- A Slideshare Presentation by Hoover’s and Ideahaus Communications Director Kevin Popovic -

With new platforms and services appearing almost daily, social media is providing the ability to create a new type of customer relationship that can translate into real dollars for your organization – if they’re used and managed correctly.

The Slideshare presentation above is a detailed recap of  Hoover’s and Ideahaus Communications Director Kevin Popovic’s exciting webinar from Wednesday, April 7th that looked into social media and how your sales team can make the most out of it.  Key points covered in the presentation were:

• The differences between key social media applications
• How to facilitate your sales process using them
• New opportunities for Sales and Marketing to work together
• The impact of Satellite Marketing™ on your sales organization

We have also provided a video similiar in content to the presentation above where internet marketing expert Kevin Popovic addresses the Western Masachusetts Advertising Club during a workshop on “satellite marketing.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRcYjhUB_Ik

To see the original webinar in its full version, visit the registration page.

Learn more about the speaker Kevin Popovic by visiting his company page.

Kevin Popovic is an internet marketing expert with over 25 years of experience in helping clients understand the various types of communication, their opportunities, and how they can capitalize on them to build their brands.

Kevin started his company Ideahaus® in 1990.  Today he works directly with CEO’s, C-Level Communicators and Entrepreneurs to help shape their company and build their brands.

Kevin serves as a Communications Director who helps develop communications plan, including schedules, budgets and metrics for everything a company uses to communicate. He  works with existing marketing teams to lead the development of most types of creative and communications resources. He is also responsible for managing the accounts, as needed, as an adjunct to a clients leadership.

Visit Kevin’s company website at http://ideahaus.com/ or Contact him at http://ideahaus.com/contact/

Facebook is Changing the Way We Interact With Brands

Changes are on the horizon for Facebook.  And the newly proposed modifications might not make everyone happy; Facebook “Fan Pages” as we know them will soon be a thing of the past and the way we interact with those Pages will change for better or worst.  In this article we will take a quick peek at some of the changes to come and briefly explore what this says about Facebook’s grip on the market.

But I Liked Facebook the Way it Was!

It is a widely accepted truth that Facebook is a powerhouse in the social media game.  With that said, their true strength in the market may be even more impressive than one could have imagined.  It is easy to look at the staggering user numbers – 400 million active users, 50% of which sign on at least once a day.  While those numbers are impressive and telling, the true measure of Facebook’s market dominance might better be measured by how they go about implementing changes to their website. 

Can anyone recall just how many times Facebook changed their user interface without asking if their users actually wanted a change?  How about the numerous occasions where the Privacy Policy was modified and made public only after a social media uproar shined light on the policy changes?  In keeping with their “we’re going to do what we want and you will eventually get used to it” relationship with their users, Facebook is now making a sweeping policy change to their Facebook Fan Pages which will affect more than just the casual user. 

So What’s Behind the Change Anyway?

The “Become a Fan” concept we have all come so accustomed with will soon be replaced by “Likes.”  Facebook Fan Pages (or whatever they end up being called) will no longer accumulate ‘Fans’ but rather ‘Connections’ (much like your personal profile pages it seems).  Those easy to understand call to action buttons labeled “Become a Fan” will now display a more ambiguous “Like” mention with a thumbs up logo. 

So what was so wrong with the verbiage “Become a Fan” that has Facebook modifying a utility that thousands of brands and causes have happily adopted?  It surely isn’t ease of use or popular demand – Fan Pages have never been so en vogue.  There must be a good reason behind this, but something tells me it has more to do with increasing revenues than it does with making Facebook users happy.  Either way, given Facebook’s current dominance and strategic partnerships with other large web channels, there probably isn’t much we could do about it if we wanted to. 

How do you perceive this move from Facebook?  Should they be more ‘user first’ oriented?  Share your comments below and let us know what you think.

Article written for Unilzyer by Nick Frank:  Follow Nick on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Nick_J_Frank or see his blog at http://mynicknews.blogspot.com/

The Unilyzer is a low-cost web analytics and socail media marketing  analytics dashboard. If you have a Unilyzer account, this video will walk you through the process of adding accounts to your Dashboard.  As you may know, the Unilyzer tracks Facebook Fanpage, Blog, Website and other domain metrics and also acquires data from Twitter, Youtube, Digg, and Facebook directly. 

The Unilyzer unifies and analyzes social media marketing and social network metrics to give you a 360 degree view of your domain’s social media and internet marketing “eco-system.”  At a glance, the Unilyzer lets you compare the quality and quantity of social media traffic vs. pay-per-click vs. organic traffic, and enables you to quickly compare the quality of traffic from Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and many other social media channels.

Here is the vidoe script in case you would like to read about it:

The Unilyzer was designed to enable everyone the opportunity to watch the growth of their Social Media accounts and web traffic. In this video, we will be explaining the process of adding your website and social media outlets to the Unilyzer. Lets get started.

If you havent done so already, go to Unilyzer’s Home Page and click the Member Login tab located here. Enter your credentials and click the Login button to enter your Unilyzer. You will be redirected to the Settings page, as indicated here on the colored tab. The first thing you will want to do is add your Google Analytics Account. This is the most important account to enter as the other metrics will need to use this data to properly Unilyze your data. Before we go any further, make sure you are signed out of any Google accounts such as Analytics or Gmail as this will interfere with the setup process.

Now, lets scroll down to the Google Analytics loader and click the Add Google Accounts button. A new browser window from Google Accounts will open and you will be prompted to enter your Google username and password. Enter your credentials and validate. We are now redirected to a new page where Google asks you to grant access to your Analytics data. Simply click the Grant Access button and you are almost done. We are now redirected back to the Unilyzer where you will be asked to verify which account you want to add.

If you are a subscriber of either the Unilyzer Pro or Premium versions, you can add multiple websites at this time whereas the Lite Version and Free Trial can only track one website. Place a check in the box next to the accounts you want to Unilyze and click the Pull Data button. The Unilyzer will begin to pull your data. This process usually takes between 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on your connection speed.

When the upload is complete, you will see a check mark and the mention Account Added directly to the right of the website that was installed. If you will be tracking multiple accounts, simply repeat the process with the other Google Analytics accounts that the Unilyzer has found. When done, click the Finished button located here. When done correctly, you should see your website listed here, in the Google Analytics loader. You have now successfully installed your Google Analytics account and your Unilyzer is now reporting on this data.

Before we install the other accounts, lets go and take a look at what your Unilyzer looks like. Scroll to the top of the page and click on the Unilyzer tab. You will see that the Unilyzer has already generated significant reporting about your website. Another tutorial video about understanding the different sections of the Unilyzer Dashboard is available in the Video Tutorial section.

-Video script written by Nick Frank

in to What Your Following Wants

What’s in a Number?  Quite a Bit Apparently

Okay guys, can we go ahead and agree that Social Media is good for business?  At least in an empirical data kind of way?    Well, you might be surprised at how many skeptics are left out there.  Everybody knows “that guy” who will never be seen on Facebook and thinks that Twitter should never have been invented in the first place.  The funny thing is, “that guy” all too often happens to be a marketing manager or marketing influencer for their respective company.  For the good of everyone, new and concrete statistics are now available to add to your pro-social media arsenal.  When “that guy” says you are wasting time creating a Facebook Fan Page, you can remind him that 60% of people surveyed were more likely to refer a brand to a friend if they are a fan of that brand.  And for Twitter? Try 80% more likely.  “That guy” might waive this off as crazy talk.  If he does, forward him the rest of this article – We found some pretty compelling arguments and stats that are hard to dismiss.

Social Media Fans Much More Likely to Buy

Recent findings by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate have given some reassurance to social media marketers looking to substantiate the time and money they put in developing a fandom on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets.  Take a look at the graph below where US internet users were polled on their Facebook fan habits:

We can see from this graph that Facebook fans are much more likely to not only buy your brand, but to recommend it to their peers.  Most of us could probably have guessed as much – when people are engaged with a product or service through channels such as Facebook and Twitter, brand visibility is heightened and they have a better chance of staying on the customer’s radar.  The trick for brands is to understand why people become fans / followers and then to capitalize on this built-in communication channel by making sure they are telling them what they want to hear. 

Why Your Fans are Fans and Why Your Followers Follow You

So what do your fans want to hear?  Why did they become your fan in the first place?  More data from the study referenced above sheds some light on these questions.  In the graph below, we can see that 61% of “Max Connectors,” or users having 500+ social media connections became fans or followers of a brand to learn about new products, services and features.  This group was also driven to fan or follow a brand to learn more about the company culture, worker’s policies and other corporate information.  For the rest of the users (<500 SM connections), 65% engaged with the brand in order to stay abreast of sales and new deals, while 61% were looking to learn about new products, features and services.  Not to be forgotten, many fans also cited entertainment as a factor in their decision to follow a brand.  Here is the chart:

And what about Twitter?  Do you know why your followers are following you?  If not, you may not be telling them what they want to hear.  The chart below shows strong evidence that supports the notion that many users follow brands on Twitter in order to receive exclusive deals and offers.  Being a customer of the brand and looking for interesting or entertaining content came in neck and neck as the second and third primary reasons users follow a brand on Twitter.

Dig Deeper, But This is a Good Place to Start

Any company with a product or service should keep these easy to remember stats in mind when developing their social media strategy.  While there are countless other ways brands can optimize their social media efforts, the basic concepts laid out above are a great place to start.  Knowing why people follow your brand on social media channels and comprehending what they want to hear is powerful stuff.

Finally!  A Way to Track Your Facebook Fan Page

If only there was a way to track Facebook Fan Pages with Google Analytics…

As Facebook Fan Pages gain momentum as a leading Social Media Marketing outlet, the need to effectively track this medium becomes all the more important.  Up until very recently, the only way to monitor your Fan Page was through the extremely limiting Facebook Insights.  Insights provides page administrators limited data on visitor demographics and fan interaction but is unable to report on visitor statistics, traffic sources, keyword data and some of the other extensive reporting that Google Analytics provides.  Thanks to some crafty out of the box thinking by London based web developers Webdigi, the code has been cracked and now everyone can track their Fan Pages using Google Analytics.  In this post, we will show you how to track your Fan Page with a step-by-step guide, including the necessary links to generate your personal Google Analytics tracking code that will be installed on your page.  We will also introduce you to the Social Media monitoring tool Unilyzer and show you how it can be used in correlation with Google Analytics to extract even more detailed and valuable information from Facebook and other Social Media outlets.  Let’s get started. 

Google Analytics for Facebook Fan Pages + Unilyzer = Tracking Bliss

Once you complete the installation of Google Analytics on your Facebook Fan Page, take your tracking to a new level using the Social Media Monitoring Dashboard from the Unilyzer (www.unilyzer.com).  The Unilyzer is a data-to-dashboard tool that uses Google Analytics to pull data from a wide range of Social Media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as social bookmark sites like Digg, Stumble and Delicious – using this data, the Unilyzer generates a personal dashboard with insightful charts and trending arrows which allows you to adjust your Social Media marketing efforts accordingly.  Before we tackle the process of tracking the Facebook Fan Page on the Unilyzer, let’s take a look at the following step-by-step guide you will need to follow to install Google Analytics on your Fan Page.

Google Analytics Installation Guide for Facebook Fan Pages

Installing Google Analytics on your Facebook Fan Page isn’t all that complicated, but you will want to closely follow the steps provided below as there are a few moving parts.  Luckily, the aforementioned web development company Webdigi (www.webdigi.co.uk/) has written up an extremely comprehensive “how-to” that will facilitate the process.  Let’s take a look at some excerpts from their article below.  If you’ve already installed Analytics to your page, scroll down to the “Unilyzer” section to learn how the Unilyzer, when used in correlation with Google Analytics, allows for an even more extensive tracking experience.

How to setup Google Analytics on your Facebook fan pages

“The workaround we use in our code is to include Google Analytics as an image instead of setting the standard Javascript. This method tracks every visitor to the custom facebook pages on Google Analytics. It required a combination of server side cookie management and an additional <img> tag to the bottom of the facebook fan page. Here are the steps to get Google Analytics working on your facebook fan page.

1) Setup Google Analytics account. If you already have one, create a new website profile. You can name it facebook.com or facebook.com/your_page_name. You will finally get your tracking code which looks like this UA-3123123-2
2) Create your custom img tag for each of your pages you like to track. EG: contact form, services, products etc. You can use our tool to create the Google Analytics link generator for Facebook pages.
3) Add the entire custom image html tag from step 2 to the bottom of each Facebook fan page that you need to track.

That is all there is to it! Google Analytics is not real-time, so you will need to give it some time. Approximately a day before you see the fruits of your “hard” work.”

For advanced users

“Use this method, if you don’t want to use our hosted link redirection as mentioned in the method above. You can download the entire source code which is just about three files to get this setup working on your own server (running PHP4.3 or above). The code is written in PHP and essentially creates the Google image tracking URL with the referrer, page information, ID, etc. The additional advantage of hosting this on your own server and domain is that visits from your website to your facebook fan page gets tracked, etc. You will also be able to customise further if you wish. Please do share any useful updates you apply to the tracking link code.

Facebook – Google Analytics Version 1.1 (Updated 21st Feb, 2010).  For advanced method – Download this code to use on your server.

If you don’t have a Facebook fan page yet, visit our tutorial for code and help on creating customised Facebook fan pages.

PS: We could not find any other source / blog that described how to get Google Analytics on Facebook fan pages! There is support for canvas pages and applications but nothing for Static FBML fan pages. Hope this helps and please leave your comments below.”

UPDATE:
1) A lot of users have asked how to track visits to the wall. Yes, this can be done. Please see the comments by iphp below.
2) Here is a screenshot to a staticFBML where the code should be placed

Source: http://www.webdigi.co.uk/

Google Analytics is now tracking your Facebook Fan Page – Wait, it gets better…

Facebook Fan Pages have really caught on as a great way for individuals and companies to create micro-communities of followers of their brand and/or cause.  Now that you have the capability of installing Google Analytics on your page, take the next step and use a tool that works with Google Analytics to even further enhance your tracking and monitoring efforts.  The Unilyzer (www.unilyzer.com) is just the tool you need if you are looking for even more in-depth reporting on your Fan Page and other Social Media channels.  We will first take a look at what the Unilyzer is and how it works before moving on to a more detailed explanation of how the Dashboard can be customized to report on specific information. 

The Unilyzer – a new comprehensive Social Media Monitoring and Tracking Dashboard 

A bevy of tools for tracking social media have been developed over the past few years, many of them quite effective in what they do.  With that said, they all have their shortcomings – too expensive, lack of reporting breadth, uninspired user interfaces, minimal tracking channel capabilities.  Some tracking tools are great but medium specific, reporting on only one Social Media outlet and requiring the user to manage multiple monitoring tools in order to get a truly clear vision of their Inbound Marketing efforts.  The new Social Media monitoring Dashboard Unilyzer, developed by Eman Bass, provides a great overall package combining a great user interface, numerous customizable data points, user-friendly functionality, and broad reporting on all of the major Social Media channels.  And now that Google Analytics can be easily installed to track Facebook Fan Pages, the Unilyzer is even more attractive as it offers the best combined analytical reporting of Fan Pages the market has to offer.  For more information about the Unilyzer’s tracking and reporting capabilities, visit www.unilyzer.com or click here to watch a short video that describes the Unilyzer’s basic functions.

All in all, the fact that we now have the capability to properly track Facebook Fan Pages is a very good thing and it will give Page administrators a level of insight that Facebook Insight does not.

About the Video: Did You Know 4.0
This is another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://mediaconvergence.economist.com and http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com.

Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler. Music by DoKashiteru, “Home Tonight.” Design and development by XPLANE, http://www.xplane.com. You can follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/xplane

The Freemium model of business is the idea of offering a version of something absolutely free when there are other fee-based premium versions of the same product available as well. The idea to provide a free version is to make the lowest possible barrier of adoption. The aim is to achieve, as well as increase, the number in customer base, maintain a loyal and trustful relationship, and transfer some of these customers to the fee-based versions.

A business venture can earn huge profits by using Freemium business models, if used promptly and accurately. To gain profits, a business should have premium paying customers, which cover the cost of production, development, distribution and the marketing of the free as well as the paid products. This can be achieved if the marginal cost of production, distributing, marketing, etc of the free version is near zero. This will create a large customer base and there will be a transfer from the free premium versions to fee-based versions. The control mechanisms of the business should be strong enough and in place to preserve the premium value from reduction in the competitive market.

The Freemium business model’s find its use on the internet also and it has gained a lot of popularity among the start-ups. Internet provides low-cost marketing and a distribution medium for the digital products and data line, eBooks, software, videos, music, and virtual goods. At the same time, it also offers the customers to acquire referral networks, word of mouth, and low cost search marketing.

Read More about how to use FREE to market your business in the book: Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson It’s an eye opening and thought provoking book that will change the way you look at free.

Watch this Video About the Positive ROI of Social Media Marketing

Traditional forms of marketing and advertising are not working. Direct mailers and display ads are expensive and yield negative ROI. Bottom line they are a big waste of time and money. Social media on the other hand costs practically nothing and yields a positive ROI (14.5% in my personal experience) plus multiple positive side effects.

I personally recommend that small business owners spend 10 hours per week on social media marketing. You will see the return on this time ten fold if you do it consistently. If you don’t have 10 hours per week, there are plenty of companies that specialize in outsourced social marketing that can do it for you. You need to place high value on your blog, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. Take money you’re throwing away on print advertising and put it into your blog and social media accounts. It’s time and money well spent.

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Digg.com

It’s free, and Digg only takes a few minutes to open an account. It’s okay to digg your own content, as long as it’s good information and you balance it out by digging other people’s stuff. Spending about 15-30 minutes a day on Digg will help:

Stay Up-to-Date: Search Digg for content that pertains to your field. Read the articles that are getting the most diggs and take note of who’s writing them. The topics covered in these articles will help you stay abreast of the latest advancements, trends, and news in your field.

Build a Network: When you find relevant articles that compliment your topic, make sure to friend the people digging that content as well as dig their articles. Many times you will find they will return the favor and friend you back.

Build Incoming Links: Digg is one of the highest ranked web 2.0 sites around. Every time you get your content recommended on Digg, Google takes notice of the incoming link, plus takes into consideration the number of diggs. The more links to your site the more ‘doorways’ you have to your website.

Digging, making friends, and sharing your own content on a daily basis will have a tremendous effect on your website traffic and rank. It takes time and you must be consistent about it. If you can get your article bookmarked by a lot of diggers, your article will stay on the home Digg.com. An article that gets listed homepage or major sub-category can result in thousands of new visitors to your site.

http://www.digg.com

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