Susan Gunelius Tops List of Women and Leadership Influencers
Social media influence moderation company Traackr created a ranking of the top women and leadership influencers, and KeySplash Creative, Inc. President and CEO Susan Gunelius ranks in first place.
Using its Influencer Network Analysis feature, Traackr identified the people who are leading the online conversation about women and leadership.
The Traackr report includes the top 49 most influential people online who are publishing content, talking about, and engaging with others on topics related to women and leadership.
You can see Susan (and the blog she founded, Women on Business) in the interactive Women and Leadership Influencer Map, which is available on the Traackr website. You can also visit the Traackr blog to learn more about the creation of the map.
Images: Traackr
Epic Brand Twitter Fails: A Lesson in Brand Reputation Management [Infographic]
Kudos to Paul Mardsen and the team at Social Commerce Today who put together an infographic filled with examples of Twitter fails by brands for a course on social media reputation management for brands that they were conducting.
The infographic not only collects some of the best examples for marketers to learn from, but Paul’s team is encouraging marketers to share it, repurpose it, and use it as they wish. They even created a clean version (devoid of expletives), an editable version, and a high-resolution version. All versions are available for download. Just follow the preceding links to find them or get more details here.
Each of the examples in the original infographic shows just how damaging social media marketing in the wrong hands can be to a brand. Don’t let this happen to you. Hire the right people to handle your social media marketing and content marketing activities, because reputation clean up is a lot more difficult and more expensive then it is to pay the right people to handle your brand’s social media marketing and reputation management from the start.
Click on the image to view the full-size infographic.
Source: Social Commerce Today
Image: West McGowan
The Danger of Putting All Your Eggs in the Facebook Marketing Basket
Don’t put all of your efforts and budget into marketing on sites like Facebook which you don’t and can’t control.
That’s a piece of advice that I’ve been communicating in my books, lectures, and content for years, and it’s a topic that’s gotten a lot of buzz since Facebook updated its EdgeRank Algorithm. It turns out that marketer’s page posts are only getting a 10-15% view rate. The EdgeRank update also led to a 40% decrease in organic post reach according to research from We Are Social and Socialbakers.
Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm is proprietary, and for good reason. What good is Facebook’s effort to preserve its user experience by delivering the most relevant posts if marketers can game the system? We’ve experienced the same thing with the Google search algorithm. When Google released its Panda and Farmer algorithm changes that penalized low quality content, the marketers that had focused on publishing quality content rather than prioritizing questionable search engine optimization and link-building tactics prevailed.
The problem with investing the majority of your marketing efforts and budget into Facebook (or Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.) is that you don’t control those sites. An algorithm change, a merger, a legal entanglement, or any other external factor that is completely out of your control could shake one of those sites up at any moment. Where will your time, money, and marketing investments be if that happens?
If you’ve ever attended one of my speaking engagements, read one of my books, or read my content published across the web, then you know that I always recommend creating a core branded online destination that you control as the central hub of all of your integrated marketing communications. I recommend a blog because blogs are so search engine friendly, social, and shareable.
Whatever you do to market your business online and offline, all roads should lead back to your blog where you can deepen the conversation and relationships with your audience. From here, brand awareness, brand trial, brand loyalty, and brand advocacy can flourish. If you rely on a destination controlled by another person, company, or entity as your core branded online destination or as the focal point of your marketing efforts, then you run the risk of flourishing today and dying tomorrow.
Don’t get me wrong. Facebook is a vital part of most social media marketing plans. However, it’s not the only piece, and it’s not necessarily the best piece. An integrated marketing plan is always the strongest marketing plan. That means you should leverage Facebook for its reach but don’t put all of your eggs in the Facebook marketing basket.
10 Easy Steps to Create a Company Page on LinkedIn and Facebook
If your business doesn’t have a Facebook Page or LinkedIn Company Page yet, then you’re missing opportunities to broaden the reach of your marketing messages, build your audience of brand advocates, and grow your business.
Recently, I wrote two articles for Forbes that break down the process of creating a Facebook Page and a LinkedIn Company Page in 10 steps each (links are below). Once your page is up and running, you can connect with people, add great content, launch some short-term promotions, and more. But you can’t do any of those things without a company page.
If you’re still not convinced that you need to (at the very least) go and create your LinkedIn Company Page and Facebook Page in order to stake your claim on both social networking sites, consider this: Every day that you’re not on these sites is a missed opportunity that your competitors are happy to steal from you. Don’t let them do it!
Follow the links below to learn how to create your own business pages on Facebook and LinkedIn:
- 10 Steps to Create a Great Facebook Page that Gets “Likes”
- 10 Steps to Create a LinkedIn Company Page
Keep in mind, it’s quite possible that you’re a small business owner or solopreneur who doesn’t have time to maintain fresh content and conversations on every social media site in existence. That’s perfectly fine, and that’s why I wrote 30-Minute Social Media Marketing
Choose the destinations where your audience spends time and focus your efforts to maximize your ROI. However, you should work toward expanding your online presence over time as your business grows. The first step is to claim your space (and your name) on the various social media sites that are available to you.
Image: Sheila Scarborough
The Illusion of Influence and Buying Fake Twitter Followers [Infographic]
While tools like Klout and Kred struggle to find ways to accurately measure online influence in a manner that companies can effectively use to build their brands and boost sales, a new infographic from Social Selling University (shown below) reveals just how widespread the problem of buying fake Twitter followers is.
Couple that infographic with the Fake Follower Check tool from Status People that identifies the percentage of fake Twitter followers for any Twitter profile, and you’ve got some data that quantifies the ongoing illusion of influence that mars social media marketing.
The problem of buying fake Twitter followers is rampant across the board — including businesses, politicians, celebrities, and more. Here are a few enlightening statistics from the infographic:
- 39% of @facebook followers are fake.
- 37% of @twitter followers are fake.
- 34% of @ladygaga followers are fake.
- 32% of @espn followers are fake.
- 30% of @cnn followers are fake.
- 27% of @youtube followers are fake.
The business of buying Twitter followers is cheap making it very popular. Here are a few more stats:
- The average price of buying 1,000 followers is just $18.
- Followers can be purchased easily, even via eBay and Google Shopping.
- 53% of people who have bought Twitter followers have 4,000 to 26,000 followers.
- At least 11,283 Twitter users have purchased more than 72,000 fake followers.
- Dealers who control 20,000 fake Twitter accounts can make as much as $800 per day for 7 weeks of selling followings.
You can see the infographic below. Click on the image to view it at full size.
Social Selling Software – InsideView.com
I always advise building quality followers to achieve long-term, sustainable, organic brand and business growth. Buying Twitter followers is a short-term tactic that won’t pay off in the long-run. Think strategically, not tactically. Social media marketing and influence aren’t like high school popularity contests, so don’t get caught up in the hype and illusion of influence. Real influence typically can’t be purchased in life or in social media. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but for most of us, quality trumps quantity and long-term growth trumps short-term and short-lived gain.
3 Ways Crowdsourcing Can Ignite Your Marketing
Crowdsourcing is used by more companies every day for marketing purposes.
Whether American Express is using volunteer business experts to create content for its American Express OPEN Forum site or Heineken is using customers to create Facebook content, you can find examples of crowdsourcing for content marketing purposes across the web.
In my latest article published on Entrepreneur.com, I provide 3 ways to amplify your marketing with crowdsourcing. They are:
- Crowdsourcing for content marketing: Invite members of your crowd to create content for your business just like American Express does.
- Crowdsourcing for social media marketing: Make it easy for your crowd to share your content and talk about it across the social web.
- Crowdsourcing for design: Harness the power of the crowd for creative design at a reasonable price using websites like Crowdspring and 99 Designs.
Follow the link to read the complete article and get all of the details and tips to use crowdsourcing to boost your marketing results.
Image: Sanja Gjenero
Blogging All-in-One for Dummies Second Edition Is Now Available
A new and fully updated version of my popular book, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies, is now available. Blogging All-in-One For Dummies Second Edition
1. Joining the Blogosphere: Learn how to prepare and start a blog, blogging rules and ethics, and all of the other blogging basics you need to know.
2. Blogging: Learn what niche blogging is, how you can benefit from a niche blogging, how to choose your niche and write for that niche.
3. Corporate and Business Blogging: Learn how and why to start a business blog, create your blog’s marketing plan, choose and hire bloggers, manage your reputation, and write your business blog.
4. Choosing a Blogging Application: Learn the pros and cons of the most popular blogging applications like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, and Tumblr and how to choose the right one for you as well as how to start your blog using that application.
5. Blogging Tools: Learn about search engine optimization, measuring blog performance, editing and finding images, RSS, feeds, subscriptions, syndication, podcasting, vlogging, mobile blogging, and more.
6. Promoting and Growing Your Blog: Learn the secrets to blogging success, how to build a community, inviting and being a guest blogging, hosting blog contests, and about using social networking and social bookmarking to drive traffic to your blog.
7. Making Money from Your Blog: Learn about the various types of blog advertising and ways to make money from your blog such as sponsored posts, selling merchandise, text link ads, display ads, impression ads, contextual ads, and more.
8. Microblogging with Twitter: Learn how to get started with Twitter and use it to drive traffic to your blog as well as about Twitter applications that can help you along the way.
Blogging All-in-One for Dummies Second Edition is available through all booksellers in paperback and e-reader format. The paperback version is on sale at Amazon right now for 40% off! You can pick up your copy here
30-Minute Social Media Marketing Free Bonus Chapter Second Edition
Want to get a free 30-day social media marketing jumpstart plan? That’s exactly what’s included in the exclusive bonus chapter from my book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, and an updated second edition is now available.
The free chapter (which is not in the book) includes daily tasks so you can get your social media presence up and running effectively and start moving toward reaching your goals in one month.
Just click the link (or the image) to read the free bonus chapter of 30-Minute Social Media Marketing right now.
If you have a copy of 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, you’ll find references to the chapters that correspond with each task throughout the 30-Day Social Media Marketing Challenge bonus chapter, so it’s easy to get details, tips, and help when you need it.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to LinkedIn Now Available
Last month, my ninth book was published — The Complete Idiot’s Guide to LinkedIn
While this book is intended for LinkedIn beginners, it includes far more information about using LinkedIn as part of a career and business growth plan than typical “beginner” books offer. For example, you’ll learn how to establish a powerful LinkedIn presence, attract a following, promote yourself, your business, or your brand, and reach your goals.
I’m a marketer, so even the books that I write about technology always have a heavy focus on using technology to grow a business or personal brand. LinkedIn can be a powerful social media marketing tool, which is just one of the primary messages I tried to communicate in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to LinkedIn. The book is broken down into five main parts:
- Part 1: Carving out Your Space on LinkedIn
- Part 2: Building Your Reputation and Community
- Part 3: Marketing Yourself Through LinkedIn
- Part 4: Using LinkedIn for Job Searching and Hiring
- Part 5: Analyzing and Retooling Your LinkedIn Strategy
A lot of people have LinkedIn Profiles, but only a small percentage of LinkedIn members truly leverage all the features and opportunities that LinkedIn provides. My goal in writing The Complete Idiot’s Guide to LinkedIn was to show readers how useful the most popular professional social networking site can truly be in helping them reach their career and business goals.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to LinkedIn is on sale in paperback for just $13.63 right now on Amazon, and an ebook version is available for devices like the Amazon Kindle
What’s So Great About Social TV?
Social TV is the hot topic in marketing circles this days, and there is a good reason for all the hype. Social TV is the next step in the evolution of broadcast and online marketing.
First, what is social TV?
In simplest terms, social TV is the marriage of television and digital communications. Research shows that more and more people watch TV while simultaneously using their mobile devices. TV becomes social when people publish updates and discuss a program on Twitter, Facebook, and other social sites as they’re watching that program on television.
For example, have you watched television shows and noticed a Twitter hashtag in the lower right-hand corner of your TV screen? That hashtag invites people to tweet about the program as they’re watching it. People don’t have to be in the same room to communicate about what appears on their television screens anymore. They can follow hashtags on Twitter and converse with people around the world.
Social TV is most often found during live programming, but there is growing interest in integrating social elements into recorded programs as well. For example, Simon Dumenco of Advertising Age spoke with Zane Vella, CEO of Watchwith, who explained, “We’re creating a world where every frame of TV is rich in possibilities.”
Zane’s company creates data bubbles each second, which display what its backend database “knows” about each scene. For example, during “The Big Bang Theory” a character could walk into a room with a backpack and the Watchwith database instantly feeds information about that specific product to social TV apps. Consumers who like that backpack can search for it, get more information, discuss it, and purchase it as they’re watching the show.
Social TV is the next big opportunity for brands and marketers, but finding ways to integrate social TV without annoying consumers will be a challenging balancing act. I’ll be at Mashable Connect 2012 in May, and social TV is the hot ticket at this year’s conference. Everyone wants to learn more about it and strategize new ways to effectively integrate it into their marketing plans. If you’re not already thinking about social TV, then you’re missing a significant opportunity!
Image: Nicholas J. Briscoe
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