Some new studies came out over the last little while talking about the benefits of using Facebook, how it effects customer loyalty and the truthfulness of online profiles.

I first found the studies at the Social Media Examiner, a great site and I recommend you drop by and check it out.

The first study put out by Neilsen Company talks about the time invested by users into Facebook.

The answer? 7 HOURS PER MONTH, just so you know Google users only spend about 2 hours on the site per month. Compare that to television at 144 hours per month. Yikes!

This came as no surprise but people like to share things on Facebook, this makes the site incredibly viral. In fact Facebookers like to share more than other Social Networkers from other sites. You can read more detail on that at TechCrunch.

Originally, I was going to write about the fact the Facebook has overtaken Yahoo in traffic, BUT, it looks like there’s bigger news to be had. Facebook overtook Google in Traffic the first week of this month(March). That makes Facebook the most trafficked site in the US. You can read about that here.

Another interesting study showed people tend to be more honest about themselves on Facebook with their profiles. This means you’re getting the real person not some idealized avatar of a person. This also means you can target your market easier since they have been more honest about themselves. You can read about that in more detail here.

This last study conducted by Harvard Business Review gives me mixed feelings. I know I’m such a deep person to have feelings about a market study.

Anyhoo, the study showed that Facebook fans of a company in this case a Cafe chain, are more loyal, spend more and are, well, better fans of the company. Which probably explains why they became fans on Facebook. But here’s the kicker out of the 13270 customers emailed and invited to join the page only 2.1% became Fans after 3 months of effort.

That’s a really low percentage, given the high number of people on Facebook? Now maybe they did not provide the right incentive, content and enticement? I love tossing out stats without context but an average direct mail campaign gets a 1% – 3% response rate and Email on average gets a 5% click through rate.

Now for the good news, those that became fans, came to the Cafe 20% more often, referred the Cafe to friends more often and became more emotionally attached to the Cafe. All really good things, but it really does not tell us what to do. Were these clients predisposed to be the best clients? Is that why they became fans to begin with. If they were more likely to refer the Cafe why did the Facebook site only develop into a few hundreds fans and not go viral? I’m sure we’ll get these and other answer on the next episode of Taxi. But until then were left with what the questions, “What we do with a Problem like Maria Facebook.”

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In life we run across things that are difficult.  Sometimes they seem impossible.  But with a little help, and a never give up attitude you can get where you want.  At least that’s what the Squirrel proves.

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So I’m surfing the web and run across the recent report:

Admob Mobile Metrics

Which tells us that 91% of Iphone users would recommend the device to others.  They also talk about the PalmPre(WebOS) and Android but for some reason they leave out Blackberry(RIM)?  Now I’m not saying Blackberries are the be all, end all.  Seriously, I own an Iphone and currently am a recovering Crackberry addict but come on Blackberries still have a larger market share than Iphone, Andriod and Palm.

How do you do a mobile State Of The Union type report and leave them out of the mix?  What’s even more interesting, and by interesting I mean I did’nt have a funny YouTube video to watch, is the fact that on page 7 of the report the Blackberry starts to pop up, and is ALWAYS scoring better then the PalmPre, which begs the question why ignore it the way they did?

So my Question to you, if you use a Blackberry, “Would you recommend a Blackberry to others?”

Related articles by Zemanta

• BlackBerry vs. iPhone (e1evation.com)

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Well another way of saying that is 50% of tweets are not in english.

I was reading Techcrunch and few stats popped out.

1. Twitter now processes 50,000,000, yes 50 MILLION tweets per day.

2. 50% are not in english, more or less.

So if we do some quick math, let me see here, carry the four, yep, that’s 25 million english tweets per day or:

9,125,000,000 (9 Billions Tweets a Year and Growing!!!)

Honestly, do we really have that much to talk about?  I love twitter , I use it, I get my news from it, I tweet my news and news which is important to me from it.  This post will go out to the tweet universe for people to read.

What’s my point?

Once again I will state loudly, SOCIAL MEDIA IS HERE, IT IS NOT GOING AWAY, LEARN TO USE IT AND INTEGRATE IT IN YOUR BUSINESS.

Nuff, said!

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Folks, there’s a change a com’in!

I smell it on the on the wind and it’s not last nights fish.  It’s a change in how people search and find information.  Sure people are still using Google, Bing and Yahoo to find stuff, but that’s starting to change.  People are letting the news find them. I mentioned in a previous (How Online Video Is Discovered And Other Musings), that with online video 55% of content is found not by searching for it but referred by the social network.

Intelligence Group did a little research and during a focus group session one of the participants, and Gen Y Millennial, stated, “If the news is that important, it will find me.”, BOOOOMM!!!!!

I doubt that student had any idea how profound that statement is.  It means that his social filter, friends, family, sphere of influence, will let him know what he should know.  He does not SEARCH for it, it SEARCHES for him.

Ever wonder why Social Media is so important for you business.  There’s the answer, “If the news is important, it will find me.”  Yep, I’m dropping the knoweldge bomb.

If your listings need to find a Gen Y, which will be very soon as they are starting to enter the market, and they rely on the social web to provide relevant info, how will you reach them.  I’ve said this before, up to this point we have seen a slow change in how Realtors find clients.  But Gen Y Millennials are a new breed, very different from any consumer in the past and they are just about here.  Young Gen X’s have given us a taste of what’s to come, making social media enticing enough from a business perspective to dip our toes in.  But Gen Y’s are a legion of consumers, and they research, and consume differently.

So let me paint a picture of the change to come.  Baby boomers, retiring and (sorry Boomers) dieing.  Many have already downsized, they are slipping out of the market and will continue to do so.  Gen X’s small and sadly we’re not that relevant, this includes me.  Gen Y’s are just about in the market.  So you have old school Boomers which you can still reach old school ways, leaving quickly.  Gen Y’s new school communicators, which will need a new marketing methodology, filtering info via social connections, entering the market quickly.

That spells a quick and took you by surprise change as over a 10 year period your marketing which worked for the last 50 years, become ineffective.  With two exceptions, those of you who have built a strong referral based business, and those of you learning to build a refferal based business via social networks.

See you’re going to need to be part of the social filter, or your news will never find your possible customers.  Remember, “If the news is important, it will find me.”

Look, I’m a SEO guy, I’ve been preaching, “Get a Google Top Ten Listing, and Pay Per Click campaign, amen!” but the truth is Search will not cut it.  Early adopter sites are seeing the change now.  Twitter and Facebook are referring more traffic to tech news sites than Google.  The march is on and that Gen Y army of consumers is slowing marching across the internet, sure there not on your doorstep yet, but they are coming, and so is the change.

Photo Provided by: Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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On Dan Zarrella’s blog today we were looking at a new post talking about self reference and  followers.

Basically, what you see in the chart below and the link to his post  is when people are on twitter or on any other social network the way to gain more followers is to talk less about yourself.  We already know this.  If you go to a party, the more you talk about yourself the less people are interested in what you have to say.

This is particularly true on twitter, the people that have more followers tend to talk less about themselves and more about events, news and relevant information that fits in context with their followers.

So keep that rule in mind when posting on your blog or any other social networks.  Talk less about yourself and more about things that are interesting to the people that might want to follow you.

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Techcrunch had a great article today on Online Video Discovery.

To some up, video is huge, we knew that.  But 45% of video is direct traffic or searched for.  Which means the person knew what they wanted.  BUT, 55% is found randomly, completely by accident.

That’s a huge realization, because it means that you need to create a massive net to capture views and an audience when starting out.   Even to make a successful viral video, you need to seed wide, very wide.  Your Twitter accounts needs to be huge, your FaceBook account needs to be huge, you need media buys and pay per click.   Just so you have enough people find it for it to spread.

That’s not the only insight from this report, which I linked at the top of the post.  From a small business or Realtor stand point, it highlights what needs to happen in the coming years.  As Gen Y prepares to buy their first homes, you’ll need a plan to beyond simple search engine optimization, or a FaceBook page.  You’ll miss out on 55% of the possible buyers because I think the lesson related to online video are transferable to most internet content including your products or listings.

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So Alterian released the seventh annual, yes I said SEVENTH, Social Media Marketing Survey.

It comes as no surprise that more companies are shifting the budget to Search and Social Media, but it’s always fun to look at the numbers and then give my ever so observant opinion about what I think they mean.  Yes I know, you all hang out around your computers waiting for the witty and insightful words that stream from my blog posts, pleeeaasssee.

One of the most impressive points made in the report is where the money is being taken from.  I figured I would see most money shift from traditional print media.  But instead 40% were shifting 1/5th of their Direct Marketing budget over to Social Media?  I have to say, I’m not sure I understand this, an dit’s entirely possible I misunderstand it but Direct Marketing is usual a very accountable marketing medium, you only do it if it’s profitable, so why take money from it, take it from less accountable mediums.  You know the ones that tell you to advertise for a loooooonnnnggg time, because it’s the only way to see results.  They’re the same ones who have all your money before you realize the money you spent was wasted.

I digress!

Another really great point was that 57% of surveyed companies were planning on investing in engaging personalities to be their online voice that starts and continues conversations online.  I think this is a great move, if these personalities are given the freedom to truly engage.  Typically for larger companies this is pretty scary stuff, they tend to want everything to go through the PR department.  But the fact the companies are thinking beyond the box is hopeful.

The talent pool is growing as well, with layoffs in the journalism world there are great writers that can start to build careers as Engagement Creators. By the way I’m claiming that term!  I don’t want to see someone at a party attributing it to Steve Jobs, Seth Godin or Gary Vanerchuk.

For those of you that wish this whole process of social media was simple, well you’re not the only one.  In fact, 70% or respondents work with 3 or more vendors to make Social Marketing happen.

The lesson here is that Social Marketing has a cost. That cost is staff, experts and services which sub in for advertising costs you would have other wise spent. Unless you can get Meekakitty(youtube) to promote your product for free.

The report insightfully notes that Social Marketing needs to evolve, you can’t have 5 managers, controlling relationships with multiple vendors to create one on one experiences and engagements.  A sort of integration needs to occur, but the industry is to young, traditional marketing vendors don’t know how to co-ordinate the efforts for their clients efficiently yet.  All this is true, but also waiting in the wings for the best solutions leaves the door open for competitors to walk in and steal the next generation of consumers.

I don’t have the answer either, but  you can bet I’ll be thinking of one.

One such solution is the Customer Engagement Agency, they co-ordinate creative, data, media, delivery and technology as describe by Alterian. The term seems to have caught on, a quick Google search shows several agencies building offerings around the concept.

The report also mentions companies are having trouble finding good agencies to handle online and offline marketing.  Hmmm, no surprise there.  I would imagine the marketing agency are having trouble figuring it out themselves.  There’s a shift in thinking between to two methods of marketing, mass message vs micro message.  I can’t imagine a company being excellent at both.  It’s like a passenger airplane company being great at co-ordinating a taxi company.  Both are transportation but require unique skill sets to run efficiently.

I’m not going to go through the whole report.  You can read it directly from them and get it from the horses mouth.  But my key theme I want mention is social media has become a common place marketing avenue.  When Facebook holds more consumers than the United States Population you better sit up and notice.  Basically, you have a large nation of cross border users all communicating within a single medium.  That’s big, really big!

98 million people watched the last Superbowl, 1.6 million walk through Times Square daily, Facebook has 400 million users engaging daily.  Maybe this Social Media thing will catch on after all?

As Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise was so fond of saying, ENGAGE!

You can download the report at: Alterian Annual Social Media Survey

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I love this video.

It points out why we need fun, and how to go out there and have a good time with work, family and life.

What things do you do to make sure you have fun?

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Here’s 4 things that you must constantly work on improving.

I promise your that if you can work towards these four goals you’ll be doing more deals, building a better community and creating a bigger and better name for yourself.

1. Always Pay Attention to your Headlines. Because if you don’t neither will your users. A poor post headline will results in less people reading it your blog. Keep it short and simple, but full of benefits to your users.

2. Put your best stuff at the top and make it visual. Your users want what they want and the want it fast. They don’t want to scroll, they don’t want to hunt or click or submit. So put what they want up front and in their face. Then make it visual use faces, pictures, video and images. Words are boring! As you read this post.

3. Ask yourself, if this for me or my users? Because if you have a form you hope people will fill out and submit, but it offer no value to your users, well, goodluck. It’s about providing value, no value, no loyalty.

4. Rinse and Repeat. That’s right make your improvement, then start over and start fixing again. Your competition is getting better right now. So you better be getting better too. It’s not about where you start, it’s where you’re going and where you end up. Start small, make small changes and keep improving.

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