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Luscious Links: Free Resources for Effective Facebook Marketing
Friday, May 27th, 2011
Facebook marketing may well be the next “big thing” for marketers. Sure, mobile is huge, and Google still dominates search and pay-per-click advertising. But Facebook has more registered users than anyone, currently in the range of 600 million. And, more importantly, most of these registered Facebook users provide valuable details in their personal profiles— this is very accessible and relevant information (like “job title” for example) that savvy marketers can use to make their marketing particularly well-targeted.
Thus, (in what we hope will become a weekly style of blog post) this week in “Lucious Links” we offer three FREE resources that we found useful in improving our understanding of effective marketing via Facebook, as well as some “bonus” links below:
New From Hubspot: ”The Facebook Marketing Update – Spring 2011“
If you are interested in do-it-yourself Facebook marketing, this is an excellent, up-to-date primer (it’s free, but registration is required.)
The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing
This is a solid strategic primer on Facebook Page Marketing; and it’s a free download without registration.
Facebook Publishes Guide to Social Marketing Best Practices
You could do a lot worse than this overview straight from the Facebook “horse’s mouth.” Solid, free advice. You can’t go wrong with the five core principles featured in this well-produced, 14-page PDF (direct download link above).
If you don’t believe that Facebook is important for marketing, how about these numbers showing dramatic increases in website traffic just from adding Facebook “Like” buttons?
And in other news…
Comcast Threatened To Pull Nonprofit Funding Over Tweet
This is a classic demonstration of what NOT to do via a real bonehead corporate move that backfired big time thanks to the Twitterverse and social media. Marketing Pilgrim covered it well.
Speaking of Comcast, I did a video commentary / review recently on TheTVNews.tv of the Comcast Xfinity iPad app as well as the HBO Go iPad app with what I viewed as an inevitable comparison to what I consider the state-of-the-art, the Netflix iPad app.
Enjoy and please comment. Do you like this kind of link aggregation? Did you find this post useful? Thanks!
Posted in e-marketing, facebook, iPad, PR, social media marketing, television, youtube | 1 Comment »
Social Media Fun, Keynote Presentation with Prezi Software, On the Road in New Zealand
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
I experienced more excitement getting ready for my current Social Media Marketing speaking tour of New Zealand than any recent business undertaking. For openers, this trip is a fulfillment of my vision of work being fun; and it’s almost impossible not to think of a trip to New Zealand as a “vacation.” But, this really is a business trip.
I’m doing a two-hour social media marketing consulting session with a government agency in Auckland. I’m keynoting at a social media conference in Hawkes Bay. And, I’m leading two lunch talks followed by social media marketing workshops in Wellington and Dunedin. 
It was also fun to get interviewed by a Kiwi business journalist and I thought it came out well. Do you agree?
Aside from the opportunity to discover New Zealand, along the way we are going to see what we can do to support the social media peeps in Christ Church, the scene of the devastating earthquake.
These gigs are also providing the opportunity for me to expand my keynote speaker offerings as well as to enhance my presentation skills. My new keynote called “Social Media Optimization” is taking some of my familiar key concepts from “What Every Business Should Know About Internet Marketing” and spinning them with rich ideas that leverage the “hot buttons du jour” surrounding social media marketing.
A corner of my new Prezi
Simultaneously, I am learning my way into being able to use a very cool visual communications tool called Prezi. I’ve been interesting in learning Prezi for quite some time. It’s a dynamically animated presentation software alternative to PowerPoint or Apple’s Keynote that uses a white board/mind-mapping environment. It has a pretty unique user interface, but with the support of their online resources and an occasional question to their tech support I’m getting up to speed very quickly. (FYI, initially I got support via Twitter until I actually bought it at which time their email support became available to me).
I’m excited to use this new style of presentation because I think it’s closer to the way I think and thus will make the presentation more conceptually clear and organically engaging. I look forward to sharing this new style with you all online. In the meantime, it’s a relief to be outside the frequently mind-numbing powerpoint presentation paradigm and to be using a tool that can work for mind mapping and a more spontaneous presentation style, while also enhancing the visual style of my keynotes and workshops. (Please contact me if you would like to learn more about how I can help to inspire and inform your organization or group.)
More soon, hopefully while I’m still in NZ. Thanks for reading.
Posted in blogging, internet marketing, social media marketing, Tools I Use, twitter | 2 Comments »
New Video: On the Paramount Importance of Authenticity in Online Marketing
Monday, February 14th, 2011
As I discussed in the Tuesday, February 15th edition of TheTVNews.tv, authenticity has become not only the theme of our initial webinars on NewMarU.com, but it has captured my focus as a marketer because I believe now more than ever, that authenticity is the heart of the matter when it comes to Internet marketing and social media marketing in particular.
Robert Rabbin on NewMarU.com webinar
While we work on other products (future digital video and audio downloads and a possible ebook), I want to make my conversation with Robert Rabbin, the author of Authenticity Accelerator: How to Live an Authentic Life in Ten Words
Bottom line, authenticity is essential because it helps to build relationships; and real relationships with your customers, audiences or other constituencies is crucial. It’s truly of paramount importance. Nothing matters more than your relationship with your circles of influence. Only with authenticity can your communications cut through the noise and the clutter of today’s media marketing environment.
In the ten minute video below, Robert and I talk about why this is true, including how authenticity builds:
- Engagement
- Trust
- And, is an extension of your essential “I want”
In the one hour version, we also discuss how authenticity can lead to a real kind of magic and “miracles.” It’s exciting stuff. I hope this video gives you a taste and inspires you. I look forward to your comments and feedback. If you like this video, please share it and “Like” it etc. Thanks!
Another Authentic Link
Also of interest on the subject of authenticity and mentioned in the TheTVNews.tv video clip linked in the first paragraph is TheNextWeb’s article, Humanizing Brands with Social Media: An Interview with Benjamin Palmer. Palmer is “head of one of the hippest digital creative agencies in New York City” and very insightful on ways that marketing has dramatically changed as well as how businesses of all sizes can be successful by humanizing and making their marketing more authentic.
Posted in blogging, branding, internet marketing, social media marketing, youtube | 1 Comment »
The Fast-Track Intro to Internet Marketing | Free Webinar Tues 1/18/11
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
For those of us who more or less “live” online, it’s kind of amazing how many businesses and entrepreneurs are still struggling to understand and benefit from the amazing power of Internet marketing. If this is you, now there is a great way for you get up to speed, for free!
Jon has given his one-hour workshop, “What Every Business Should Know About Internet Marketing” in locations from Kona, Hawaii to Silicon Valley (as you can see in the video clip on Jon’s keynote speaker web page). Now, as just one of the benefits of registering for the free level of New Marketing University, NewMarU.com, this information-packed hour is being offered FREE via the Internet and phone conference lines on Tuesday, January 18th at 10:00AM PT / 1:00PM ET. Click here to register now >>
This useful and informative webinar includes a complete overview of the three main areas of Internet marketing, including:
- The “Super Market-Trends” that have radically leveled the marketing playing field
- The two essential strategies upon which all successful internet marketing campaigns are based
- The three main types of internet marketing: search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click search engine advertising (PPC) and social media marketing (SMM)
- A comparative analysis of the time requirements for implementation, the kinds and quality of results, and the cost-per-lead that is derived from each main category
- Valuable tips, tricks and resources that are based on real world experience
Why are we producing this event for free?
- Jon LOVES to share information and people love learning this material. It’s important!
- It helps to expose the expertise that makes ComBridges such a valuable marketing partner.
- This is a “free sample” of things to come. We are working on a new educational website to be called “New Marketing University” that will have many more programs. We hope you’ll like this program enough to become interested in more. To learn more, please register now.
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, January 18th at 10:00AM PT / 1:00PM ET. We hope to see you there.
>> Please Click Here to Register Now <<
It takes just 30 seconds, really! And, even if you can’t make it live, by registering you will make sure that you get the link to the free recorded version.
Or view our 1-page PDF with the generic course description below . . .
What Every Business-Onesheet 03.25.10
Posted in blogging, e-business, e-marketing, education, facebook, internet marketing, PR, search engine optimization, search marketing, small business, social media marketing | No Comments »
New Twitter Website Press Conference, Live via UStream & Scobleizer
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
Twitter called a press conference today. I caught wind of it on Twitter just minutes before it began.
I noted (yes, also via Twitter) that Robert Scoble a.k.a. @scobleizer was webcasting live video of the press conference via his UStream feed.
The announcement was delivered in a surprisingly incoherent, rambling style that included a presentation computer crash.
The big news was the “New Twitter” website (video demo is here). It should be live by the time you read this.
I was equally entertained (and informed) by the chat stream that accompanied the UStream webcast, and it was interesting to see Mr. Scoble’s webcast go from just a few hundred viewers prior to the event to about 4,500 simultaneous viewers about 40 minutes in.
The new Twitter web interface looks more interactive and feels inspired to me by the excellent Twitter iPad app.
Twitter founder, Evan Williams, @ev emphasized the volume of Twitter users who access Twitter.com vs the variety of third-party applications and he noted something that I think a lot of the general public does not realize: “You don’t have to tweet to use Twitter.” You can just use it to access information, links and whatever from just the folks that you find to be of interest. (If you don’t know, Twitter Lists is a good way to do this.)
The new Twitter website will include a more interactive second-column (or pane) that will allow you to learn more about the tweeter or view pictures or videos without having your click “open” a new web browser window. This will provide more convenient browsing via Twitter, for sure. Also, messages via Twitter @mentions will be threaded (I like this feature in HootSuite) which should help the overall user experience as well.
Bottom line, Evan said, in an uncharacteristically grandiose style, that the online Twitter.com experience has been “completely transformed” into “one of the slickest web sites anywhere.” Or something like that. We’ll see.
Bottom line, I think this is an intelligent upgrade that will make the Twitter.com website much more useful for those browsing as well as those tweeting. Twitter is continuing to grow rapidly and I believe this growth will continue for the foreseeable future.
Even though Twitter lags behind Facebook in terms of total users as well as time spent, it offers a faster-paced and much more search-able platform where you can “follow” people of interest without having to have them follow you back (i.e. become “friends”). That alone, to me, makes Twitter a worthy investment of time. And, the opportunities to monitor the social, public conversation via highly-visual web applications like http://paper.li and iPad applications like FlipBoard ensure that, at least as far as I’m concerned, Twitter will continue to be a “foreground” information and networking resource for quite some time to come. Stay tuned.
—–
Addendum:
I’m still not seeing the new design as of the time of this addition to this post. Apparently the roll out will take weeks. Meanwhile, here are a couple of other interesting perspectives (presuming you consider mine to also be “interesting”):
- New York Times report, “Twitter Revamps Its Website“
- Search Engine Land’s very detailed overview, “The New Twitter & Search, An Illustrated Guide“
Tags: twitter
Posted in internet marketing, PR, social media marketing, technology, twitter, video | No Comments »
ComBridges’ Connections: Linky Goodness, Insights & Free Stuff 8.18.10
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
A recap of recent resources and references posted recently via my Twitter feed and our ComBridges Facebook page are below; but first, a small bit of shameless self-promotion albeit something FREE that I think you may well find to be valuable:
Watch, Listen & Learn: Free Webinar on Internet Marketing
Read It’s a Wonderful Web; ComBridges July e-newsletter
Marketing Lesson From the Grateful Dead: Loosen Up Your Brand
As they say, this is “what I’m talkin’ ’bout!” If you don’t know David Meerman Scott, you should. He’s a true thought leader & best selling author re viral marketing and creating “world wide raves.” This is an excerpt from his new book which comes out August 1st. Cool, eh? And valuable, right?
More On The Power of “Empowering” Your Viewers via Social Marketing
My VIDEO commentary from last week on TheTVNews.tv. Subject: those who are authentic with their internet marketing vs the fakers.
Social Media’s Critical Path: Relevance to Resonance to Significance – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review
Neat Harvard BizReview piece on social media’s ‘critical path’ by @briansolis http://ht.ly/2e5N1 I like. Thx 2 @johnbattelle 4 link
Viral Video Marketing with Dilbert
“only the truth is funny”
Video is Becoming a Must Have for Online Retailers
I’m getting ready to make a video about the critical importance of online video. Meanwhile… Yes, it’s pretty much a MUST HAVE now for any website looking to do real business online. Really. No kidding. Check out the stats in this article if you don’t believe me. And, did I mention that ComBridges has amazingly affordable video packages.
Have a Big Idea, Break it in Half | Jason Fried
Best business advise I’ve heard in a while from Jason Fried of 37signals
Beet.TV: Giant Convenience Store Chain Gone Viral: 7-Eleven Web Series Has 2 Million Views
Illuminating VIDEO story by @DaisyWhitney Big Brand Viral Video Marketing: 7-Eleven Web Series Has 2 Million Views
Posted in blogging, e-business, e-marketing, facebook, internet marketing, social media marketing, video, Video Web, web design, youtube | No Comments »
Hits of the Week: Early July 2010
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Welcome to a new feature of this blog. “Hits of the Week” (which we hope to offer weekly) will provide “linky goodness” i.e. valuable links posted to our ComBridges company Facebook page and Twitter feed. Here, we gather, in one place for your convenience, bunches of links to free PDF’s, articles and other resources. Please let us know if you find this service to be valuable. Thanks!
A Professional Research Perspective of Brand Engagement via Social Media
Highly recommended, Engagementdb is a very interesting resource, even for smaller companies who are interested in social media brand engagement. I especially recommend their excellent FREE PDF Report. 
It’s nice to see “engagement” made measureable at the highest level. Clearly, relationship/engagement is at least as important (and probably more important) than simply the gross number of “eyeballs”/visitors. The focus on these kinds of results is shifting appropriately from volume or quantity of “hits” to quality of engagement (at minimum, some kind of “conversion”). Are you tuned in to your organization’s quality of engagement? Click here to check it out.
Fast-paced Video Illuminating ROI for Social Media
Despite the annoying music, this video offers useful content if you still doubt the business-savvy economic value–in the vernacular, ROI (return on investment)–available from investing your time INTELLIGENTLY in social media.
A Peak Behind the Curtain of a Major Brand’s Social Media Command Center (VIDEO)
More mainstream social media… pretty cool music VIDEO too promoting Gatorade’s social media team, er, I mean “COMMAND CENTER”! Can your sports drink do this? Visit Gatorade’s Command Center to see more.
“It’s about the PEOPLE, silly.”
Via Seth Godin. As a business owner, I know that there is nothing more important than the highly capable, talented members of my team. Read valuable insights & perspective.
“Every company is now a media company.”
A great reminder, via Adam Ostrow & John Battelle
Great Graphics, Visual View of Social Media Today
You gotta love good Infographics. Especially when they tell a story. In this case, big companies are adopting social media. More are using Facebook and Twitter than blogs, but it’s a big majority who are involved. See what these charts tell you.
Influence vs Fame
I’d call it “Influence vs Eyeballs” but being clear about what it means to develop influence in today’s social media world makes this short ProBlogger piece well worth reading, IMHO. And in a related short blog post, Seth Godin reminds us that “If all you are doing is increasing number of digital spectators, you are unlikely to earn the conversion that you deserve.” Read more about “Fans, Participants and Spectators.”
Stay tuned and please comment and send feedback. Thanks!
Tags: social media, social media marketing
Posted in blogging, branding, e-marketing, facebook, internet marketing, online video, small biz e-biz, social media marketing, youtube | 2 Comments »
Free Internet Marketing Webinar for Businesses, May 27 at 11AM PT
Friday, May 14th, 2010
If you are new to Internet marketing, we want to help you get up to speed, for free.
Jon has given his one-hour workshop, “What Every Business Should Know About Internet Marketing” in locations from Kona, Hawaii to Silicon Valley (as you can see in the video clip on our web page). Now, for the first time, it’s being offered free via the Internet, Thursday, May 27th at 11:00AM PT / 2:00PM ET. Click here to register now >>
This useful and informative webinar includes a complete overview of the three main areas of Internet marketing, including:
- The “Super Market-Trends” that have radically leveled the marketing playing field
- The two essential strategies upon which all successful internet marketing campaigns are based
- The three main types of internet marketing: search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click search engine advertising (PPC) and social media marketing (SMM)
- A comparative analysis of the time requirements for implementation, the kinds and quality of results, and the cost-per-lead that is derived from each main category
- Valuable tips, tricks and resources that are based on real world experience
Why are we producing this event for free?
- Jon LOVES to share information and people love learning this material. It’s important!
- It helps to expose the expertise that makes ComBridges such a valuable marketing partner.
- This is a “free sample” of things to come. We are working on a new educational website to be called “New Marketing University” that will have many more programs. We hope you’ll like this program enough to become interested in more. To learn more, please register now.
Mark your calendars for Thursday, May 27th at 11:00AM PT / 2:00PM ET. We hope to see you there.
>> Please Click Here to Register Now <<
It takes just 30 seconds, really! And, even if you can’t make it live, by registering you will make sure that you get the link to the free recorded version.
Or view our 1-page PDF with the generic course description below . . .
What Every Business-Onesheet 03.25.10
Posted in blogging, e-business, e-marketing, internet marketing, motivational, search engine optimization, search marketing, social media marketing, technology, twitter, Video Web | 1 Comment »
Conan O’Brien Gets “The World Has Completely Changed.” Do You?
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
(Note: Read & scroll down please. Two [2] cool video clips below…)
I gotta love the fact that social media has become so powerful that a TV comedian like Conan O’Brien is having very tangible personal experiences that not only wake him up to the fact that “the world” as he says, “has completely changed.” But, as he illuminates in the video clip below from an interview at Google, his social media realization is in stark contrast to how far the execs at NBC apparently are from understanding how social media works (i.e. the audience has new powers). Duh. 
Of course, this is just one example of the fact that dramatic changes that are upon us due to the explosion of social media. More video “evidence” is detailed in the 2nd video clip below.
Also, please note that when you click “play” on the Conan YouTube clip below, it is set up to play starting at the segment at 15:27 where he describes what happened to him because of Twitter (about 3+ minutes total) in the aftermath of his fall out with NBC when they gave “The Tonight Show” back to Jay Leno (“the other gentleman”). At some point, you may want to watch the whole 48-minute clip. It’s quite funny.
Now… especially if you are still wondering about the importance of social media—but probably, in any case— I highly recommend the following visually dynamic and informative YouTube video, “Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)” from the authors of the book, “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business
“Social Media is not a fad, but a fundamental shift in how we communicate.”
— Erik Qualman
Yes, the changes are that big.
Do you “get it” or are you still sitting on the edge of the social media “pool” thinking about jumping in?
Tags: conan, conan obrien, NBC, social media, social media marketing, twitter
Posted in facebook, Google, internet marketing, social media marketing, TV Industry, twitter, video, youtube | 1 Comment »
Online marketing & advertising illuminated via a visit to ad:tech SF
Monday, April 26th, 2010
As discussed in this Tuesday’s New Media New Marketing report on TheTVNews.tv (video immediately below), I took advantage of a press pass last week to spend a day at the very alive and vibrant ad:tech SF online advertising conference. It was very stimulating as well as a bit overwhelming, as most good conferences are. (Note: Examples and references are linked below.)
Bottom line, the conference was healthy and online advertising in general appears to be growing at a robust rate. This was evidenced in an announcement unrelated to the conference, as I was getting ready to go, I learned that global package goods giant Reckitt Benckiser was doubling their annual online advertising budget to $40 million.
In addition, [added 4/30] eMarker’s CEO says Online Video Advertising to Increase 35 Precent in 2010 (video interview via Beet.tv).
One educational note was revealed as I first entered the press room. Their sign read, “Press, Bloggers & Twerps.” I commented that I had not seen twerps get press credentials previously. At this point, I was told apologetically that the sign was an error. It should have said, “Tweeps.” We are all learning. And, apparently there were only three tweeps deemed influential enough to get a press pass, but this was a “first” none the less.
(cc) Kenneth Yeung - http://www.thelettertwo.com
A highlight for me was the keynote by French entrepreneur, Loic Le Meur, founder of Seesmic.com, who now lives in San Francisco. Loic accurately positioned social media as the third major wave of internet marketing. The first major wave, as he described it, was just having a website. The second wave was being savvy enough to be found on Google (search engine optimization or SEO). And, the third is now the ability to “earn” interactions via social media. He emphasized that social media is not about “campaigns.” It’s for listening and engaging.
Along these lines, I also appreciated comments by Larry Weintraub of word-of-mouth marketing agency, Fanscape, who explained that engaging in social media marketing has many more benefits than old world marketing. All with enormous value. Without embellishment, the four solid reasons to go social are:
- Marketing (another speaker said that “advertising” is now morphing into “marketing”)
- Market Research
- Customer Service
- Public Relations
In my opinion, none of these benefits should be under-rated.
You can watch Loic’s keynote via this link. The Hitler video which Loic included (amongst the dozens of other Hitler parodies based on the Constantin Films movie that I mention in the video above) can be viewed here, if it’s still up. It’s very funny if you are geeky enough to imagine Hitler expressing Steve Jobs displeasure over the loss of that famous iPhone G4 prototype.
Here are other examples of advertisers’ money moving to online video, as well as other links mentioned in my video report above:
- Discovery Channel’s Sarah Palin fiasco FYI, this is an activist link against the show. More details via HuffPo’s report.
- P&G’s LetHerJump.com socially-fueled, women-oriented campaign for Secret deodorant in support of women’s ski jumping in the 2014 Winter Olympics resolves to a Facebook page.
- GE Healthymagination which includes a Howcast.com YouTube channel of how-tos and an iPhone app. Learn more about this campaign and other successful viral videos via the TechCrunch’s revelatory How to Use Hot Chicks to Spread Your Brand Message on YouTube.
BONUS #1: TWITTER ADVERTISING
Amongst the MANY smaller businesses exhibiting at ad:tech SF, I was interested to learn that Twitter is now not only being used for social media engagement; but beyond Twitter’s own advertising expansion (the potential of which Andrew Goodman calls “huge”), there is also now a Twitter-specific “contextual, targeted” independently-run Twitter advertising platform called 140 Proof.
BONUS #2: BRANDS AS PUBLISHERS a.k.a. Content Marketing
Here’s a link to a great set of links that further illuminate the “brand-led online video” trend which is also called “Brands as Publishers” by this page’s author, thought-leader, publisher, John Battelle, and “Content Marketing” by others. Checkout It’s All About Publishing, a.k.a. it’s all about content.
And, as I’m sure you know, there’s “more to come.” Including an inside track on branded YouTube channels that I’ll be covering in a new blog post and video report soon. I met with Google/YouTube at ad:tech and an announcement regarding this development is expected in, roughly, mid-May.
(Request: If you watch the video above on YouTube or Facebook, please comment etc. And while you’re here, I would appreciate any comments and/or feedback that you may have. I’d love to hear from you.)
Thanks for reading!
Posted in apple, branding, facebook, Google, internet marketing, iphone, online video, PR, search engine optimization, social media marketing, youtube | 4 Comments »
