Archive for Internet Marketing
Social Media Study spotlights Fortune 100 companies
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This is an excerpt from the Burson-Marsteller blog
Following in the footsteps of consumers, large international companies are now becoming active participants in social media. A recent Burson-Marsteller study found that 79 percent of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune Global 500 index are using at least one of the most popular social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or corporate blogs.
Like the Fortune 100 study found, Twitter is the social media platform of choice among the Fortune Global 100. The study found that 65 percent of the largest 100 international companies have active accounts on Twitter, 54 percent have a Facebook fan page, 50 percent have a YouTube channel, and one-third (33 percent) have corporate blogs. Only 20 percent of the major international companies are utilizing all four platforms to engage with stakeholders.
Companies’ platform preferences also differed among regions. Companies based in the United States and Europe are more likely to use Twitter or Facebook than they were to have corporate blogs, while companies from Asia-Pacific were more likely to utilize corporate blogs than other forms of social media. However, Asian companies will use Twitter or Facebook to communicate with Western audiences (for example, Toshiba).
It also appears that some companies are getting more comfortable using social media as they are interacting and engaging more and not just broadcasting corporate messages. Companies using Twitter are following an average of 731 people each and 38 percent of companies are responding to people’s tweets (for example, Vodafone UK). Thirty-two percent have also “re-tweeted” or reposted user comments during the last week (like Verizon Careers).
New UFC Champion Mical Johnson?
Posted by: | CommentsEveryone remembers the commercial Google aired on the Superbowl. Well to continue the success of that campaign Google released a fun new tool called Search Story Tool. Not only is this a great piece of marketing but also teaches us a few things along the way.
Let’s break it down to see why this is such a great viral marketing campaign.
They kept the process simple… 3 steps is all
You write a little story add some music and the upload it after you check it out. Keeping the process clearly defined and easy to follow is a prerequisite for any viral marketing campaign. The harder it is the less likely it will take off.
Give Creativity to the end user
Everyone likes to tell their friends about something they made or created even if they had a little help. If you give a way for your end user to do a little bit of customization it will pay dividends in the long run. Get creative and let your end user show their stuff.
Make it easy to share
If a campaign is going to go viral it needs a way to easily spread. Leveraging the end user’s social media connection is the fastest and easiest way to do just that. You don’t have to go crazy and give them every option under the sun but the top 2-3 will do just fine.
On a side note….
If Google didn’t test using Google Buzz as one of the viral tools…shame on them
Also don’t over look the ease of sending a link or embedding the media on a blog or website. It’s a great way to get your end user to spread the word even more. Nothing says Viral like being linked on millions of blogs and websites.
So to recap…
When creating a viral marketing campaign remember to:
- Keep the Process Simple
- Give Creativity to the End User
- Make It Easy to Share
Don’t be shy let my know what you think and make a comment below 
Aweber’s New Feature or Smart Marketing?
Posted by: | CommentsI was reading on the Aweber blog today that they just released a new feature for their autoresponder service. It has to do with the broadcast archive that’s available. I haven’t really used this feature very much mainly because it looked terrible and unless I put a link back to my site in the email it doesn’t link back to my site. here are a couple of screen shoots that I took from the Aweber blog to show you how this visually makes a difference.
Before
After
Now the old look vs the new look is 1000 times better. Here are a couple things that I really like
- Branding Elements added
- Reader Engagement in the Sidebar
These are great additions to the once very boring RSS feed of your emails. But as marketer I look at things a little different. The biggest glaring thing that I see is inserted into the footer.
Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with them branding their own product. I do that all the time. After the excitement wore off of this new feature the problem I have is that I’m an affiliate of Aweber. And if someone reads my RSS feed and clicks on that link will I get credit?
NO…
There is no way of inserting my affiliate link in there **Hint: This would be a great new feature Aweber**
I’ve sent out promotional emails for them in the past. Put banners out on several sites that I have but this would undermine everything that I’ve worked so hard to do.
Can I just get a little help here!
[stepping off my soapbox now]
The other issue that I have is just a small one.
I love the branding elements so I can keep my messages consistent but how about a link back to my own website in the sidebar or header image?
Internet users have been conditioned to look for them there and the only thing that happen is they will remain in the archive. Since this RSS feed is actually hosted on Aweber’s site I can understand them not wanting to link back to my site….
Wait….
No I can’t. I am a paying customer and they are using my content to promote (very quietly) their email autoresponder service.
WOW! This is Genius. It’s like integration marketing in reverse. I wish I would have thought about doing that with my customers.
Wait… I do. But I actually ask them first.
Even though this is a great new feature these two glaring things make it a big turn off for me and I probably won’t be using it.
Anyway… Here’s a great video about the new feature from Aweber.
Fortune 500 company or Online Scammer?
Posted by: | CommentsI normally don’t make post about online scams or questionable internet marketing tactics but this one is happening on such a large scale that I felt the need to pass it on. Last week the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation release a really disturbing investigation about some of the aggressive sales tactics that a surprisingly large number of Fortune 500 companies are practicing.
Here’s what Sen Jay Rockefeller had to say:
“After six months, this Committee has found that the companies we are investigating have figured out very clever ways to manipulate consumers’ buying habits so they can make a quick buck. American consumers have been complaining for years about these misleading practices and asking for answers – and rightly so,” said Chairman Rockefeller. “Millions of Americans are getting hit with these mystery charges every month – we have to do all we can to protect the hard working families relying on us to look out for their wallets and well-being.”
The Today Show did a segment on it which you can view here.
What you need to know about the report.
- Three Internet companies—Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty—exploit consumers’ expectations about online shopping to trick them into joining their membership clubs.
- Consumers often do not know these companies have their credit card numbers until they start seeing charges on their bank statements.
- Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty and their e-commerce partners have earned over $1.4 billion in revenue with their misleading tactics.
- There have been more than 30 million consumer enrollments in these clubs and several million people are unknowingly enrolled in these clubs at any one time.
- More than 450 e-commerce websites and retailers have partnered with Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty to employ aggressive sales tactics against their online customers splitting the revenue about 50-50.
- Eighty-eight companies have made more than $1 million by partnering with Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty, including Classmates.com, which made more than $70 million.
- Almost no one receives the “cash back award” that Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty offer to online consumers at the time of enrollment.
What do you think about this? Leave your comment below and pass it on.
10 mins that will change the way you do social media with @chrisbrogan-video
Posted by: | CommentsThis is a clip from the Web 2.0 Expo in NY of @chirsbrogan
A couple of questions that he posed at the end:
- how do we share?
- how do we develop relationships that yield?
- How do we collaborate? distribution
Spend the next 10 mins and listen to this video and gather the insight that you need to fix your social media strategy.
