Companies have long played catch-up in understanding how to harness new technologies without over-managing them. Social media is no exception. This eight-page Fresh Perspectives paper explores how organizations should leverage the connective power of social networking to enhance productivity, innovation, collaboration, reputation and employee engagement, among other issues. Leaders' efforts should not focus on controlling employees' social networking behavior. Instead, they should work to channel its use in directions that benefit organizations and their employees alike.

Download and read the full report at the Manpower | Research Center here.

A few photos of the Asian Chamber members attending the event – thanks again for inviting AIM Custom Media to present to your group of members. We enjoyed meeting your new members and guests.

Are you passionate about increasing sales but can’t seem to get anywhere using social media? We all know millions and millions of links and leads are shared everyday on social networks. And, there are several simple things you can do to improve your results and get your share. This evening (January 27, 2010, 6-8pm) I’ll be giving a presentation at the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce Business Networking Forum. Here’s the info from the Chamber’s website and a link for additional details:

Marketing Yourself and Your Business in the New Digital World

2010 is going to be an incredible year for marketing. Entrepreneurs that survived the economic storm of 2009 are in an exciting position for 2010. The days of costly brand building are over. It is going to be a time where innovative marketing is going to flourish. Brand marketing is going to be cheaper, faster and smarter.

Are you ready to enter the universe of possible marketing and advertising initiatives?

If yes, let Social Networking Guru Greg Magnus break down for you the steps needed to make when moving into the complex world of social networking, beginning with how to best put social networking to use, whether you are:

• Business prospecting
• Promoting your brand
• Recruiting talents
• Hatching a new venture
• Engaging and retaining customers, or
• Exploring a new career

Coordinated by the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce, this group of businesses and professionals meet monthly between January and June to network and discuss key issues impacting their businesses’ bottom line.

Guest Speaker:
Greg Magnus, President
AIM Custom Media, LLC

Date & Location:
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 From 6-8pm
Mekong Restaurant, 6004 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23230

More information here.

If you can’t make it or you already missed it, you can subscribe to our site here. I’ll post the presentation materials later in the week and you’ll receive the info when it is added to digital AIM.

NOTE: If you subscribed, please check your Inbox right away. Within the next minute or two, there will be an email asking you to confirm your subscription. This is called “double opt-in” to make sure that someone else cannot subscribe you to our list. It is very important that you click the confirmation link in that email. If you fail to do that you will not receive the info requested.

• More than 350 million users are active on Facebook
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• More than 35 million users update their status each day
• More than 55 million status updates posted each day
• More than 2.5 billion photos uploaded and 3.5 million events created each month
• More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news, blog posts, etc.) shared each week
• More than 1.6 million active Pages on Facebook
• More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

And, its not just Facebook anymore. Google now uses social content when determining the ranking of web pages (SEO). Facebook is good for SEO and it has been very good for businesses for some time now.

Facebook Tips for Fan Pages

First Things First – Plan
To be effective requires a plan as well as fresh content on a regular basis. Once again, “content is King.” Give your potential customers and existing clients a reason to not only visit your Facebook pages but also help promote them. Keep in mind that updating the page doesn’t require a significant amount of effort if you first have a solid plan. Planning your campaign is a must – allocating the necessary resources to implement your plan goes without saying.

Social Networking is All About Leveraging Technology
Online marketing requires integration so understand that a significant amount of content is distributed automatically to numerous social media channels. Maximize your content and get better results by:

• Linking your blog posts to your Facebook wall. Your business website doesn’t include a blog? Get one.
• Use a service to update all of your social networks at once (Facebook, twitter, etc.)
• Similar automated services, widgets for example, are available for your YouTube and Flickr feeds

Engage Visitors But Avoid Confusion
Create a landing page on Facebook that you control. It is preferable to send traffic to a controlled welcoming page that highlights your brand instead of the “wall” page on your Facebook fan pages. The Fan page “wall” is a great and valuable tool for communicating with customers and prospects but it can be extremely confusing to first-time visitors.

A controlled page can also be used to offer users an incentive to become fans and help promote your brand. Contests, coupons, weekly specials and other tactics are being used effectively by numerous brands.

Be aware that new Facebook marketing guidelines were published last year in November. The guidelines require brands, marketers and advertisers to go through an approval process for contests. Get help if you don’t understand the requirements.

Interaction and Communication Required
First and foremost, understand completely that social media is all about interaction and two-way communication. Here’s a few basic tips to help you get conversations started:

• Ask questions that solicit honest opinions
• Create polls and provide access to tabulated results as well as candid reviews that support multiple views
• Don’t just post relevant industry news, provide – on a timely basis – executive summaries of industry trends

Don’t miss out; social networking will without a doubt enhance your brand and increase your marketing ROI. Face it, someone else paid to develop the technology and all you need to do is learn how to use it and get plugged in. 

Consider Ads
Advertising your business on Facebook is definitely something to consider. In fact, there are unique tactics available to precisely target a specific ad to a specific demographic profile. For example, you can target college graduates working in your target market that like fine wines and classical music – or a 50 something professional that likes head-banging punk music and Mexican food.

The two basic types of advertisements on Facebook are: (1) Display ads and (2) Social ads. Either can be purchased like banner ads (Cost Per Click, CPC) and Cost Per Thousand, CPM). Given Facebook users like staying within the Facebook environment, in general, create a killer Facebook Fan Page and direct your ads to that page.

Better yet, create a specific “tab” on that Fan page for your campaign; each tab has a unique URL by the way. If you’re not familiar with Facebook Fan page design, outsourcing is the way to go. Although relatively straight forward for design pros with programming skills, business owners that really don’t understand the features and how to use them will inevitably waste a lot of productive time on social networking.

Just like any business project, the social marketing rewards you’ll receive will be a reflection of the effort you put into it; haphazard planning and implementation won’t get you the results you desire online. But, those allocating the appropriate resources are gaining excellent results by leveraging social networking technology. 

This 4 day event is a comprehensive playbook designed to give you step by step instructions and coaching that will move you from transition to dream job, as well as life management tips along the way. Every topic of transition will be covered so that each participant has a complete understanding of what it takes to accomplish their goals for employment.

October 19th & 20th from 9:00am – 12:00 noon: St. Michael’s: 4491 Springfield Rd, Glen Allen

October 21st and 22nd from 9:00am – 12:00 noon: Three Chopt Presbyterian: 9315 Three Chopt Rd, Richmond

It is designed so that each participant should attend the entire 4 day camp.

RSVP: virginiacareernetwork.com or canon@equity-concepts.com

Speakers

Greg Magnus: Publisher, AIM Custom Media
Social Networking PRESENTATION (PDF)

“Social networking that works for YOU.”

John Sarvay: Owner, Floricane, Next Steps

“Live your A life. Identify your greater purpose and begin to generate your ideal future.”

Eleanor Rouse: Life Coach, Executive Coach for the Frontier Project

“Align the next chapter of your life or career with your personal values and vision.”

Bob Ruthazer: Executive Director, First Things First

“Relationships: Thriving in Transition. Understanding communication and warning signs.”

Veronica Boyd: Consultant, Lee Hecht Harrison, JAM Leader

“Map out your game plan. Step by step instruction on what you need to do to find career opportunities.”

Jim Roman: Networking Extraordinaire, Owner, Team Roman

“Networking that works.”

Brent Peterson: Owner, Interview Angel

“Confessions of a Hiring Manager. How to Land an Interview. How to Inspire the Hiring Manager. Personal Statements. Tell Great Stories. Getting Hired is a Project.”

Alan Dole: Wealth Manager, Equity Concepts

“Money Matters. Unemployment insurance, cash flow, 401k options and warnings.”

Debbie Stocks: Principal, Your Benefits Partner

“Understanding your benefit options. COBRA, Individual policies and HSA’s.”

Clayton Gits: Owner, The Gits Group

“Manage your mortgage. Precautions, options, last resorts.”

I. Website Considerations

For years now, we have promoted the use of blog technology over “static websites” for small business owners. Almost any website design can be developed using blog technology, which is a better tool for content management as well as online marketing. Blogs allow small business owners to leverage technology in several ways.

For example, most social media sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) allow you to connect your blog feed (RSS Feed) to your online profile. Therefore, when your website/blog is updated your connections on social networking sites are notified – automated marketing and branding. Also, search engines favor “fresh content” and blogs allow business owners to update his or her website both frequently and cost effectively. The list of benefits goes on.

Resource Requirements – Website & Blogs: Human resources are necessary to run an effective website/blog for online marketing purposes. When developing your marketing plan, include: IT support (programmer), graphic designers, copy writers, and marketing staff that understand social networking applications, content marketing, PR, SEO and HTML.

II. Email Marketing and Newsletters

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, some 20 million emails traveled the information superhighway. For good reason, email is an effective communication tool and email marketing remains a top choice for marketing pros. Email newsletters are effective as well but need to be done right to engage your clients and target market.

Resource Requirements – Email Marketing/Newsletters:  Requires setup, database management, subscription forms, copy writing, landing pages, online newsletter archives, subscription promotions, keyword list, and industry knowledge. Human resources: IT support (programmer), graphic designers, copy writers, and marketing staff that understand email newsletter software, content marketing, PR, SEO and HTML programming.

III. Online and Offline Seminars

Presenting and hosting business seminars has been, and will remain, a popular and effective marketing tool for business owners. Preparing and implementing a plan to target your market and attract the right attendees can be a challenge as well as time consuming. Social networking is an effective tool for promoting seminars, if you have first created effective content to promote the seminar as well as landing pages on your website/blog. Also, understanding where your target market resides online is key.

Resource Requirements – Seminars: Requires seminar content, copy writing, landing pages, registration forms, and marketing as well as IT support, graphic design, and a presenter.

The three marketing considerations above are only a start for your 2010 marketing plan. We’ll continue to cover the rest of the marketing plan requirements; you can subscribe here if you would like to receive the updates when they are published.

Top Social Computing Predictions For 2009

Experimentation Gives Way To Meeting Business Objectives As Social Computing Goes Mainstream

by Jeremiah K. Owyang, Josh Bernoff, Sean Corcoran, Steven Noble

with Thomas Cummings, Zach Hofer-Shall, Emily Bowen

Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

With adoption of all Social Computing technologies increasing in 2008, brands will move beyond experimentation and focus on real business impact in 2009. New technologies will arise that allow platforms including email, the Web, and mobile devices to connect with communities. Brands will start to integrate social applications with traditional marketing campaigns and revise campaigns based on social feedback. As a result, we recommend that interactive marketers start efforts now, embracing listening platforms that help monitor brand while taking advantage of the recession to gain experience with social applications.
(Visit Forrester.com here for additional details)

Forrester also reports, “Despite a predicted online advertising growth rate of 12 percent, offline budgets will decline in 2009. Interactive marketers of all types will be pressured to squeeze as much value as possible from their online spend.” See “Online Advertising Predictions For 2009” for more on ad spend predictions.

Far too many business owners absolutely take the wrong approach. They hunker down, cut marketing budgets and pull back.  The end result is “unattended customers” and less competition for you. Businesses that cut marketing budgets also demotivate their best salespeople, which start spending more time thinking about getting a new job than a new customer.

Economic downturns are an excellent time to strengthen your relationships with both your existing customers and your competitors’ customers. Odds are, they are not as busy. Are they more willing to spend a little more time with you? Definitely possible – use the time wisely:

• Collect testimonials: Asking for a testimonial is a contact with your customer that’s not a sales call. Tell them you would like to promote the testimonial and link it to their website, which will promote them as well. Use the opportunity to show your customers you value their opinion, your business relationship, and their business (i.e., dynamic websites, blogs, Scribd, PR news, etc.);
• Survey your customers: Create an opportunity to collect feedback and discuss services and/or products you offer that they may not be fully aware of or completely understand (i.e., email marketing, custom website landing pages, etc.);
• Network: Introduce your customers to people in your network that they consider prospects and ask to meet their business colleagues and associates – an excellent source of referrals (i.e., LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, etc.), and
• Use your “consulting” skills: Help your customers and prospects save time and money by providing pertinent industry news and educational materials that will help them compete during these difficult times (i.e., email newsletters, white papers and custom publications all have high ROIs).

But don’t be fooled. There is also new competition for you – competition from new business start-ups and competitors that have invested in new technologies and lower-cost marketing tactics.

Hordes of new businesses are created during economic downturns. Layoffs create a lot of entrepreneurs that may soon be targeting your customers with fresh ideas, creative solutions and competitive rates. And, they are targeting your customers using high ROI marketing tactics such as online social networks, email marketing, industry newsletters, dynamic websites (blogs) and related marketing technologies. If you are not already taking advantage of these marketing tools, now is a good time to ask yourself, if not now, when?

Don’t forget, the marketing tools mentioned above are low-cost when compared to traditional marketing methods but there is a cost. And, implementation requires resources – consider the costs while developing your 2009 marketing budget. Next year will be a difficult time for many and many companies won’t survive. Yours will if you take advantage of the marketing tools available today.

Additional Info

We picked up the following info from a recent newsletter from the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce:

Market aggressively. While many customers are hunkering down, don’t make the mistake of doing it yourself. Because your competitors are lying low, use this as the right time to raise your visibility by being more assertive in your marketing.

When times get tough, most companies are far from ready to do battle. They have nowhere to turn because they failed at prospecting. Ask them if they stay in touch regularly with all their prospects and customers, and you’ll get a blank stare. Ask them if they actively help their customers reduce operating costs, and they don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. In other words, these salespeople and their companies are unprepared to meet the challenges of a difficult economy.

If you’re one of our clients, it is likely you already have a dynamic website that includes a blog. Now is a good time to plan. Consider how you can use it to your advantage the rest of this year and during 2009. Here’s another quote from the reference mentioned above:

This may be the perfect time to start a blog. People still buy during tough economic times. It’s just that every purchase or investment undergoes far more scrutiny. Fear of making the wrong decision is a primary motivator in purchase decisions. Thought leaders are perceived experts. Businesses want to hire experts. Experts get paid more, and they get recruited from further away. Why?

Because in going with an expert, the perceived risk is lower. One of the least costly ways to begin to establish thought leadership is through blogging. Done right, blogging can both greatly enhance your perceived expertise and increase your chances of being discovered on search engines.

There are many other reasons for using blog technology, which we frequently cover on this blog (subscribe if you haven’t already and you’ll receive the free marketing advice).

Subscribe to digital AIM – Business Newsletters by Email

There are lots of people who are now well established in the social media space and are writing and creating exciting and insightful content. They have built formidable networks and are becoming influencers in their own way or on their own topics. An argument might soon be made that these people should command a premium when considering them for jobs, projects or unique roles. Perhaps even compensation.

Charlene Li, former Forrester Analyst and VP touched on a concept called Personal CPM. No proven formula exists yet, but to summarize, it’s based on:

• Your authority on a topic
• Your network’s interest and authority on a topic
• The trust your network places in you for the topic.

She was connecting this to how marketers might look at social networks as a business model. They might pay to reach the higher CPM people, and networks might compensate them to join their network. (Full story here)

Leave a comment and let us know how you using social networking.

The $100,000 dollar sports car is 100 percent electric and it accelerates from 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds. Long story short, she wanted one at the event but didn’t have any contacts at Tesla so she turned to social media networks and started networking; she wasn’t able to get a Roadster for the event. After using her contacts and contact’s contacts, she got TWO!

The Cartier ad campaign includes a link to a Cartier mini-site where you can download free music by Lou Reed, Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, and others. Mercedes-Benz USA has used the free music download marketing strategy for several years now at their corporate site. The latest from MBUSA (excerpt of their email marketing I rec’d on June 26, 2008):

Mixed Tape 21 and Mixed Tape Music Magzine # 5 – now online
Enjoy the fifth edition of Mixed Tape Music Magazine on mercedes-benz.tv. Also online: Mixed Tape 21 with a selection of brand new tracks.

Every eight weeks, Mercedes-Benz not only presents ten handpicked tracks by international newcomers for you to check out and explore as a free download compilation at www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape. For added visual delights, visit Mixed Tape Music Magazine, an innovative monthly online TV show featuring audio-visual highlights from around the world, now in its fifth edition.

This month’s theme is ‘Up North’ with artists hailing from the globe’s upper reaches – think Norway, Sweden or Canada. Their music, on the other hand, is decidedly international and at home between Hip-Hop, Folk, Pop and R&B. From Sweden, we have Kocky and his singer Rosanna, Joel Alme and MC Chords – the self-proclaimed luckiest man alive – while Chris Lee represents Norway’s cutting-edge music scene. On the other side of the Atlantic, MC Moka Only and Alanis Morissette shake it up for Canada.

Enjoy the mix!

Your Mercedes-Benz Team
www.mercedes-benz.tv/mixedtape

Why MySpace?

MySpace is an online social gathering place for teens right? Think again. Abbey Klaassen of Advertising Age has published an article with more details. Here’s an excerpt:

“There’s this misperception in the market about MySpace being a youth site, a site for teens,” said Travis Katz, managing director-international operations for MySpace. “But 85% of our audience in the U.S. is over 18, and 40% of all moms in U.S. are on MySpace.” He claims that MySpace reaches more people making $100,000-plus than other social-network competitors, such as Facebook and Yahoo 360. Real the full Adversiting Age article here.

More info: Cartier’s MySpace profile.