Facebook: Who you know; Twitter: What you know

Are you utlizing videos on your website or blog? Then here's an interesting stat for you from the folks at Social Media Today.

Videos promoted with links from Twitter are viewed much longer than from Facebook and Digg. Social Media Today says, "Users clicking onto videos links sent via Twitter spend significantly longer watching those videos than those arriving from Digg or Facebook, according to a new study by video stats site TubeMogul.

"The methodology (below) seems fairly robust, so it may offer a real insight into current Twitter usage: On Twitter you can follow interesting people, not just your friends."

Check out the full article and the study details here: Facebook: Who you know; Twitter: What you know

Facebook's billion dollar revenue forecast; it's THE media, social or not

As we see advertising revenues dwindle in traditional media, particularly magazines and newspapers, we'll be soon seeing an opposite shift in the form of a tipping point happening in new media, particularly the social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. In this story from Reuters on July 6th, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Facebook board member, Mark Andreessen, tells Reuters that while Facebook's revenue is at $500+ million this year, it is forecast for several billion in the next five years. "Privately held Facebook...has never disclosed its revenue except to say it expects 70 percent growth this year," the article quotes.

And did you know the high profile Web start-up, Twitter, while not making any money at the moment and instead establishing the user experience first (unlike mySpace), was asked by the U.S. State Department to reschedule planned maintenance during the Iran election crisis, because it "considered Twitter a vital communications channel for protesters?"

We're all beginning to understand more fully that Facebook and Twitter are destined to not just be social media channels used by some, but to become mainstream media channels used by most. The New Media isn't so new these days and media properties like Facebook and Twitter are becoming viable ways in which we receive our news in our beloved sound bytes and at a rate of speed that our minds crave. They are this generation's version of USA Today, bringing news to us where we connect with family, chat with friends and engage with those our businesses serve. Even the word "news" is being redefined because on the social networks, we get to choose and even create our own channels.

Engagement is such a key premise to understand more fully as people use the social networks because it's not about shouting messages from the rooftops, or treating the social media like more traditional media in one-way communication. To be successful in engaging others, one must first engage IN others. The old saying of WIIFM has never been more important than now -- your message must be about your audience, about each one in particular. One-to-one communications lives on, here and now in every moment. Remember those books we all read from Rogers & Peppers?

And the only question is how many moments can you catch with authentic relevancy? There are several definitions of engagement and my favorites for social media application are to interlock, mesh, involve, engross, pledge oneself and to deal with someone especially at length. The social media are long-term engagement tools not advertising tools, and the sooner we change our thinking, the better. Brands, whether your personal or company, will be built on engagement, authentic relevancy and thoughtfulness of others.

If you have questions about how to best to utlize the social media or how to consume or create content, please contact Sally Witzky for consultation.

A quick view of the stats: Facebook, Twitter and mySpace

This graphic came from Joel Comm's twitpic account. It shows the growth relationship of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. It may be difficult to read in this graphic (although you can click through to his twitpic and view much larger). But the green line is Facebook and you can see the incredible volume there. Twitter is the orange line at the bottom -- while the numbers aren't as big, the % growth is huge. And MySpace, as you know, is declining but still has moderate volume.

A quick recap:

Facebook: 122+ M unique visitors, 8.5% growth last mo, and 250% annual growth.
Twitter: 23 M unique visitors, 16.5% growth last mo, and 1,164% annual growth!
MySpace: 61 M unique visitors, 7% growth last mo but 5.6% annual decline.

When building a personal or business brand utilizing the social networks, you have to be where the people are, where the eyeballs are congregating. Kind of difficult to pass up 122+ million unique visitors on Facebook. So it's extremely important to have both a personal brand and business brand strategy for Facebook and Twitter, and I would add LinkedIn because of the demographics. And if you're in the music field, particularly an artist, MySpace is still a must.

If you have any questions about growth of social media or you feel you're not using them to the best of your advantage, shoot me an email and I'll be happy to answer you.

Is your Google Profile Up to Date? - Internet Marketing Tips from Denise Wakeman

This is an excellent article sent to me by Mari Smith about updating your Google Profile and a great reminder for us all to take ownership of our online brand and reputation, as well as to increase search engine results.

Click on the link above for more information and to see the NY Times article on "how to manage your online reputation." Excellent read.

Don't forget to use the Tell-A-Friend button below.

The FASTForward Blog » The Return On Investment in Interaction (ROII)

The FASTForward Blog » The Return On Investment in Interaction (ROII) - Using Twitter for Purposeful Contextual Social Search in Social Medical Networks: Enterprise 2.0 Blog: News, Coverage, and Commentary

One of the most interesting and thought-provoking articles I've read in a while about the use of Twitter and Social Media Networks, particularly Social Medical Networks for Enterprise 2.0.

Take a read and let me know what you think. I get asked all the time about how to monetize social media but few understand the power behind the social networks and social interaction that are often difficult to measure but perhaps more valuable than a company, large or small, may realize.

If you own a small business or have started utilizing social media but not sure how to maximize the opportunity, please email me to have a discussion about how to create a ROII for your business.

Here's to your success,

Sally Witzky

Twitter: Building Businesses Tweet by Tweet - BusinessWeek

"Entrepreneurs are finding the fast-rising microblogging site to be a useful tool for reaching out to customers" ~ Business Week Small Biz Tech

As a marketing strategist and personal branding director for both small businesses and speakers/authors, I've found Twitter to be invaluable to my clients. Not by itself, but in conjunction with other social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, along with fresh content on their site and especially their blog(s).

If used correctly as part of a business owner's overall marketing strategy, Twitter can quickly and easily create awareness and consideration from those both outside and inside their target market with no media cost. There is still a cost, of course, in either time or paying someone like me to manage their social networks but it would be similar to paying for an ad to be created without paying for the media cost to run the ad on TV, radio or in print.

Twitter can be used (carefully) to drive qualified traffic to websites and blogs - and even make the phone ring. I've heard some pretty cool first-day stories. And it can support current online marketing efforts such as SEO, Google Adwords or banner ads in significant ways. If you're already committing marketing funds to those efforts as well as writing blog content, then Twitter with the social networks can put those efforts on steriods. You know, make the flywheel turn faster. Or get to the tipping point quicker.

Best of all, it helps businesses build relationships with current and prospective customers, as long as the business adds value along the way. The more value the company brings to the game, the higher the reward.

The businesses I work with who are using these tools effectively are quickly setting themselves apart from the competition and creating both their current and future success through relationships and referrals. Twitter is the new CRM tool and more. Business owners are getting attention and receiving opportunities they didn’t get before, because they are finding a way to let people know they are the go-to expert in their particular field by helping others in a very present, moment-to-moment world.

There are plenty of people who are getting on the social networking or twittering opportunity, making money from how-to seminars and getting everyone all hyped up, but very few who understand it from a branding and direct response perspective. Few who understand that the social network platforms (and there are many too numerous to mention) are simply new and inexpensive tools for customer acquisition, retention, lead generation, cross-sell, CRM and viral/WOM marketing.

If your "teacher" doesn't fully understand or can't speak deeply about those business and marketing strategies that have always been a staple to a company's success, then they're not the person who will help you build your brand and your business over multiple touch-points for the long-haul. Anyone can write a tweet but few who know how to write tweets and content that will pull customers in through the purchase sequence and keep them engaged for the long haul.

If you have any questions about Twitter or how to develop an effective social network strategy, call or email Sally Witzky, or find me twittering at http://twitter.com/sallywitzky. In the meantime, the Business Week article provided some interesting perspective on Twitter itself as a social networking/micro-blogging medium and the effect it has had for business.

New My Faves Blog

In case you haven't seen it yet, I have a new blog that is designed to record my recommendations and favorites of products, services, resources, affiliates and, well, anything else I think is cool.

Check out MyFavesList blog! Enjoy.

Testimonials & Referrals: The Power behind your Business

One must provide a great product or service to get referred and overdeliver on value add. And one must ASK for the referral which many biz owners haven't incorporated into their daily communications or routine and I think one has to remind people that you want to grow your customer base and/or take your business to the next level. Real estate professionals are awesome at asking.

For those people in a professional service business, you know that there are always those clients who love you so much that, as much as they want to see your business grow, they also don't want anything to take you away from servicing their account! So some of your best clients can be hesitant about giving referrals even though if they were asked for a testimonial would say unbelievable things about you. Besides that, giving a referral is just not top of mind for them -- they're usually busy running a business for themselves for which you're often one small part.

So it's important to ask those satisfied clients for a testimonial that you can use on an ongoing basis rather than expecting them to think about telling others about you whenever there is an opportunity to do so. Whether it is a recommendation they write for your LinkedIn page or a testimonial letter that you show to your prospective clients. Or take those same LinkedIn testimonials and place them on a page on your website (ask for permission) and direct traffic there. A testimonial page can be the most often-visited page on a website. Satisfied clients may be better utilized as testimonials and references than direct referral sources. BTW, you may have to offer to write the testimonial for them if they just don't have the time and that's ok too if you know them well enough.

Often referrals come from people who are not or not yet clients. In fact, most of my referrals right now are coming from people who just seem to be a raving fan from a previous business or working relationship, or even as a result of a conversation. Yesterday, I received a referral from someone I've never met who gets networking on LI and has the "givers gain" mentality. So you never know where referrals come from. Most of my referrals are as a result of my being active on the social networks (LI, FB, Twitter & Plaxo) and even though I work from home and have not attended many networking events, the phone is ringing. The point is that in order for people to refer you to others, they have to know who you are. If you are sitting back waiting for the phone to ring and your name is not in front of them on a consistent basis, they will think of others instead of you when they or someone they know has a need for your product or service.

One more thought. If you want more quality referrals, be the first to give quality referrals. I've provided some thoughts above, but this would be my #1 referral tip for empowering satisfied clients or raving fans.

Note: This content was written earlier today in response to a question on LinkedIn posed by Trina Willard of Transformation Systems Inc. - Leadership in Motion.

Your Twitter bio. Your brand in 160 characters.

Believe it or not, a 160-character bio can say a lot about you and your personal brand. Not only that, but it can either encourage or discourage people to follow you in a split second, which may mean that someone you want to follow you won't. And second chances don't come easily.

There are thousands of aspects of Twitter that I could write about but it seems people are not aware of how much impact this little bio can have. So I thought I'd share a few "Do's" and "Don't's" based on what I've observed.

How to create a great bio:

• Do take the time to draft your bio and not rush when filling out your profile. Suggest you write it in Word and use the word count (all characters) to make it fit. I believe it was T.S Eliot who said "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." It takes some time to write pithy. Be pithy.
• Do share with people what you do and/or what you like. Let them know who you are. People want to follow those for whom they share an affinity or find interesting. And you want people to follow you for a reason, not just because you happen to be on Twitter.
• Do be sure that you use the space. You can use all 160 characters although you don't have to. Keep in mind that if all you say is "I like turtles" then many people won't follow. Substance is always important, whether in the copy for your bio or tweets.
• Do take the time to edit, ensuring there are no typos and that no words are cut off at the end. I've had trouble with the length measurement when I thought the copy fit originally but later found the last word was cut off. So please check the copy a day or so later just to give it a good review with fresh eyes.

And here are some things to watch out for:

• Don't leave the bio space blank. People will often not follow the person who hasn't taken the time to write a few words about their own personal brand. Decisions about following get made very quickly and people often don't even go to your Twitter page to make their choice -- they just look at your photo and bio and either click "follow" or pass you by.
• Don't use the space to put in another URL; comes across too promotional. There's a separate field for the URL of either your main web site or blog and people will click there if they want to get to know you better or read your material.
• Don't use the space to write a "thank you for following me" message; that's what Replies or Direct Messages (DMs) are for.
• Don't try to sell within your bio. One basic rule of direct marketing is to sell the next step. The next step here is the initial step and there's a lot of relationship building that has to happen before you can start promoting your wares. It's way too early to sell in your bio. It's a turn off and all you're trying to achieve in your bio is establish a follower connection by quickly communicating your brand.

If you have any questions about how best to create your brand on the social networks, please add a comment here on this blog or tweet me at www.twitter.com/sallywitzky.

Why developing a personal brand is critical in this economy.

Ever since Tom Peters talked about the importance of “brand you” and long before, people have been developing their own personal brands. Whether its celebrity brands of Tiger Woods, Donald Trump or Richard Branson – or perhaps lesser known personal brands of a host of authors, coaches, dancers and songwriters, we know that there is a way to cash in on the success of a personal brand.

For years, actors and actresses have been building their own brands and then renting them out to the director of their next film. That’s what makes the cash registers at the box office ring. But the same approach can be utilized for anyone in the work place. Celebrity or “expert” status can be developed at even the local level by being a person who is well-connected, willing to teach and share, willing to be open.

Authors gain a unique position in the marketplace simply by writing and publishing their thoughts about their expertise or lessons learned. It seems an author can gain almost instant credibility and turn into a sought-after speaker just by getting a book published. Doesn’t even have to be a best seller. But if it does rank on the best-selling lists (which doesn’t always mean it’s a great book), then some level of celebrity status is sure to follow. Just think about J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books – a young, unwed mother determined to write. Or authors like Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield – who were turned down from 134 publishers until they finally found one who would take on the Chicken Soup for the Soul series – which is still going strong, 100 million books later.

Personal brands give a person leverage that didn’t exist before. Not only in the job market, but also in generating passive and residual income. A recording artist makes money each time his or her song is played on the radio or a CD is sold. Both recording artists and authors can make money when they sleep as books and CDs can be purchased from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble any time day or night, in any country around the world. Not a bad gig. Not everyone has the talent to be a recording artist, but as Bob Proctor says, everyone has a book in them. At least one, perhaps two – or perhaps many more.

But why should YOU work on building YOUR personal brand? I guess the answer to that question is “Why wouldn’t you?” Why wouldn’t you want to strive to be well known in some way? I do believe in the law of attraction but I also believe each of us must take some action in order to attract people, business, money and abundance to us. A personal brand can be started so easily with the use of the social networks that literally someone could be on their way to building their brand in a day. And with a little effort in the evenings – even while watching reruns of House – one could build an internet presence within just a few short weeks.

But certainly that’s not the full answer. Building your own personal brand is critical in this economy because it is like life insurance. It adds a certain level of protection for your income because many people are, for one reason or another, looking for jobs. Or they have jobs but the income isn’t enough to cover their expenses. Or they’re simply not satisfied with either the income they’re making now – or where they are in on their career path.

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend of mine – a very successful and well-educated individual – and he commented that there were points in his professional life that he felt like he has lost his momentum. The adventure in his career wasn’t always there. Have you ever felt like that? I know I have, many times. Many people fall into that same category – the category of “seekers.” Always wanting more. And knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that “more” is out there just around the corner. That they have the potential to do more, to have more and to, most importantly, be more. Can you relate to that?

During the holiday season, people begin planning for the New Year and make their resolutions. I hope that one of the resolutions you make for yourself will be to take your own personal brand to the next level. And then, do what Mark Victor Hansen suggests, “write a list of 101 goals in 20 minutes.” Be aggressive at what you want to achieve – more is possible than what we first believe. And let's not be afraid to define ourselves and share our beliefs, values and hope for the future.

My Web 2.0 status: Social networking, blogging and more

I'm definitely making progress on adopting Web 2.0. Slow, but moving forward.

I've chosen LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook as my social networks. I use all three because their purposes and applications are different -- and certain groups of my contacts tend to use only one or two of the three. Most of my business contacts use LinkedIn, many traditional network marketing folks use Plaxo (it's been around for a while and started as an online contact management system) and Facebook tends to be used by friends as well as non-traditional business people and entrepreneurs. I use the word "tend" because there are exceptions to all. For example, I have a few contacts that I thought for sure would be on LinkedIn but they're on Facebook instead. Go figure.

I use Twitter for micro-blogging, and added a list of my most recent tweets to my blog. Also use Ping.fm to help me with status updates so I can type it in once not thrice. My blog is registered with Technorati, BlogCatalog and the local RVABlogs, and I've figured out how to ping those sites when I have a new post -- still working on making all the pings automatic, though. And of course, my Blackberry helps me manage the posts and notification emails -- still working on updating my mobile applications -- apparently I need an app called Twitterberry.

Being on the social networks and writing my own blog helps me to much more fully understand the idea that email will be used in a more limited fashion. Connecting with people -- for individuals and businesses -- doesn't happen as much in email. Interaction, and lots of it, takes place on the SN's and Twitter, even for businesses like Starbucks and news magazines. But not everyone is up-to-speed on all this yet -- not even as far a long as I am and I feel pretty behind the times compared to many -- so email will be used for quite some time. Especially for outbound email to your social network contacts, using online software programs such as Emma, Vertical Response or Constant Contact. Customer Relationship Management or CRM as we marketers refer to definitely just got a complete makeover.

I admit I didn't "get" Twitter at first but once I started following some cool people with cool things to say in one or two lines of copy, I realized how fast I could keep abreast of new technology, social networking, relevant links, blogcasts, and news. I can keep up with people that I may never have a chance to meet, like Lance Armstrong or Steve Jobs. And a quick glance at the tweets and that's all that's necessary. My blog is now linked to my social networks so the latest posts appear on my LinkedIn profile, Plaxo and Facebook. Rather than always trying to get people to my blog, there are more ways to bring my blog to them.

LinkedIn has added several new applications which make that social network more robust and interesting although I think they will have to smooth some things out a bit. I added the Amazon read list to my LI profile but what I don't like about it and is different than the widget that appears on my blog is that it doesn't get hooked into Amazon's affiliate marketing program. So I may drop the LI application for that purpose as I seem to be loading in my favorite read list twice. So the only benefit is keeping my name out there because every time I add a book to my LI Amazon read list, it generates that notice for my connections.

LinkedIn also added TripIt so that when I plan a trip to Denver, I can see all the people who live or will be in Denver when I visit there which certainly helps to plan for an effective trip. Great application for sales professionals or to meet up with colleagues at association conferences. I also added Bloglink to my LI profile which not only incorporates my blog for others to see on my profile, but lists all the blogs of my connections for me to see. Because I have so many connections, though, the latter takes forever to load and seems to defeat the purpose. Again, I think LI has to smooth out this app to make it beneficial and helpful.

As for blogs... someone mentioned to me recently that she heard a brand marketing speaker say that blogs are dead. That speaker is short-sighted, in my opinion. While I do agree that you can use social networks and micro-blogging to gain awareness and brand recognition, clients still want to know how you think and what your perspective is on certain issues so that they can choose to identify, agree, disagree, contrast, etc. You have to do things to put the Law of Attraction to work -- know what I mean?!

In addition, if you're interested in earning residual / passive income by using Google ads on your website or blog, you won't get any traffic nor ad clicks if you don't continue to post relevant blog content. Lastly, as I mentioned in a previous post, blogging forces the author to write content in short blurbs (well, long in my case) that can then be used later for online articles, ebooks and books -- all things that can earn the author some online cash. So if you have goals to earn money while you sleep, then blogging is still the way to do that.

While I've come a long way in adopting Web 2.0, I still have many other goals to meet. But I've got a good foundation and platform set for future branding and marketing. And that's worth a lot.