But if you read through his post, it seems clear that he actually thinks that social media activity is important, he just doesn’t like the way it’s often done: he doesn’t like when marketers aren’t transparent, are irrelevant, can’t write, and don’t know their customer. Oh, and he also thinks marketers shouldn’t forget about the end goal of making money while engaged in all the social media coolness. Well, anyone who conducts marketing activities like that is not only a poor social media marketer; they are a terrible marketing professional and should find another profession. ASAP.

So let’s assume that most people involved in social media marketing on a professional level have half a brain and understand the basics of marketing: if the goal of marketing is to make money, is social media the way to go? Studies repeatedly show that the online marketing activities with the best ROI are search engine optimization (SEO) and email marketing. Social media comes in way after them. So how is the social media frenzy justified?

Here’s how:

Social Media is the new Website

It is hard to prove that websites make money for companies. I don’t mean ecommerce sites, but sites that say who the company is, what they do, etc. Yes, these types of websites can be optimized for conversions, but in many cases they’re not. And even if they are, do the few clients who were directly and measurably converted by the website (i.e. they contacted the company via a form on the site and eventually became a customer) justify the costs of maintaining a good corporate site? The answer is yes: websites are important, and it’s accepted that every company and organization needs one. The reason for that is that it serves an important supportive role in sales – it’s an important stage that potential customers go through to assess whether a company is right for them. Social media marketing is approaching that same level – an important supportive element in marketing and sales, that potential customers, and existing customers, seek out.

Social Media Makes SEO and Email Marketing Better

Social media activity is increasingly being shown to be an important signal in a site’s ranking; it can also be a relatively large source of traffic to a site (which is generally the goal of SEO – to increase traffic to a site). Social media “outposts” can also help you increase your email marketing mailing list by encouraging people to sign up, and sharing past newsletters.

Social Media is the New “New”

Social media marketing is so new, and changing all the time (thanks facebook), that it’s impossible to know where it’s headed and what the potential really is. The only way to find out is to test, and then test some more. Like in every other area of online marketing, discovering new opportunities demands a few brave souls who are willing to risk their marketing budget and take the plunge. They’re definitely not idiots: they’re trailblazers. They should be applauded, not ridiculed. This is a necessary part of innovation.

Social media is not just a cool new toy – it’s a new and important part of the web. And people who understand it – as part of the online marketing mix – will be hired.

Related posts:

1. Blogging and social media for marketing and creating videos – presentations from Techshoret About a month ago I spoke at the Techshoret Conference...
2. What social media marketing is NOT – my presentation at Affilicon 2009 For the second year running I had the opportunity to...
3. GM expands social media marketing strategy…and sees sales up GM is one of the few automobile giants who has...

Well, today I decided to test my luck, and StumbleUpon showed me this cartoon, which really spoke to me because I grew up with Cookie Monster, and now I deal with big-people cookies.

Oh, Cookie Monster, you are so…consistent.

What do we learn from this (since everything must have a purpose):

1. Social media can be fun.
2. Social media can be a huge time waster, so be careful.
3. If you use StumbleUpon enough, and/or you write good blog posts that others will want to “Stumble,” you too can enjoy surprise visitors and increased traffic to your site.

More information on using StumbleUpon:

Getting Started with Stumbleupon – from StumbleUpon

A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website – from the amazing Dosh Dosh

Related posts:

1. My 4 step (ok, 16 step) social media strategy There are so many social media sites and tools out...

Techshoret holds an annual conference in Jerusalem, and I was invited to speak on the topic of Blogging and Social Media as Marketing Tools for Hi-Tech Companies since they decided to add some non-technical writing lectures to the mix.

My lecture covered case studies of businesses and their successes and failures in the blogosphere, and how the world of marketing is changing to the point where blogs and social media are a necessary part of today’s marketing strategy.

I promised the participants that I would upload my presentation, and here it is (finally)!

Hollywood on a Shoestring Budget

I am also including the great presentation given by Benjy Caplan who works at ECI Telecom. Benjy spoke about how to create great videos without being a professional videographer. His presentation was interesting because he explained how his company uses video as part of their user manuals. I think this is brilliant, because so many Israeli companies have overseas customers who don’t really speak English, and the best way to communicate in that situation is visually. In addition, his company saves the costs of sending technicians overseas to help clients by sending them help videos instead.

Benjy gave us one real example of how his company used a video to help clients in India install one of their products. The clients sent ECI a picture of their installation, which was a jumble of wires. Instead of sending technicians over to fix things up, Benjy produced an Oscar-worthy video with step-by-step visual instructions of where to put which wire.

With so many Israeli companies exporting overseas, I think many should learn from Benjy’s example and save themselves a lot of time and money by adding videos to their customer support services.

Enjoy!

| View | Upload your own

| View | Upload your own

Related posts:

1. Getting started with blogging and social media People are always asking for background information on why and...
2. New! Course on Social Media Marketing for businesses After a long break I’ll be giving a course on...
3. Announcing Corporate Blogging and Social Media Seminar in Jerusalem I’m excited to announce the launch of a new course...

Bill Gates

Before the changes were made, having a LinkedIn profile was like being at a party where everyone was deaf and mute. You could wave at people and/or shake hands (i.e. create and view connections), but aside from moderate signing (“I recommend you,” “Will you be my friend?”), nothing much happened. You couldn’t see your friends’ activity, the groups feature was weak-to-non-existent, and communication was sparse. The open bar (free membership) could only keep people interested for so long.

Now, LinkedIn has added a lot of the features that people look for in social networking sites, thanks to the innovations made by facebook in this area. As a result, LinkedIn is now a full-fledged social networking site, with all the goodies that can make it fun…I mean a good tool for developing productive business relationships.

Here’s an overview of the new features and design:

A more usable interface

With two simple menu bars, one horizontal and one vertical, the LinkedIn user can now reach all the information and participate in all the social activities with ease. You can find people, jobs, ask and answer questions, and find and recommend service providers on the top menu bar. On the sidebar, you can manage your profile, contacts, Inbox – which has many more features (see below), and groups.

Network Statistics

This page is under Contacts on the vertical sidebar, and gives you an overview of your network. You can see your first degree, second degree and third degree connections, where your network is located, which networks you have access to, and more. This information is cute, but not really useful. For example, my Network Statistics page told me that my connections are in 23 industries, but my network gives me access to 147 additional industries, such as…Ranching. If I ever buy a farm, I’ll know where to turn.

Better organized Inbox

Your Inbox is now organized according to sub-topics. The most interesting and useful ones in my opinion are Introductions, Invitations, Profiles, Q&A and Recommendations. Introductions is a way for people to get introduced to people they’re not connected to on LinkedIn via that person’s direct connections. Invitations is where requests to connect appear. Profiles enables people to send other people profiles of people they think they’d be interested in. Q&A allows you to organize and track your questions and answers, and Recommendations is a place to see who has recommended you, and easily recommend them in return.

Network Updates let you see what your network is up to

The new Network Updates that appear on your home page allow you to see what your network has been doing lately, like who has added new contacts, joined new groups, changed their profile picture, etc. This is very similar to the facebook news feed that we all love.

Status

You can now have a status in LinkedIn! This is like the facebook status, and is a way for all your connections to see what you’re up to. This can be a very powerful way to passively announce new business developments, requests for meetings, and other notifications. I just hope there’s some way to eventually import my twitter updates automatically like I do for facebook so that I can update everything at the same time. Also, it’s pretty annoying now that every status automatically starts with the user’s first name, not even “Miriam is,” so the status doesn’t make sense unless you make sure your status starts with a verb like “is” or “thinks.”

LinkedIn emerges as the true business networking site

Until now, I and many other people were using facebook for business. Thanks to facebook’s news feed, events, status, posts, and more facebook is a great way to communicate and connect with business associates. The drawback to using facebook for business is that it’s not intended for business. On facebook, my “friends” include family (even my Dad is on facebook), old school friends, and other friends, along with business connections. That means that it’s hard to strike the balance between a profile that is both professional and personal. For example, I’ve hesitated to post photos and news about my kids and family on facebook because I don’t want my non-personal “friends” to see that kind of stuff.

In short, LinkedIn has just moved up a notch in the social networking world. Based on what I find useful in facebook for business, I’d like to see LinkedIn eventually add the following features:

• Importing blog posts and other feeds - my blogs are an important parts of my business communications, and I’m sure that’s the case with many other people. I would want my connections to be able to see my new posts as they are published, as well as my activity on other social media sites. Plaxo Pulse got this right with their ability to add unlimited feeds of your activity around the web. With our web identities becoming increasingly fragmented as we participate in myriads of sites, the ability to unify it all in one place for business could be very useful.
• Events - The option to add business events, and RSVP so that others can see if you’re attending could help people publicize events to a broad audience, and connect to people they’re interested in meeting. If done properly, LinkedIn could potentially take over all business events from Meetup.com.
• Photos and videos - I love seeing pictures from events, whether I’ve attended them or not. Videos from events, as well as business related videos could provide useful content to my network.
• Documents - Here’s where LinkedIn could stand out in the business networking world: documents are an integral part of running a business. If there was a document sharing area of LinkedIn, people could share and recommend templates for contracts, MOUs, NDA, letters, emails, invoices, work orders, and more. In addition, authors could share their e-books or articles on business topics.

LinkedIn has come a long way, but it has a lot of potential beyond adapting facebook’s features in a business setting. facebook succeeded by thinking outside of the box, and I’m sure there are ways that LinkedIn could become a leading business networking site in ways beyond copying facebook.

Oh wait, is that a question for me from Bill Gates? Bill, I’m flattered, really.

So what’re you waiting for? Connect with me on LinkedIn!

Related posts:

1. Did you know that you can follow people on LinkedIn? I was recently looking at a post on LinkedIn, and...
2. Facebooking for business Facebook is on everybody’s minds these days (or blogs). It’s...
3. My 4 step (ok, 16 step) social media strategy There are so many social media sites and tools out...

GM is one of the few automobile giants who has enthusiastically adopted social media as part of their marketing strategy. And now GM sales are reported to be up, while other auto companies like Ford and Toyota are reporting drops in sales. Is there a connection?

First GM blog launched in 2005

General Motors was an early adopter of blogging and social media with their first blog, Fastlane, launched in January 2005. The goals of the blog were to:

• Develop a fast way to reach out to and hear from customers, and attract significant web traffic.
• Help GM overcome its lumbering-dinosaur image, and close the gap between customers’ outdated perceptions of GM quality and the improving quality of new cars and trucks.
• Attract other blogs and web sites to link to the FastLane blog

(source: Council of Public Relations Firms )

Fastlane is written by none other than GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, making GM the first major corporation to feature posts from a senior executive.

Wait a second; am I saying that GM, the old clunky American auto company is actually progressive? Until recently nobody would call GM trendy, but that perception is changing, and it could have a lot to do with the direction communication channels they have with their community.

Second GM Community Site launched 2008

Recently GM launched its second major social media initiative, a new website called GMNext. The GMNext blog is built on the WordPress Open Source blogging platform, and users can collaborate on the site by uploading photos, videos, and more. Here’s how GM presents this new site:

Over the next year, General Motors will celebrate the start of its second century through GMnext, a dialogue-based campaign that engages people via social media and interactive experiences. As a platform to showcase GM’s commitment to transportation solutions employing technologies that are relevant to consumer needs, GMnext will demonstrate our focus on solutions to the challenges that will shape the future of transportation.

Aren’t they just wasting their time?

Why would a global corporation like GM “waste” it’s time with social media? After all, social media is very difficult to calculate direct ROI for, and the big guys like to see concrete results that they can measure on paper for their investments. Well, here’s a list of the benefits GM gets from their social media marketing strategy:

1. Bob Lutz says he receives better consumer intelligence from reading the comments on his blog than those from traditional market research channels, like surveys and focus groups.
2. Forrester compared the results of GM’s Fastlane blog to those of a focus group, and since a focus group costs about $15,000 a month, which works out to $180,000 each year, GM has achieved similar results via their blog, and saved itself $180,000 in cash per year.
3. Creating a sense of cooperation and interest in clients and the community. Beth Lowery, GM’s environmental and technology officer, said that GM is trying to engage their customers one car at a time. Internet experience and excitement is created from the driving experience.
4. Transparency: The company is also much more transparent about its design process, making its challenges and hopes open. Lowery says transparency is engaging suppliers and customers alike, bringing them into the process. (From Social Media Explorer)
5. Increases chances of reaching younger buyers:

Automotive analysts said the strategy of involving customers and potential customers in the online forum is a smart move, particularly for reaching younger buyers.

“If they’re going to grow their market share, they’re going to need to bring in the younger buyers, who are buying imports because their parents bought imports,” said Joseph Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting. “This is a big step in the right direction.” (From freep.com)

6. Profit? Increase of 2.6% in sales compared with January last year.

GM’s social media strategy is working because they are creating an entire user experience, both on and off the web, and are not depending solely on their online presence. They are making efforts to ensure that their cars match the online experience they describe, and that excited GM owners can join the growing GM community.

Ford succeeds…and then fail at social media

One other auto company that is jumping on the social media bandwagon, albeit more slowly and a little shakily, is Ford. Ford recently released their first social media release. A social media release is an evolving structure that is aimed at becoming the modern answer to the ancient format of the conventional press release. It includes “social” elements that are updated, and that users can break apart and use as they see fit, such as flickr photos, de.licio.us tags, etc.

Unfortunately, a few weeks later Ford’s lawyers did a very unsocial thing and stopped some of their most exuberant fans from printing up a fan calendar with photos of their own Ford cars in it.

“The folks at BMC (Black Mustang Club) automotive forum wanted to put together a calendar featuring members’ cars, and print it through CafePress. Photos were submitted, the layout was set, and… CafePress notifies the site admin that pictures of Ford cars cannot be printed. Not just Ford logos, not just Mustang logos, the car -as a whole- is a Ford trademark and its image can’t be reproduced without permission. So even though Ford has a lineup of enthusiasts who want to show off their Ford cars, the company is bent on alienating them. ‘Them’ being some of the most loyal owners and future buyers that they have. Or rather, that they had, because many have decided that they will not be doing business with Ford again if this matter isn’t resolved.” (From BoingBoing – read more there)

As Todd Defren over at PRSquared put it, “Ford pulled the spark-plug right outta their hearts.”

“It’s not as if the BMC effort was draining revenue from Ford’s coffers,” he continues. “If anything, any revenues resulting from calendar sales would help sustain a Ford Fan Club!”

The struggle of the social revolution

GM and Ford are interesting examples since they are from industries that are traditionally not considered hi-tech. They are also examples of big corporations trying to get a grasp of the new reality of social media. GM, as an early adopter, seems to have understood early on that the traditional control over the customer that they were used to is slipping out of their hands. Instead of resisting, they more or less embraced the new medium and reached out to their customers, and I think we can see real results in their sales reports.

Ford is trying to join the new web, but the above incident with the over-zealous lawyers is a speed-bump of an attempt to retain control. They’ll get the hang of it, and it will be interesting to see how other businesses, both big and small, add social media to their marketing basket.

(I recently experienced a Ford-like episode with a pretty big company that produces one of the world’s most successful Open Source platforms. You can read about it and the resulting comments here.)

Update March 20, 2008: GM announces that it will dedicate half of its $3 billion budget to digital and one-to-one marketing in the next three years. GM will invest in several online methods including gaming, search, mobile and a broad array of interactive applications. See this article for more information.

Related posts:

1. Blogging and social media for marketing and creating videos – presentations from Techshoret About a month ago I spoke at the Techshoret Conference...
2. A quick-start guide to social media marketing Have you ever wanted to follow what’s being said about...
3. What social media marketing is NOT – my presentation at Affilicon 2009 For the second year running I had the opportunity to...

SphinnCon Israel is sold out! SphinnCon Israel is a SphinnCon networking event focused on search and internet marketing, and is taking place this coming Tuesday, February 5 at the Jerusalem College of Technology (also known as Machon Lev). This event is exciting thanks to the incredible lineup, with representatives from well-known international companies like Google, TechCrunch, Kenshoo and Yedda (see my previous interview with Yedda’s Lior Haner, who will be speaking at the conference), and thanks to the location: Jerusalem! For once I don’t have to schlep to Tel Aviv for a great event, and I am thrilled.

There are also some really interesting reps from lesser-known but really professional Israeli companies: Tzvika Avnery will be there from Tagadam; Tzvika is a pro in the social media sphere and his company develops apps for social networks, among other things. Eli Feldblum from RankAbove will be there too; Eli is actually pretty well-known in the SEO world for his expertise, and his company services clients from all over the world. I’m mentioning these guys because I know them, but I hope I’ll get to meet the others on the panels too.

The main guy behind the whole thing is Barry Schwartz, the Executive Editor at Search Engine Roundtable, and President of RustyBrick, “a Web services firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales.”

Here is the speaker list as from Barry’s latest post on the event at Search Engine Roundtable:

SEO Panel

• Branko Rihtman, SEO Specialist at Tens Technology (Presenter)
• Ophir Cohen, CEO of Compucall
• Sam Michelson, CEO of Five Blocks
• Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at Nekuda.co.il

PPC Panel

• Avi Wilensky, CEO of Promedia Corp (Presenter)
• Itai Levitan, Managing Partner at EasyNet
• Alon Sheafer, Founder of Kenshoo
• Tal Cohen, Finance and Technology Industry Manager at Google Israel
• Michael G. Samet, Ph.D., CEO, Referral Technology, Inc.

Social Panel

• Eli Feldblum, CEO of RankAbove (Presenter)
• Tzvika Avnery, Partner at Tagadam
• Roi Carthy, TechCrunch
• Lior Haner, Yedda

Cool, eh?

Here’s what’s not cool: not a woman in sight on the speaker list. Not one. It’s a celebration of testosterone. I’m not against testosterone, but it would be nice if it was toned down a bit by at least one representative from the other 51% of the human race. And it’s not like there aren’t impressive women in the industry: how about Tamar Weinberg, who works at Rusty Brick and writes the amazing Techipedia blog? Or Tzvika Avnery’s partner at Tagadam, Orly Izhaki, who has a really impressive background in web-related ventures, and writes at smo.co.il (Hebrew)? Don’t tell me they were unavailable as an excuse. I’m sure there’s at least one woman in the web industry who could have been available.

Anyways, I’m really looking forward to this event, and I’ll hopefully fill you all in on how it goes. If they have internet access, I may even Twitter and live-blog the event like a good lil’ social media geek should.

Related posts:

1. SphinnCon search marketing conference coming back to Israel SphinnCon is coming back to Israel on January 9, 2011,...
2. SphinnCon Israel summary…more to come later As I wrote a few days ago, SphinnCon came to...
3. SphinnCon Israel review part 1: Barry Schwartz’s introduction I know this is way overdue, but I actually have...

We at illuminea try to encourage our clients to incorporate blogs into their websites since, in our opinion (and in the opinion of many others), the typical corporate website is not as effective as it could be. With content that rarely changes, and little to no engagement with clients and potential clients, traditional corporate websites are little more than online brochures, and do not utilize the power of the medium on which it sits: the web.

Jeremiah Owyang, a Web Strategist with Forrester, wrote a great article on the topic called “The Irrelevant Corporate Website,” explaining why the typical corporate website is increasingly irrelevant in today’s age of fresh new content and cooperation with consumers.

The article was so groundbreaking that it’s been translated into many languages, most recently Hebrew. Omer Rosen did the translation.

Related posts:

1. Spam-fighting Israeli company Commtouch launches new corporate blog Commtouch, one of the world’s leading email spam fighters, has...
2. If you build it (your website), they will come A friend is currently enrolled in the MATI Small Business...
3. Announcing Corporate Blogging and Social Media Seminar in Jerusalem I’m excited to announce the launch of a new course...

Burger King has hit viral video payday with their new Whopper Freakout viral video. In the video, customers at Burger King in Las Vegas are told that the Whopper has been discontinued. They are shocked and even outraged, or as the website puts it – they “freaked out.”Viral video success is basically about getting lots of people to talk about your thing, whatever it is. In this case, Burger King has succeeded since their videos on YouTube have been viewed thousands of times, and many people, myself now included, have written about their stunt.However, it’s one thing to get people to talk about your viral thing; it’s another to leave them with a good taste in their mouth (no pun intended!). I personally found this video hard to watch and offensive, but I’ve never been a fan of blooper-type videos where we all get to laugh at the expense of someone else. I personally think this video’s success is precisely because it allows the viewer to feel so smart that he or she knows the truth, while the person in the video is the butt of a good joke, and I’m not sure that this is the most effective way to achieve viral fame.But maybe it is. And anyways, there is one really good marketing lesson here that was pointed out by Easy Street Marketing: If you want to create buzz for your product, don’t let anyone have it.Robert Gorell at Future Now says that the Whopper Freakout was one the best TV + Web viral campaigns for the following reasons:

• The reactions.
• It’s “flame broiled,” not fried.
• The Whopper isn’t a new product or promotion.
• The King is a man of few words; he’s a prankster, but ultimately, he saves the day.
• A short TV commercial serves as a teaser, while the real payoff happens online.
• Their custom video player is grainy, making it feel voyeuristic and, somehow, more trustworthy.
• Even though they built their own site, they still put it on YouTube.
• It’s brilliantly filmed and choreographed.
• You can share it (email it, embed it).
• They didn’t have to do it.
• They did it.
• Unless you’re vegan, it kinda makes you crave a Whopper.
• “From what I understand, they were too popular.”
• It’s actually not a ridiculous stunt, unlike this.

In any case, it’s an interesting study in viral marketing, and the efforts by big corporations to spread the word via the web and with social media.

Read an interview with the video’s director Henry-Alex Rubin to get a look at the inside story, and how they set the whole thing up.

And of course, in the tradition of all things viral, here is yet another embedded instance of the video:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=mMOPj6-4nDU[/youtube]

Related posts:

1. Video for Yom Haatzmaut about barbecuing Last year my dad took a classic photo of a...
2. SphinnCon Israel review part 1: Barry Schwartz’s introduction I know this is way overdue, but I actually have...
3. Lessons from the decline of Yahoo! [VIDEO and INFOGRAPHIC] Yahoo! is the company that brought us web search, and...

One of the blessed results of this loss of control is that ads are becoming more and more entertaining. Take this ad from about a year ago:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pewILmqHZ3I[/youtube]

The following ad takes advertising to a whole new level: Martin Scorsese has created an ad for Freixenet, the Spanish winemaker, that makes advertising an art form. If you are a Hitchcock fan, this little movie is a treat. The cinematography, the colors, the music, the references to Hitchcock movies…it’s just plain fun.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5nAxzH4OPs[/youtube]

If this is what ads are going to become, I’ll be happy to watch them!

Update Dec. 17, 2007: BusinessWeek published the best ads of 2007, and they really are great. Take a look.

Related posts:

1. Online marketers make fake ads look like real news – sometimes too successfully More and more studies are showing that internet users do...
2. Facebook Ads can’t estimate reach for Pages with Hebrew or Arabic in the title Someone recently asked a question on the Digital Eve Israel...
3. Burger King kills the Whopper to feed its viral video stunt Burger King has hit viral video payday with their new...