Māris Antons

Facebook's greed killed the conversation

dzedajs — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:08:00 +0300

I had heard about it, but didn’t give it too much attention until it happened with me – Facebook page notification box has been replaced by reach data of the page’s latest posts. And there’s no option to get back notifications. It looks like this:

This is bad for businesses and their customers. Let me tell you why.

One more click to get to your customers

Previously that box contained everything to respond to comments in a timely and easy fashion, now I’m forced to make another click through to notifications. Of course, I’ve used it before – for large pages with a lot of engagement it’s the easiest way to find comments and to respond to them – better than the notifications box. It’s the other way around with small and medium businesses which don’t have large fan bases and a lot of comments. I believe that for SMB segment that notification box was all that was necessary.

Even more – that box had small thumbnails of commenter’s profile photo and one of the photo that was commented on. Simple & beautiful. And now that is gone.

Facebook has to make money

Yes, I couldn’t agree more. Nonetheless, the push towards spending money on advertising shouldn’t happen on the expense of usability of core services.

Actually, the new “reach & promotions” box could’ve replaced other parts of admin panel, which aren’t as important. For example, the “invite friends to like the page” & “new fans” boxes really don’t add any value. I mean these two:

There’s no daily need for these two, so instead of replacing the notifications box, I would’ve removed these two for the sake of having that new thing, not the notification bar.

User experience will suffer

Facebook as it is has problems at beating twitter at its game – twitter is faster, simpler and more dynamic – users (if they’re given the option) choose to speak up to brands there, not on Facebook. And with this change Facebook is taking a step back. This won’t make page owners to respond more and in faster manner. It’s the opposite – it’ll leave some comments unnoticed and some users less happy both with Facebook and businesses operating their pages.

Facebook, bring back the notification box. It’ll be win-win for everyone.

Facebook bug lets page admins to message users from Facebook pages

dzedajs — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:25:00 +0300

It’s actually pretty simple – if you are an admin of a Facebook page, all you have to do is – start chat with anyone via that small chat box at the bottom of your browser, then open a new tab, navigate to a page you manage, choose the option “Use Facebook as [your page]”, go back to the tab where you have your chat open and send another message – your friend has received a message from your page and it’s in his/her inbox (“Other”).

I came upon this by a lucky coincidence – I was messaging with a friend who is also a brand representative and just by accident I noticed that there is a new message in my Facebook “Other” mailbox.

I had received a message from a page of which my friend is an administrator and to make things more interesting – I had never messaged the page and I hadn’t even “Liked” it.

How to send a message to Facebook user from a Facebook page

A little investigation and I found out how this was possible. Here is a step–by–step walk–through if anyone wants to test this.

1st step - have an open chat-box

2nd step – in a new tab, start using Facebook as a page

This tab will now refresh and it’ll look like it should – as when you use Facebook as page. Like this:

3rd step – return to the previous tab and use the chat box to send a message

Now this person has a message from page in his inbox (in the one which is labeled as “Other”). I asked my friend to take a screenshot:

And this is how it looks from page’s message section:

That’s it. Now, troll your friends. ;)

What can we learn from Richard Wagner's "Lohengrin"?

dzedajs — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:27:00 +0200

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to watch Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin” in Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. To make long story short – it’s about love, false accusations, deceit and betrayal.

The scene which got me thinking was when Count Friedrich accuses (falsely, because his wife has deceived him) Duke’s sister, Elsa, of murdering her brother in order to become the Duchess of Brabant. One thing leads to another and it all comes down to a combat for honour. You can read more about it here (Wikipedia).

The situation can be split in three parts:

The false accusation
Silence on the Elsa’s part
Combat itself

Somehow, watching this made me think about crisis communication. Yeah, I just can’t enjoy myself, I have to think about work. :)

Acknowledging (or finding out about) the problem

This (first) part is the tricky one — finding out that there is a complaint which can turn out in a PR crisis. It was easy for Elsa — she was taken in custody (hard not to notice that). This is why social media and other channels should be monitored. It helps to stay off the evening news and to make things righter before they go “viral”. As in this case, such complaints or unsatisfied customers are not always right, but sometimes it just doesn’t matter. People are lazy — it’s easier to share a Facebook message or to retweet a tweet than to check the facts. This is what got Friedrich later in the play — he didn’t check the facts, but just trusted his wife.

Evaluating the situation & preparing for the response

We all know that sometimes it’s better not to respond to outrageous claims, just because a response can bring a bigger damage (exposure) than the original message itself. Nonetheless, at such moment time shouldn’t be wasted just hoping that everything will scale down. When there is a chance of storm, while you’re evaluating the damage to the brand, time should be also used to prepare to react in case it’s needed. That includes: getting in contact with company’s spokespersons, responsible employees, choosing the right medium for response (video, infographic, pictures or other), etc. Especially important is employee interviewing (if the situation includes your representative) — remember, Friedrich did what he did because he had false information on his hands. When you come out with a counter (or, actually, any kind of) message, you have to be sure that you are acting on solid ground. You don’t want to go down burning just because employee of yours lied to you to save his/her skin.

Why use so many resources for a message that might be unnecessary? In time of social media time is counted by minutes. If you’ll have to make a public announcement, the sooner you’ll come out with it, the better. If people are sharing false message about you, you should give them one which is right. There has to be something to fall back on for those, who are looking for information

Grand Finale

At the end the winner will be the one who’ll be better prepared. Or the one who’s right. But preparedness definitely helps. That’s what got Friedrich – he wasn’t aware of all the facts before he got into the fight.

Post privacy gating for Facebook pages

dzedajs — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 14:51:00 +0200

This is a feature that mimics Facebook ad targeting for your page’s everyday posts. It can come in as pretty handy, when you have message which might be interesting for a limited audience or shouldn’t be seen by anyone outside of it) — for example, just people in an exact geographical location (like city or country), or speakers of one or more languages.

Turning it on

In your page’s settings, under the “Manage Permissions” you have to check the box next to the “Allow me to control the privacy of new posts I make on my Page.”

Don’t forget to save the settings and you are good to go.

Using it

After saving this, you’ll have a new option in the post creation toolbox.

This isn’t the same as news feed targeting (the little target icon), which just lets you choose who in their news feed see your messages. This completely changes who can see your post.

For example, if you use just news feed targeting, anyone who comes to your page can still the post on your timeline. But, if you use privacy gating, the post will be visible only to those who have your desired language settings and/or location.

Problems

There are problems with these settings in Facebook and sometimes these posts are visible to people with other settings as well (with another language). Even bigger problems start when such posts are promoted. In my experience, post promotion just doesn’t take these settings in account and just promotes it to everyone. Even if the sponsored story is set to target the same audience as the post privacy has been set to.

These problems overall occur rarely and I know cases in which these things work really well, so don’t get discouraged by this last paragraph.

Idea for online music services

dzedajs — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:32:00 +0200

And for other things as well.

Usually, when I’m at work, I listen to online radios and streaming services like Pandora & 8tracks. The music stream is endless and what I’ve noticed about myself when a lot of times during the day my listening is being interrupted.

The interesting thing is how I act when I do have to take my headphones out of my ears. When there’s a song I really like, I pause it (otherwise I won’t be able to finish listening to it. But, when I don’t care about the song so much, I let it keep playing.

So, my proposition would be - collect data about which songs users pause. It might show interesting stats which could be used for creating lists of user’s favorite songs.

My Instagram's tipping point

dzedajs — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:15:00 +0200

Not so long ago (in the middle of December) Instagram changed their “Terms of Service” which created a massive uproar between users and media. A lot of users and even brands threatened to leave the service. Some really did leave (National Geographic, for example). This wasn’t the first time Instagram was unable to please everyone.

So, I would like to point out this and some other points, which have made me thinking – how far can Instagram go and how much will its users endure. Here it goes. My list of Instagram’s wrongdoings:

1) After Facebook’s purchase of Instagram, twitter removed the option to import twitter contacts into the photo app. That means that Instagram users have no easy way how to follow their twitter friends. This wasn’t cool or welcomed. I didn’t like this too. But I completely understand twitter – leaving this option on would mean passing its user graph to Facebook on a silver plate. This isn’t Instagram’s as a service’s fault, but still it’s their loss.

2) Instagram decides to have a revenge on twitter and removes twitter card support. No more Instagram photo previews in twitter apps or platforms. From this point, users have to go through Instagram’s link to see their friend content. This is Instagram being evil - still not cool, but it’s actually no big deal. This one extra step doesn’t take too much effort on user’s end.

3) Instagram changes ToS (terms of service) and users (with the help of bad journalism) decide that Instagram is about to sell their photos. It was clear from the day one that these terms were not going to do more harm than Facebook’s. Anyways, it’s easier to start to scream than to think. I completely understand Instagram’s owners, because it’s better to lose some users and to start making cash than to go down. Instagram did nothing wrong here, it’s just bad luck on their part.

4) Instagram removes “@” signs from picture captions that are sent to twitter. This was a pretty sad surprise. Not all of my friends are on Instagram and sometimes I want to share pictures w/ them or meant for them on twitter via Instagram, but now it’s rendered impossible. Ok, there’s chance that my followers will notice them, but what if the person doesn’t follow me? This is bad judgement on Instagram’s end and out of all the changes this is the closest to dealbreaker (at least for me).

What’s your take on Instagram’s attitude?

You don't have to be on social media to reap its benefits

dzedajs — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:50:00 +0200

At first it might sound strange. Even ridiculous. But it’s not. Not always the best social media strategy is to be on social media. Of course, it helps to have your own communications channel, to grow your regular audience and to have a place where your customers can speak directly to you. But this post is about other kinds of use of social media.

Remember Old Spice videos? Yeah, you do. Everybody does. Not everybody follows their social media accounts though. Even less people followed their social media accounts before that. They just became the topic that everyone talks about. They created engaging content on youtube that went viral everywhere. Those videos were surprising, made people laugh and fall in love with those guys.
Takeaway: It doesn’t matter where you create content. What matters is if your content engages people. If it is shareable and great, people will share it. Content can be offline too — it will find it’s way onto interwebs. Just make sure that it will be inviting enough for someone to post a picture of it on twitter.

Reward people for sharing your content, not making them follow you. That’s what social media is actually about — the chance to reach friends of your existing customers. Why? Because there’s a good chance that they have similar tastes for things, similar hobbies and similar needs. That’s a pretty straightforward way of doing things, but it works. Just give a little incentive, ask nicely and test it in action.
Takeaway: in some cases you actually don’t need to create content at all. Just give something in return for a recommendation.

This isn’t definitive. Social media is great to connect with your customers. But tweeting picture of your business front door daily might be not the best way how to attract new customers. Think.

Don't be afraid to cannibalize your own products and services

dzedajs — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:03:00 +0200

This post is written with digital products/services in mind, but these thoughts can be applied to other (offline) businesses as well.

Your competitors won’t be afraid to do this for you

It’s nice to have a steady stream of income and to feel safe about the future. The thing is you shouldn’t. This has happened many times before — both recently and more in the past. One of companies that have lost everything because of this is Kodak. One company that has gained because of this is Apple.
Kodak were feeling pretty sure about their business for a while. And why shouldn’t they have?
On the other hand, Apple weren’t afraid to risk and develop iPods, iPhones and more recently — iPads. Before them these were non-existent markets. They just had more aspirations than others who also could’ve pulled this off.

There are a lot of non-existent markets which will disrupt a lot of industries and companies

The latest advancements and changes in technology, services and products in the world might seem like huge, but I am pretty sure (and you should be too) that it’s just a tip of an iceberg. Ways how consumers do things have changed a lot. And they will change even more. Everything will be available faster, better and everywhere. Even products and services that we can’t imagine at this moment.

If you actually can shift your consumer behavior, it’s a good sign. Because their behavior will change anyway — be prepared for that. They’ll want more and someone will fill that need. Be the one who does that.

You can pull that off

Would we have Apple as we know it if Steve and Vozniak continued to make their computers by hands? Nop, I don’t think so.
Of course it’s risky, of course there’s chance to lose money. But think about it this way — do you want to still be in business after 5 years? 10 years? Lifespans of companies nowadays are getting shorter and shorter. Among other reasons there’s that new and better products are popping up faster than ever. But don’t let that scare you — if you know what’s your business and how you can serve your customers better, it will actually be pretty easy.

Any thoughts on this? Leave them in comments. And sharing is caring! ;)

This is why friend lists/groups/circles don't work

dzedajs — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 23:22:00 +0200

Just lately* more and more of my friends have started to use Facebook more and there is one pretty interesting trend that has got me thinking about bigger things on how social networks operate — my friends are creating one FB group after another and the same happens with FB chats which are created for special occasions.

For example, FB chat room for one party’s visitors — to talk & share relatively private updates before/during the event & to share photos with other attendees afterwards. I’m in countless of those and they keep popping up like mushrooms after rain (Latvian proverb — there really are a lot of mushrooms after rain, especially in autumn). And what’s interesting — I’m completely ok with that. You see, the older chat rooms & FB groups get forgotten to make room for new ones.

That is why I’m doubting that it’s a good idea to push users to create friend lists, circles, groups or whatever. Our needs change, our relationships change, etc. Yeah, OK, work/family lists don’t change so often, but who knows how people look at those things. For example, in families there are different situations - I do not always want to share the same things with my mother that I share with my brothers, you know. It’s much easier to create new chat room in FB by selecting just the people you need than to upkeep enormous number of lists all the time (you want to be sure when sharing private photos & messages). Especially when I want to share something with just a couple of people from my mobile.

Creating friend lists and keeping them updated is a lot of work. Most messages are meant either for general public or small groups of up to 15 people. Ok, there might be a lot of exceptions, but it’s worth to think about this.

* In Latvia we have very strong social network draugiem.lv (word translates as “for friends”) and it is much more popular than Facebook. However, there are visible shifts in Latvian internet users behavior and more people are starting to use Facebook.

Twitter has added new (and very nice) background formatting options

dzedajs — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 22:59:54 +0200

Yeah, for some time we have struggled to understand, how much space we have on twitter’s background for use of passing on various kind of information. Since the background images have been fixed to the left side of browser’s window, it hasn’t been an easy task. There was no “one size fits all” option.

Now, twitter has updated this and we have new options:

I really don’t know for how long this has been available, since I noticed this just some weeks ago. I think that THE option is “center” - since the width of twitter stream and profile information is fixed, this allows to have some fun blending the various pictures together. Like in this example of @SwedbankLatvia account:

Thank you for reading, leave your opinions on best uses (include links) in comments. Share this, if you think that you know someone who could use this info.

Has Facebook devalued its own features?

dzedajs — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:06:00 +0200

As a marketer I’m always following shifts in social media and other digital channels. I’ve always been a big fan of content marketing, but for know it seems that content marketing is and should be moving away from social networks (in this article it’s more about Facebook). Let me give you a few points to think about.

Follower number is irrelevant

This has always been a talking point - how relevant is the fan/follower count. In my opinion, its actual value is falling lower and lower.

It doesn’t matter for how long anyone is working in social media, the number of Facebook fans is an actual number. One by which we count/ measure and compare. Not the only one. And it’s always nice to have more fans – sometimes just because.

And that’s one desire on which Facebook has built it’s business model. We’ve been buying Facebook fans. In one way or another, straightforward or as byproduct, we’ve been buying them. It’s easy to see where it leads – at one point enough is enough and we start to look for other things. We start to look for familiar things, for things we know how to work with. Impressions, reach, clicks, conversions, actions etc.

That’s were Facebook closes the shop of fans and opens another one – shop of reach. Facebook will make money – one way or another, but they’ll be making money. I assure you that. And right now it’s not effective to have fans. The reach numbers of page posts are falling, but, hey, Facebook has a cure for that! And not just one, but several. Promoted posts, sponsored stories, ads – and they all come in different sizes, colors and prices.

Let me tell you one more thing – content is expensive. It’s definetely cheaper to buy a 15K reach for 20$ thant to work on great content on daily basis. Or even weekly basis. Good content is much more expensive than that. Especially if you think about it in long term – how much work you would have to put into working towards reaching a 15K community. Definetely - go for that promoted posts thing.

[EDIT]: This is a Facebook thing. It still is great to have great content on your company’s blog (& twitter and on other owned & earned channels) for Google (and your next customer) to find you.

Yes, there are these stories out there - those guys did that and reached that kind of audience. Let me tell you: they got lucky; in a lot of cases it didn’t help them to sell more; their next message didn’t get even close to “that one’s” reach.

Social is moving to mobile and it’s more about context, not connections

While Facebook has been selling direct lines to their user walls and at the same time making them unworthy, other forms of advertising have been gaining traction and advancing towards more effective, better advertising. Ads are becoming very local, very context-aware and very smart.

Facebook connections and other data will be extremely valuable in the future, but they should focus on using that data to sell extremely effective advertising, not to sell chance of manipulating them (as, for example, page fans). Of course, there’ll always be someone who will try to game the system, but I believe that some such exceptions are better than the current system, in which good content is losing to a few dollars.

Also, social is becoming more and more mobile. Mobile knows where I am. Where’s real-time bidding for places? I want to show ads to people who are near my business. Where’s my chance to create offers just for people who are 2km around me? Foursquare is definetely going to step in this business. Twitter might too. Facebook will not be ok with staying behind. But all of this will happen eventually.

But, until this gets better, we have to work with what we have.

Twitter vs. Instagram – why it doesn’t make any sense

dzedajs — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:49:00 +0200

There has been some speculating on why this is happening and what consequences this might bring for twitter, Instagram & Facebook. Last week I also commented on this matter for Latvian PR news outlet – 7guru.lv.

It started as a somewhat logical action from the twitter – they removed their integration in the popular photo sharing app Instagram. Most likely this was out of fear from Facebook – this way they gained direct access to (valuable, if I might add) data of connections between users on Twitter itself (Some while ago Facebook bought Instagram).

Instagram responded by removing their integration with Twitter cards (the possibility to see photos shared on Instagram directly in Twitter’s web & native app’s interface).

Also, Twitter have released new feature that (according to some sources) is meant to compete with Instagram – photo filters. They aren’t as good as Instagram’s, but they’re there.

Twitter isn’t a photo app

Twitter’s beauty is in the short messages, which are timely and let us know what’s happening in the world around us. This is why I believe they are being silly when trying to beat Instagram at its own game. Twitter isn’t perceived as photo service. Yes, pictures are a good way how to pass info via twitter, but it isn’t the place where to showcase them. There are plenty of services for this which are much better for that.

So, I think that twitter has been wasting resources while working on this. Their product isn’t perfect – actually it’s far from perfect. A long time ago in Twitter’s native iPhone app there was an option to see nearby tweets. That was cool and, in my opinion, exactly the path Twitter should have chosen. There still isn’t a way how to see what’s going on nearby and that’s a pity. Twitter has to come up with ways of curating information, because advertising in the right context is where the money will go. Right now they’re pretty weak at this (compared to how they might be at this).

Twitter is so big, they can beat Instagram

Yeah, right. I learned my lesson on this back when Facebook introduced places & check-ins. A lot of people said that Foursquare was done. Destined to be forgotten. And let me remind – Foursquare compared to Facebook was tiny. Right now (correct me if I’m wrong) twitter has about 150 million active users, but Instagram is following it closely with 100 million. So I’m not going to make this assumption that in this case size does matter. It really doesn’t.

And as I mentioned earlier, while pictures are a part of twitter’s experience, they shouldn’t be their main focus - it just isn’t in twitter’s DNA. But it is in Instagram’s.

Verdict

This is just silly. Twitter has taken a wrong turn. Instagram might lose some users who explicitly like to share photos on twitter. And I hope that Facebook knows what it’s doing with their hefty investment.

Fill your profile information

dzedajs — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 11:52:00 +0200

This should go without saying, but I still see a lot of bad examples out there. From time to time I check my follower list and sometimes it really surprises me how many words some company use just to tell nothing.

“We sell clothes”, “we organize events” or “we fix your homes” will suffice. Don’t go over the top while trying to be funny or to promise things. Just be blunt & straightforward - people will respond to that. And, it will be much easier for others to find you via twitter or web searches.

Social media can be a help in personal matters as well. If you want to connect professionally with other people as a person, not company, the same advice applies.

"1. Write 2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down. 3. Finish what you’re..."

dzedajs — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 18:28:40 +0300

“1. Write
2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
7. Laugh at your own jokes.
8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.”

- Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing | Brain Pickings

"When asked how companies could improve customer service, 17% of 16-24 and 25-34 year-old asked for..."

dzedajs — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:22:27 +0300

“When asked how companies could improve customer service, 17% of 16-24 and 25-34 year-old asked for faster response times on Twitter. Across all age groups, an average of 25% want companies to post video demonstrations, tutorials, and instructions.”

- Why Do Customers Use Social Networks for Customer Service? Because They Can… - Brian Solis

Social networks are the ones keeping online & offline separate (and how it can be fixed)

dzedajs — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:19:00 +0300

Recently more and more advertisers in Latvia have started to put their Facebook addresses and page names on their outdoor ads. While I’m happy that social networks are becoming more important in the whole marketing hierarchy, these ads got me thinking.

My problem? This is cumbersome. So, there are couple of ways how to promote Facebook page on a billboard:

your FB page address (hopefully your FB address is short, easy & generic — most dedicated and interested by-passers might check out your FB page later)
shortened link (hopefully it’s as easy as bit.ly/lemonade)
page name (doesn’t work for brands with many pages and in other cases - FB search sucks)
QR code (meh, user will have to login in FB mobile version — if his/her QR app won’t kill his/her enthusiasm before that)

Now you know why I think that this is too hard to be effective. The user should be able to act on what he sees at that very moment, at that very place. Yet, it is painfully complex process.

This will be fixed by NFC-enabled billboards, but until that moment when NFC technology has become total mainstream, social networks like Facebook, twitter and foursquare should introduce their own systems which can read a tag (QR code, barcode, number or any other symbol or picture in offline environment) and, based on what’s encoded in that tag, point the user to the needed object within the platform via the mobile app.

This is how it might work. For example, I see a McDonalds billboard on a street and it says that McDonalds are giving away 300 cheeseburgers daily via its Latvian Facebook page. Plus, there is a QR code next to Facebook logo.

I open the Facebook app
start the camera within the app which automatically reads the code
WHOA, instantly I’m on the McDonalds page where I can “like” it, see what’s up and what else.

If I wanted to do it now, it would be a little bit more difficult.

open the app
type its name (I’m too lazy for this)
browse through results (Facebook pages) until you find the one (especially bad for global brands with country & local pages)

This takes much longer than a simple code read with phone’s camera

Benefits

Yeah, there are more than one:

much greater engagement since acting on the ad would be a lot easier
very insightful analytics — advertisers would precisely know which places are best for them (where users act on the ads)
better user experience when connecting digital stories with offline ones

While I have used Facebook as an example, this is relevant for other networks as well. I’m looking at you, foursquare, twitter and others! ;)

AMC Theatres vs. Oreo - everybody won

dzedajs — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:22:00 +0300

What started off like a simple (can’t find the right word) question

Gained attention of someone involved & earned a witty answer

Which had to be complimented

And then came the best part (of this conversation)

That’s it.

That’s how even big and established brands can be funny & relevant without going too far. At this situation AMC Theatres could’ve not bothered and everything would’ve been alright This time they did and these two brands instantly became a part of a lot of conversations.

Seize the opportunities when you see them! ;)

"Consumer-tracking service NPD says TV sets are now the most popular way to watch streaming video...."

dzedajs — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 19:14:00 +0300

“Consumer-tracking service NPD says TV sets are now the most popular way to watch streaming video. NPD says 45 percent of consumers report that TV is now their primary Web video screen, up from 33 percent last year. It basically swapped places with the PC, which used to account for 48 percent of viewing but now represents 31 percent. This is a story about devices: NPD figures that 10 percent of homes now have at least one Internet-enabled TV (though I bet that only a minority of them are actually plugged into the Web), and we’re seeing a steady increase in the use of Web-video peripherals, like Blu-ray players, Apple TVs and Microsoft Xbox 360s.”

- Just Another Screen | Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Blog - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

"You may not be able to measure how many buyers are coming directly from [Facebook], but so many..."

dzedajs — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:25:03 +0300

““You may not be able to measure how many buyers are coming directly from [Facebook], but so many people use it as a reference,” she said. “Having a presence out there, it rounds out your brand. It gives people a forum to know you, and it says you’re not afraid to be held accountable.””

- 4 Tips to Evangelize Your Brand on Facebook | Social Media Examiner

Ignoring negative feedback on social media

dzedajs — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:21:00 +0300

At this point this should be a no-brainer. Yet so many companies and businesses choose not to address complaints on social media. One might ask — why is it so wrong?

While social media as a communication channel offers vast opportunities, it also offers big threats. As mentioned in previous sentence — it’s a communications channel. Would you risk not picking up the phone or not answering e-mails? I hope not.

In age of e-mail and (even further in past) phone only the closest and nearest people of your unsatisfied customers would find out about their experience with you.

In age of social media potential reach of negative messages, posts, blog posts, tweets, photos, videos or any other kind of shareable content is unparalleled with any other kind of communication means of past.

Not being present on social media doesn’t solve this. So better get involved, man up and be someone worth doing business with!