Insights & Trends in Social Media Marketing

Social Media Humor Pics

2012-12-26T12:41:00.001-08:00

I hate long replies as well)))

More pictures: http://blog.thoughtpick.com/2010/03/20-top-social-media-jokes-clips-cartoons-feb2010.html

Social Media Poem

2012-12-26T12:38:00.001-08:00

More social media jokes: http://blog.thoughtpick.com/2010/03/20-top-social-media-jokes-clips-cartoons-feb2010.html

Social Media in Pictures

2012-12-26T12:32:00.000-08:00

More pictures: http://businessboombolton.com/2011/09/13/jokes-social-media/

one more social media joke

2012-12-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

LOL Making Friends in Social Media By HubSpot

2012-12-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

LOL))

Real World Chatting

2012-12-26T12:20:00.000-08:00

Social Media Cartoon by HubSpot

2012-12-25T12:27:00.001-08:00

Greatest Social Media Events By Mashable

2012-12-24T04:25:00.000-08:00

http://mashable.com/2012/12/23/social-media-2012/

Pleasant morning with rise alarm app

2012-12-24T04:17:00.000-08:00

Video: Social Media in Plain English. The ice cream story :)))

2011-04-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

IMHO this video is awsome and funny!

Good for presentations as entertaining element with deep sense.

Social Media Quotations

2011-04-07T02:51:00.000-07:00

"I still hear people say, 'That social-media thing, that's not really going to pan out.' We will learn enormously whether [social-media samples are] representative or not."

Joan Lewis, global consumer and market knowledge officer of Procter & Gamble Co.

2011

Source: Will Social Media Replace Surveys as a Research Tool?

Social Media As Surveys' Substitute Or As New Market Research Tool?

2011-04-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

Advertising Age has published the article named "Will Social Media Replace Surveys as a Research Tool?" recently. This peice of paper has provoke an active discussion of research

professionals at LinkedIn Market Research Bulletin Group vlaiming to understood if social media will substitute market research surveys.

If executive researchers from Procter & Gamble Co. see social media as quite important ource of research information, will this result in decline of surveys usage?

Of cource, SM era has changed market reserch world significantly and researches has take it into consideration.

In the opinion of Joan Lewis, global consumer and market knowledge officer of Procter & Gamble Co.:"We need to be methodology agnostic." And what if she is right?

You are welcome to read the full article at the Advertising Age.

Creating Effective Content For Your Best Promotion

2011-04-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

SME has published the interesting case study of SMM practice of Indium Corporation which was incredibly successful and "customer contacts increased 600% in a single quarter".
Good example of great SMM results in practice!

Full article:

When Rick Short, director of marketing communications for Indium Corporation, began thinking about his social media strategy, he started with keyword research.

He identified 73 of the most important keywords his prospective customers would search for. Then he created 73 different blogs that focused on each keyword and assigned a dozen employees to write those blogs.

The results amazed him. Once the blogs took off, customer contacts increased 600% in a single quarter. And everyone who contacted a blog author, commented on a blog post or downloaded a white paper opted in to the company’s customer database.

Can you guess what Indium makes? Underwear for Victoria’s Secret? Chocolate bonbons? Power tools?

No, they make solder paste and other electronic assembly materials.

“Most people in the world can’t believe that people really care about this stuff,” Short told Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, authors of the book Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business. “But my customers do… They love this stuff!”

Customers like circuit board manufacturers, solar panel manufacturers and the semiconductor industry.

So what can you learn from Indium? It doesn’t matter how obscure your product or service is. As long as you fill a need in the marketplace, you have customers. And you can use the same techniques that Indium used to attract prospective customers.

Namely, focus on content. Content is king, remember? Because we’re a species that communicates using words that are strung together in sentences, paragraphs and stories.

But we’re not talking about stringing together a bunch of words that will interrupt people who are trying to read the newspaper. We’re talking about stringing together a bunch of words that will attract people who are looking for that exact group of words.

Because that’s exactly what people are doing – searching for information. At the time they need the information. Not before, not after. And they’re searching the Internet.

“Your customers read blogs, they Google their purchases and they query followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook,” write Handley and Chapman. “This means that your key to igniting sales is to create online content and optimize it so that it appears on the first page of search results when your customers search for you or the products or services you sell.”

5 Rules for Creating Great Content

Here are some of the rules for creating content:

#1. Show, don’t just tell: Rather than focusing on why your product is great, show people. This can be accomplished through well-crafted case studies (also known as success stories). This type of content draws people in because everyone wants to achieve success. You can create case studies by focusing on a problem faced by a customer, how your product helped solve it, and what the results were.

#2. Stoke the campfire: Try creating content that gets a conversation started. Remember those childhood overnight camp outs? The best times are often had around the campfire. And content that is highly sharable will spark a flame that will care it to other places. This type of content could include new trends in your industry. You could highlight hot new research to your customers and prospects.

#3. Play to your strengths: Do you have a radio voice but can’t write at all? Perhaps you should be focusing on podcasts instead of white papers. Maybe you’re really good on camera? Focus on where your strengths are and produce content in your comfort zone.

#4. Speak human: The people you are targeting are not search engine spiders and are likely not as technically knowledgeable as your engineering team. Speak to people in a voice they understand. That means losing complicated jargon and instead adopting a conversational writing style.

#5. Reimagine: Have you got some great content that is sitting idle? How about repurposing it. For example a great presentation can be transcribed and turned into an ebook. A white paper can be the inspiration for multiple blog articles.

Your Complete Guide to Creating Content

If you’re still struggling with your content marketing campaign because you have no idea what to write about, you need this book. It’s the complete guide to creating content that will draw prospective customers directly to you.

Content that educates, establishes you as an expert and engages potential customers. “Engaging with people is how your company will survive and thrive in this newly social world,” write Handley and Chapman. “Online content is a powerful envoy for your business, with an ability to stir up interest, further engagement and invite connection.”

In the book you’ll learn:

Eleven content rules, with an entire chapter devoted to most of them
Nine ways to differentiate your content from everyone else’s
Thirteen steps for feeding the content food chain
Twenty-five tips if you don’t know what to say

You’ll even learn the 1-7-30-4-2-1 publishing schedule so you can produce content at a steady pace. Here’s a tip: You’ll know exactly what to publish daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually.

After all, producing good content is like building a campfire – you have to keep the fire burning long enough to gather all your friends around it and tell stories.

Because that’s exactly what you want your prospective customers to do. You want them to gather around your content and share it with their friends.

If these techniques work for Kodak, Boeing and the U.S. Army, they’ll work for you. We guarantee it!

Social Media Examiner gives this book five stars.

About the Author, Ruth M. Shipley

Ruth M. Shipley is a freelance researcher and writer who loves to write a good story. Because that’s what most people love to read! See her Social Media Examiner page for more stories about social media books.

Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-create-content-that-engages-prospects-and-customers/#more-8746

HOW TO: Land a Job at Facebook

2011-04-04T06:33:00.000-07:00

Cool article for those dreaming about job proposal from Facebook.
you luck!:)

HOW TO: Land a Job at Facebook

by Ben Parr 21

Original article at: http://mashable.com/2011/04/03/facebook-jobs-2/

So you want to work at Facebook, one of the world’s hottest companies — what do you have to get your foot in the door and get noticed?

It’s not going to be easy — you have competition. Facebook received 250,000 job applications last year and is consistently rated as one of the best places to work. And with Facebook’s IPO around the corner, the competition for jobs is only going to heat up.

There are plenty of ways to get noticed and stand above the crowd, though. I chatted with Thomas Arnold, head of recruiting for the social network, on what the company looks for and what it takes to get a job at Facebook.

What Jobs Are Available at Facebook?

Ever since Facebook announced it was moving to a bigger office and raised $2 billion in funding, it has been ramping up its hiring.

While there are many openings in legal, communications, HR, marketing, online operations, business development, IT, design, user experience and internationalization, the company is especially looking for technical talent, especially software engineers and product managers.

The Facebook Interview Process

I actually went through the entire Facebook interview process in 2008, before I joined Mashable as an associate editor. And while it’s definitely changed since I applied for a job on the company’s User Operations team, the basic format has remained the same.

The first step is almost always a recruiter phone-screening — Facebook will begin exploring your resume, asking you about your previous work, especially about what you’ve built and what leadership roles you’ve had in the past. Sometimes there’s a second screening, depending on the role.

If you pass the screening, the company will fly you out to its Silicon Valley headquarters for a series of on-site interviews with the hiring manager (your potential future boss) and a group of your peers — in other words, you will be interviewed by the members of the team you’re hoping to join. As Arnold explained to me, these interviews are designed to determine whether you have the skills for the job and whether you’re a cultural fit. The group then makes “a collective decision on whether you’re a great fit” for the position.

The process itself greatly varies from group to group — expect more technical skill challenges if you’re applying for an engineering job. Oh, and one extra piece of advice from me: Always put the user first in any scenario or interview question.

Standing Apart From the Crowd

With more than a quarter of a million applicants, how does Facebook whittle down the applicant pool?

“We’re primarily looking for builders,” Arnold says. He explains that Facebook has an entrepreneurial spirit and is a flat organization, and thus it’s looking for people who can thrive in that environment. Employees need to be self-starters who don’t need a lot of direction, so autonomy and self-motivation are highly valued.

Builders — especially engineers who like to build projects on their own and have cool, working products or apps they can show off — are sought after by the Facebook team. If someone builds a unique application and/or solves a problem in a way that hasn’t been done before, he’s going to get Facebook’s attention.

Strong applicants to Facebook also “just get the social space,” Arnold says. They not only understand the product, but can see the company’s vision. Even more important is that they’re active users of the product. This may seem like a no-brainer, but Arnold says his team finds a lot of applicants who haven’t used their Facebook accounts in weeks or even months. And that is a very clear sign to Facebook that the person won’t be a good fit.

Finally, it’s very helpful to know someone at Facebook who can vouch for you — this was true even when I interviewed with the social network three years ago. While I got special consideration due to my unique history with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, I still had a Facebook reference.

Final Thoughts

While I ultimately failed to secure a job at Facebook, you don’t have to let that be the case for you. For those of you applying to non-technical roles, be sure you’re active users, understand the company culture and have a resume filled with leadership and “builder” activities. It’s more impressive if you launched an organization or product than if you simply took it over.

For technical talent, the best thing you can do is build something. If you build a really impressive iPhone application that gains some traction, you’re going to get noticed. If you are a major contributor of open source code to various projects, you’re going to get noticed.

In the end though, the big filter is cultural fit. There isn’t really much you can do to prepare for that — the Facebook team simply knows if you’re going to mesh well with them or if you’re not going to be able to keep up.

And as I said before, be sure to have an employee refer you. Otherwise, you’re going to have a really difficult time just getting the phone screening.

Have you gone through the interview process and landed a job at Facebook? Tell us in the comments below.

Social Media Job Listings

Every week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

The Future of Social Media Research by Annie Pettit

2010-10-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

Today I'm happy to post splendid video and interesting article of Annie Pettite, PhD is the Chief Research Officer of Conversition Strategies, who, in my opinion is one of the most prominent Social media researchers.

Original artical is posted on scribemedia .

At Conversition, I’ve heard over and over again that companies are telling their employees do something, anything, in the social media space. With limited guidance, some people turn towards social media monitoring, others to customer relationship monitoring, and still others turn to social media research. Many struggle to differentiate between these offerings and simply go with whichever vendor is first in line.

As researchers ourselves, we understand the value that true market research brings to the table. True market research can come out of surveys, out of focus groups, and, no surprise here, out of social media data. Though social media monitoring can let you know what individual people are saying about a brand, social media research applies scientific principles to that data such that valid and reliable inferences can be made.

One of my favorite examples of correctly applying science to social media data relates to the use of Twitter, a social media tool that appeals to an arguably ‘different’ sort of person. As researchers, we strictly adhere to rules that say data must reflect the population to which you plan to generalize. As such, we know that even though twitter comprises only 7% of internet users, their voices cannot count for 60% of the opinions simply because that is how the data collection happened. Sampling, weighting, standards, norms, and other strict research processes are what place social media research into the market research toolbox.

Another of my favourite examples relates to the seemingly simple task of data quality. Whereas a survey can simply say “Coke” or “Apple” or “BP,” social media research needs to apply extremely strict and complicated data quality processes to ensure that the wrong data is not collected. Clients would certainly not wish to confound their datasets with opinions related to cocaine (coca-cola), apple pie (Apple computers), or blood pressure (BP).

What’s next on the horizon for social media research? Quite simply, predictive analytics based on social media data have arrived and are rapidly gaining momentum. The only reason market research is so important is that it helps users determine which products or services will thrive or fail. Knowing why something is failing right now is certainly useful and allows for real-time corrections and improvements to be made. But, in the long run, predictive research allows users to identify the hits and misses before massive quantities of money have been put into the products. Which television shows will be hits if a small tweak is made? Which shows should simply be pulled off the air? Which shows should be developed?

These are the sorts of things we already do on a regular basis with survey research. Decades of experience have helped us to discover how to create and combine variables to predict the winners of elections and consumer voted contests. We know how to combine past behaviour and intention variables to accurately predict the future. Now we are learning how to do those same things with social media research. We are creating the datasets that will be used to accurately predict the next flavour of chips, the next President, and the next American Idol.

Social Media Quotations

2010-10-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

" In the era of Social Media, companies will earn the relationships they deserve."

By Brain Solis

The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations, p. 13

Using Twitter in qualitative research (from http://yellowsubmarinequal.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/using-twitter-in-qualitative-research/)

2010-10-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

Using Twitter in qualitative research

One of the main points made when crucifying the focus group as a qualitative research tool is its artificiality, its way of abducting the consumer from its natural context and putting him in a moderation room. As a reaction to this shortcoming marketers resort from time to time to more ethnographical approaches, like IHV’s, AST’s etc. The idea is to get the researcher integrated in the natural context. If for focus groups the ideal is going as deep as possible, for the IHV’s is ear dropping.

In this context comes Web 2.0 with all its networking and socializing potential and short after, the idea of using it as a research tool. Add this to the marketing guru frenzy when everybody is desperate to buy a ticket to some bold, bare foot marketing gods that say the same fundamental stuff but with different wrappings, all of them announcing web 2.0 as the second coming. And so, you get a wave of enthusiasm towards research on YouTube. Twitter, blogs, Face book, Yahoo Messenger, forums, online communities etc. Now everybody can eardrop on everybody. And at this point something very interesting happens: people start thinking that this is a great tool researchers can use to tap consumers’ real feelings, wording etc. As a result, a long list of arguments in favour of stalking online communities raging from low costs to the raw, uncorrupted character of the data emerges.

What almost everybody seems to forget is exactly the background. Yes people are not inhibited by a moderator, and mirror, and camera but they are inhibited by themselves, their peers, the medium and many others. Take Twitter for example. In there you choose your crowd. Friends, people that seem to share common interests or common friends are the usual choices. On top of that, come opinion leaders, the cool people of the day and somewhat more official sources – companies. And all these birdies tweet. But they tweet with a reason – they want to be perceived in some manner (a little sparrow wants to be seen as a hawk), or they want to belong to a certain crowd (the duck trying to stay with the swans), they want to have access to the cool links etc. And all these reasons alter what they’re tweeting about, how they do it, when and with whom. And here comes the clever fox thinking that all that it has to do is to listen in on the tweets and find out where the birdies keep their eggs. So it goes to http://search.twitter.com/ and puts in “eggs”. And it sees the sparrow bragging about her big nest in the mountains, the duck saying it has no time to lay eggs as it’s occupied with facial treatments and thinks “jack pot”. But in fact it does not have a clue.

Coming back to the real world, we have to understand that all these web 2.0 developments offer us new ways of conducting research but do not simplify it to the extent of a Google search. It just provides us with more info sources which we still have to interpret against the context. So, do not think that the further away from the moderation room, the more real it is.

New social media research by Lee Rainie

2010-10-14T01:31:00.000-07:00

New social media research

by Lee Rainie

Jan 30, 2009

There is a brand new way to assess the content of social media -- blogs, social network sites, video-sharing sites and the like.

Our colleagues at the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism have developed a New Media Index that analyzes the major news topics that are covered by social media participants.

The index draws on the tens of millions of weekly posts and links that are captured by Technorati and Icerocket. The Project then does its own analysis of the content of the news stories that draw the most links from social media sites.

The extra-added bonus is that PEJ each week will compare the material that appears in the New Media Index to its content analysis of the material that appears in its News Coverage Index, a rich content analysis of the stories covered by traditional news organizations.

My strong hunch is that this weekly comparison will provide lots of evidence that bloggers and other social media participants constitute a "fifth estate," the memorable and extremely useful insight of William Dutton, the Director of the Oxford Internet Institute.

Here's how PEJ explains its motive for indexing the top topics that bloggers and other social media participants link to and discuss:

"PEJ is launching the New Media Index as a companion to its weekly News Coverage Index. Blogs and other new media are an important part of creating today's news information narrative and in shaping the way Americans interact with the news. The expansion of online blogs and other social media sites has allowed news consumers and others outside the mainstream press to have more of a role in agenda setting, dissemination and interpretation. PEJ wanted to find out what subjects in the national news the online sites focus on, and how that compared with the narrative in the traditional press."

The latest survey from the Pew Internet Project that was completed on December 20 shows that 11% of American adults are bloggers, and 32% are blog readers.

Source: pewinternet

I Am Canadian, Molson Canadian Beer

2010-04-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

I'm in the beer mood today)))

information from wikipedia:

I am Canadian was the slogan of Molson Canadian Beer from 1994 until 1998 (via ad agency Maclaren Lintas and then MacLaren McCann), and between 2000 and 2005 (Bensimon Byrne). It was also the subject of an extremely popular ad campaign centered on Canadian nationalism, the most famous examples of which are "The Rant" and "The Anthem". The ads aired in both English Canada and the United States. In 2005, shortly after Molson's merger with American brewer Coors, Molson announced that it was retiring the "I am Canadian" slogan.
The Rant"
A screen capture of Joe Canadian from an I am Canadian commercial, with the maple leaf of the Canadian flag projected on the background

In April 2000, using nationalism as a platform (or perhaps even jingoism depending on varying opinions [1]), the ad starred a man named Joe: an "average Canadian", standing in a movie theatre, with a cinema screen behind him showing different images relating to Canadian culture. Joe proceeds to give a speech about what is it to be a Canadian and what it is not to be a Canadian, making particular efforts to distinguish himself both from common Canadian stereotypes of Americans ("I believe in peacekeeping, not policing") and common American stereotypes of Canadians ("I don't live in an igloo," "I say 'about,' not 'aboot'").

It was performed by Canadian actor Jeff Douglas and directed by an American, Kevin Donovan, but written by a Canadian, Glen Hunt. The commercial won an advertising industry Gold Quill award in 2001.
[edit] Criticism

Although the ad was a remarkable success, spawning a number of parodies and copycats, it was criticized by some as being too much about what a Canadian is not, rather than what a Canadian is. Rather than further pinning Canadian identity on comparisons to the United States, critics contended, Joe should have made an effort to establish his identity independently. However, others responded that this type of definition of Canadian identity by contrasting it to American ways, is in itself the 'Canadian' cultural norm.
[edit] Parodies

The success of I am Canadian in Canada led to many parodies of the advertisement. Several radio stations have produced provincial variations on the theme. These include I am an Albertan, I am a British Columbian, I am a Newfoundlander, and I Am Not Canadian, the last of which focused on a Quebec sovereignist.

William Shatner, who is Canadian, performed his own variation on the idea in a Just for Laughs appearance. He announced to the world: "I am not a Starfleet commander, ...or T.J. Hooker." The rant continues, making fun of Trekkies and his own typecasting as James T. Kirk.

Weasel, the lead character of I Am Weasel, parodied the advertisement in a promotional ad for the series' home, Cartoon Network. The ad proved itself to be popular enough to air on a similar Canadian outlet, Teletoon.

During the 2002 Swiss National Exposition, the Swiss National Bank pavilion featured an "Ich Bin Schweizer" adaptation of the ad, using stereotypes held by Germans about the Swiss.

In December 2007, The Muslim American Society created a video called "I Am A Muslim" which takes many lines from the Molson advertisement and applies them to Muslim stereotypes. [2]
[edit] Trivia

This commercial premiered during the Academy Awards, which, in that year, included Robin Williams singing the song "Blame Canada," a satirical song from the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
[edit] "The Anthem"
Joe at the end of ad

This ad features famous moments from Canadian history (including the pounding of the Last Spike and the raising of the Maple Leaf flag), as well as a variety of "average Canadians", singing a song extolling the virtues of Canada and its citizens.

Molson also released an mp3 version of the song, which is entirely in English and sings rather than speaks "the one we call Canadian".

beer fatale )))))

2010-04-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

трохи жорстоко і шовіністично. але загалом ....:)

Praud Papa, McDonald's - 100% gorgeous!

2010-04-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

I"M LOVIN" IT!

AMM/Vizeum

2010-04-20T01:39:00.000-07:00

http://ammvizeum.wordpress.com - непоганий блог, а от сайт http://amm.com.ua/ - under construction:(((

Guinnes advertisement

2010-03-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

Slogan: Good things comes to those who waites.:)

well done!

In general: 10 from 10.

Children see. Children do.

2010-03-16T06:21:00.001-07:00

Bright advertaisement against home violance as well as agianst indifferent behaivaiosr of grown-ups while children are near them.

Дитині можна зашкодити по різному. Можна вдарити її фізично, можна нанести емоційну травму, або зробити її своєю копією.

I Will Never Beat Carpets - Social Advertising (1990) Romania

2010-03-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

"I Will Never Beat Carpets, Because They Will Be Hurt".

Simple, strong, sincere, feelingfull, and sad advertising.

"Я ніколи не вибиватиму килими, бо їм буде боляче" - неймовірно просто, чуттєво, проникливо.
ідея передана на всі 100% зі 100%тковою простотою.
1990, Румунія - це десять років тому.
а Україна все ще чекає когось, хто б зумів так просто доносити такі складні проблеми.