I hear all the time that people are still skeptical about investing time and money in social media marketing campaigns. I mean, seriously? What more evidence do you need? Stop throwing out the “But, how do we measure ROI with social media?”. Just ask Vitamin Water, JetBlue, Dell, and Southwest how their investment in social media has worked out for them. Increased SALES is how you measure the ROI, and just ask the local restaurant or retail store that’s running an effective social media marketing campaign how it’s working out for them. It’ll still take a couple of years for the dissenters who hold onto old-fashioned marketing methods, so for those of you who still need to be convinced, here are 50 ways why social media marketing is here to stay: (in no particular order)

1. It’s two-way marketing
2. It’s a great customer service tool
3. It gives the customer a voice
4. It eliminates the need to spend a ton of money on focus groups.  Your following IS your focus group
5. Ask a marketing research question, and you get instant data.
6. The only cost to produce it is hiring great talent
7. Complaint resolutions are documented for other customers to see
8. The viral nature of it is closely related to the viral nature of word-of-mouth marketing
9. It IS word-of-mouth marketing, but in a digital sense.
10. You can make mistakes and explain why you made it
11. Intimate contact with your loyal customers and target market
12. You can focus on a very specific target market
13. It sends traffic back to your website
14. It builds inbound links to your website
15. It’s great for search engine optimization
16. Facebook pages can be used like a forum
17. Ability to create multiple Twitter profiles for multiple uses
18. Allows you to respond to what’s being said about your brand/business
19. It’s more natural than traditional marketing channels
20. You control the message
21. Endless creative promotion possibilities
22. Allows customers to participate in product development
23. It has the ability to reach a large amount of consumers on a perpetual time line.
24. It can reach a large amount of customers and fans in real-time.
25. Customers can respond and react to new business information and products in real-time.
26. It has the ability to increase sales
27. It has to ability to attract new clients
28. It can help you establish yourself as an expert or authority in your industry
29. Allows you to respond to complaints before negative word-of-mouth takes place.
30. Allows employees to be brand evangelizers.
31. The technology is free and open source
32. Social media is now adopted by most age groups.
33. Allows a competitive advantage over your competitors that aren’t using it
34. Allows a competitive advantage over your competitors that are abusing it or not using it correctly
35. Gives the ability to update customers about promotions and specials in real-time.
36. It has more than just a monetary return on investment.
37. We are social creatures.
38. It helps you build trust with the consumer
39. Experimenting won’t cost you a lot of money
40. It’s not as time consuming as you might think
41. Your customer’s opinion counts
42. Did we mention the technology is free?
43. It spans across all media, including photos, videos, audio, and text
44. It’s SO MUCH LESS annoying than text/SMS marketing
45. Its effectiveness BLOWS text/SMS marketing out of the water
46. Did I mention text/SMS marketing sucks?
47. You’re building an army of loyal customers we affectionately call “regulars”.
48. Builds team/employee morale
49. It can be used as a recruiting tool
50. Facebook has over 400 million active users worldwide.  Twitter has over 75 million users.  YouTube and Facebook are the #2 and #3 most visited websites in the world. Every second a new blog is created. Need I say more?

If you haven’t embraced social media for your business yet, then you’ve been living under a rock.  It’s here, and it’s here to stay.  It has a real return on investment, it WILL grow your sales if done right, and it DOES require someone who knows what they’re doing to run a successful campaign.  Are you convinced yet?  If so, check out my company’s website at Presence Media, and give us a call or contact us to discuss starting a social media marketing campaign for your small business.

The social media news wire was on fire today, as Facebook and Google both announced big news today. Facebook acquired Friendfeed for $50 million dollars, announced a real-time search engine feature, and Google announced that a new version of their search engine will be rolled out soon, and my guess is that it will include faster indexing, so it feels like real-time searches of content.

Facebook acquires Friendfeed

I had a Friendfeed account, but I never used it. It was mostly a tricked-out status updater, but the one nice thing it had was a real-time search engine that far surpassed Twitter’s search engine in terms of functionality and features. However, it wasn’t near as valuable, because it didn’t have the content volume of Twitter. Add Facebook’s 250 million users and all of their content, now you’ve got something. So, it was only natural for Facebook to immediately announce a real-time search engine, because they will take Friendfeeds and make it their own with a few modifications to integrate with better with the Facebook infrastructure. I think this will be a good acquisition for Facebook, and it will position them as more of a leader in the social media world of heavyweights.

Google’s New Search Engine

It’s not a coincidence that Google announces their new and improved search engine the same day that Facebook announces their real-time search engine and acquisition of Friendfeed. According to the Mashable article, they believe it is faster, more reliable, and finds performs more real-time searches.

To test the new versions: GO HERE

Here’s another article from Mashable comparing the new Facebook search engine to the new Google search engine.

They call it the new “search war”, but I really don’t think anyone can go to war with Google on searching. Facebook has been behind in terms of technology in the past, so for them to hit a homerun this quickly makes me a little skeptical. Only time will tell.

After experimenting heavily with Facebook and Twitter marketing, I now have pinpointed which social media outlets to use based on the product/service and the situation. This is what I have found out so far.

Starting and Holding Meaningful Conversations

Winner: Facebook

Are you looking to get feedback about your business? Do you want to interact and start discussions with prior and current customers? Facebook is the best medium. No matter how many platforms there are to organize Twitter, I have such a hard time keeping up with all of it, plus I am not constantly staring at my @replies the entire day, so it’s tough to go back and forth with conversation. Facebook’s commenting features that work like a comment thread on a blog are great for holding conversations, because it’s easy to keep track of, you don’t want to make your statement with only 140 characters, and Facebook is good about alerting you when someone replies to you.

News And Information About Your Industry

Winner: Twitter

Twitter does a great job at giving you real-time information and news regarding any subject matter you want to keep up with. All you need to do is identify the quality twitter accounts that can deliver this information to you. Then, you can choose what to read, when to read it, and so on. Facebook’s platform is not good for consuming massive amounts of information and finding new article recommendations from trusted sources.

Reaching Out To Young People

Winner: Facebook

The Guardian and others have written about why teens aren’t on Twitter. It’s true, the majority of them haven’t embraced Twitter. They are more into Facebook, because they feel more like a community, they can choose who they are friends with, and they can control who sees their updates and photos. With Twitter, anyone can follow you and start reading your stuff. Sure, you can block them, but that’s Twitter suicide if you block everyone.

Building Brand Awareness:

Winner: Facebook And Twitter

This is why both should be part of your social media marketing campaign. Both allow you to tap into a different market segment and demographic. Both give your brand more exposure and allow people to learn more about your company and recognize the logo. Both require interaction on your part. You can’t be one-sided and pump out marketing information. The strategy I like when using Twitter is to send Tweets that could be valuable to your followers. Send out valuable links from blogs and news sources other than your own. Give out a tip or trick pertaining to the industry you are in. Ask questions that don’t require long answers. Think of Twitter as a sophisticated information stream. Then, use Facebook to connect more intimately with your customers or potential customers.

I have been so pissed off at social media lately. Every social media outlet eventually becomes a cesspool of advertisements and get-rich-quick schemes. Why do humans always make an effort to destroy good things? Twitter needs help, or it will die quickly. Tomorrow, I will post my grievances toward Facebook and Twitter. But for those of you who actually care about social media and don’t intend on abusing it, here are some tips to help bring value to your social media contributions.

Post Relevant Content

Whether it’s your blog, facebook stream, twitter stream, friendfeed, youtube, or social bookmarking account, make sure that what you post is relevant and interesting to others. People follow you for four different reasons: they are your friend, family member, co-worker, or because you are an expert in your field. Ask yourself this questions before you post a link, video, or article: “Will my audience find this interesting and/or entertaining?” Post content that you are passionate about, because you most likely have a group of friends who are passionate about that, too.

Stop Updating So Much

Honestly, put Tweet Deck away. I follow hundreds of people that I follow, and I must use user lists to filter the people that I want to read on Twitter, because there are a handful of people that I follow that post every 2 minutes, literally. And it’s not even a batch of automated tweets. These are real tweets from ADDICTS. Maybe I am just jealous because you somehow find a way to update social media more often than me, but just take a minute to realize that Twitter and Facebook are not a stream of consciousness.

Engage In Conversation

It’s called SOCIAL media, but the social part is often forgotten by people who just want to advertise themselves and their products. I think that social media is a great way to market a brand or product, but it’s not effective if it’s annoying and one-sided. Use social media to meet new people and engage in meaningful conversations. Large corporations are finding that outlets such as Facebook and Twitter far better marketing tools for existing customers rather than attracting new customers. This is because social media gives corporations a quick, easy, and free way to communicate with customers and get their feedback about a product or service.

Go through your last 100 tweets and count how many were @replies. It might surprise you.

Don’t Be a Jerk

I still can’t believe that many people haven’t realized that your social media presence directly correlates with your reputation in the “real world”. Before you write anything, remember that anyone and everyone has the ability to find it and read it. I love discussions and debates on Facebook about political and social issues, but I don’t ever write anything that would make me sound like a 10 year old. I also don’t bully people or blatantly make fun of them (other than old buddies that know I am joking around). It’s so much easier to be bolder on the internet than it is face-to-face with someone. Make sure you choose your words carefully and no one likes a jerk on social media.

Are You A Giver?

With social media, we tend to fall into the mentality that everyone should want to comment on our blog or status updates. Everyone should want to re-tweet our tweets or post a link of my article to their Twitter stream. But what have you done for them lately? Are you participating in their social media lives? Remember, you must always give in order to receive.

Do all of these things, and you won’t have to read a 100 different articles about how to increase your following on Twitter or Facebook. You’ll naturally gain a following that is interested in your life and what you are passionate about. You’ll also build your personal brand, build contacts for potential job offers, and gain leads to clients for your small business. Social media is like anything else in life, use it the way it was intended to be used, and you’ll be the most benefit out of it.

photo credit: szlea

My most recent job that I found was on Craigslist, but I met several people in the Orlando area connected in the social media marketing industry through Twitter beforehand. They helped me navigate through my decision to take the position. I spend hours upon hours tryig to convince people like my wife, friends, and family that Twitter isn’t just an application to check out what Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are doing. It has endless ways to be utilized, and finding a job or networking with people to help you find a job are just a few of Twitter’s capabilities.

Sign up for a Twitter account if you don’t already have one.

Use your full name or first initial and last name if possible. If you have a really common name, get creative, but try to incorporate as much of your full name as possible. Just make sure it’s a semi-professional username. Remember, potential employers might be looking at your profile. You don’t want to be @xboxstud or @barbiedoll69.

Download a free Twitter management desktop application.

There are a lot of great applications out there to manage your Twitter account, but I like Tweet Deck and Seesmic the most. You can use whatever you want, but I have found that these two have the most features. Also, if you have an iPhone or Blackberry, download a Twitter mobile application. Tweet Deck for iPhone is currently free, and most people use Twitter Berry for the Blackberry.

Start tweeting about your job hunt.

Be very specific, because recruiters and employers could be searching for certain keywords. Don’t just tweet, “looking for a new job”. Say something like, “just got done revising my resume in social media and internet marketing”. Describe your skills, and tweet about anything you are currently doing that has to do with your desired profession.

Start Searching For Keywords and Hash Tags

Use your desktop application to run searches for certain keywords and hash tags related to the industry you are looking to land a job. You can look up pre-defined hash tags at Hashtags.org. You can run real-time searches with Tweet Deck and Seesmic or at Search Twitter. Start following anyone that is tweeting something interesting about the keywords you are following.

Be Interactive

If you are only creating new tweets and reading other tweets, you are being one-dimensional. Social media is called “social” because it encourages conversation and community. People that only view facebook profiles and read twitter profiles are not engaging in social media. They are just reading conversations. Participation is key. Make friends, and reply to tweets. Re-tweet something really interesting from someone you are following. Use a direct message only after you have already struck up a conversation with someone.

You may not find your next job on Twitter, but you could meet the person who helps you get your next job. The job market is tough right now, so stop wasting time on Twitter, and start putting it to good use.

In the world of social networking, we are bombarded with hundreds of links to interesting articles around the web from various different sources. Twitter and Facebook have become extremely popular for posting links that bring value to one’s fans and followers. I am a total sucker for clicking on a link and getting wrapped up in an interesting article or website. Before I know it, I’ve spent a half an hour reading web articles when I should have been doing other stuff during the middle of the day. I’ve known about Instapaper for quite a while now, but I never gave it a chance until my best friend explained to me how he uses it. Instapaper is a simple, yet effective bookmarking tool that is used best for bookmarking web articles to read later. What I like about it is that it doesn’t require a tagging system or anything else that takes too much time to set up. You just tap on its bookmarklet, it saves the link to the article, and keeps the links stored on the web for you to check out later.

For Web Surfers

If you are a blogger, freelancer, or anyone else that spends a lot of time in front of a computer throughout the day, you know how easy it is to get caught up in an interesting article. Here’s what you need to do to set it up:

1. Visit Instapaper’s website, and sign up for an account. You don’t even need to use a password if you are sick of remembering passwords, and who cares if someone hacks into it. It’s just virtual paper!



2. Drag the “Read Later” icon into your Firefox or Safari bookmark bar.
3. When you follow a link to an article but realize that it’s a lengthy article and you don’t have time for it, click on the “Read Later” bookmark and Instapaper will save

For iPhone Users

1. Follow Step 1 Above
2. Download and install the Instapaper iPhone App from iTunes. Search, “instapaper” from your iPhone while in the “App Store” app on your iPhone.
3. Save the Instapaper bookmarklet in your Safari or Firefox bookmarks, then sync your iPhone bookmarks with your browser bookmarks.

How I Use Instapaper

When I stumble across an article from a link on my Twitter or Facebook stream, I bookmark it using Instapaper. When I have some free time later in the day or week, I open up my Instapaper iPhone app, and I have dozens of articles to read at my leisure. Here are some good times to get reading done without invading in your work time:

• While you are on the toilet
• While you are waiting in a long line
• While you are waiting in the doctor’s office
• While you are at the gym doing a cardio workout
• While you are walking your dog
• While you are eating lunch by yourself

Don’t let social media be a distraction in your life. It should complement your life, not consume it. Being efficient with social media is an effective and efficient way to utilize its benefits.

Twitter has grown in membership by over 3000% in the past year. It’s the new internet trend, and many, including myself, believe that it is here to stay in our culture. Of that 3000% increase, I am guessing many of those new twitter users forgot about their account after a couple of weeks. Nonetheless, the following is strong, and all age groups are getting in on the Twitter nation. It’s seeping into all aspects of our culture. Small businesses, professionals, corporations, celebrities, athletes, and every day people are using it. Now, churches are using it, and this has brought about a hot debate about the use of Twitter during church worship services.

An Argument for Using Twitter During Church

Time magazine published an article about a pastor who encourages church members to use twitter during their church service. The church created a hashtag for church members to follow, and they project the hashtag stream behind the pastor, so the entire congregation can read the current tweets. The pastor of this church has seen his congregation open up, be more honest, and actively engage in the topic of the sermon. He is a big believer that this new technology will help his congregation grow spiritually and be more open about their faith and struggles with sin.

An Argument Against Using Twitter in Church

Joshua Harris, a prominent Christian author, wrote a response to the subject of using Twitter during church. Harris actually references the Time magazine article in his blog post, so that is why I used his argument against using Twitter in church. He makes good, but predictable points about the use of Twitter in church. His biggest concern is that it will become a distraction in church, and many people will miss parts of the sermon because they are too busy worrying about their word count or wandering over to their e-mail or Twitter stream.

My Response To The Debate

Over the past two months, I have become addicted to Twitter. Not because I am obsessed with knowing what people are doing, but because I have literally seen the networking potential on Twitter. I can blog about getting a job doing social media marketing, and I immediately get responses and follows from other people in the industry and possible clients for consulting work. This is what excites me about Twitter. It’s power to connect people is boundless, and the concept is simple. There is so much going on when you log into your Facebook account that I get turned off by it quickly. Do I really need to be notified when so-and-so downloads a facebook application?

Anyway, my point is that Twitter can be a great tool for churches looking to facillitate community among their members, connect with other church’s congregations, and gain new membership. I thought about the use of Twitter during a church service, and my initial thought was that it was a pretty cool idea. But then, I found myself leaning more towards Harris’ arguments against it. I love to believe that I would be diligent by making my tweet and putting my phone away, but honestly, I probably would get distracted as well. On the other side of that, it could help me to listen better, because I do well when I am interacting with a lecture or sermon. But as a whole, I think many people would find it as a distraction, and pastors would have a hard time engaging with their audience if everyone is looking down at their phone.

My Solution

I think that churches should embrace social media technology, rather than run away from it. God allowed the development of internet social networking, so as Christians, we should use it to further His Kingdom. A great way for churches to integrate Twitter into their church culture would be to get the pastor and staff to start tweeting their hearts out. Encourage topical conversation based on the past week’s sermon. Start a hash tag for reactions to the sermon and daily Bible readings. Encourage small groups to start hash tags so they can use twitter to keep each other updated on prayer requests, news, and upcoming events. These are all effective ways that churches can integrate Twitter. The possibility of Twitter becoming a distraction during the preaching of God’s word is too risky, and churches should find alternative ways to utilize the greatness of Twitter.

Do you Twitter? Follow me On Twitter, and I will follow you back!