Is there a way to view all of your fan pages on Facebook?

Facebook has rolled out a new feature that can link the community pages that you follow on Facebook to your profile. This allows you to view all of your fan pages on Facebook, and also selectively display them on your profile. Facebook is touting this benefit as a boon for users, yet we have a sneaking suspicion that it is designed to help advertisers target more people (and thus spend more).

Mashable wrote up a great post about this new feature. Click here to see an in-depth look at Facebook’s new features.

We think this action is more for advertisers than anything else. Heck, just last week we were asking for similar adjustments from Facebook. If I can target people who like hip-hop for my music artist, it’s much easier than typing in “eminem” and “dr. dre” and “the roots” and tons of other relevant keywords in the keyword section for ads. Hopefully large communities will emerge and targeting for advertisers will be just as accurate yet have increased reach.

Check back here for updates regarding this issue.

Some great social media case studies

We just ran across a blog with some interesting social media case studies. They have social media case studies from big brands, non-profits, and small businesses. We recommend checking them out.

Social media for business to business businesses

With it’s emphasis on the individual, the social media space can be intimidating for companies that are primarily concerned with business-to-business sales. Here are some of the questions we’ve heard before:

• How can I increase my B2B sales through social media?
• How is Facebook going to help me, isn’t Facebook just for casual use?
• Why do people on Twitter care what I’m doing on a minute-to-minute basis?

Although each business requires tailored coaching on how to get the most out of social media, because each business is unique, there are definite overall social media concepts that will help any company in the B2B space. If we had to sum everything up into a few succinct thoughts, they would be: choose the right tools, and don’t just use those tools for the sake of using them. Many businesses think social media is a hoax because they haven’t seen any return on investment. Often that is because (1) they don’t know what to measure or (2) they didn’t have a plan or strategy. If you want some concrete and well thought-out lessons on social media, definitely check out this post at Mashable. It includes some great info for B2B businesses. We also decide to contribute a few of our own thoughts below:

Choose the right tools

Facebook is a great tool for some businesses to connect with their fans, but that doesn’t automatically mean that your business should be there. Throughout our work with clients, we’ve used all sorts of campaigns to help them leverage social media. Some of these campaigns involved the following:

• Linkedin – we train new business teams on how to leverage LinkedIn on a weekly basis
• Ambassador programs – getting business customers to spread the word
• Reputation management – finding and assessing reputation online, then taking steps to make it better
• Blog – Business-to-business relationships can be involved and can require a lot of back-and-forth before a sale is actually made. Blogs can pull in prospects through their stellar search engine optimization, they can remind prospects of services, they can highlight success stories, and they can keep your business top-of-mind when your leads are actively looking for the service you provide. Blogs can help support business-to-business sales in almost every step of the sales funnel, and can give your sales team content to distribute through their personal or business social networks. We are huge fans of blogs for businesses. We even have two!

So when you choose your tools, think about who your audience is, and what you intent to do with the tools…which brings us to our next point:

It’s all about how you use social media

If it were as simple as just using LinkedIn, then every business would be doing it. But the reason why so many businesses fail at social media is because they don’t use it in a way that befits their specific business. See below for an original video from a printing business. They let it all hang out there, and in the process created a hilarious video that conveys what their business is all about. They could have “just used” YouTube in a myriad of unsuccessful ways, such as just taking videos of their printing presses. Instead, they took a step back and thought about what they really wanted to convey and how to use that message to spark conversation with their audience. Now here we are passing the message along. Excellent use of social media.

So those are our thoughts. Let us know of your B2B successes/foibles in the comment section below.

Changing the World, Web 2.0 Style

It is pretty easy to say that the Internet is becoming a portal for a different kind of life: new communication, networking, news and journalism, shopping, you name it. And after the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, the web became a haven for cause: donating money to help, reading stories of miraculous heroism and survival, and sharing opinions of how we as a people could help.

Noting the response and power to utilize and leverage social networks and Web 2.0 to help make change, Facebook’s co-founder Chris Hughes had an idea. He founded Jumo, a web site intent on in bringing people together for a common good: to change the world. Jumo looks to “connect people to the issues, organizations, and individuals relevant to them to foster lasting relationships and meaningful action.”

I don’t know if I am brave enough to call it “Facebook for Social Good,” but its a close call. From everything I’ve read about it, Jumo’s intent is really to open discussion about helping, doing it in a way that is relatable to people who “live” in the web 2.0 world. And while it won’t be fully up and running until Fall 2010, Jumo will give its’ users the ability to take part in change that is meaningful, yet comfortable to them; an tailored or individualized giving effort, if you will.

What do you think? Would you help try to change the world if you could do so from your computer? Is charity more appealing if the opportunities are individually tailored to you?

9 Great Tips for Local Businesses

Usually we write blog posts, hoping that you will stay here at our blog, poke around a bit, and if we are lucky, visit our website. But the purpose of this post is solely to send you to another blog. It’s not just any blog, it’s one of our favorites, Mashable.com.

Shane Snow at Mashable wrote an article containing 9 tips for location-based marketing. Small local businesses can now draw a more direct link between their social media presence and their sales.

We’ve checked out the list of tips, and we totally love them. Here they are, just in case you are lazy, but we highly suggest you go check out the full blog post.

1. Learn the Platforms (duh)

2. Determine Your Goals

3. Establish Your Presence

4. Customize

5. Implement Compelling Promotions

6. Engage With Your Customers

7. Track Everything

8. Be Prepared to Adapt

9. Avoid Common Pitfalls

So there they are. We’d elaborate, but we think Shane summed everything up pretty well. So go check it out, and let us know if you have any questions. If you are a local business, there are 11ty (pronounced “eleven-ty”) billion reasons why you should be using social media. We’d love to tell you why. Shoot us an email, tweet at us, post on our facebook wall, call us…you get the idea.

The Reach of Social Media: From Runway to Twitter

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending a little known thing called New York Fashion Week, which started last Friday and runs throughout this week. Because of some amazing friends and once in a life time opportunities, I attended the Christian Siriano Fall 2010 Collection, as well as Naomi Campbell’s Fashion Show for Haiti Relief. But aside from shoes and dresses, everyone seemed to be armed with something that, until now, was unrelated to fashion: tools for social media.

Once inside the tents, I was amazed to see how much the fashion industry has grasped the digital era. Forget digital cameras: girls in stilettos snapped pictures on their iPhones, instantly uploading to Twitter. Members of the press were interviewing fashion celebs, recording  questions and answers on their cell phones instead of tape recorders, shooting emails to their editors simultaneously. I had a friend Google a celebrity’s name to see his picture, to ensure she was taking a picture of the right guy. There was even a section dedicated to fashion techy gurus, sitting on benches with their Mac books open, balanced on their thighs. Above them, a screen displayed a real time feed of tweets featuring the New York Fashion Week hashtag (#nyfw), constantly updating and changing.

But the fashion industry goes beyond just the diffusion of fashion week news through social media. This was the first year that typically industry exclusive shows like Marc Jacobs or Rodarte were being shown digitally, bringing access to anyone with a computer. Even more than that, designers are embracing social media on an entirely different level. As mentioned in this recent Mashable article, the industry has begun to accept “outsiders” by inviting them in, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, or the blogosphere. They’ve become more open, tapping an a huge audience that had, until recently, been completely ignored and unheard.

Like in all other industries, some have chosen not to adopt social media as a new and influential practice. And just like in all other industries, they are going to be left behind. Those that adapt will stay relevant, and ultimately, in front of consumers.

Social Media Measurement

Tim Trefren recently wrote one of the best blogs I’ve ever read in regards to social media tracking (although that’s not necessarily saying much, because people seem to write vaguely about the issue).

I wanted to commend him on his “3 new ways to measure the social web” even though none of them are new. We’ve been using them to track social media and online interaction for several years now. I might sound a little cynical (I am) and I might be using a lot of parenthesis (it’s just my style), but I sincerely thank him for getting the word out about conversion tracking, engagement tracking, and repeat visitor tracking. For some of us in the industry, this stuff isn’t new at all, but many businesses refuse to acknowledge the extreme trackability of social media, and how to use that data to make informed marketing decisions.

I’m not going to take the time to outline our tracking system here because I already wrote a blog post about it several months ago. Some of our metrics change depending on the client, but our philosophy hasn’t changed: social media is as trackable as you want it to be.

What does that mean for us as marketers? I’ll lay it out, plain and simple for you:

- More data = more information = better market research.

- More data = more accurate ROI = better informed marketing decisions

- More data = more targetability = more effective advertising

And these points say nothing about the other obvious benefits of increased communication, positioning, search engine optimization, promotions, etc. Hopefully social media tracking doesn’t seem as daunting as it once was.

If you have any questions, give us a call (410-280-5451) or send us an email. We love to teach companies how to measure their social media efforts!

Oh, 2009, You Were Good To Us…

Well, 2009, we bid you adieu. This past year has been many things for us as an agency. We’ve survived a recession, gained some new clients, and celebrated our 20^th anniversary as a force in the industry. We’ve also continued to think outside of the box, living and breathing creativity.

Now that this hectic year is over, we’re taking a moment of reflection, thinking about the things we learned (or re-learned) in 2009 and applying them to our future in 2010, which we welcome with open arms. So now that 2010 is officially here, we wanted to countdown 5 of the most essential lessons that our clients learned this year. (OK, so maybe we learned a couple things too)

5. Interaction and Participation: Actually Do It.

Both interaction and participation are important for social media to really work. It doesn’t help just to sign up for a Facebook account. Yeah, that may mean that you are technically using on social media, but it doesn’t mean you are using it the right way. To gain all the benefits of social media, you’ve got to be ready to participate, plug in, and converse with others. That is just the way it is. You’ve got to give to get.

Comcast is a great example. They have taken the time to embrace social media, allowing it to help their company connect with its consumers

4. Tools & Strategy that Work.

Lately, we have noticed a lot of social media obsession. Basically, we have experienced a lot of this: “I want a Facebook!” or “Can you create a Twitter page for me?” We call it Facebook-itis and Twitter-itis, and it is a serious, serious affliction.

You know that saying “there is a time and place for everything”? Well, this rings true here. Yes, Twitter and Facebook are powerful tools and can work, but they aren’t always the right option for our clients. We have developed our ability to assess clients individually, giving them the social media tools that match their specific strengths and that they need to achieve their goals. Sometimes this will include Facebook and Twitter, sometimes it won’t. Either way, we have learned to remain focused on tailoring social media strategy that is specific to each of our clients.

3. Campaign Integration

In 2009, we learned a lot about integration. Social media tools are great, but rarely stand on their own. We knew this was important, but after taking a look at some pretty integrated campaigns (like this one), we came to appreciate integration in that it must go across all platforms, whether that be between social media tools or fully integrated strategies, from creative to marketing to social media. In 2010, we are sure to see more campaign integration, which makes us happy.

2. Relationships = End All, Be All

Social media is about listening to people. Conversation monitoring and participation is at the center of this emerging industry, and we have really learned to listen this year. We now have a tool that allows us to gather discussions from all social media based on the keywords and parameters that we set. That means our clients can gather and sort through larger amounts of relevant conversations, and use them to expand their footprint and find their target audiences.

Take the Comcast example (again). You have a problem with them? Router not working? Tweeting about it will help get your problem solved. They may even tweet step-by-step directions at you. We call that strategic tweeting; fielding and solving consumer complaints has gotten the Comcast brand name pretty far in the minds of consumers on Twitter.

1. Social Media is Legit: It’s the Real Deal, Folks!

We wouldn’t say it’s something we learned, because we knew it all along. But we are thrilled that some of the largest companies are embracing and verifying it; social media is more than a trend and a hot topic. It has officially arrived as a moveable force in the advertising industry. New technologies, like Google Wave, have been created to take advantage of social media. Big time companies like Starbucks or Wachovia are embracing it as part of their marketing strategy. Even the government has acknowledged its influence. Take Obama’s Twitter page or his recent public address on YouTube as an example of this. The FTC also took a part by creating laws and consequences for misuse, which talked about here.

So overall, we feel great. We love what we do and are excited for a very social 2010. Happy New Year!

Well that’s one way

Want to increase web traffic through social networking sites? You just experienced one way – a Facebook ad.

(didn’t get here by clicking a facebook ad? Click here for explanation)

These ads are great because they are:

- Easy to create

- Relatively cheap

- Targeted by geography, demographics, and keywords in Facebook profile. (To reach YOU, we targeted our ad to people with words like “social media, social networking, word of mouth, word of mouth marketing, advertising, web traffic,” and a few other phrases.)

But Facebook ads aren’t just a quick fix. You should have compelling ad copy, a pertinent picture, and a site that actually delivers on your promise. More importantly, it should be part of your overall marketing strategy, and not just something you decided to do late on a Tuesday night.

Part of our marketing strategy is to give our audience tips on how to use social networking to their own benefit. Why give it away for free? Because we want to prove we are the experts, we want you to come back to our site, and we want to give you a reason to listen to our communication. Because sometimes we blatantly promote ourselves, and if it was the only communication we had with our audience, nobody would ever come back, because who wants to hear that?

Speaking of communication, what do you think of this blog post? Did you learn anything? Tell us what YOU want to learn more about and we will do our best to help you out!

Facebook-itis and Twitter-itis

Now we aren’t epidemiologists, but we have certainly noticed a trend with business owners and marketers trying to enter the realm of social media; Facebook-itis and Twitter-itis. These serious afflictions leave victims obsessed with the two most popular social networking sites, and prevent the victim from receiving and interpreting proven advice on other tactics that ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH their respective marketing objectives.

It is extremely urgent that you get these people help IMMEDIATELY. This condition can cause blatant disregard of proven marketing tactics, and an uncanny disregard for measurable client objectives.

Luckily, here at The Cyphers Agency, we’ve got a cure. It’s a five step program with a 100% success rate.

1. Meet with client to discuss situation and marketing goals/objectives.
2. Complete a situation analysis, taking into account (among other things) audience participation, audience sentiment, competitor positioning, and search engine optimization.
3. In conjunction with client, develop a campaign (based on RESEARCH and OBJECTIVES!)
4. Implement campaign.
5. Track results monthly, make adjustments as necessary.

Here in the Push-N-Pull department at The Cyphers Agency, we are tasked with finding the right tools and tactics that align with each of our client’s goals. We can create Facebook pages and perform lead generation via Twitter, but just because we can do those things, and because you heard on the news that Twitter is the next best thing, doesn’t mean that you should automatically flock to that tactic. We’ve been doing this for a while now, and have TONS of great tactics that can accomplish specific goals. Here are some other examples:

Meetups – Meetup.com is a really cool site where people meet up based on similar interests. There are tons of WOM possibilities, from sponsorship to partnership to events and more.

Flashmobs – Flashmobs are a great way to generate interest and just make people say “what the heck just happened?” We’ve got a series of top-secret flashmobs for one of our clients that will occur around the country next near. Stay tuned for details!

Blogger Outreach – This is like PR for the new generation. With newspaper sales declining steadily and blog readership consistently growing, blogger outreach might be the best tactic to gain awareness of your brand/product. It also helps with search engine optimization.

Social Network and Forum Outreach – There is a community somewhere online that is talking about your industry. You should at least find and listen to the conversation, and possibly enter the conversation and engage the community. We can do this for you, we can teach you how, or we can encourage your most loyal customers to do it for you.

Blog creation and writing – Blogs are great for a bunch of reasons. Actually, they can accomplish so many objectives that it would take too long to go into it here, but suffice to say, blogs are one of our reliable tools at The Cyphers Agency.

Multimedia Push – Do you have lots of video, photo, or audio content? Old commercials lying around? We know how to re-purpose your material and get it out on the web for your audience to see. Best of all, we know how to brand your online presence, tag and title your content for search engine optimization.

Reputation management – Are people writing negative reviews about your business online? Do you wish you could increase your positive reviews in a legal and ethical way? We know how, and have great results from other clients that we would love to show you.

And just remember – these are just word of mouth tactics! We’re a full service agency for a reason! (In case you were wondering, that reason is so that we can do everything that a client might need, not JUST social media, or JUST a billboard. Because effective campaigns are integrated and multi-faceted.)

Ok, I’m sure you’ve had enough of my caps-lock emphases. Let us know if you’ve got Facebook-itis or Twitter-itis. We’ve got the cure.