those trying to be prepared for crises, unlike companies who appear unable to respond over the weekend AND/OR use the wrong tone when replying to their fans or brand ambassadors.

5. Other key issues

As Robyn McIntyre points out above, making sense of all the advice coming our way about how best to use social media makes it a challenge to do things well – who is right?

People could fill in their most critical issue under the category of Other. The results point out that context REALLY matters (see also replies below). Accordingly, you have to make sense of it all as it pertains to your unique situation. Templates may fail and instead you must consider what works for your organization and target audiences, allowing you to choose the most viable strategy for your organization.

Finally, we were surprised to note that, regardless of country or firm type, none of the respondents felt privacy or data protection would be most critical in 2012. I wonder if companies are underestimating this challenge… What is your opinion and does your organization address this issue?

Leave a comment or should I beg you to befriend us on Google+? Let’s follow my new motto for 2012 instead and meet face to face over a drink (call me or send me an email – I would love to meet you!). Just make sure you enjoy the upcoming holidays with real people – not in cyberspace.

Tip: Search for more information about social media and more effective marketing in 2012 – trends from CyTRAP – ComMetrics (click to query).

Bottom line – size and region matter

What is critical for you may differ depending on your size, and even region matters. We are in the process of completing a CyTRAP poll in German with respondents primarily from Germany, the German-speaking part of Switzerland and Austria. Here privacy and data protection was far more likely to be a critical issue for 2012 (see above).

TL:DR

@ComMetrics poll results: Key trends for 2012? | Tweet This

Some say Google+ fails to add anything you absolutely and desperately need. Does it solve a problem? People you connect with there might follow you on Twitter, Facebook and/or read your blog, so why worry about Google+, or LinkedIn for that matter?

Article source – Could Google+ fail in 2012?

Okay, you tell me that Google+ will change SEO to push down Facebook Pages, but I’m not so sure. I AM sure that you should subscribe and join more than 5,000 subscribers to our blog before your read on:

Below I summarize some issues I have discussed with various people on Facebook, Google+ and Xing and in person at our last Social Media Monitoring Apéro (grr, you missed it… make sure you join the next one in January 2012).

So what is there to like about Google+?

There are different things you probably know about Google+ (see 4 things to know about Google+), but here are three things I like:

1. Less spam than LinkedIn: One reason I either unsubscribed most of my LinkedIn group memberships is spam. Even the two exceptions I rarely read or participate in.

2. Circles – managing content sharing: This is a great tool, though I still don’t manage it well enough and tend to share with everybody (public).

3. Not a mass destination yet, so more geeky – love it. Virtually noise-free content and people actually discuss and reflect on the content. The comments I read about shared posts help me better understand things. Neat.

What I do not like

1. No great search features: Going to Google search is easier than trying to use the Google+ search for anything. Trust me, this still ain’t working right (see Google+ brand pages: Why SEO is dead).

2. Comments on shared posts are missing: So your friends shared your post and it shows up in Ripples (see below). Unfortunately, any comments left on shared posts don’t show up on the original. Too bad, because this prevents me from seeing what all those smart people have to contribute about my original post elsewhere. Instead I have to go and find it… who has the time?

3. Ripples are navel-gazing metrics: So far Ripples is more of a promise than useful service, because it does not provide me with a metric that measures for impact. Read Debra Askanase‘s great guest post, Google+ Ripples: The promise of shared intelligence.

I am sure there are other more quirky issues than the above. Why not share your notes in the comments? I love to hear your thoughts!

Bottom line – take-aways – what this means for you

Have a look on Google +, Xing, or Facebook for fascinating discussions of the pitfalls of Google+!

More resources on this topic

- Why Deutsche Bahn should use either Facebook or Google+ but not both – Victor Meise

Tips and cheats for improving your Google+ experience:

- How to download your Google+ data to your hard-drive,
- Italic or Bold text on Google +

So what does all this mean for you? Maybe 2012 will be the year when some of us realize we should get ourselves a real life and unplug from some of these social networks, including Facebook, Ning, Viadeo or XeeMe. Instead of checking your friend’s Facebook status updates or tweets on your smartphone, have a real conversation.

If we stop broadcasting ourselves and trying to build a reputation by re-tweeting stuff we have yet to read, then Google+ will be in real trouble (so will Facebook). Unfortunately, I am not sure if enough of us will feel that way, or if 2012 will be another year that showcases our narcissism. What do YOU think?

Tip: Search for more information about social media and more effective marketing, Google+, Facebook & Co from CyTRAP – ComMetrics (click to query).

I hope that PANKs (Professional Aunt, No Kids) will play Ludo (also known as Aggravation, Eile mit Weile (Switzerland), or Mensch ärgere dich nicht (Germany)) with their nieces or nephews, instead of checking the latest status updates on their iPhone.

Leave a comment or should I beg you to befriend us on Google+? Let’s follow my new motto for 2012 instead and meet to chat face to face over a drink. Just make sure you enjoy the upcoming holidays with real people – not in cyberspace. In case you do not want to join us, tweet it!

TL:DR
@ComMetrics writes: Could Google+ fail in 2012? | Tweet This

Generally, we all agree that it is essential to determine exactly what you wish to accomplish with social media (objectives, goals, dreams, etc.):

a) What is the purpose of social media for your company?
b) What is social media’s value proposition?
c) What results must be achieved with social media and in what context?
d) How will you know when you got there – measuring and benchmarking?

Article source – ComMetrics 2012 social media trends: Engagement

However, when it comes to engagement, things get a bit more difficult. Here are four tips to secure better engagement with your audiences in 2012.

1. Know what terms of the art mean and act accordingly

In a past ComMetrics blog post I defined engagement (in German sometimes called Kundeninteraktion or Kundendialog) as follows:

Social media engagement represents the action of engaging with others using computer-mediated communication tools. Engagement means establishing and sustaining relationships, while developing a level of trust that makes people comfortable enough to do business with you.

Continued engagement through social media could manifest in a ‘conversation’, such as a blogger replying to a reader’s blog comment, or as a discussion of a user-posed question about or evaluation of one’s product in an online community.

Social media offers companies the opportunity to get people involved and interact with the brand. However, it will not happen without effort and resources.

2. Permission – the increasingly important first step

Seth Godin pointed out that we must move beyond impressions (e.g., one million impressions on Facebook due to our ad campaign) and focus on getting the client’s permission.

In our figure below, permission means getting the reader, client or potential employee to sign up for your newsletter or blog posts. Accordingly, they give you permission to send them targeted content on a regular basis.

Web analytics experts call this a micro-conversion. In combination with a mezzo-conversion (see y-axis below), we ultimately may end up with a macro-conversion – the actual sale, order or job application.

In the context of human resource marketing, a person subscribing to your content allows you to stay in touch and provide that individual with relevant information. Nevertheless, this does not ensure their application next time you have a job opening they would suit perfectly. The figure also illustrates how a person may already follow your Facebook or Google Plus page before they subscribe to your newsletter.

3. Permission means nothing without interaction

Gaining permission to send someone information still means they are a passive recruit. Ideally, they read the information coming their way, but realistically they usually will not.

The 900-98-1.5-0.5 rule suggests that 900 out of every 1000 people never see information sent to them, 98 people read it, one-and-a-half people share it and less than one person writes original content in the form of a tweet or reply. You can only hope that people reading your content find it interesting, and therefore share it with their peers (e.g., by tweeting about it).

The orange arrow shows the progress of an individual who visits your site thanks to search results. They may even comment, leading to a discussion with the author (see these replies and back replies). The objective is to get this commenter to sign up for your newsletter, though this may be unrealistic and you should consider yourself lucky if they follow your Facebook page.

The blue arrow illustrates getting passive audience members to become engaged. This occurs by not only enticing them to read your posts but to share them with their colleagues on LinkedIn, through chat or in discussion on your blog.

You’ve come this far, why not subscribe to our award-winning blog and join our 5,000+ subscribers?

4. Engagement metrics are increasingly critical

Some experts tell us that failure to engage with clients who are already using social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter is a form of ‘social negligence’. Really?

What we can agree on is that using social media to engage existing and potential clients is more of a business obligation than ever. Maybe only because if you do not engage, someone else will, but that would be a rather sad way to lose business.

Metrics that can be used include the number of blog subscribers, and average number of comments to a blog post, or even such innovative ways as keeping track of how many clients mention your social media efforts during a business lunch or cocktail party you both attend.

There is no universal template for metrics to use. You must design the metrics that will help you achieve whatever strategic objectives your top management sets for 2012 (check out Why the boss thinks 125,000 monthly pageviews mean failure).

We have developed a five-step method that will help you implement an interactive recruitment approach. Anyone interested should leave a comment and we’ll send you the checklist.

More resources on the topic:

- Why does engagement fail?
- Tweets tagged #engagement
- Is blog and Facebook engagement obsolete?
- Yes Virginia, social media client-engagement IS a myth!
- 4 roads to success? Microsoft, NBC, Toyota and PostBus
- You Finally Have a Google Plus Business Page… Now What?
- Zansberg, Steven D. and Fischer, Janna, K. (November 2011). Privacy expectations in online social media – an emerging generational divide? Communications Lawyer, 28(3), pp. 1-9 (free download)

Bottom line

The long term aim of engagement is to raise loyalty and advocacy through referrals and word-of-mouth. Accordingly, engagement is all about your potential clients or recruits

- giving you permission to communicate with them, and
- sharing insights, opinions and experiences, publicly and privately.

Accordingly, in the human resource marketing context, a blog or newsletter, discussion group or community offers the opportunity for high-value candidates to raise their hands and request more information based on conversational exposure.

Nevertheless, as the Top 10 forgotten social media questions illustrate, not everybody wants to engage with a brand.

For now, we must get the word about job openings out via our blog and Facebook page or use these channels to announce a recruitment open house. Do you have any suggestions that other firms will find useful? If so, please add them in the suggestion section below!

TL:DR
@ComMetrics writes: ComMetrics 2012 social media trends: Engagement | Tweet This

Here is an example of how Henkel tried to use YouTube to make recruitment more interactive. Can you spot the three things to fix to achieve engagement with potential job applicants?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Recently we have had two blog posts about Google+: 4 things to know about Google+, and Google+ brand pages: Why SEO is dead.

Now, let’s talk about Google+ Ripples, the first set of metrics from Google about Google+. It’s not enough, of course, but still worth parsing for its hints at what is to come from Google, and offers users relevant information about the use of circles, Google+ influence, and how data is spread.

Article source – Google+ Ripples: The promise of shared intelligence

This is another guest post by Debra Askanase. She addresses the new Google+ Ripples feature, rolled out October 27, 2011, and its hint of data potential for marketing and engagement.

Before we continue, enter your email below and join our 5,000 subscribers who get updates about ComMetrics direct to their inbox:

What is Ripples?

Ripples offers data visualization over time of how your posts are shared: when, by whom, and to whom. Once a post has been shared even once, an option to view the Ripple will appear in the drop-down menu to the right of the post. Google adds a time stamp video to Ripples that visually shows the spread of a post over time. Put simply, it shows the ‘ripple effect’ of the content that you post.

But why is it important? It’s all about moving people to action.

1. Know your influencers
Whether you work for a nonprofit or a brand, you want to know how your social media activities can move supporters, followers, and fans to action. Ripples tells you who amongst your followers has real influence that moves people to act. This is especially important when thinking about campaigns and audience segmentation.

For example, I posted a link to a ComMetrics story about Google+ brand pages to my Google+ profile. It was shared six times (five public shares and one private or limited share).

Ripples shows that Janet Fouts was the most influential sharer of this post, since she influenced three other shares. This tells me that Janet is interested in this type of information, can influence others to share, and may also be influential within other social networks.

If I were running an organization, I’d find out more about my strongest Ripple influencers, create new circles for them, and further segment them by their areas of interest. (For an incredible Ripple, check out this one started by the Dalai Lama.)

2. Find new influencers
If you know your audience, use Ripples to find new fans and supporters. Start with your known ‘superfans’, those that love you and share your information on other social media channels or platforms. Look at who is sharing your superfans’ posts, find those influencers, and circle them. Cultivate those ‘friends of friends’ by thanking them, mentioning them in posts, and asking for comments.

Is there someone you are trying to reach? Find them on Google+ and find out who influences them by looking at their re-shares. Are you trying to find new fans? Search for a hashtag on Google+ and look for posts that have a lot of shares. And don’t be afraid to tag Google+ users in a post if you really want to engage them. Social media is all about engagement, so find those you want to know, circle them, and engage them in a real way through conversation and sharing of their posts.

3. Know what people want to share
Knowing what people want to share is highly valuable information. What resonates deeply with your stakeholders? What will spread more awareness about your cause, brand, or products? What appeals to which audiences? This information will help you further segment your marketing, identify niches, and refine your messaging.

Be aware, however, that Ripples illustrates only one aspect of this content feedback loop: what people want to share publicly. Ripples will not show what people want to talk about, either. A post may have 23 comments but no shares. Another post may have 15 shares, but they are private or limited shares which are not viewable as Ripples. If your organization deals with sensitive issues, the latter may be the case.

If your SMART (specific, manageable, actionable, relevant, trending) goal is deep follower and fan engagement, then your strategy is to generate more comments than shares.

4. Watch out for a Google+ search algorithm
On Facebook, highly shared content is a significant part of EdgeRank, the algorithm Facebook uses to determine how prominently posts will be seen within fans’ individual newsfeeds. At this time, the Google+ news stream algorithm is real-time. However, I wouldn’t rule out an algorithm similar to Facebook’s in the future or its effect on how high your post shows up within a Google+ or Google search in the future.

5. Remember the power of clicks
Google+ is an important part of Google’s SEO (search engine optimization) strategy, affecting the future of search. According to Google+ ad guy Christian Oestlien, 77 percent of brand-centered content is being shared by users – NOT brands.

Moreover, clickthrough rates on a search result actually go up when users see their friends’ faces next to it. If your strategy involves driving your fans to a website, then shares of your content must be an integral part of your overall social media strategy. Google+ posts appear in Google’s social search results, and the faces next to them will certainly influence clicks.

Tip: Search for more information about social media and more effective marketing, Google+, Facebook & Co from CyTRAP – ComMetrics (click to query).

For now, all we can do is wait and see what Google does, and hope we’re not left eating their dust. An uncomfortable feeling, isn’t it?

Disagree? Sure. Leave a comment!

About the author
This post was written by guest blogger Debra Askanase. She is an experienced digital strategist, non-profit executive, and community organizer. Debra writes about the intersection of technology, social media, and nonprofits on her blog, Community Organizer 2.0.

TL:DR. @ComMetrics with guest post by @askdebra: Google+ Ripples: The promise of shared intelligence | Tweet This

More information about this topic:
- About Google Ripples – Google Help
- How one Google+ user created what could be Google Ripples’ largest graph so far
- Google Ripples and why brands will love it
- What will Google+ mean for your organization?

2011-12-19 – Update – read and view the poll’s results – interesting trends for 2012

It’s that time of year again, when we try to ensure our preparation for next year’s digital and social media marketing challenges.
I thought I would reach out to our readers, and ask you to help me get a better idea of what difficulties we will have to cope with in the next year.

Article source – ComMetrics poll: 2012 social media marketing trends

Whether you work for a non-profit, government agency, Fortune 500 company, or are self-employed, if you use social media in your job (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Blog, discussion forum, Tumblr, YouTube, Slideshare, Google Plus, Weibo, etc.), this poll is for you!


Thank you very much for your participation, and of course I will report about the results on this blog. In the meantime, please ensure you receive the findings first by being among our 5,000+ subscribers:

As always, I would love to read your comments below. What do YOU think will matter the most in 2012? Please share!!

My favorite librarian Andrea Glover once told my students to always find the original source (see also ComMetrics Intel Show).

Article source – When did good journalism die?

What does this have to do with trust and credibility; journalism, blogging and white papers from corporate R&D labs?

Before I explain what all of this means for your work, sign up with your email and join our over 5,000 readers:

The way we were

The newspaper business has changed drastically, as noted in a recent study about the newspaper industry in Canada, United States and the UK. It found that, in a UK street with 100 homes (see p. 17):

- 1950 saw 140 daily newspaper purchases and 220 every Sunday, while 9 percent of households owned a television; while
- 2011 saw 40 daily newspaper purchases, seven days a week, and each household owned 2.6 televisions.

Quality and who we are

The amount of data produced annually is increasing exponentially, meaning we create data equivalent to every single person in the world reading 174 newspapers daily.

With this increasing amount of information, quality of content is a hotly debated issue, by us, too:

- From fee to free: Will e-readers revive newspapers?
- ComMetrics weekly review: New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Guardian

The Swiss Media Quality Yearbook (German) tries to provide a comprehensive overview of how free news sources have influenced quality of print, TV and online coverage.

Unfortunately, the authors have not addressed quality issues per se, but use subjective criteria, such as writing style or publication quantity on a certain topic, to make inferences about decreasing quality of coverage.

For me, quality of coverage has more to do with:

- the depth of the article or blog post,
- the veracity of reported facts and/or issues under scrutiny (e.g., source confirmation, research findings), and
- the author’s understanding of the source and its methodology (see Raise your hand if you hate research).

This is often not the case with blog posts and newspaper articles (see bottom of post for further resources).

By the way, what will be your biggest challenge in 2012? Participate in our ComMetrics poll (see right-hand column)!

Digital cannot save print media

Because we constantly produce more news and quality is hard to assess, it has become important for newspapers to demonstrate value for their paying customers, who are continuously wooed by various free news sources.

Still, newspapers have tried hard to get a share by repackaging their content in various ways. German tabloid Bild started a paid-content drive in December 2009, but new digital sales did not make up for 300,000 languishing print copies in the first half of 2011, averaging 2.9 million copies a day.

Just because we have an app does not mean people want to use it. Five percent of users take advantage of an app 20 days after downloading and paying for it, but only 3 percent do so with free apps.

So when the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung announced 40,000 downloads of their free app, revenues only added up to about €750 per weekend. Not too impressive for your bottom line.

Creating synergies between content

Some newspapers have tried to solve the challenge of digital media not replacing lost print revenues (see Bild example) by getting into other businesses. The Financial Times organizes conferences, an example of our tip to re-imagine content, meaning they produce videos, publish a printed and shortened version in the newspaper, offer a podcast of the video, etc., instead of recycling content. Delegates’ registration payments help the newspaper create this content while making such ventures profitable.

This one was printed on 2011-11-15 (FT, p. 6) and uses the FT’s own as the headlining so-called visionaries and key decision-makers. But who are they kidding?

I start to wonder when we are sold on the value of a conference with journalists’ head-shots, not those who provide the meat of the content (see names at bottom of screenshot).

Tip: Search for more videos & slides about ROI, cost-benefit analysis for social media, Facebook & Co from CyTRAP – ComMetrics (click to query).

Bottom line – takeaways

Of course, you can ignore these trends at your own peril. ‘Freedom of expression’ will always challenge people’s right to privacy. However, to ensure the survival of a vibrant press – in print and/or digital form, we must manage two developments:

1. Transparency of process: Things would look better if the press were subject to process transparency. ”High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below; do not cut & paste the article.”

That sounds great, but why don’t journalists give us a link to the resources they use to write their piece? That way, I’ll know whether it is based on a press release or actual investigative reporting. Increased transparency is critical, as suggested by O’Neill, Onora (November 18, 2011). News of this world. Financial Times, Life & Arts, p. 1 & 19.

2. Quality is key: Whatever the revenue strategy (e.g., print, digital content, conferences, etc.), quality is key to ensuring that people will continue to shell out money. Why pay if free news sources are no worse than paid ones? How long before the few remaining differences disappear?

For now, all we can do is wait and see how news outlets manage this challenge. If they fail, they die, and the world will be the poorer for it.

More information about this topic:
- Wall Street Journal, New York Post, New York Times, Le Monde – Dropping ad revenues and continuing losses
- 2011 Swiss Media Quality Yearbook
- Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) – various studies conducted by universities about the media sector on behalf of, and paid for by the regulator – in German (also available in French and Italian, see top right corner)

Today we address three challenges with Google+ (see also 4 things to know about Google+):

1. Why should you use Google+ (purpose, objectives)?
2. How does Google+ affect your business’ key drivers and outcomes?
3. How will Google+ change the SEO (search engine optimization) business?

Most of us must address these challenges when budgeting to manage a Google+ page for our brand and/or company. One way Google eggs us on to use its platform is by integrating it with other Google services, such as Google Reader. Some SEO pundits have also suggested that search results are already affected by how much your blog post may be shared on Google+.

Article source – Google+ brand pages: Why SEO is dead

Before we continue, enter your email below and join our 5,000 subscribers who get updates about ComMetrics direct to their inbox:

Below is a summary of some issues I have discussed with you.

1. Why use Google+?

Before a company launches its Facebook page or Xing group, its team has hopefully defined the purpose behind it. Deciding to use social media to reduce costs is a non-starter, because that puts the focus on a negative thing, costs. Instead, it makes more sense to focus on revenue, customer retention, client engagement, satisfaction, and so forth.

Does Google+ help with the above? So far, we know that Google+ pages are very similar to Facebook pages, but with some improvements, such as my ability to segment who sees the updates.

Nevertheless, there are currently no statistics for Google+ pages. Moreover, unlike on Facebook, neither ComMetrics nor Coca-Cola have a vanity URL on Google+ to make it easy for clients to find them.

However, Google will likely make Google+ increasingly useful for businesses by adding and/or integrating services, such as

- Google Places and Local Deals, making Google+ a more localized social network,
- Google Analytics, allowing you to get a better handle than Facebook Insights on what works and what fails, and
- Google Wallet, making it easier to leverage your e-shop activities and Google+ pages.

Once Google starts serving up even better value to its Google+ users, it will become another destination businesses cannot afford to ignore.

2. How does Google+ affect your business’ key drivers and outcomes?

When a social network gets its users to a ‘point of no return’, it has won. Google+ is still trying to get there, but integrating the above will definitely help make Google+ more useful for you.

ComMetrics – please befriend us on Google+ – we definitely follow back and share!

I have discovered for myself that, for various reasons, using Google+ is different than Facebook, but most importantly, the users are different: there seem to be more business people with engineering and management-type backgrounds on Google+.

Will businesses add their pages to Google+ – Discussion on Xing – Social Media Monitoring group

However, how this helps my consulting and social media analytics software firm improve customer retention and client engagement remains to be seen.

3. How will Google+ change the SEO business?

There is little doubt that Google will use its ubiquity to ensure that Google+ pages rank higher in searches. Some possibilities include

- Your brand’s Facebook page will rank lower on Google than your Google+ page (already happening in some cases),
- Links from Google+ to your webpage and blog posts will provide a higher search rank and more relevant traffic than those from Facebook, LinkedIn and so forth, and
- Google’s algorithm will give Google+ Likes/+1, re-sharing and so forth a higher impact on search results (i.e. rank them higher) than those from other platforms.

Don’t forget! My.ComMetrics.com has released some additional features in version 0.4. We at CyTRAP Labs will be glad to schedule a demonstration for you. You can also get more information on our blog – My.ComMetrics.com update: Release 0.4.

One thing Google+ offers is searching for hashtags. For instance, using Ostschweizer Marketing Forum‘s hashtag from this week #OMF11 ensures that all posts on Google+ using this term show up. To illustrate, compare the search on Twitter for #OMF11 with that on Google+ for #OMF11. Unfortunately, it fails on Google itself, but this will definitely be changing soon.

By the way, our next blog post by guest poster Debra Askanase will likely discuss another interesting feature, the Google+ ripple effect.

Bottom line – take-aways

Unlike Lior Levine (see guest post, SEO is dead: Long live social media), I do not believe SEO is completely dead and buried, but Google+ certainly has the potential to radically change the landscape.

We feel comfortable betting that the more effectively you use Google+, the more likely your blog and/or webpage performance will improve when it comes to micro conversions (see My.ComMetrics.com update: Release 0.4). Micro conversions include pageviews, job applications submitted, new subscribers, Print This Page rate (assuming an in-store purchase), and number of product information requests.

1. Never ignore +1: These are seen by many websites and most Internet users are putting social media at the heart of what they do, whether YouTube videos, adverts, blogs or social network pages. Further, your search results are already different from a few months back, based on what your friends have +1′d. Make sure you get them for your content as part of the changing SEO landscape.

2. Don’t forget Facebook: For SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), using both Google+ and Facebook may be drain scarce resources. The key question is what you want to accomplish on either platform. Dabble a little on Google+ if you can, just to see where Google is going and how it could affect your micro conversions.

Tip: Search for more information about social media and more effective marketing, Google+, Facebook & Co from CyTRAP – ComMetrics (click to query).

For now, all we can do is wait and see what Google does, and hope we’re not left eating their dust. An uncomfortable feeling, isn’t it?

More information about this topic:
Google’s effort to digitize books
How the traditional search landscape is changing in front of our eyes
Why a Google+ brand page could be more important than your Facebook page
Summarizing Google+ pages: The good, the bad, the possible
What will Google + mean for your organization?

Recently I gave a short presentation about social media marketing and why I am not always thrilled with it for Dabgo – Danes Abroad Business Group Online – Zurich.

For instance, I am always re-discovering that more companies than I would like follow neither the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle nor SMART (Specific, Manageable, Actionable, Relevant, Trending) metrics. The result is costs that outweigh benefits, and worse, forget ROI (return on investment).

Article source – Social media ROI: 3 things to watch out for

Advertising is a great tool to make customers more aware about your product. Nevertheless, the amount of resources expended may result in a great campaign flopping if the price of success becomes too high.

Below I summarize three points I made during the presentation (the video, slides AND podcast are available right here), but before I explain what all of this means for your work, sign up with your email and join our over 5,000 readers:

Apps are a dime a dozen: Just because we have an app does not mean people want to use it. Five percent of users take advantage of an app 20 days after downloading and paying for it, but this number is only three percent for free apps.

The above suggests that just having an app may be great, but unless it solves a problem people want solved it might not get much use. Public transit authorities who provide access to their timetables for people trying to get somewhere faster have it easier. No question, I will use this app as long as I need public transportation to get from A to B.

The worst-case scenario is when people start wondering whether it is worth paying for the app every Saturday when you publish the weekend magazine that print readers get as part of their Saturday paper (Euro 750 more – not much – is it?).

Advertise your Facebook page but keep business ethics in mind: Aviva needs to be rescued and starting a campaign to gain more Facebook fans using print media is a possible strategy.

However, your target audience (Financial Times readers) can easily figure out that you are spending way more on the ads than you donate to the charity you pay for each new Facebook fan. Accordingly, how can you justify such a campaign?

To build your reputation you never want the target audience to wonder if you might have wasted money instead of donating more.

Get the right benchmarks: Unless we use measures and benchmarks that make sense in our situation, why use them? We can compare and rank business schools according to how many Nobel prize winners are on staff, but does this ensure prospective students will get a great education to become a leader and/or successful entrepreneur?

Don’t forget! Benchmark your blog – measure for impact – use My.ComMetrics.com and improve your blog’s performance. CyTRAP Labs can help you improve your social media efforts. Start a conversation! Email us at info [at] CyTRAP [dot] eu or call us at +41 (0)44-272-1876.

Bottom line and take-aways

1. Take stock: What are we using these days (e.g., employees, others) and how well are we doing? You will have a hard time showing how you improved without taking the baseline.

2. Watch your reputation: Is it good for your brand or reputation if we all see you spend more on touting your brand than donating to the charity?

3. Improvement is key: Measuring progress with the right benchmarks will provide you with the information needed to further improve your impact and effectiveness using social media channels.

Tip: Search for more videos & slides about ROI, cost-benefit analysis for social media, Facebook & Co from CyTRAP – ComMetrics (click to query).

Of course, you can ignore the above suggestions, but you do so at your own peril.

Read more about the tricks and tips we gave at this lecture – get the slides, listen to the podcast.

More information about this topic:
- 2011 trends: Social media marketing and ROI
- Measuring social media to boost ROI
- Boosting ROI through social media measurement
- 2011 trends: Social media best practice and ROI
- KPI experts’ top 5 secrets

Update 2012-01-29: latest about infographics see also: Karen Dietz – storied infographics: why do they fail?
From September 23, 2010 to September 23, 2011, 89 percent of infographic mentions were in English and 91 percent of online mentions occurred on microblogs.

Unfortunately, infographics are often judged by their beauty, not quality. Sometimes, instead of following the more effective KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle, a good idea is made into a convoluted waste of ink.

Article source – On lies, infographics, and unverified numbers 

German version of this article you can find here: Lügen, Infographics und nicht verifizierte Daten. 

Statistics are like cosmetic surgery, the final result is great, but what the procedure concealed is key. Before I explain what this means for your work, sign up with your email and join our over 5,000 readers:

High data-ink ratio – too high

I recently found a tweet with a great headline, 10 amazing e-commerce infographics. Let me explain why, based on the graphic below, the contents left something to be desired.

First, circles are difficult for people to grasp, because most are unable to gauge the differences. When compared to 9 and 14 percent, 3 and 5 percent are smaller than they should be, and three 5 percent circles will not even fill the blue 14 percent circle under West.

Using a format that makes it hard for viewers to get the message is one thing, but making the final product inaccurate simply misinforms your audience, doing both you and your audience a disservice when people wonder, can I trust the results when you fudged the data?

Second, the idea that men think about sex every 7 seconds, like the claim that we only use 10 percent of our brains, is often repeated but rarely sourced. Worse, the number does not bear up under scrutiny of the original data, such as for the above infographic:

• The 10 amazing e.commerce infographics blog post appeared on July 25, 2011, and got tweeted on August 25, 2011 (when I saw it) – see bit.ly statistics.
• Econsultancy tells us it came from Pod1 - March 28, 2011.
• Pod1 tells us it is from MyCouponCodes.com, without linking to the original blog entry, Online Shopping Around The World: How We Spend Our Money Online [Infographic] – March 15, 2011.
• MyCouponCodes.com paid Richard Scott Design to create this infographic – March 16, 2011.
• MyCouponCodes.com gives a link to the original source data from Nielsen’s Global Online Shopping Report – download report (pdf) – June 29, 2010.

Now things get really interesting
After a ten-minute search, we have arrived at the original data source, a Nielsen report. Its graphic on page 3 was subsequently used by Richard Scott Design to produce an infographic.

The above circles suggest that 51 percent of West survey respondents spend less than 5 percent of their monthly income online. Based on the chart, adding EU – Europe (55), LA – Latin America (44), and NA – North America (54) gives us a total of 153, divided by 3 to arrive at 51 percent. So the West includes Chavez’ Venezuela and Castro’s Cuba?

As well as failing to provide a URL to the original source, it seems the infographic misrepresents the Nielsen study’s data.

Nielsen could learn a few things too: a classically simple, colored bar graph would better deliver the information than the current graphic. If you prefer, a table listing the ranges on the left and regions across the top from left to right would also work nicely.

Finally, even the original data source may lead a reader to question some things. For instance, how accurate were respondents in representing their online shopping habits? Does the respondent’s income level (e.g., student) affect responses? Unfortunately, Nielsen’s report does not say.

Cut to the chase

This infographic (I call them graphics) clearly and succinctly tells us how Nielsen collected data using Facebook for another study.

Nearby, the report explains their methodology (see right). Put bluntly, authors admit that while they have reduced possible biases, their data are still not representative of the US population. Of course, the busy professional and/or CEO is unlikely to volunteer for doing an online Facebook survey, are they?

So, are these data useless? Surely not, but all we can say is that they give us a feel for Facebook users. But we also know that sex, lies and statistics all help sell – anything. Accordingly, Nielsen chooses to generalize from these data in its press release.

Don’t forget – benchmark your blog – measure for impact – use My.ComMetrics.com and improve your blog’s performance

Bottom line – take-aways

1. Do not misrepresent data: Sometimes, designers use visualization to exaggerate an effect, which means data get misrepresented… Like stories of men thinking about sex every 7 seconds. This number gets people’s attention, but it does not withstand any scrutiny.

2. Do not use infographics unless they add value: For instance, taking a graph from one study to make another infographic is justified only if it helps further explain the issues investigated. If this does not help you and I to better understand things, why confuse matters?

3. Be ethical and tell readers where data come from: Social media monitoring reports must include information that allows readers to understand where data come from and what methodology was used (e.g., self-selected sample of online survey respondents). Limitations, such as data that is non-representative of the population must be clearly spelled out.

4. Check and re-check the original source: Next time, carefully check the information before re-tweeting it and give the originator credit where credit is due. What are considered marvelous infographics are those that try measuring online behavior in square feet.

Tip: Search for more information regarding graphics and infographics on ComMetrics

Of course, you can ignore the above four suggestions, but you do so at your own peril (as Twitter Only Converts A Small Percentage Of Users Into Shoppers, But They Spend shows). Check the facts and you learn that 1 million visitors nets you one buyer who spends $24 more than those arriving via search – Google.

There is a frenzy surrounding search engine optimization (SEO) and how website owners should optimize their sites to increase traffic. This article addresses the six advantages social media claims on SEO.

With an ever evolving online market, new opportunities and methods arise almost instantaneously. Therefore, it is with no surprise that strict SEO methods are being replaced with alternative and faster ways to achieve similar or better results.

Article source – SEO is dead: Long live social media

For some, using social media to increase traffic makes a lot of sense, while others may need a little more convincing.

1. Information on social media is on search engines

Information on social media networks is channeled through most search engine platforms (try it yourself by googling one of your social media profile names).

Similarly, all posts shared on your social site will also appear on search engines. Therefore, if you have high-ranking posts or that are re-tweeted or shared often, your traffic will increase, and thereby your overall ranking.

Get our next post first – join over 15,000 readers now:

2. Your profile pagerank (PR) score can increase traffic

With the many visits from social network junkies and increasing popularity of your Twitter or Facebook page, your social media network page may have a better chance of achieving a higher page ranking than your actual website. With the increased pagerank of your Twitter or Facebook page, any links count as high pagerank backlinks, making using your social media site to increase your website’s SEO your best bet.

On the other hand, Google has long said they will discontinue pagerank sooner rather than later. Whether that actually happens is anyone’s guess, since they like to play their cards close to the vest. Ultimately no one really cares about pagerank anymore, because there are better ways to optimize your site for SEO.

3. Social media sites respond faster

Marketing occurs as soon as information is shared on social media, unlike SEO, which does not occur instantly for many reasons, such as the numerous changes in search engine algorithms. This results in a slower pace of change than on social media channels like Quora or LinkedIn.

To check how your blog’s performance is improving, join 3,000 users and sign up now for My.ComMetrics.com to boost your blog’s social media footprint.

4. Better potential for authority status

Those of you familiar with internet marketing will know that a lot of poor-quality articles clutter directory databases. Why? Every new internet marketer wants to generate more traffic and was told that keywords and fresh content is all they need. Article quality is therefore often diluted as quantity is becomes the motivating factor for fresh content. Writing is often outsourced to the lowest bidder, making it harder to find quality reading.

On the other hand, you could simply tweet what you are looking for, and get lots of information from sources you trust, that recommend tried and tested products. By the same token, if you provide high quality articles and links, not only will your information be shared, but also recommended, increasing your credibility and brand awareness.

By the way, use the right URL shortener to give the link juice.

5. Search engines use social media integration

Say what? Search engine giants like Google have recognized the power of social media and now incorporate it into their own properties, like Google Buzz, which allows individuals to star (rate) results. Google Plus allows people to comment, share and also click on the plus sign, similar to Facebook’s Like.

Most search engines can now display real-time results from almost all social networks, including YouTube. It seems that, in the future, delivered results may be determined more by their authority on social media sites than article directories.

6. Information goes viral sooner with social media

Traditionally, increasing website traffic means ensuring continuously publishing fresh content on your site, and submitting 300-500 word articles to directories in order to create backlinks to your website (usually one or two backlinks per article).

By comparison, look at how quickly links on social media sites can spread and go viral. A good article posted on your social network profile or corporate blog will likely be shared by hundreds of your blog readers, associates and contacts. A ripple effect will follow as their friends share the same link, for instance via Twitter.

Before you know it, you have 300-500 links across the social media platform, which is not only super fast, but will also save you a lot of time.

Bottom line – the real kicker

Regardless of whether you’re a dedicated SEOer, social media strategist or web analytics service provider, the tips in this article make one thing apparent: the need to stay in tune with the changing times on the web. In order to stay at the top of our game we need to stay up to date with everything that goes on – especially the social media revolution. That sums up the latest SEO info and how you can use it to benefit your business (SEO metrics everybody can use).

About the guest blogger

This guest post was written by Lior Levine, a marketing strategist for a custom neon sign store, who also works for a company that lists the best web hosters.

Disagree? Sure. Leave a comment!
Just one question I hope you will answer: How do you work social media channels to improve your SEO?

TL:DR. @ComMetrics says: 6 ways to leverage SEO – guest post Lior Levine |Tweet This

Migros Bank, Wells Fargo and Barclays are all financial institutions that may follow you on Twitter. If we believe the experts, it is all about giving customers the information they need, when they need it, wherever the are, through whatever channel they prefer.

Article source – My bank loves me! …Or not

A German version of this post is also available – Meine Bank liebt mich! …Oder auch nicht

So if your bank follows you and asks you to do a customer survey, does that mean they really love you? Read on to find out. Even better, get our next trend post first by entering your email below:

I recently received a client survey in the mail from my bank. Below are some insights I gained from this experience and how they apply to Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Montreal and others.

Migros Bank – love thy customer?

In general, the survey asked the usual about service and what I thought the bank could do better. Still, carefully going over it showed that someone failed to follow best practice when designing this survey:

• The scales have no mid-point, forcing respondents to choose a negative or positive answer even though they may be undecided.
• The scales contain too many choices, even though researchers have repeatedly shown that people cannot distinguish well beyond eight.
• Some categories are confusing, such as under 20 percent, and 21 to 40 percent. But where is the box for 20 to 21 percent?
• Important variables are missing for categorizing responses, making response-bias a real risk. For instance, people with a primary language other than that of the survey (German) might not have responded in large numbers due to lack of understanding. If they had, what are the chances their responses would have been different than those received?

Don’t forget! Benchmark your blog – measure for impact – use My.ComMetrics.com and improve your blog’s performance. CyTRAP Labs can help you improve your social media efforts. Start a conversation! Email us at info [at] CyTRAP [dot] eu or call us at +41 (0)44-272-1876.

For those who are interested – download the Migros Bank customer survey.

Research methodology 101

They are elementary, but we often forget things like:

• Offering an online survey when Web 2.0 issues, such as e-banking, are addressed.
• Making a survey confidential instead of anonymous to enable follow-up, easily doubling your response rate.
• Asking people to spend 15-30 minutes (the time it takes to check the right boxes AND fill in the open-ended questions) is one thing, but considering banks charge fees for EVERYTHING, a small token of appreciation is the least they can do for clients’ honest feedback, further improving response rate.

By not addressing these issues, the bank will likely hear from two types of customers:

1. those who are very satisfied (research says such people are likely to share their satisfaction with up to five others), and
2. those who are very dissatisfied (research says these people tend to share their dissatisfaction with nine to ten people).

As a result, those with neither a negative nor highly positive attitude towards the bank and its service culture are unlikely to reply. But they are the ones you really want to hear from, not least because they make up the largest group of customers. They may also have important suggestions that are easily and cheaply implemented to further improve service.

Tip: To find out more about the tips and tricks we provide on this blog about customer relationship management include the words CyTRAP and ComMetrics in your search.

Bottom line – the real kicker

Client feedback is a good way to find out how things can be improved quickly, but if you hire a polling firm, ensure they follow best practice.

While Twitter and Facebook are great tools to serve your clients better, they also present a risk that the most vocal complaints get resolved first, while quieter customers are left behind.

However you address questions and complaints, manage the process right. For instance, sending a question to the City of Zurich triggers an automated response email. But we had to send our question again when no answer came for two weeks. A week after that, we got a reply without an apology or a solution.

This can be handled differently, such as responding to clients who fill out contact forms within 30 minutes by phone, doing something similar via Twitter, or sending your clients a survey like Migros Bank did.

Always keep these four things in mind:

1. Use a properly-designed customer survey: If you use a pollster, ensure you can trust their data. Migros Bank will get invalid data – a dangerous foundation for strategic decision-making.
2. Manage the process correctly: If you use Twitter, remember when people come to you. @BofA_Help is a great service, but remember to keep it going Sundays and evenings, when many people do online banking.
3. Time is of the essence: People do not want to wait. Jura Coffee Machines rocks, because their process gets clients competent help fast.
4. Follow up, and YES, an apology can do wonders: Ensure that whoever you tap to assist a client does it fast. If you are late, start with an apology and if you don’t understand, pick up the phone and ask the client for clarification – sitting around will not do.

Sometimes social media experts brag a bit too much about what they can do to improve your customer relationship management (CRM) efforts. Take these things with a grain of salt and regardless of a request’s method of transit, be competent and courteous while answering as fast as possible with a viable solution.

TL:DR. @ComMetrics says: Why follow your bank on Twitter when they’ve failed social media 101? | Tweet This

That title seems obvious, so why am I writing about this today? Because of recent discussions on Google+ with professionals in the field of infographics. We were wrestling with questions like, “Is a flow chart an Infographic?” and “What makes an Infographic really work?”

In ongoing discussions in my field of organizational storytelling, I encounter the same questions when we struggle with “What is a story?” and “What are our standards of quality?”

Article source – Terms of the art: What every discipline needs

Incidentally, if you want more material about designing tables and graphs that enlighten, enter your email below and get the next post first; you’ll be glad you did:

But first, what do I mean by terms of the art? Put simply, terms of the art are agreed upon

• definitions of our work (i.e. an infographic is…; social metrics are…; a story is…),
• accepted processes/methodologies and/or tools we use (including synthesis, analytics, ethnography),
• standards of quality or best practice we strive for (such as principles of graphic design, statistical conventions, strengths-based principles),
• standards and/or methods of evaluation (e.g, customer feedback, pattern analysis, workshop debrief), and
• the body of work to reference within a discipline (for example, Infographipedia; The International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, the Impressionist school of painting).

Tackling ‘emerging’

Even though infographics have been around a while, and business storytelling has been a recognized field for over a decade, we are still articulating the answers to these questions. While there are clear definitions and a canon of standards for graphic design and writing a novel, when we move into the branching disciplines of infographics and business storytelling, we grapple with definitions and best practices all over again because the new tools, applications and contexts require a paradigm shift. A sign of a discipline’s maturity and stability is when terms of the art get established.

Why does this matter?

Without a common language and accepted ways of working, it is hard to have a decent conversation about our work.

Research indicates that in general, members of fields with higher levels of paradigm development such as physics, finance and psychology show attitudes and activities reflecting a great deal of consensus over theories, research goals, methodologies, and curricula.

The domain of social media (SM) including a term such as infographics suggests that paradigm development within the discipline is in its infancy. There is little consensus, but much confusion and disagreement on methodologies. This means we must repeatedly try to figure out what we mean by a story.

Half the audience will love a speaker’s talk and examples out of ignorance, while the other half will be appalled because it violates their unstated unconscious standards. Then a few will gather to try to figure out what was wrong with the material and how anyone could think this was acceptable. This happens all over again at the next conference – year after year.

The point is, if there were clear definitions and articulated best practices, the speaker would never have made it on stage.

Without clearly articulated standards we are left with only vague reactions like, ‘Ooh’, ‘Aah’, ‘Ugh’, and ‘Yuck’. But what worked? What didn’t? How can we do more of what worked, or improve on what did not if we cannot articulate specific elements or concrete criteria? When we just stick with Ooh-Aah Syndrome, we are forever lost.

In my own field, we constantly bemoan the fact that we are not taken seriously. But then, why should we be when we have no

- clear definition of what a story is,
- established standards of practice, or
- ways to help people evaluate what we do.

Without these, most people cannot tell the difference between good work and bad work. When people cannot tell the difference, they are disappointed when the person they think can deliver the goods, can’t. That person may or may not be hired again, but the client definitely goes away thinking, That was a waste of time and money, or This field does not work, or This is just hype, or…

You get the picture. We all suffer.

For all those who say, “No, no, we must remain free! Definitions and standards constrain us!” I say, that way lies doom, because people cannot see what is real, true, good, and valuable.

Bottom line – the real kicker

Without established terms of the art, the discipline is perpetually reinventing the wheel. Bad enough that time is wasted, quality suffers, and reputation decreases. But think about this: terms of the art establish clear boundaries that make breaking the rules and innovating so much easier!

We have a love-hate relationship with rules and I have no satisfying advice for navigating it. I just know that innovation happens when we push the boundaries (which terms of the art help delineate), and the clearer those boundaries are, the better we can create meaningful innovation.

Creating terms of the art can be messy, because we cannot strive for perfection written in stone. Such standards are impossible in the face of change. Instead, we aim for what clarity we can bring right now, understanding that terms of the art do – and should – evolve over time.

Establishing terms of the art is a worthy endeavor. Engage your colleagues in discussions and debates to gain consensus. Put it all in one place for easy reference. Get over this hump so you can get on with your work. Stay within the rules, break the rules, innovate, evaluate – just keep pushing your field and your work to be the best it can be – clearly and consciously.

Just one question I hope you will answer: what methodology used in your work is your favorite, and why? I look forward to your comments below.

This guest post was written by Karen Dietz, a business consultant who specializes in helping companies find and tell their most compelling stories for business growth. She is a thought leader in her field and passionate about helping companies and leaders increase their influence. Visit www.polaris-associates.com or subscribe to her curated content at http://www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it.