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Posted on June 25, 2010 in Social Media by admin
Master The New Net, Small Business, social media, susan rice-lincoln
Many small businesses assume that social media is the playing ground only for big businesses.
Nothing could be further from the truth. As the efficacy of old staples like the Yellow Pages plummet, now is the time to invest in social media. You may even find that being small is a huge competitive advantage.
Why? You are more nimble. You can respond much more quickly to prospect inquiries. If you are set up properly, you can literally respond to all the touch points on your Social Web. Every time someone talks to you or mentions you, you can be there. You have a serious competitive advantage over a big business who simply would not be able to do that.
Jenifer Van Grove, in a recent Mashable article, had a great Twitter idea for small businesses. She suggests that you build a separate Twitter Lists to cater to each type of consumer you have. Separating out your customers into different categories and groups enables you to conduct personalized and targeted conversations, not to mention excellent customer service.
The way you group your customers is at your discretion. So, imagine you are a florist shop or a local café. You could create a list for your most loyal clients and even give out special coupons or offerings to this group. It is like a VIP service and will make those clients feel they are a special, pampered elite. (Seeing this, your less regular customers very well want to have this type of treatment as well!)
Small is the new big. There is nothing like social media to level out the playing field.
Posted on June 23, 2010 in Social Media by admin
Master The New Net, Small Business, social media, susan rice-lincoln
A recent survey sponsored by Network Solutions and the Center For Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business makes it clear that small businesses are finally tuning in to the importance of social media.
According to the survey, social media adoption doubled from 12% in 2008 to 24% in 2009. Many small business owners decided to launch a social media program as an inexpensive way to market their businesses: build brand awareness, engage with existing customers as well as find new clients.
Here are some of the highlights:
• A whopping 61% of the small businesses interviewed said they use social media as a method of both identifying and attracting new customer.
• 75% said they had a company page on a social networking site
• 57% have built a network through a site like LinkedIn
• 45% believe social media will be profitable in the next 12 months.
The survey also unveiled the possible stumbling blocks for the small business owner. Half of the businesses interviewed felt that social media took more time than expected. 17% were concerned that social media opened the door to public criticism widely viewed on the internet.
But despite these negatives, an overwhelming majority (94%) said that social media has helped their business rather than hurt it.
Maybe it is time for you to think about integrating social media into your small business?
Posted on May 17, 2010 in The Basics by admin
Facebook, Flickr, Master The New Net, social media, social web, susan rice-lincoln, twitter, YouTube
When people talk about social media, they tend to talk about the various tools and how best to use them.
What people talk about far less is the CONTENT they are going to share with these tools.
This is a mistake. Because it is the content that makes the difference.
High-quality content and social media are like brilliant dance partners. A perfect fit for each other, they combine to create a terrific show built on each other’s strengths.
Social media is far and away the best way to distribute content. I can’t think of another medium which will get your content moving around in front of more (targeted) people better than the Social Web. If you provide content that educates and entertains, it will travel far and fast on sites like Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr. Social media did not invent content marketing-but it might as well have.
On the other side of the equation, excellent content pumps energy into the Social Web. Without it, social media would be dull and uninteresting. Great content is what gives people the impetus to keep visiting a fan page, follow a Tweet stream or subscribe to a blog.
Very simply put, if you create content that is high-quality, solid, varied and worthy of attention, you can rest assured that people will show up to read/view it and talk about it. Those people and their conversations will become the seed of your community and the promise of your business future.
More than any other element, it is content that persuades people to return to your site.
It is content that inspires other bloggers to quote (and link to) you.
It is content that will get people to flock to your Twitter stream.
The number one factor contributing to success online and within the Social Web is quality content.
So, think less about your tools and more about the content you plan to share within them.
Posted on May 12, 2010 in Social Media by admin
Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln
“I hate social media. I hate it all.”
I was on the phone the other day with a prospect when she completely stunned me with the above declaration.
With some gentle prodding, she went on to explain to me why she hated social media:
• Social media made her feel guilty; she felt like the train had already left the station and she was definitely NOT on it.
• She didn’t know who to listen to. She felt bewildered by the contradictory advice from all directions.
• She felt unsure of how to put together a winning strategy
• While she enjoyed certain social media in her personal life, she felt that social media was a complete time drain when it came to her business
• She was confused by all the different social media tools.
• She was not at all convinced that social media was worth the hassle or resources necessary to make it happen.
When I hear these comments, I wonder if social media isn’t just in the process of shooting itself in the foot. For as many cheerleaders as this exciting new medium might have, there are just as many out there who almost feel resentful of it.
What’s the solution?
If you are unsure about social media, here are three ingredients that might help you resolve your uncertainties:
Education: You will want to make sure that you understand the full potential and power of social media for your business-no matter what its size.
Organization: Simple organization is one of the best kept secrets about social media success. On the one hand, it is imperative to integrate your social media into your current marketing and communication efforts without sacrificing too much time or resources. On the other hand, you will need to have a rigorous approach to the creation and management of content. Excellent content management is a fundamental (and little understood) key to social media success.
Strategy: A straightforward, successful strategy will help you navigate the somewhat confusing social media waters. If you don’t know where you are going or what you want to achieve, you will inevitably be disappointed.
Blog, Master The New Net, social media, social web, susan rice-lincoln
Like so many social media platforms, people are confused how to really tap into the power of the blog. They take a stab at using it, make mistakes, get disappointed and ultimately abandon their blog altogether.
The Web is notoriously littered with the carcasses of blogs gone wrong—and discarded forever on the side of the Internet highway. This phenomenon is so common that the abandoned blog has almost become a rite of passage into the Web 2.0 world.
Last year the New York Times reported that, according to a Technorati 2008 survey, only 7.4 million of the 133 million blogs the company tracks were updated in the last 120 days. This means that about 95% of blogs are inactive.
What a pity!
A blog is one of the most powerful tools available to you. It will deliver thought leadership, a robust community of followers and brand recognition which will drive sales.
But the power of a blog is only available to you if you execute it correctly.
I thought it would be worthwhile to make a check list of the right and wrong way to implement your blog:
The Wrong Way To Blog:
A poor blog will exhibit the following weaknesses:
• Not enough posts
• Intermittent, irregular posting
• Excessively long posts
• Posts that are no more than thinly veiled promotions; people visit blogs for interesting, original information, not to buy
• A lack of keywords
• No variety
• No pictures
• No distribution throughout the Social Web
The Right Way
A blog executed correctly will combine the following strengths:
• Ongoing original content that keeps your readers coming back for more
• Consistent posting
• Varied material that provides a balance of practical tips, strategic advice, comments on other blogs, statistics and interviews with other experts
• Frequent blogging; to obtain excellent traffic results, you should post 3 times a week
• Each post will include a picture to add visual texture
• Natural integration of strong keywords into your posts’ headlines and content.
• Automatic re-posting of your blog content throughout the Social Web
Do you have any other ideas?
Education, Master The New Net, Students, susan rice-lincoln
I am an American living in France. I have one daughter who completed the incredibly rigorous French education system and is now attending one of America’s most prestigious Ivy League universities. My younger daughter currently attends an international-French school; she endures a 9 hour school plus two hours of homework every day 10 months out of the year.
Apparently, I am not alone. I talk to many parents in the States and across the world with school age children who tell similar tales.
We submit our children to grueling school schedules, ridiculous pressure to get them into ‘good’ schools. Once they are in university, the undue strain just continues. The cost to the children and society are tragic. Cornell University, for example, recently suffered the shocking heartbreak of several undergraduate suicides; these were young, isolated people simply unable to deal with the stress.
So is all this sacrifice and pressure on our children really worth it?
Are we serving our children well?
Is this education we are so obsessed about really preparing our kids for the future?
I am not convinced.
I am not at all persuaded that we are preparing our children for the world in store for them.
They study at institutions that are probably modeled more closely after 19th century ideals than those of the 21st. The careers they prepare for are dusty and obsolete, baring little resemblance to the new professions a fast-moving, global New Net requires.
Success in the future will not depend on old formulas. It will require a large dose of imagination and creativity, an ability to think out of the box, a capability to move swiftly and react deftly to change, a talent to communicate with many different types of people and cultures and a knack for cobbling together different ideas from various disciplines.
I ran across this film that I thought you might be interested in viewing.
My daughters love it. What do you think?
Blogs, Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln
Ever since we were children, we were afraid of criticism. Someone might mock our hair, criticize our dress, whisper nasty things about the way we played in the playground.
Criticism has haunted us since Day One.
And social media is no exception. Has
When we write a blog, people can write a nasty comment. When we post our update, people can pop out with a mean comment. Our tweets can be sliced down in a word or two.
There doesn’t seem to be any place to hide. And we are back at the playground once again.
Okay. So this is the deal.
Negativity and negative comments are just part of the social media game. So the answer is not to hide in the corner just hoping no one will see you. The answer is to figure out how to respond to the negativity.
First of, don’t try to avoid them. Hiding under the desk didn’t work in elementary school. And it won’t work here either.
Confront the negative comments head-on
Learn to listen
Learn to respond.
And-if the criticism is merited- (and it CAN be merited), try to fix what is broken.
But the most important thing is NEVER IGNORE NEGATIVITY
Respond immediately and politely.
It may be hard. You might have to bite your tongue. But you will be surprised what happens. Often, your enemy turns into your advocate. It takes the wind out of their sails. And sails with no wind don’t travel too far. On the best of days, your critical enemy will become your advocate or even your friend.
And don’t prohibit people from saying negative things. Some people will review the comments made on their blogs. Don’t do that. Let people say negative things about you. Let them say those things publicly. It’s okay. It’s better to know what people think about you than just to ignore it.
Remember. Respond to criticisms IMMEDIATELY. And POLITELY.
If you say nothing, you are silent. And silence is always filled in with whatever people want it to be filled in. Which is not good. Silence is the enemy of communications.
Tell your side of the story
Agree to disagree if necessary.
Criticism is not your enemy. Fear of criticism just very well may be.
Blogs, Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln, Technorati, The Future Buzz, twitter
I stumbled across this great post on thefuturebuzz.com written by Adam Singer on December 10,2009; it is a statistical synthesis of Technorati’s 2009 State of the Blogosphere
Many sneer at the lowly blog. But as Singer points out, it is worth remembering the fact that a whopping 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002. And according to Universal McCann, 77% of active Internet users read blogs.
Dead? Dying? I don’t think so. The blogosphere keeps chugging along.
Don’t underestimate its power.
And please enjoy the statistics listed below!
Demographics of bloggers:
• Two-thirds are male
• 60% are 18-44
• 75% have college degrees
• 40% have graduate degrees
• One in three has an annual household income of $75K+
• One in four has an annual household income of $100K+
• Professional and self-employed bloggers are more affluent: nearly half have an annual household income of $75,000 and one third topped the $100,000 level
• More than half are married
• More than half are parents
• Half are employed full time, however ¾ of professional bloggers are employed full time.
• Around half of bloggers are working on at least their second blog, and 68% have been blogging for two years or more
• 86% have been blogging for at least a year
Motivations of bloggers:
• 70% of all respondents say that personal satisfaction is a way they measure the success of their blog
• Bloggers are most likely to describe themselves as “sincere” (75%).
• 16% describe themselves as snarky.
• 71% say they blog at least in part in order to speak their minds.
• 72% say they blog in order to share their expertise.
• 61% say they blog in order to supplement their income.
• 53% of professional bloggers are interested in attracting new clients from blogging.
• 72% of those who are self-employed and blogging are interested in attracting new clients.
• 19% are concerned that their employers might disapprove of their views on their blog.
• For most bloggers (81%), even if the economic downturn has disrupted lifestyles or lives it has not changed the kind of topics or themes they write about.
• 63% of respondents say that blogging has led them to become more involved with things they’re passionate about as a result of blogging.
• Respondents report that blogging has had chiefly positive impacts on their personal lives; just 6% say that relationships with friends or family members have suffered as a result of blogging.
• 42% have become friends with someone they’ve met in person through their blog.
• 15% say that they have more executive visibility within their company as a result of blogging.
• 57% say that their future plans include blogging even more (including 74% of 18-24 year olds).
• 35% – including 43% of part-timers – plan to one day publish a book.
• Part-Timers, Pros, and Self-Employeds are blogging as much as or more than ever (73%, 76% and 80%, respectively), while Hobbyists are blogging somewhat less.
The how of blogging
• 15% of bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging.
• One in five bloggers report updating on a daily basis.
• The most common rate of updating is 2-3 times per week.
• When looking at bloggers by Technorati Authority, higher Authority bloggers are much more prolific content creators, posting nearly 300 times more than lower ranked bloggers.
• The majority of blogs use tags (85%).
• Bloggers are very familiar with the technology they use to publish on the Internet – only 2% of all respondents say that they don’t know how their blog was built. (This data confirms “geeks” are the new influencers.)
• 13% say that they built their blogs themselves from scratch.
• 59% of respondents use a free third party hosting service.
• 82% of respondents say that they post photos to their blog, making images the most popular form of multimedia.
• 13% of all respondents say that they never post any images/videos/audio to their blogs, preferring to just use text.
• Of those who use media other than text, 73% say that that they also create the photos, video, or audio they post themselves about half of the time.
• 75% of those who use syndication syndicate full content.
• 20% of all users report having updating their blog or adding content from their mobile device.
• 59% percent report doing so at least somewhat more this year than they did last year.
• Fewer than 10% of bloggers say they don’t know the traffic to their blogs.
• Bloggers participate in an average of 5 activities to drive traffic to their blogs.
• On average 27% of a blogs page views come as referrals from a horizontal search engine.
• 74% of all respondents use a third party service to track their site traffic. Google Analytics is by far the most popular tool in the space.
Blogging revenues
• 72% of respondents are classified as Hobbyists, meaning that they report no income related to blogging
• Of those who have monetized their blogging to at least some extent:
• 54% are Part-Timers
• 32% are Self-Employeds
• 14% are Corporates
• 15% say they are paid to give speeches on the topics they blog about.
• 51% of Corporates – 58 respondents – report receiving a salary for blogging.
• Evaluating positive and negative cashflows, the mean profits for blogs with reported revenues is $57,369.20.
• 89% believe that it is important that the advertising placed on their blogs align with their values.
• More than 2 out of 3 bloggers monetizing their sites leverage self-service ad platforms.
• Comparing 2008 to 2009 there has been a 68% increase in the number blogs with ad tags installed.
Blogging brands
• 70% of bloggers are talking about brands on their blog organically.
• 46% of respondents post about the brands they love (or hate).
• 38% post brand or product reviews.
• Part-Timers, and Self-Employed bloggers are talking about brands at a much higher rate (80%), with one in three posting reviews at least once a week.
• 71% of all respondents who maintain blogs for a business – their own or one they work for – report that they have increased their visibility within their industries through their blogs.
• 56% say that their blog has helped their company establish a positioning as a thought leader within the industry.
• 58% say that they are better-known in their industry because of their blog
Twitter and blogging
• Just 14% of the general population use Twitter – but 73% of respondents in the 2009 State Of The Blogosphere survey do.
• 52% syndicate their blog posts to their Twitter Account, and 41% do so while also posting tweets that are not associated with their blogs.
• 26% of bloggers who also use Twitter say that the service has eaten into the time they spend updating their traditional blogs – though 65% say it has had no effect.
• 35% of those who do not use Twitter say it’s because they do not understand the point . And 54% report that they don’t feel the need to broadcast their life, despite the popularity of “personal musings” as a blog topic.
• Blogs with greater than 100 page views a day received on average .83% of their page views from Twitter referrals. This referral percentage was constant as the audience size of the blog increased.
Posted on April 28, 2010 in The Basics by admin
Audacity, Blogs, Google, Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln
High-quality content is absolutely crucial to your success on the Social Web. The problem is generating lots of interesting ideas consistently over time is no easy task.
Here are some tips on how to create superior content that will enhance your social conversation and grow your community.
Posted on April 23, 2010 in Social Media by admin
Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln, Wildfire
Companies large and small are always looking for new ways to engage their followers and fans on the Social Web. In my opinion, one of the most powerful ways to do that is by conducting a contest, sweepstakes or promotion. It is not only fun for your current followers but it can potentially create a viral buzz to entice more people into your community.
One of the best tools on the marketplace to help you create a winning contest is Wildfire.
Wildfire is easy to use, straightforward and relatively inexpensive. Here are some of its advantages:
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