I love this. There is so much info out there and someone finally took the time to put it in a more digstible format. Thank you both.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Bill Gates searching for a thought lost within his brain's file registry.

So, when the rumor mill let loose with pre-leaked news about upcoming Google and Microsoft product launches aimed at the social media space, I fully expected Google's flip flopped, hippie-haired techies to outwit the Microsoft suits. The jury is still out, but I think I was wrong.

Google's Assumption

I look back and think about what killed Friendster. I remember the constant network outages and the feeling of "oh, that's it?" once I'd connected to as many people as I'd wanted to. MySpace was reliable and gave me many more ways to enhance online experiences with my connections. Once NewsCorp sacrificed MySpace on the advertising altar, Facebook stepped in and gave me and my ADD-afflicted friends The Wall. This toy and all the new toys made available through their open API let me stay connected to friends in very exciting ways. This enhanced experience is the reason Facebook is the world's largest photo sharing site, has caused the downfall of many social blogs and has become a ubiquitous part of many people's daily lives.

To kill Facebook, you can't simply come along with a product that is better, it has to be impossible to ignore. Google Buzz is certainly a superior tool to Facebook in many ways. It makes sharing more efficient and allows people to do more without leaving their email. Yes, it even allows for integration of Twitter. But no Facebook??? There are over 350 million Facebook users (experts think only 250 are active) who are set in their ways. They have hundreds of followers apiece that they've carefully gathered – and sometimes culled – over the past two to six years. Is Google Buzz better, absolutely. Is it "better enough"? I don't think so.

Google assumed that because what they've done is a bit better than what people are used to, their 146 million monthly users will provide a critical mass to overcome Facebook. I don't see it. In my early days of working in social media, I learned that simply providing a superior avenue of communications isn't enough. My early efforts failed because we thought "if we build it, they will come." They didn't. They only came once we figured out how to deliver extraordinary value.

Microsoft's Simple Idea

Instead of launching a wholly new product aimed at damning Facebook to the increasingly quiet realm of MySpace (or Friendster), Microsoft timed the announcement of its new Outlook Social Connector to coincide with the Google Buzz release. I'm assuming they must have learned a thing or two from their Windows Live social/blog tool's failure. Microsoft's new partnership with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter allows them to make their email offering more useful, a far more humble goal than to overtake and dominate the social space. They may not be the first to do so – Salesforce.com created a similar offering in Faceforce a year ago – But Outlook is certainly a leader in the email world and this new functionality ensures Microsoft's continued relevance in that space for at least a little while.

What Google Should Have Done

First of all, Google should have tossed pride into their massive algorithmic abyss. I've had the same personal email address since 1995. It's a Yahoo account and everyone who matters to me on a personal level knows how to get in touch with me. Google should have let me keep this address and transform its service into an Outlook-esque type offering. I'd still be in the Google world, clicking on the Google links. The only difference would be that those who receive my email would see @yahoo.com instead of @gmail.com.

He doesn't work for Google, but he shouldSecond, Google should allow the easy import of my Facebook friends, possibly a linkage similar to what Facebook has done with Twitter. This way, I'm still in the Gmail interface, but my Google Buzz posts are visible on Facebook. What's more, those who are on Facebook who click into my Google Buzz post could see just how much cooler Google Buzz is. And, since they don't have to give up anything by joining, why not start an account? This could lead to a slow migration of users from Facebook to Google Buzz. Instead, Google is asking us to make a choice. I think Google has underestimated how much people heart Facebook. Will Google Buzz die? Probably not. It will likely develop a niche of its own, possibly appealing to younger generations who feel locked out of Facebook's rules limiting access to those under 13.

I Could Be Wrong

It just might be that I'm underestimating the value of the Google Buzz interface. Maybe the privacy issues will fade away. Maybe I'm underestimating the Google geniuses and they really do carefully plan these moves for maximum success. But then again, raise your hand if you're still excited about Google Wave...

What do you think? Will Google Buzz kill the Facebook star?

Many clients ask me how to best connect their site to social networking tools. While there's no short answer to this question, there are a few quick and easy tools you can use. The following are a few simple plugins that just about anyone can use to increase the viral power of blogs, websites, emails and more.

Facebook Share
Facebook offers an easy plugin that allows users to not only click to your homepage, but actually post the chosen piece of content directly to their wall. A good example can be found at the top of the main news story for Tech Crunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/. I believe the plugin is here: http://developers.facebook.com/tools.php?connect_wizard&wizard=stream_publish 

Twitter Sharing
You can also use a Tweetmeme button like the one at the top of this post to share your content. Find it here: http://help.tweetmeme.com/2009/04/06/tweetmeme-button/

Topsy.com offers a great Retweet button similar to that offered as part of the Facebook Share Option. This comes in a variety of designs and can be placed next to the Facebook Share button. http://labs.topsy.com/widgets/retweet-button/

Linkedin Widget
Similar as the Twitter and Facebook tools above. Find it at http://developer.linkedin.com/docs/DOC-1075 . Us this as part of a strategy for sharing articles on Linkedin within your professional network.

Smart Digg Widget
Once your traffic grows as a result of smart blog and social posting strategies, it may be a good idea to add the Smart Digg Widget to your content. This is more effective than the “Digg This” button as it shows the number of diggs and is easier with which to interact. http://about.digg.com/button

Facebook Comment Tool
This tool allows for commenting directly onto your webpage in real time. Any comments made by Facebook members will be visible on your site as well as Facebook. http://developers.facebook.com/tools.php?connect_wizard&wizard=comments

RSS Feeds
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and is one of the most popular way for people to digest information. The most common use is for people to collect blog feeds through a reader like Google Reader or My Yahoo. However, RSS feeds can feed into iphone apps, into your Linkedin account and more. Make sure your blog has an RSS feed. Be sure your job posts and even your featured talent all have enabled RSS feeds. Start taking photos at events and feature those in an RSS feed. Again, any dynamic content posted through your site should be RSS enabled. Consider this a building block.

Though there are countless ways to make online content more social, this is a basic list to get you started. Feel free to include your favorites to the comments below.



Image totally ripped from Disne

According to The Nielsen Company’s 2009 Global Online Consumer Survey, consumers’ overall trust in brand marketing messages has actually increased since 2007. This is primarily because major marketers realize more and more consumers are double-checking marketing messages that interest them with those they trust. Thus, backed by mega marketing budgets, the world’s largest brands have started integrating user feedback and actual user-generated content into core brand marketing efforts.

“The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t, has increased significantly,”– Jonathan Carson, President of Online, International, for the Nielsen Company.

We believe this study marks the end of unilateral brand development. It shows that engaging with consumers in a meaningful way through new online tools is the best way to become more relevant to consumers, gain greater influence over purchasing decisions and add credence to outbound marketing messages. However, to truly be effective in a more socialized marketplace, brand marketers must understand the fundamentals of influence.

The Hierarchy of Influence

1 Personal Experience

The most important component in defining what a brand actually is to a consumer is an individual’s experience with a product or service. It would be incredibly difficult for a shoe insert company to convince anyone that its products were good at reducing foot pain if wearing them were painful. Many brands had forgotten this in the last decade and are in the midst of various “customer first” efforts. Do not underestimate the power of personal experience in determining a brand identity. It may be hard to believe a brand promise, but it’s impossible to ignore a brand experience.

2 Reputation
The second and most increasingly important factor in how consumers define a brand is reputation. The experiences shared by friends, family or even strangers in web forums or commenting on blogs have more clout in defining a brand’s true identity to a consumer than a billboard or TV ad ever will. Whether you want to call it reputation marketing, advocacy marketing or plain ole word-of-mouth, appealing to the opinions of key influencers will continue to be a rapidly evolving segment of brand development. Whereas your power as a marketer to alter or improve a consumer’s personal experience with a product or service is limited, the broadband web provides many opportunities to enhance a brand’s reputation.

Social tools like blogs, forums, Facebook and Twitter allow for increased interaction with customers and are an attractive option for marketers looking to influence a brand’s reputation. According to Nielsen[i], 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know. 70% trust the opinions of other consumers posted online – even if they are strangers. By comparison, only 62% of consumers trust messages delivered via television advertising and only 54% trust a brand’s messages delivered via opt-in emails. 

3 Brand Messaging
Marketing messages hold a distant third place in the hierarchy of influence. Meaning, just because you say your product is faster or tastes better, doesn’t mean people will believe it. In the face of a consumer’s personal experience or the trusted opinions of others, the power of your marketing messages as agents of persuasion or attitude change has been significantly degraded over the last few decades.

Lance Shields of Fast Company sums it up in his November 2008 blog post, What is Social Branding[ii] when he says,

“Our brand is not our's to control. It's our customers, our employees' and all the other people who think and talk about us behind or in front of our backs.”

The potential for social tools to enhance a brand’s reputation is clear. The problem for most marketers, even those who have embraced the value of social marketing, is that using these tools has been primarily tactical and experimental thus far. For social marketing to truly make a difference, it has to be integrated into the formative stages of a company’s branding efforts. If a person’s experiences don’t match up with a brand message or if a consumer receives two different messages from TV and Facebook, they’ll get confused. And as John Scully of Apple Computer once said, “minds ignore confusion.”

What did you think of this post? Click "comments" below and let us know.

There is a lot of exciting information coming out about how Social Media is changing branding.

Check out this new information from Nielsen showing how for the first time in many years, consumers are putting MORE creedence into marketing messages. Download the full PDF, here.

We're currently developing a white paper detailing what this means to branding and how to take advantage of this new and exciting trend. Enter your email in the box to the right to get it once we've finished editing.

An estimated drop of six million visitors in six months looks pretty substantial, but looks can be deceiving. Yes, there are loads of people who simply hate or don't understand Twitter. Even during it's July peak, traffic watchers were quick to point out the nearly 70% abandon rate of first-time Tweeters.

However, the apps may be hiding the real reason for the decline in traffic. More people are using Twitter via Tweetdeck or through automated services like Sendible. My SEO friends tell me traffic counts likely don't measure Twitter activity as it eminates from these apps. That's likely a big culprit. But is that all?

At some point, traffic has to level off. We're probably not there yet, but count on Twitter becoming just another tool in the shed. It may still be the "next big thing" in marketing, but it's certainly not "the only big thing." Blog traffic still eclipses Twitter usage by any count.

Just remember, Twitter is a micro-focused broadcast resource more than it is a social networking tool. Marketers should remember that Twitter is a great way for consumers to practice low-impact voyeurism. They are less likely do respond to a particular post via Twitter as they are via Facebook, but they may be more likely to see it. Plus, now that Facebook has brilliantly connected your Wall Posts to your Twitter Page, there's less reason to use Twitter for the same reasons you'd use Facebook. It's akin to Disney World offering to give you a free ride to your Disney hotel from the airport - this way it's harder for you to venture off to Unversal Studios in a rental car.

So, no. Twitter isn't dying, much to the dismay of curmudgeons everywhere. But the traffic count highlights how much more complicated online communications are becoming. Quantifying success will continue to be an interesting challenge.

However, sometimes we realize halfway through the process of crafting a social campaign that the brand positioning needs to be addresses before we can be successful. Social media marketing is perhaps the one marketing media that is most closely in tune with customers and can be a litmus test of sorts as to how relevant a brand's marketing messages truly are. In situations where we realize a gap, we often recommend ways to address a brand's positioning so that it better matches needs, wants or expectations held by their customers – all the while taking into account the marketing positions held by competitors.

Other times, as with LEED Consulting firm, BVM Engineering, we are able to "start over" and help guide a company through crafting a unique brand position before jumping into marketing collateral or social media marketing. In cases like this, we can take into account competing voices in the marketplace, examine how outside factors have changed the industry and look carefully at what potential customers need from providers like BVM Engineering before revealing a new brand presence to the world. Not surprisingly, this tends to work out better for everyone.

We're happy to have been called in by Resource Real Estate Marketing to help solve this problem for BVM Engineering. We've finished stage one, but can't quite reveal the actual brand position yet. Check back once we've nailed the creative portion with RRM and we should see an example of what happens when you balance customer needs, competing claims and opportunities provided by the newly social web to make a business successful.

If your business has found success using direct response ads in the past, you may want to explore how to utilize social media to augment your marketing efforts. One easy way to get started is by using Facebook’s new Direct Response ad units. They’re currently still in testing with Chick-fil-A, but I’m assuming they’ll be a big hit and we’ll see something similar offered to the rest of us within a few days or weeks. 

Nate Elliott, principal analyst at Forrester Research, thinks that this type of direct response ad unit will work best for packaged goods companies and retailers.

“If a marketer is looking to launch a new product, or change a consumer's opinion of a product, then [sampling] is a good strategy,” he said. – pulled from http://www.dmnews.com/facebook-debuts-direct-response-ad-units/article/148027/

 

Sampling is a great tactic for promotion. Integrating these new direct response ads can be a great way to provide real value to your existing Facebook fans and draw new fans who can continue to receive exclusive offers from your brand in addition to other news feed updates that otherwise improve their lives.

As they say, “It’s better to be first than best.” So, start thinking of how social Direct Response ad units might help you out before someone else beats you to it. 

A curious thing happened this last April, all sorts of blogs saw a significant decrease in traffic. In some cases, traffic fell off for 60 days or so and quickly recovered. However, some blogs, like the Realtor mainstay ActiveRain, experienced crushing declines that have left traffic relatively flat for the year. What does this mean for blogs as a whole? According to Forrester Research, people don't trust your blog. But even so, we think there's another, more structural factor at play. 

Take a look at this ActiveRain traffic estimate from Quantcast. You can see the erratic pattern take a nosedive in early Spring.

 Likewise, see how traffic to blogs hosted by Blogger plummeted around the same time. Traffic eventually recovered, but what caused the massive decline in visits?

 Now, let’s look at Social Media’s darling Facebook’s traffic estimate from the same period. Jeepers, April was the start of a very good year for Mr. Zuckerberg, wasn’t it?

 Does this signal the beginning of the blog swan song? The Big Scary Cranium has thought about it and our answer is a resounding, “nah.” There’s still plenty of future for company blogs, but it’s role is an ever changing one. Blogs gained in popularity because they allowed people to release and digest information faster than traditional media could. Today, Facebook and Twitter enable these same people to share information even more quickly. So, while blogs may become less attractive as sources for breaking news, they remain important centers of knowledge sharing and expertise building.

Many of ActiveRain’s blogs are based on sharing newsworthy events in the Real Estate industry. We’re willing to bet that a careful study of blogs hosted by ActiveRain would reveal the more influential “expert” blogs suffered less dramatic traffic declines than those based on aggregating or commenting on industry news.

So, keep showing the world how smart you are though your blog, save the breaking news for your social profiles. What do you think? Did Facebook kill the blog star in April?

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