In the b-to-b world, sometimes we get into debates with clients about whether social media will have a lasting impact and should be included in the marketing mix, or whether it’s a passing fad. The debate’s over. The commander of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan decided to re-position the ship away farther off the coast of Japan, due to radiation concerns. How did he tell the world of his decision? He posted it on the ship’s Facebook page!
Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category
It’s Official: No Doubt Any Longer That Social Media Is Here to Stay
Monday, March 14th, 2011Tags: Social Media
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Facebook Advertising Now at Work for B-to-B
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011The debate over whether Facebook is an appropriate environment for b-to-b marketers has been largely settled. With 2000 new people each week joining the IEEE (Institute for Electrical/Electronic Engineers) Facebook page (now totaling 106,000), many technology and business-related organizations are finding that Facebook serves as an ideal platform for building connections and minimizing the space between customers and companies. We saw this recently with one client, which promoted its popular tutorial handbook via the relatively new medium of Facebook advertising. Handbooks have long been the “home run” in lead generation in traditional and other web venues; will they have the same draw in a social media environment? The answer for us was immediate and definitive, with 100 handbook requests generated within two weeks after the ad’s launch.
Tags: B-to-B, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, IEEE
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Press Tours Go Social
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010Trade magazines are applying new ways of thinking throughout their business, and that extends even to the tried-and-true press tour. On a recent agency tour through the electronics and manufacturing media, we met one group of editors who now call themselves “Content Managers.” We think that’s the right approach, as we’re all in the “content distribution” business today. An article we would have once written just for publication in a magazine now is destined to be re-purposed as content for a wide variety of end uses — as a webcast, a white paper, a blog post, even content directed to Wikipedia.
Other interesting changes: one editor took pictures of the presenters on his cell phone to post to the magazine’s Facebook page; another asked if the presentation could be recorded on video.
Tags: press tours, Social Media
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FTC Rules for Social Media!
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010The blog world is filled with horror stories of bloggers endorsing products, only to be exposed later on as a paid-endorser. Not exactly the positive coverage companies originally intended to create. In fact, the practice became so widespread the FTC stepped in last year with rules to govern any blog, Twitter or other social media posts you make in support of a product or service:
- Disclose when you are being compensated–whether you are being paid for the endorsement and/or have been given a free sample of the product (traditionally known as “not-for-resale” copies).
- Be truthful in your statements…and make sure they can be substantiated.
- Speak from actual experience–meaning you can’t just regurgitate the sponsor’s marketing speak if it isn’t an actual experience, opinion, or belief of your own.
And the fine for not doing so? $11,000 big ones.
Tags: blogs, FTC, Social Media
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SEO Trend: Getting Dominant “Share of Page”
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010Tags: seo, Share of Page
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Social Media Boosts PR
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010We’ve long seen the impact that social media has on pushing traffic to client web sites. Recently, we saw a great example for how it extends to media relations. After I posted a note about a new webcast for client LXI Consortium, an editor at one of the industry’s Tier 1 publications, who follows the client’s Twitter feed, contacted LXI for permission to publish an article on the new web content. To read more about social media for b-to-b companies, read our white paper.
Tags: PR, Social Media
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Facebook Privacy Change Affects Progressive Lawyers
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009A random lawyer I know (she wouldn’t let me use her name) complains that the new privacy changes at Facebook are hampering her ability to do legal research. Facebook is changing their security restrictions so you show only friends or friends of friends, rather than providing everyone with access to your content. Actually, I had no idea Facebook even comes into play for legal research, but she says she routinely uses Facebook to dig up damaging facts about opposing clients in her cases. If a client is hiding, believe it or not, they often list their home addresses right on their Facebook profile! Or, they post pictures of themselves they shouldn’t, such as smoking pot with their kids in the room (always good fodder for those custody cases!). We’ve all heard stories about how HR and business execs peruse Facebook before hiring people; it seems its impact is being felt into new areas such as legal investigations. Who would have thought?
Tags: Facebook, Social Media
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Is Twitter primarily a US-based phenomena?
Thursday, October 15th, 2009One of our clients asked recently if Twitter is primarily a US-based phenomena, or if it matched the Internet’s general ability to reach international audiences. In fact, this recent article found by Cyndi Friedel in our office shows that more than half of Twitter traffic comes from outside the U. S. Interesting reading.
Tags: Social Media, twitter
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Sorry, B2B marketers: Facebook is not ready for you yet.
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009Last week I went to an event and heard the Director of Sales for Facebook in the Midwest. He was surprisingly candid about the prospects of using Facebook about business-to-business marketing. He showed us eye-popping results from national retailers and consumer companies who advertise on Facebook, but for B2B he said the story was different. The best he could say is that it’s “tricky.”
Tags: B2B, Facebook, Social Media
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Great article from NY Times showing financial tie in to social media
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009View article: http://tinyurl.com/ntrt49
Tags: Joel Goldstein, Social Media
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