Get Ready For Change! Find Out What’s Next!

There are two constants I can safely predict:

1. How we gather content will continue to change, and

2. How we distribute content will continue to change.

If you think the world is just about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube you have only to look at Pinterest. 

The world is about social relationships, community, listening and responding to customers, and sharing. Technologies are changing rapidly and so are platforms. To be an effective marketer in this environment you need to do a couple of smart things:

1. Know your customer. And that doesn’t just mean reading data and research reports. It means seeing, watching, listening, and understanding the behavior of your customers.

2. Why you are in business. Every business markets the “What we do,” and “How we do it.” Why do you do it? This concept is shared by Simon Sinek.  He says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” This is what put Apple on the map and separated Apple from everyone else.

3.  Create Compelling Content: In this day and age, people want interesting, relevant content, not marketing speak. Become a great storyteller. Hire great writers and storytellers, not people who bang out traditional news releases and marketing blah, blah, blah speak. It’s about creating a great story that engages your customers.

Understand that the way we view content is dramatically changing. This IS the mobile and screen revolution. 

Samsung Electronics has a portfolio of products that cover multiple screens — televisions, smartphones, tablets, and computers. They have a unique perspective as both a manufacturer and major advertiser. Ralph Santana discussed the company’s multiple screen strategy including innovation with unconventional marketing and how Samsung will activate its 2012 Olympic sponsorship.

(c) Joseph Barnes Digital3000.net
digital3000.net 

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Here’s Why We ARE in a Mobile Revolution!

Business Insider is out with a very interesting presentation which is an important read. The bottom line is stats are staggering about the mobile revolution.

Here are just a few examples:

• Sales of tablets alone should pass sales of PC’s in 2-3 years.
• Angry Birds has 600-million downloads.
• The app “Draw Something” launched in February of this year. 
• It’s now the #1 app in 79 countries, has been downloaded 20-million times and generates $100K in revenue a day.

It took AOL 9 years to get one million users.

It took Facebook 9-months.

It took Draw Something 9-days to get one million users!

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Infographic: Twitter 2012!!

Infographic Labs is out with a new look at Twitter and the numbers are staggering!

Twitter 2012:

• 175-million tweets a day!
• 465-million accounts.
• The top three users with the most followers: Lady GaGa (19.3-million), Justin Bieber (17.5-million), and Katy Perry (15.1-million)

Here’s the key—When asked, “What makes you retweet?”

•  92% Interesting content.
• 84% Personal Connection.
• 66% Humor

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Social Media Surges As Skepticism Rises!

There are some exciting and shocking findings in the nee 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer just released.

The first big finding: “In the wake of a recession that saw large, global companies such as Lehman Brothers, General Motors, and AIG collapse, trust in business imploded.” The public has lost confidence. 

The report shows that “people now trust one another more than they do established institutions.”
This is huge. It’s big in this political year but also big because it dovetails with the text big finding.

“Social media saw the biggest percentage increase (75 percent) in trust among media sources.”  

The report goes on to say, “As government officials and CEOs become less a source of trusted information, people are once again turning to their peers. “A person like me” has re-emerged as one of the three-most credible spokespeople, with its biggest increase in credibility since 2004.”
 
This report continues to back up what I have been predicting for several years: As a marketer you are in the content business. It is about gathering real stories from people affected by your business or organization. As Andy Sernovitz would say, unless your next ad is “remarkable,” that is people will talk about it and take action, don’t run another ad until it is.

Click here to download the Executive Summary.

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Social Media Trends to Watch in 2012!

David Armano of Edelman Digital is one of the smart minds. His insights are worth noting. He has just come out with six social media predictions for 2012 on Harvard Business Review blog:

1. Convergence Emergence – social goes transmedia; social OOH (out-of-home -aka interactive posters/billboards) and social POS (socially connected point of sale)
2. The Cult of Influence – measuring, harnessing and exploiting social influence – Klout is just the beginning
3. Gamification Nation – increasing social app appeal with game techniques breaks out of consumer-ville and into professional and public applications
4. Social Sharing – from frictionless (automatic) sharing to elective sharing, we’ll be sharing more of what we do with the world
5. Social Television – second screen social interaction around TV; Twitter voting/feedback and TV check-in apps like Get Glue are just the start
6. The Micro Economy – peer-to-peer marketplaces, open-outsourcing (crowdsourcing) contests to flourish in an economy where efficiency rules

I believe two big ones you can move on right now are #2 and and #5.

The Cult of Influence: Use every employee as an ambassador, have a formal word of mouth marketing program using the 5T’s from Andy Sernovitz, leverage your Facebook page to demonstrate brand understanding, and by all means use your Facebook page to create a two way dialogue with your stakeholders. Need help? We can help you do this. joe@digital3000.net.

Social Television: All marketers are in the the content business from this day forward. It’s not about news releases and traditional advertising, it’s about telling compelling stories that readers and viewers want to engage in. You want them to want more. We now have TV sets being made with the Internet built in. The day is coming soon when the TV set search engine will scan for TV programs, web stories, social media, etc., and viewers will land on what’s interesting –— not what they do now—pick the least objectionable show.
(c) Joe Barnes www.Digital3000.net

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Three Important Facebook Sites You Should Visit!

Whether you think you know everything there is about Facebook or not, there are three important sites that offer some great insights. Some ideas come from the team at Facebook and some come from Facebook users themselves.

#1: www.Facebook.com/marketing: This Page is run by Facebook employees. There are good stories about how businesses are using Facebook for marketing campaigns.

#2: www.facebook.com/pr: This site has some of the best practices and conversations showing how businesses and organizations are using Facebook for Public Relations.

#3: Facebook Videos: This site has very helpful videos providing advice and tips on using Facebook for marketing.

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Coca-Cola Campaign Gives Us Hope in People!

There’s a wonderful Coca-Cola campaign that gives us reasons to still believe in people and a better world! It’s the Rivalry Wallet campaign. 

The story goes like this: A wallet is put on the floor in Portugal’s Benfica Soccer club MegaStore, the wallet has a rival club’s ticket inside and it’s just days before a big match. What would you do?

Amazingly 95% of the people returned the wallet. They were given a ticket to the game and were honored on the big jumbo tron. 

Watch the video, you’ll enjoy it! And remember that sometimes the most effective marketing can happen through great storytelling.

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Social Media by the Numbers!

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Why Americans Use Social Media—New Report!

From PEW:

“Two-thirds of online adults (66%) use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn. These internet users say that connections with family members and friends (both new and old) are a primary consideration in their adoption of social media tools.

Roughly two thirds of social media users say that staying in touch with current friends and family members is a major reason they use these sites, while half say that connecting with old friends they’ve lost touch with is a major reason behind their use of these technologies.”

“Other factors play a much smaller role—14% of users say that connecting around a shared hobby or interest is a major reason they use social media, and 9% say that making new friends is equally important. Reading comments by public figures and finding potential romantic partners are cited as major factors by just 5% and 3% of social media users, respectively.”

Download the report here.

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If You Market: Content is King!

Here’s an important message for you: If you are in the public relations, marketing or advertising business at a company or organization, you need to be in the content-generation business.

People are tired of traditional ads. If they have TiVo or DVR’s, they are skipping through the ads. If you are buying print, broadcast or Internet ads ask yourself this: Is my ad truly remarkable? That is, will your ad truly get people to change their behavior? Sure if they are ordering something, but short of an online retail purchase, most ads are just that to consumers: An Advertisement.

If you really want to change behavior, change how you do things. YOU need to be in the content generation business. People read interesting stories. If you start an interesting and relevant story in an email newsletter or on Facebook and link the rest to your website, they will click through as long as it is interesting and relevant.

Shoot interesting pictures your stakeholders care about. Shoot interesting videos — especially “How To..” videos your stakeholders care about. Give your stakeholders interesting and relevant tips and information THEY care about.

It’s not about the tools, it’s about how you use them. And if you are interesting and relevant, they will come.

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