How To Approach Social Media In 2010

While most companies have come to agree that social media use is important, the “how” remains unclear in many cases. Ravit Lichtenberg, founder and chief strategist of Ustrategy, was good enough to give her thoughts on the subject during an interview at OMS 2010.


Lichtenberg tried to dispel what might be one common misconception by stating, “Social media itself is not a tool. It is a strategy.” She then added, “Every business should have a strategy around social media.”

Lichtenberg thinks it’s best to form this strategy in a vision-driven way. The question companies should ask themselves is, “Who do you want to be as a business when people see you online?” Coming up with an answer will help organizations pick their approach.

Deciding on an online identity will also help employees – who can be a business’s biggest advocates – know how to act online. And Lichtenberg thinks it isn’t wise for companies to forbid access to social networks, by the way.

Then here’s one last tip: before trying to use social media to help with lead generation and sales, conduct specific campaigns around factors like awareness, market share, and buzz. These things are better-suited to social media and serve as good starting points.

Jason Falls Predicts Google Will Buy Twitter

It is clear that Twitter is a valuable tool for business. WebProNews spoke with Jason Falls, the Principal of Social Media Explorer, who believes the reasoning behind this thinking is a result of the “conversational platform” Twitter provides for business usage. It is for this very same reason that he predicts Google will acquire the microblogging service.

Earlier in the year, Falls predicted that Google would buy Twitter by the end of the year. Although it may not happen within that time frame, he hopes and believes it will happen eventually.

Twitter rose in popularity because people were no longer happy with one-way communication models. They now want the two-way communication that Twitter provides. Falls believes Twitter is evolving back to its original purpose and becoming more of a utility for communications, instead of a platform for marketing. Although Twitter can be used for conversational marketing, Falls said it is more about the actual conversation than it is about marketing a product or service.

On the Twitter home front, it doesn’t appear that the Twitter founders are working to improve the tool and they have yet to find a monetization model. Falls believes they are trying to build a large critical mass in order to sell. He hopes Google will buy it since it is a company that desires to build utilities for people to communicate on.

Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings

By Chris Crum


Social Media for SEO is Not Just About Links Anymore


Disclaimer: This article was originally written before Google made its announcement, and has been updated to reflect that.



Google and Microsoft have both inked deals with Twitter and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to integrate Twitter and Facebook updates into Bing search results. Google will be adding tweets to search results.

Google's Marissa Mayer says, " We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."

There is a good chance that Google will be making a similar deal with Facebook, but even if they don't, their deal with Twitter and Bing's deals with both make it all the more important for marketers to be found in real-time searches and Facebook/Twitter in general.



A while back WebProNews compiled a list of five tips for getting found in real-time searches, which basically boils down to staying in the conversation for relevant topics that people are searching for. The tips were:

1. Use keywords
2. Talk about timely events
3. Have a lot of followers
4. Promote conversation
5. Include calls to engagement

I elaborated on each of these in the previous article. Social media is viral by nature, and real-time search is nothing more than putting things in chronological order. You have to keep people talking to stay relevant "right now."

That said, we don't know all the details about how Google and Bing will be integrating its Twitter and Facebook results into the rest of their results yet. Bing has made available a beta tool for people to mess around with for searching tweets with the search engine. "You can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter to stay on top of today," says Paul Yiu of Bing's Social Search team.
Bing - Twitter search

A spokesperson for Microsoft tells WebProNews, more specifically, the new Twitter developments in Bing include:

* A real-time index of the Tweets that match your search queries in results. This feature makes it easier to follow what’s going on by reducing the amount of duplicates, spam, and adult content.
* Giving you the option to rank tweets either by most recent or by “best match,” where we consider a Tweeter’s popularity, interestingness of the tweet, and other indicators of quality and trustworthiness.
* Providing the top links shared on Twitter around your specific search query by showcasing a few of the most relevant tweets. Additionally, Bing automatically expands those small URLs (like bit.ly) to enable you to understand what people are tweeting about. Instead of showing standard search result captions, we select 2 top tweets to give users a glimpse of the sentiment around the shared link.



Bing already displays some Tweets for certain people results at the very top of the regular web search results page. That's a good place to appear. Here is a little info about how they rank tweets in their Twitter search.

Google announced a new Google labs project that injects social media into its own search results. This was also announced at the Web 2.0 Summit. Ben Parr with Mashable has the details from Mayer:

- The bottom of search results will soon have social networking information from your friends, like their Flickr (Flickr) photos or their status updates. It’s a blended search integration, similar to seeing news or image results.

- These are pulled from social networks connected to your Google Profile. The more that are connected, the more social information that will appear in search results.

- They have also improved searching for images using social networks. Images become more relevant using social networking data.

- It will launch in Google Labs in the next few weeks.

The deals with Microsoft and Google make social media marketing all the more important to marketing in general, and specifically search engine marketing. Where social media has generally fit into the SEO equation thus far, has been the promotion of content, which inspires links and conversation, which can in turn help search engine rankings.

Now, if status updates and tweets become directly integrated into search results in Universal Search-type fashion, it will be not only be about promotion and outside links, it will be about direct exposure right in the results, not unlike the importance of online video right now (as you're probably aware, videos are often displayed prominently on the first page of Google results).

Now, forgetting about Google for a moment, pretend that the deals with Microsoft are the only ones that happened. You may also recall that Microsoft has a certain deal in the works with Yahoo. This (if everything goes according to plan) will see Bing results taking over Yahoo's own. Yahoo may still be controlling the front-end of its search, but Bing will be controlling the back-end. Ranking for Bing will mean ranking for Yahoo.



So with Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook deals all in place for Bing, getting found in real-time searches may not only mean getting found in Twitter searches, Facebook searches, and such. It may also mean getting found in Bing searches and in Yahoo searches. That's pretty much the meat of the non-Google U.S. search market.

Now let's bring Google back into the equation. It has a deal with Twitter and may very well have one with Facebook before long. Kara Swisher who broke the news about Microsoft's deals says Google's been talking with both social networks. Still think real-time search and social media are not worth your time?

Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings

Government to Regulate Social Web

A growing but controversial trend on the Internet is receiving a great deal of scrutiny from the government. The trend involves paid or sponsored endorsements, testimonials, and more on blogs and various social media sites. The Federal Trade Commission began investigating these practices earlier this year and announced it would release new rules and guidelines to update the current legislation.

As a result, marketers, advertisers, and bloggers alike are all raising concern. Is it necessary for the government to intervene? A problem does exist since consumers are directly affected by paid and sponsored posts, but is government regulation the answer?

Brian Solis, the Principal of FutureWorks, conducted a study on Facebook to explore possible solutions. He found that while most everyone agreed that disclosure was the key to solving the issue, they could not agree on a standard format.

Will disclosure be included in the FTC’s new guidelines? Could these issues be resolved without government intervention?

Since the FTC is expected to release their guidelines at any time, we might not have to speculate for much longer.

Government to Regulate Social Web

Social Networks Leaking Users Data To Tracking Sites

By Mike Sachoff

Browsing profile linked to unique identifier

Many popular social networking sites typically make personal information available to companies that track users' browsing habits and allow them to link anonymous browsing habits to specific people, according to a new study by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).

"When you sign up with a social networking site, you are assigned a unique identifier," says Craig Wills, professor of computer science at WPI.

"This is a string of numbers or characters that points to your profile. We found that when social networking sites pass information to tracking sites about your activities, they often include this unique identifier. So now a tracking site not only has a profile of your Web browsing activities, it can link that profile to the personal information you post on the social networking site. Now your browsing profile is not just of somebody, it is of you."



Social networks use third-party tracking sites to learn about the browsing habits of their users. Cookies are managed by a browser and contain information that allows tracking sites to build profiles of the websites visited by a user. Each time a user visits a new website, the tracking site can review those cookies to offer ads that might be relevant to the user.

Wills says social networks go to far by allowing the transmission of unique identifiers. "Users put a lot of information about themselves on social networking sites," said Wills.

"A lot of that information can be seen by other users, by default. There are mechanisms users can use to limit access to their information, but we found through previous research that most users don't take advantage of them."

With a unique identifier tracking sites could gain access to a users personal information. Wills says this could lead to having one's identity linked to inaccurate browsing profiles, depending on how many people use the same computer.

"Tracking sites don't have the ability to know if, for example, a site about cancer was visited out of curiosity, or because the user actually has cancer," said Wills. "Profiling is worrisome on its own, but inaccurate profiling could potentially lead to issues with employment, health care coverage, or other areas of our personal lives."




"Once someone is in possession of your unique identifier, there is so much they can learn about you. And even if tracking sites do not use the information themselves, can they guarantee that it will never find its way into other hands? For these reasons, we feel this issue is something that we should to be concerned about."

Is SEO Dead?

The stability in the future of search has recently been put into question due to the impact of social media on search. Since people are doing more and more searches on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, does it mean that social media will eventually replace search engines?

Both Twitter and Facebook have launched real-time search engines within their service offerings, and the major search engines are still struggling to enter the real-time search arena. Heather Dougherty, the Research Director at Hitwise, said:

“I think this [social media] will become integrated as part of search but certainly not circumvent search entirely.”

Based upon this information, it is however fair to say that social media has changed SEO permanently. According to Hitwise data, the number of visits to social networking sites exceeds the number of visits to email sites. As a result, Dougherty suggests that marketers increase their efforts with social media in order to reach their customers better.

How have your SEO efforts changed as a result of social media? What role do you see social media playing in the future of search?

Using Social Media to Boost Search Engine Results

By Lauren Hobson

Most of us are well aware that the search engines frequently change their algorithms to improve search results for users (and foil spammers), which can make it challenging for small businesses just to keep up. But as web technology continues to evolve, it also creates new opportunities for small businesses to improve their SEO strategies and boost their rankings as well. Social media (sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Technorati, Digg, etc.) provide an excellent opportunity for small businesses to not only promote their products and services online, but also to gain significant ground in the search engine results.

One of the most critical components to getting top search engine rankings is the number of inbound links and link popularity a web site is able to build. Although there are several existing link building strategies available to small businesses (e.g., press releases, directory submissions, article syndication, etc.), social media can help create additional high-value, on-target inbound links that are essential to achieving top placements in the search engines.

For example, each time you use Twitter to publish a link to new content on your web site, that link gets “planted” on the Twitter page of each person following you, and has the potential to spread even further as your followers share that information with their own network of contacts.

Integrated Social Marketing (ISM)^TM
If you have properly integrated your social networking profiles together, that same Twitter “tweet” could then be fed via RSS to your Facebook business profile, your corporate blog, your LinkedIn account, and any number of other social sites that you have set up for your business. It’s not a far stretch to imagine the link you broadcast on Twitter could reach dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of other places on the web, all pointing back to your web site! By integrating your social networking profiles with each other, with your web site, and with your existing marketing initiatives, you can easily make one single marketing action (such as a tweet) show up in multiple places online, each containing a new, relevant inbound link to your site.

Quantity AND Quality
In addition to the sheer number of inbound links that are created through social marketing, the value of the links that are created is another important criterion that search engines consider. To be valued by the search engines, inbound links must be from relevant, “quality” web sites, and search engines today give social sites like Facebook and Twitter great value. These sites are highly visible to the search engines, and are constantly taking updates from users. Links tend to be shared according to subject matter, which means the search engines will see them as being relevant and on-target. All of these factors combine to create high-quality inbound links in the eyes of the search engines.

Online Visibility and Branding
Creating visibility for your business and your “brand” is really key when using social media for building links. The power of social media is realized when other users see your links or content, then share that information with their own network of contacts. Simply adding a bunch of links to your social profiles is not enough; you need to have a strong reputation and a brand that users trust so they will feel comfortable sharing your content with others. Brand recognition typically leads to natural link building anyway, which means your inbound links will end up coming from bloggers, colleagues, customers, and other people who are exposed to your links and find them useful enough to share with their own contacts.

The Proof is in the Rankings
A recent example from Website Magazine explained somewhat surprising results when they searched for their publication’s name in Google. As expected, their web site came up as the number one listing on the results page. But what was not expected was the number three listing on the results page was the magazine’s Twitter page. They then performed a number of Google searches for the terms “Chicago Tribune,” “Chicago Public Golf,” and “Daily Career Tips,” all with similar results in Google - the Twitter page for each of these terms came up near the top of the search engine results every time.

The conclusion was that given these results, Google must be giving serious weight to Twitter content, and I happen to agree. The search engines of course keep their ranking algorithms top-secret, so there’s no way to know how much weight (if any) is really given to Twitter or other social media sites. But results like those in the example above are hard to ignore!

A Great Opportunity
Social media is here to stay, and small businesses are beginning to use it to effectively promote their businesses, reach their customers, find new leads, keep customer mindshare, and instantly communicate with customers. But maybe one of the biggest benefits of adding social media to your marketing mix is the creation of high-value, on-target inbound links that can help improve visibility in the search engines and boost your business to the top of the search engine rankings.

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Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional web site and marketing services to small businesses and non-profit organizations, giving them access to high-quality services at affordable prices. To read articles or subscribe to Biz Talk, please visit www.FiveSparrows.com/biztalk.htm.

Standing Out In The Digital Age

How many websites do you visit each day? Do you even have an accurate number or is it more than you could count? A recent Nielsen study unveiled the average Internet user in the US views 115 different websites each day. That’s a lot of websites!

Oddly enough, many of us view even more websites than that on a daily basis. What type of websites do you view? Is it commerce, community, news, or blogs? For most, it is probably a combination of all mentioned.

In order to get your business noticed in this digital age, Richard Jalichandra of Technorati says companies have to make their brand accessible. Utilizing 2 or 3 portals aren’t good enough. Richard says brands must realize that they have to extend their efforts beyond their comfort zones in order to succeed in the digital age.

Look at the above statistics and then think about your consumption of traditional media sources. How much TV do you watch? Do you get your news from television or a newspaper, or do you turn to the Web to get it? When was the last time you visited a library, or do you simply go to the Internet to find the information you need?

The Web has changed the way we do business and live our everyday life. We should expect this trend to only increase over time. Going back to the point Richard made, this information means that marketers and advertisers have to embrace several digital areas.

Take the Technorati online property BlogCritics.org for example. This freshly redesigned website tries bridge the gap between journalists and bloggers by setting a high quality content precedent. The site provides valuable content, but delivers it in a “community” atmosphere. There are countless properties like this on the Web and businesses simply need to find which ones can be integrated into their business model.

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Social Media Done Right

A lot of people like to give their opinions on how to use social media, but Katie Sween’s opinion is advice that everyone would likely want to hear. Katie is the Head of Marketing at the rapidly growing company, StumbleUpon. She says social media shouldn’t be scary at all but should simply be an extension of other business efforts.

Many social networks were intended to be fun and should still be fun, even though they are now incorporated into business operations. Social media provides many cost-effective opportunities for businesses such as brand-building and reputation management, but websites still need to have quality content.

StumbleUpon comes into the game here since it tries to help the content providers connect with their brands. Katie says StumbleUpon listens and engages with users and also aims to make themselves available to users. The companies and brands that understand this “push and pull” concept are approaching social the right way.

Recently, StumbleUpon announced that is was no longer a part of eBay. The company is now in the hands of its original founders and a few other investors. While under eBay, Katie says the company was able to focus entirely on their product. As a result, they experienced unprecedented growth.

While very thankful for eBay, StumbleUpon is excited to be a start-up again. Katie says the company has more freedom and liberty now that they are independent. To give an example of those new opportunities, StumbleUpon just released a few enhancements to their Web Stumbling function. (Web Stumbling is the act of stumbling without downloading the toolbar.)

With Web Stumbling, StumbleUpon wanted to make stumbling accessible from any computer or browser. StumbleUpon revealed these enhancements to WebProNews:

Fully Personalized Experience - Now you can expect the same high-quality and personalized recommendations that you receive from your downloaded toolbar. And you can access it from any computer, and from any browser… just visit StumbleUpon.com and login to get a personalized stumbling experience.

Web Stumbling syncs with your toolbar activity - Use Web Stumbling to rate, review and share content and all your activities will be saved for you in your profile and will influence your future recommendations. For example, Web Stumbling in Safari or Opera would use ratings given using the Firefox or IE toolbars, and anything you rate will improve your recommendations on any platform.

Enhancements to Sharing - When sharing websites while Web Stumbling, you now have the ability to share with several friends at once, post sites directly to your Facebook profile, and even have conversations about the websites you share with your friends.

For more information, check out Chris Crum’s write-up or visit StumbleUpon.

What are your social media best practices? And how do you see StumbleUpon’s Web Stumbling enhancements supporting your social efforts?

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TwitterHawk, Spam or Not?

Twitter is receiving almost as much attention as Google receives at industry events. In this interview from SES New York, Jeff Ferguson of Napster talks about TwitterHawk and the marketing power of it.

TwitterHawk is a new tool for Twitter that is still in the developing stages. It is keyword-based and allows users to create a variety of reply phrases to respond to people with. TwitterHawk usage costs 5 cents per tweet (reply) but can be purchased in advance through a variety of packages.

In an effort to build up a client’s Twitter base, Jeff decided to use the tool for a DJ for iGlobal Radio. He used keywords such as Radiohead, alternative music, Indie-Music, etc. When someone tweeted one of those keywords, they were sent an automated response that said something similar to “If you like Radiohead, you’ll love iGlobal Radio…”

As a result, TwitterHawk helped Jeff’s client to receive many more Twitter followers and created more interactivity with his followers. On the negative side, there were a couple of people that accused Jeff’s client of spam. Jeff responded to one user and found that he didn’t like that fact that a robot was responding to him and that it was a paid service.

Jeff countered the argument by explaining that his client wrote his own copy for his responses. Also, his client’s actions were completely human but simply carried out in an automated fashion.

If users only use TwitterHawk and are not personally active on the service, then Jeff says those users could be classified as spammers. His client however, is active on Twitter and used TwitterHawk to better target his market.

What are your thoughts on TwitterHawk? Do you think it is pure marketing or does it cross the line and create a spam issue?

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Will Monetization Models for Social Media Ever Come?

Dave Naylor is never shy to share his opinion on matters and this interview with WebProNews is no exception. As evidenced by several of our videos from SES New York, social media was a hot topic. One area in particular that raised a lot of discussion was monetization of social sites.

According to comScore, YouTube is the second largest search engine next to Google. It however, does not have a solid monetization model. Dave says YouTube users don’t care what’s going on around them. They simply want to watch a video. YouTube users turn advertisements away much like they do on television, by either flipping to another channel or leaving the room until their program comes back on.

Twitter is a whole different story altogether. Look at all the applications it provides such as TweetBerry, TweetDeck, and our very own Twellow. Dave then raises the following question: what if Twitter would start charging for their usage? How would that change your business strategies on Twitter?

Twitter recently announced that Pro accounts are coming this year but has yet to disclose what they consist of.

Moving right along to Facebook. As discussed in our interview with Tim Kendall, contextual advertising on Facebook is based on the freely submitted data Facebook users provide. On the contrary, Google and the other search engines base their advertising on the searcher’s past history.

Facebook’s model is much more accurate than the search engine’s technique. Most users conduct many searches at work, which does not reflect their actual behavior. Facebook uses the information users readily give to them as part of their preferences.

On a final note, Dave points out that Google needs to incorporate a “business account” for Google accounts since sometimes many people are logged into one person’s account. He suggests giving the account holder the ability to choose who can have access to what.

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Paid Search Marketplace

We hear and talk all the time about the evolution of the search market and the opportunities that it brings. In this video specifically, James Colborn of Microsoft talks about the opportunities created for advertisers in the area of paid search.

James says the main stumbling block for advertisers is finding how to integrate search into the media mix. Advertising and searching used to be based on one keyword, but now searchers have become smarter and therefore, so have their queries.

For search engines, the challenge is to address the user’s motive for going to search. As search has developed, they are better able to detect user behavior and also the information a user readily provides to social networks.

James says search integration is the key to uncovering the right solution for advertisers. Microsoft strives to find the right mix of media to provide an effective result for advertisers. They are also making sure that their solutions are compatible with what people are doing online.

According to Virginia Nussey and her liveblog of the Orion Panel James spoke on, there is growth potential in search engines offering new outlets for the advertisers. She also reports that Microsoft is “very interested in becoming the key search provider for Facebook and offering educational opportunities to advertisers…”

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Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Rebecca Lieb’s The Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Rebecca Lieb’s new book was briefly mentioned in our interview with Kevin Lee. In this video however, we have the entire rundown on her book, The Truth About Search Engine Optimization.

Rebecca describes her book as being “conceptual” as opposed to “geeky.” It contains 51 short chapters with information marketers need to know in order to effectively do SEO.

The book is geared toward marketing managers and chief marketing officers, but Rebecca says that it contains usable information for anyone wanting to be found on the Internet. Rebecca included all the recent hot topics such as social media, video, online PR, and blogs and how they interact with search engine optimization.

Also in the video above, Rebecca discusses the importance of building online communities. Your business not only needs to have a consistent presence on Web, but it also needs to have a consistent presence in the area of social.

Social media has been a running theme at recent shows and it is not going to go away. Leveraging social media and online communities provide more value to your business now than they ever did, due to the economic downturn and marketing budget cuts.

For more information on social and search engine optimization, check out Rebecca Lieb’s book.

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Twitter Exclusively As A Marketing Tool?

The SEO/SEM community loves Twitter. The term “loves” in this sense is used in the strongest possible manner. Guy Kawasaki loves Twitter also, but views it strictly as a marketing tool. His strong stance in this area brought about a large response from attendees of SES New York.

Sage Lewis was among the attendees at the event and expressed some concern about Guy’s position. As he shares in this video, Sage was very excited to attend the keynote address from Guy Kawasaki and hear what he had to say. Even so, he admits that he was surprised by Guy’s message.

As mentioned above, Guy actively advocates Twitter as a marketing tool. His marketing philosophy is to obtain as many followers as possible and to measure success based on retweets.

While Sage respects Guy’s openness and the extremeness of his position, at the same time, he has mixed feelings about it. He does not like that Guy has up to 3 other people tweeting on his behalf and calls it “provocative.” Although there is no concrete measurement model for social media yet, Sage doesn’t know if Guy’s methodology is the correct solution. At this point, the measurement model has to be “home-grown” and based on individual business goals.

Sage isn’t the only one who has mixed feelings about Guy’s use of Twitter. Lisa Barone over at Outspoken Media live blogged Guy’s keynote and expressed some strong feelings toward Guy’s position on Twitter. She also received a large amount of feedback from her readers, some in her favor and others siding with Guy.

Li Evans of KeyRelevance also voiced her opinion on the issue over on SEM ClubHouse. What’s your take on the issue? Do you agree with Guy Kawasaki and his Twitter habits or do you have different feelings?

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Future of Search

The search industry is always changing as a result of advancement and development. In this video, Anne Kennedy discusses these changes and how they impact the future of search.

Anne has examined the marketplace, researched Google’s investments, and studied how people use and access the Web. Based upon her investigation, she found that customers will look for products and services with video and Twitter. She also discovered that these actions would take place on mobile devices.

According to comScore, the mobile audience in the UK has increased by 10 percent. It has however, doubled in the U.S.

How does Google fit into all this? According to Anne, many people speculate that Google should purchase Twitter, comparing it to YouTube. Anne says that YouTube grew so rapidly that it needed someone like Google to maintain and support its technology. She believes the YouTube acquisition was beneficial to the search giant because YouTube is the television platform for Google to use to develop Google TV as an advertising model.

As a result of its high market penetration, Google has to constantly find methods to sell and reach its customers. If social networks continue to grow and people turn to them for search, and if Google sees that it needs to find more ways to increase its advertising revenue, Anne says that Google may consider purchasing a social network such as Twitter.

The fact that many of the social networks lack a revenue model could be one reason that large players such as Google are hesitant to acquire them. Another drawback for Google at least, is traditional advertisers.

Despite all the questions and speculations, most people agree that the industry has to build new models to quantify spending and determine results. Anne says there is a model that is currently under development called visibility scoring. It looks at the data of visibility outside the site instead of only looking at the traffic on the site.

Although marketers can see the benefits of social media especially in the area of brand awareness, C-level executives have a harder time seeing growth unless they see actual profitability in numbers. With that being said and as budgets continually get tighter, it is even more imperative that models such as that described above emerge.

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When Twitter Isn’t Appropriate

By Jason Falls in Featured

We’re at a point in the evolution of the information age, the age of self-publishing, Web 2.0 or whatever we want to label where we are in our increasingly wired world, that, if we do not establish some parameters of behavior, we’ll lose it all. This notion struck me as I read an article by Maryclarie Dale of the Associated Press called, “Tweets Unwanted Twist At Trial.”

The article told the story of Eric Wuest, a juror in a Philadelphia trial who tweeted that the verdict in a high-profile criminal case was forthcoming. While he did not disclose information about the verdict, or the trial for that matter, he violated the normal judicial instructions to not disclose or discuss the trial at hand with anyone. Wuest didn’t get in trouble, other than to be given a stern talking to by the judge in the case, but he did something we as an on-line community need to understand and take a stand against.

Social media is not a special place on the Internet where rules and rights are blurred. Sure, U.S. and International law are far behind in providing fair protection and policing of the web. If a server is in Switzerland, did you post that libelous statement in Switzerland or in the comfort of your Silicon Valley office? Yes, there will forever be trolls and turds, black hat sneaks and cyber criminals who continually maneuver through the system, committing crimes and finding loopholes. But for the rest of us, the fair majority, we need to exercise a little bit of common sense.

Twitter is not a forum where free speech can run rampant. Neither is Facebook or any other social forum, on-line or off. Eric Wuest probably minded his P’s and Q’s when chatting it up with friends at a Friday night cocktail hour. Why would he assume he didn’t have to on Twitter where everyone and their brother can see what he wrote?

I harken back to the key hang-up most people have with understanding social media or the Internet word. It’s not about the tools and the technology. It’s about a mechanism of communications. You aren’t allowed to communicate sensitive information about a trial if you’re a juror, or proprietary information about your companies business if you’re an employee. So why would you do it online? The rules still apply, even if the law is unclear about which ones apply where.

The first rule I give company employees when teaching them how to be representatives of their employer in their respective online spaces is, “Don’t be stupid.” Sure, I borrowed it from Flickr or Microsoft or some other list of guidelines, but it’s appropriate. Apply a different filter if you must: “When in doubt, don’t.”

Our interconnected world is reaching into unprecedented omnipresence. The thoughts and notions of random people are now being broadcast around the world in lightning speed. For most people, few will notice. But the fact that it’s there changes the impact and measure of one person’s opinions or experiences. It’s permanent. It’s indexed. It’s searchable. If it’s inappropriate or even illegal, you’ve shot yourself in the foot.

Eric Wuest probably should have been held in contempt of court. It would have sent a stronger message to all of us who love social media tools so. Mind your P’s and Q’s folks. If you don’t there will be repercussions. No matter how personal your space on these networks is, we can see it. It doesn’t just belong to you.

Jason Falls is the director of social media for Doe-Anderson, a brand-building agency in Louisville, Ky., specializing in building brand enthusiasts. A public relations professional by trade and writer by craft, Falls is co-founder of the Social Media Club Louisville. This blog is his own, contains his opinions and observations and does not necessarily reflect those of Doe-Anderson or its clients. For more email him at jason-at-jasonfalls.com.

When Twitter Isn’t Appropriate

What’s Happening with Social Media and Businesses?

Chris Brogan and Lee Odden have been teased about their striking resemblance to each other, so WebProNews decided to feed to the humor and interviewed them together. Both Lee and Chris are a lot of fun, and they are also very knowledgeable in the Internet marketing industry.

In this video from PubCon South, the two discuss social media and where it fits into marketing. Chris says that we are seeing more and more larger companies embracing social media. There are also many people using social sites because they think they can “get rich quick.” As companies determine how to effectively use social media, Chris predicts the number of “get rich quick” people will rapidly decline.

Lee agrees with Chris’s outlook and points out that companies are now discovering exactly where they are getting the most return and capitalizing in those areas. He says social media has now become a natural part of marketing.

There are however, risks involved in social marketing if companies don’t have a solid plan in place when they start their social efforts. Lee’s company, TopRank Marketing, suggests that companies construct a social media road map, which requires them to identify their audience, behaviors, and specific objectives.

After these factors are determined, companies can decide on what their social strategy is, whether it be blogging or social networks. From there, companies need to choose what tools they are going to use and decide how they will track their success. When measuring progress, Lee says it is important to measure goals in actual conversions and not simply by the number of friends or followers the company acquires.

Chris follows up on that point by explaining the importance of putting the “physical connector” back into social media. The overall marketing plan should contain traditional marketing tactics, which includes a physical side, as well as Internet marketing strategies and social media.

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Making Twitter Work for You

Most people dwell too much on the “rules” or accepted expectations for sites like Twitter. In this video, Michael Gray points out that there is no right way or wrong way to use Twitter. He says the only right way is when you are getting out of it what you want and what you’re putting into it.

What works for one person or business may not work for you. Therefore, it is important to determine your goals early and to do whatever you have to do to meet your goals.

Michael does give some basic tips that everyone could adopt and practice to build their reputation in the community. They are:

- Be polite
- Make friends
- Start conversations
- Ask questions
- Answer questions

Most people prefer tweets that are not self-promoting. Michael says bigger brands have more flexibility in this regard, but even they should not take advantage of it. Twitter is about engagement and most self-promotions do not encourage it.

The value you receive from Twitter is ultimately determined when you identify your goals and work to meet them. It’s not about how many followers you acquire. What really matters is how many of those followers actually know who you are and are helping you meet your goals.

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How Twitter Can Help You Do Just About Anything

You never know what to expect from Chris Winfeld. So it was really a no surprise to know that he let Twitter do his entire presentation for PubCon South! What’s even better and also no surprise is that Chris’s presentation was full of valuable information that people can easily apply.

In this video, Chris explains that the best way to learn about Twitter is to use it, which is why he used the tool to do his presentation. He asked 4 questions and received around 165 responses over the course of an hour. His questions were:

1. How does Twitter help you work on a daily basis?
2. What’s the best thing that’s happened to you professionally because of Twitter?
3. How can you use Twitter to increase traffic and ultimately get more business?
4. What’s your favorite part of the community here?

Some people responded with very serious answers, and others were more light-hearted and funny. Businesses that use Twitter can get instant feedback about what their customers and potential customers think about them. People using Twitter as a personal branding tool can interact with other people that they would have never known if it wasn’t for Twitter.

If Chris had conducted his survey the old-fashioned way, AKA email, he would not have received his results in an hour’s time and also, would not have gotten many of the responses he received. As Chris states, his results show how powerful Twitter actually is. He also proved that Twitter could be used successfully in many different ways.

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Revenue-Generating Products In the Mix for Twitter

By Chris Crum

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced some big news today about the company accepting an offer it couldn't refuse. Twitter has not been actively seeking funding, but due to its enormous growth, some parties just couldn't resist courting them.

"Last night, we closed on funding with our friends Peter Fenton from Benchmark and Todd Chaffee from Institutional Venture Partners," Stone explains. "When Ev [CEO Evan Williams] and I visited IVP we were very impressed and Benchmark's approach regarding teamwork was equally inspiring—every partner is invested in each others success."

With this new funding comes big plans for Twitter. Exactly what those plans are have not been revealed, but Twitter enthusiasts can rest assured that there will be some monetization involved.

"We are now positioned extremely well to support the accelerating growth of our service, further enable the robust ecosystem sprouting up around Twitter, and yes, to begin building revenue-generating products," says Stone. "Throughout this year and beyond, our small team will grow much bigger to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead."

Word is that this round of funding amounted to $35 million. Stone also noted that they still have money left from investments made last year by Spark.