Digitalia | Indianapolis Social Media Marketing

Americans Expect Companies To Have Social Media Presence

Research by Cone, a Boston-based strategy and communications agency, has found that an overwhelming majority of Americans expect companies to have a presence in social media.

According to the “2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study:”

• 93% of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media
• 85% believe a company should not only be present, but also interact with consumers via social media
• 60% interact with companies on social media websites
• 56% feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment
• 25% interact with companies more than once a week

More than ever, Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media. Social media marketing is not perceived as an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.

Are you conversing with your customers online? Have you reserved a portion of your Internet marketing budget for social media and networking?

- Chad Richards facebook | twitter | linkedin

Make Offline Friends Online Friends In An Instant

I never remember to carry my business cards, but I always have my iPhone on me. That is why I am excited about a new service called E.

E integrates all of your existing online social media accounts into an E•ID - an online business card of sorts - which you can share with anyone in the real world via an Internet-enabled cell phone like an iPhone or Blackberry.

When you use your phone to exchange E•IDs with someone, they are automatically added as friends to all the social sites you’ve integrated – like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter – and vice versa.

If you don’t want to stream a new contact to ALL of your social services at once, you can create individual connection modes: a business profile, a leisure profile, or custom profiles to make a direct choice to what social services you want to add your contact to.

See how it all works in the video below. You can also sign up for beta testing at www.hellomynameise.com

- Chad Richards facebook | twitter | linkedin

GazoPa to Change the way we Search Online

Just like most girls in this 2.0 world I do a great amount of browsing and shopping online. Modista just made things a little easier by allowing you to find shoes, handbags and eyewear by similar styles. In addition, you can put limits on your results based on color, price and brand.

This year’s TechCrunch50 Conference presented a similar concept with GazoPa, a search engine that uses features from an image to find similar images. These features include color and shape and allow a user to even search using their own photos and drawings. This engine breaks free from the confinements of keywords to allow for an extensive photo and video search all over the web.

The launch of GazoPa will create yet another a shift in the ever-changing Internet. Marketers will need to alter their Internet marketing strategies by adding photos and videos that are functional instead of just flashy.

GazoPa isn’t live yet but check out the demo!

Julia Yoder

 

OMG! A Positive Blog Post About Myspace?

I a€™m well aware of the fact that Facebook is the social networking site de rigueur among the social media elite. I hear it almost every day in the echo chamber that my RSS feed reader has become. Prominent bloggers have largely relegated Myspace a "has been€" and a "digital wasteland€" destined to a fate similar to that of Friendster.

For the sake of full disclosure I should mention that I, too, prefer Facebook to Myspace for my own personal networking. Myspace can be "€œmessy"€ to say the least, but that'€™s not to say it doesn't have its own unique advantages for small businesses. It does - a few in fact.

UNIQUE URLs
Myspace allows you to create a custom URL for your business -€“ i.e. www.myspace.com/businessnamehere. This makes it easy to remember and share. Facebook, on the other hand, only provided the big businesses and bands that partnered with them for the initial launch of Pages with "€œvanity URLs."€ The rest of us are stuck with addresses like www.facebook.com/pages/Indianapolis-IN/businessnamehere/6737543177. That's not so easy to remember and share on flyers, menus, business cards, etc.

CUSTOMIZABLE PROFILES
One of Myspace'€™s biggest weaknesses is also one of its greatest advantages. So many people turn their profiles into tacky, cluttered, slow-loading design nightmares, but with some basic HTML and CSS knowledge you can create a clean, branded page that represents you and your business well -€“ such as this and this. More advanced knowledge can create even slicker pages - like this. On Facebook, all pages basically look the same. And while many appreciate how neat and tidy the "€œschool uniform"€ is, those who prefer to express themselves through color and/or design will be disappointed.

MORE TARGETED "FRIEND-ING"
Perhaps my favorite thing about Myspace is that when you join you have immediate access to millions of people. Access to millions may seem intimidating. But Myspace makes it really easy to "€œdrill down"€ and find the people that are not only potential friends, but also potential customers. Let's say you own a sports bar. You can go on Myspace and easily browse for single, straight men without kids between the ages of 18 and 35 making $30k-$45K a year who drink and live within a 5 or 10 mile radius of your bar'€™s ZIP code (or whatever your target demographic may be). THOSE are the friends you want to make because THOSE are going to be the ones mostly likely to frequent your establishment. Facebook, however, limits you to profiles that are in networks you can prove you have an affiliation with -€“ a regional network (i.e. Indianapolis) or work and school networks. You can only be affiliated with one regional network at a time - significantly slashing the number of people you can reach - and if you wanted to go with a more targeted approach, you can'€™t drill down to specific neighborhoods or areas of a region.

Despite its faults and the naysayers'€™ complaints, Myspace is still the third most trafficked website in the United States. It'€™s the seventh most trafficked website on the planet (at the time of this writing). That'€™s a lot of people you can'€™t afford to ignore -€“ after, of course, you'€™ve established the fact that your target audience is indeed on Myspace - especially since sign up and service is free. Putting the time into developing a social media marketing strategy and managing the account and relationships, however, is a whole €˜other story.

- Chad Richards (on Myspace/on Facebook)

Social Media and the Lobby

I came across this post a few weeks ago, and it’s been constantly on my mind at work, in meetings, on the drive home, on the walk to afternoon coffee, in the shower and everywhere else where thoughts happen. Mr. Hunt sums up everything I try to get across to my clients, and says it in a way far simpler than I could ever say it: there is nobody in the lobby.

We still encounter those clients who believe their beautiful web site is the end-all-be-all of their online presence. Yes, the site is well crafted with cues and calls to action; optimized and validated; Google friendly and image-tagged. Meanwhile, their customers, clients and partners are out there having conversations about them and without them. While vital, their company’s beautiful website is only a short stop on the way to having a true online presence. It’s the lobby. Social media has to be part of an effective internet marketing strategy. 

While social media can seem like an intensely confusing venture, there are some simple and effective basics that can serve as an effective starting point to craft and maintain a proper online presence. Louis Gray has a fine cache of tools to focus on before you get lost in the crazy maze of social media: 

•    Blogs that you manage.
•    RSS feed reader.
•    Microblogging identities.
•    Business networking tools.
•    Accounts on social networks.
•    Accounts on a service aggregator or lifestream.

That may seem like a lot, but in reality, it’s as important and effective as any marketing. Social media is where the conversations are happening. So, in order to remain vital, and fill up your lobby, it’s important to go where those conversations are happening, and maybe even lead a conversation or two.

-Ben

TechCrunch50

Yesterday wrapped up the TechCrunch50 2008 Conference. The conference concentrates on finding the best start-ups and launching them in front of the industry’s most influential players. These companies display just how Web 2.0 dependent we’ve become by creating a wide range of programs that will do anything from improving your Internet marketing strategy to making your personal life a little more manageable.

A few things that I’m particularly excited about include:

Fitbit – all of your personal data is logged and will as a result help you monitor your fitness level. This is done by a $99 device that is worn by the user. The device in turn wirelessly uploads information such as sleep quality, calories burned, and steps taken, helping you to see the health level of your lifestyle.

Yammer – Twitter for the workplace.

MIXTT – social networking as a group instead of individually. This tool allows you to create a profile for your group of friends and then socialize with other groups that share your same interests.

Emerginvest – this startup claims to be the most comprehensive global finance portal on the web. It provides users with more than 150 stock exchanges around the world and the tools not only to invest in them but also to understand your portfolio.

Dropbox – allows you to share and store files online using a single interface that is integrated into your operating system. Files are kept in sync between multiple computers eliminating the need for you to carry around a flash drive or email yourself files.

Icharts – users can create high quality, interactive charts with rich tags making them highly searchable.

Shryk – online banking platform for ages 5-24. I’m a mint.com devotee but like how this site teaches a younger generation about finances and gives them suggestions for paying off loans and starting a savings account.

Make sure you check out all of the start-ups featured at TechCrunch50!

Julia Yoder

The Video Resume

The Internet has changed the way we search and apply for jobs. There have been new developments to the help the resume showcase one’s work and work experience. Now, the next step for the digital resume is not more web links, but a way to make one’s resume more personable, and to catch the eye of human resource departments.

As good jobs are becoming increasingly hard to find, the way one presents their resume has also changed. One way to stand out from a stack of paper resumes is to create a video resume. At best, the videos share personal values and communication skills. At their worst (which hiring experts say is far too often), they offer up too much of the wrong information and come across as obnoxious.

With the growth of the video resume comes their has been a surge in video resume companies. These companies offer not only better camera quality and more structure for the resume. This helps give the prospective hire a better edge compared to someone who shoots them self giving a 10 minute monologue.
Not only are video resume companies helping to grow this new medium, Youtube and Facebook are also developing the format. There are already 1,590 entries listed under résumés on Youtube and Youtube is planning to launch its own video resume channel. Jobster is teaming up with Facebook to launch its own career site featuring online video resumes.

I don’t see the video resume as a fad. I think it will take time for it to grow into a structured standard resume. Let’s face it, it is not an audition for The Real World. It is applying for a job.

- Lain Ewing

Mobile Search: the new "new thing"

Listened to Jay Highley's from Cha Cha present at the annual CEO NET conference today. For those of you that don't know - Cha Cha is "the" human powered search answer service (not search engine he pointed out) accessible via the phone call or text.

Some really interesting numbers from his presentation:

120 - it took 120 days for Cha Cha to receive 1 million questions since their launch earlier this year
10 - every 10 seconds there is a new person trying Cha Cha
3 - Every 3 days Cha Cha receives one million questions

Jay, who is Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, shared three ideas for achieving change and competitive advantage:

1. Be disruptive in a radically simple way

2. Always think about how it will effect the end user

3. Think huge

While there have been skeptics for human-powered search, I have found there are times when my iPhone resources don't cut it and I don't have a "lifeline" either. Cha Cha has come to my aid via text in a matter of a couple minutes. Apparently, Cha Cha's numbers are growing by 20% week over week (note: Facebook was growing at 5% week over week). Stay tuned for more on Cha Cha and mobile marketing.

- Duncan Alney

 

77% Of Fastest-Growing U.S. Companies Use Social Media

A study, conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research for Inc. Magazine has confirmed that social media use is now a major, mainstream activity. Results of the one year follow up on a study of social media adoption at 500 of the fastest growing companies in the US show that “familiarity with and use of blogs, podcasting, wikis, online video and social networking has skyrocketed in 2008 to nearly double what it was in 2007."

• 77% of respondents now report using social media for their business.
• 49% are now using social networking sites - compared to 27% in 2007
• 39% of these 500 companies are blogging currently - up 20% since 2007.
• 44% of respondents in felt that social media was "very important" to their business and marketing strategy - up from 26% in 2007.

Given these figures, it is obvious that social media is no longer only familiar to and used by early adaptors. America’s fastest growing companies are turning to social media because they understand that by using these tools they will they be able to achieve success in today’s online world. Are you incorporating these tools yet in your business strategy?

- Chad Richards