@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

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Snaptag Versus QR Codes

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QR codes have been a new and unique source of executing mobile marketing campaigns in recent times. Many seem to not only enjoy participating by using them, but have actually begun to look for offers from those with QR codes and may even have begun to ignore those that do not have them at all.

What is a QR Code?

QR is short for quick response and that is exactly the purpose of the QR code. These codes take an element of data from transitory media and sends it to your mobile device. The code will give you details about that business, item, or even discount information on products and services.

QR Codes are more useful than a standard barcode in that they can store a more data and a wider variety of it. QR codes commonly include URL links, text, coordinates and more.

How Does This Benefit Businesses?

Most marketers are well aware that mobile marketing is becoming increasingly more important, almost by the day. No method of advertising could be easier than one that consumers reach out for, instead of being asked to look. QR codes allows those consumers who prefer not to be barraged with overt marketing tactics to choose where they will show interest in a product or service.

There is really no limit to the options that can be embedded in a QR code.

  • Running a restaurant? – Embed a great recipe, a buy a meal get one free discount, a special on this evenings dessert.
  • Authors – Add a QR code to the back of your book that enables a consumer to get extra features or hidden endings to your script.
  • Good health practices – Doctors, or other medically related practices can add good tips and tricks for healthy living to their QR codes, update them every month for innovative creativity in the medical field.

Vital Aesthetics Arrive to QR Coding

Traditionally, QR codes have retained a Rorschach look to them, leaving the responsibility on the advertiser to make sure consumers know whose QR code they are scanning. However, with Snaptags, QR codes and increasing brand awareness have meshed nicely. Snaptags have traded out that whole inkblot look for a code ring that serves the same functional purpose.

Who is Using Snaptags?

Because of the applied branding ability on Snaptags not previously available on QR’s, we can now see who is actively using them.

Picture c/o http://www.socialsnaptags.com/

Snaptags Cons?

Although Snaptags no doubt win out in the aesthetic element, there are other issues that can make Snaptags less beneficial than they appear. Many venture because of the supporting copy, Snaptags are not as easily accessible as QR codes. Snaptag stands by the fact that all advertisers would need to do is determine the required supporting copy, but this does lend itself to the inaccessible accusation.

Many current QR code advertisers agree that if a mobile marketing campaign is managed correctly, the aesthetic element of the Snaptags versus traditional QR’s is hardly advantageous.

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Time to Get on Google +: How to Set up Your Google + Brand Page

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I think for many of us, when Google + came along that it also came with a bit of that new social network feel and its accompanying apprehension. Most smart networkers at least made their way there to grab their own vanity URL’s and at least get the virtual networking ball rolling in the right direction. However, with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn usage, many networkers have already found themselves pushed to the limit in either the time or resources it may take to keep all three fed and running properly.

To date, Google +’s numbers have posed absolutely no dangers to Facebooks user numbers, but it has recently passed through a 55% increase in users during its strongest month ever and is focused on reaching the 400 million user mark by the end of 2012. Considering that Facebook didn’t pass the 60 million member mark until almost four years after its creation, these are actually still quite impressive numbers. So if you haven’t taken the time to reserve and build your businesses Google + Brand page, now is definitely the time.

Building Your Google + Brand Page

There are already some incredible Google + Brand pages out there to take important lessons from.

After a few moments of looking over the above pages, you should have a relatively good idea of what your aesthetic and functional options may be. Sign into your Google account and then head to the Google + Business page to get started.

Create a Page

On the creation page you will need to simply select the category your business falls under. If none of the options seem an appropriate match, choose the other option at the bottom left.

Business Info

  1. Next you will add your businesses name and website URL.
  2. Next select the additional category that best suits your business. The sub categories are dependent on the main category chosen.
  3. Lastly, select who, by age group, is allowed to view your Google + Brand page.

Photo and Tagline

You only have ten words to create the perfect tagline for your business page. Put deep thought into this process taking into consideration the most vital keys for your SEO needs.

The Sharing Begins

On the next page you can begin to share your page with your personal Google + circle, or save that task for later.

The Social Media Drill

Google + Brand pages are not so different from Facebook fan pages when it comes to management. If you have even basic knowledge of how to manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you can pretty much rely on a try or two before you are just as familiar on Google. Don’t forget, Google + is currently experiencing novel rises in its user base, don’t miss the chance to increase your brand awareness via this format in 2012.

Similar Article:

Google+ Pages Open the Doors for Brands and Businesses

 

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Find A Lifetime of Success in 2012 by understanding “Time” & “Why?”

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Ready to understand why some people are far more successful than others?

Brace yourself! I am going to share my perspective on why 2011 was such a success for me and give you something to think about in 2012. Here’s the funny part, I made more money in 2011 than I have ever and that little fact actually has little to do with why I was so successful in 2011.

I have had some great mentors and it’s all due to listening! You see those that know me might think that I am more of a talker, but I do a lot of listening. The fact that I actually hear what I am listening too makes it all the more effective. A lesson that’s valuable for life and Social Media.

TIME

In the movie “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” the Character Gordon Geckko turns to a young man and tells him that “time is the most precious commodity that I know of” a statement of absolute truth! While Einstein argued that time could be something of perception, in the case of the “theory of relativity” scientists make assumptions and simulations that space-time and other aspects of physics and astronomy  do not change the current state of time, in relation to the phenomenon of life.

During my masters program, we studied a concept that fascinated me on its own, supply and demand. The wildcard here was that demand was driven by perception. The concept became even more exciting when later we talked about the monetary value of leisure! The economic evaluation for leisure comes when there is not enough value to make the individual work more, or in the tipping point where the individual is willing to work during a time period traditionally reserved for leisure.

Time is clearly something that holds financial value, and in the case of supply and demand, we have a market where supply is consistent. There is only so many hours in a day, so many days in a week, so many weeks in a month and so many months in a year and so many years that we live. However, what if life is not as long as we believe it to be? The supply may be shorter or  longer then perceived. Demand seems to be the one thing in America that we do not have in this equation.

Whatever you choose for your profession, do not let it dictate your life. Travel, Family, Exploration and the Art of Doing Nothing are just as important and I believe a healthy part of a successful life.

WHY?

I will tell you right now, if you work for or with someone who answers “Why?” with “because I said so” or “that’s how we do it” RUN!

That person is likely, lazy, selfish and/or just plain ignorant! Yes, ignorant! I have had these people just like everyone else and it made for a negative professional career experience in the fields of education, banking and sales. There is probably nothing more dangerous to the health of an organization, its culture, and our economy then these people. “Why?” is crucial to success!

Why is how we learn, grow and develop. It is crucial to success both for individuals and organizations. A supervisor, manager or superior has an fiduciary responsibility to both the organization and the client to teach their subordinate everything they know. I pride my work in student affairs with the notion that I had started teaching my staff from day one what I do and why so. In my absence, everything, for at least a while could run as consistently as if I was still there. If you don’t believe that you should prepare for your absence, then what will you do if you should be promoted? Do you not believe that your people are  more effective contributors to a culture where you have empowered them?

A small business owner should have the same relationship with their consultant and media professionals, if you do not invest the time to teach them about your business how will they be able to understand its culture? If you do not understand “Why?” the consultant or media professional is doing something then how will you know what to do in their absence or to communicate the evolution of the business. You may not be able to do what others due, either because of talent, skills or time, but you still better understand why they are doing it.  

Both “Time” and “Why?” are a crucial part of life, not just business or professional development. Adapt a plan that encompasses learning and educating the “Why?” to those around you, and you will find “Time” which will bring you prosperity in 2012.

It was a great 2011, I am looking forward to an even better 2012! Hope you’ll Join me!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WahafF8Y_E0]

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Twitter Tools: twithawk, a lead generation tool

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Another arrow in the quiver of the savvy internet marketer is Twithawk, a lead generation tool.

Founded in 2009, Twitterhawk, as it was called back then, had to do a name change because Twitter felt it is too close to their name. It didn’t deter Chris Duell, the Australian founder and developer, to fine tune his product and make it available to the World Wide Web. He just changed it to Twithawk.

Twithawk is a real time marketing tool which enables a marketer to find new people to connect with and increase his base. At the same time he is advertising his product.

Based on keywords and location, Twithawk will pull all the Twitter conversations mentioning the key-words or the location, and deliver them in real time. It enables the marketer to answer those tweets and interject into the conversation. Or he can have an autoresponder answer those selected tweet immediately.

Here are some examples: A radio station wanted to increase its base. They set up Twithawk, and chose as keywords names of rock bands they were playing.

Every time a tweet talking about one of the bands went into the Ethernet, it was pulled by Twithawk and the autorepsonder sent a message: “If you like this kind of music, why not listen to radio xxxx? They play what you like”.

Or, when talking about location, a coffee shop owner in Springfield Illinois can set the keyword to “coffee” and the location to Springfield. When someone tweets about having coffee in this town, he can immediately send a reply saying “Why not give Buck’s coffee a try? We have special deals for tweeters…”

Twithawk is pro-active. Instead of placing an ad on a site and waiting for clicks, the marketer sends a reply to a person who is already talking about what the marketer has to offer. If you can start a relationship, says the going wisdom, you can turn this person into a customer.

To prevent this tool from becoming a spam machine, something that worried most experts, the program sends only one tweet per day to the same person, and the number of tweets is sold in packages of 1000. Twithawk charges $0.05 for each tweet sent, and the marketer can monitor the marketing true CPC with link tracking and integrate it with Google Analytics. The site’s average CPC is $0.02, which is much cheaper than any other marketing method.

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Radian6 – Cloud Based Command and Control of Social Media

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Radian6 provides marketing, communications and customer support professionals with a platform which enables them to see, in real time, what is said about them and their products in all aspects of social media; in tweets, Facebook, blogs, multimedia, forums, conversations and boards. By doing so, it gives the business the ability to manage, track, respond, report and analyze their reach and sentiments toward their products.

Marketing is no longer what it used to be, says Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com.   In his keynote speech at the Cloudforce Winter 2011 conference, in New York, he showed how it has become, in big part, Social Marketing. The ability to listen to customers, to reach out to them at the moment they are ready to buy or make a change, is what differentiates great and not so good marketing.

Introducing the New Radian6.

It used to be data-based marketing, when you have the database on premises and you segment it and turn it into your e mail list. But in today’s segmentation, your database can be the entire internet.

There are thousands of conversations going on social media channels every hour of the day. How do we make sense of all those conversations on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks? How do we reach the people that are already taking about our product and use them to spread the word? How do we put out a flame before it becomes a fire-storm?

Here is what Radian6 has to offer: A complete social marketing app that is cloud based. A social hub that includes monitoring, insights and reaction. Command and control everything that you do in social marketing from one place. Based on some criteria keywords that you put into the system, Radian6 will pull out every conversation that is going on, which includes your keywords. This cloud application will do it in real time.

You’ll know what they are saying, where they are saying it, and what is the sentiment.  You can drill into the conversations as they are happening and take action. You can set up automated rules that define how you want to handle criteria and route it to the appropriate people in the organization for immediate action.

For marketing campaign managers it means no more 30 day old focus groups, where you are reacting to information that happened 30 days ago. And you don’t need hundreds of people to gather that information and analyzing it. All you need is technology that allows you to scale the social media walls.

With drilling even further, you can find out all the available information about that customer that is asking a question about a service you provide. Where is that person present on social media, where he is located geographically and previous contacts you had.

And you can grab that information, route it to the correct decider and communicate an offers right back to that person through social media channels. Offer that might answer a need the market has at the moment. You can do it across all the channels. Even though the customer used Twitter for example, you can answer in any other form and even present the offer on their mobile device. 

Radian6 was acquired by SaleForce in March 2011

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bMim-uGOWY]

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Professional Spotlight: Stephanie L. Schierholz (NASA)

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Stephanie Schierholz is the Social Media Manager for NASA, buts that’s not all. This talented professional like many others also participates as a active member of other organizations. At the time of this article she is president-elect for Women in Aerospace, an inaugural member of the British Council’s Transatlantic Network 2020, and a member of the Public Relations Society of America.

Stephanie earned her MBA at Georgetown University and also holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and English.

Stephanie’s most recent work is in a new frontier at the Space Agency, as the Social Media Manager. It was during the Social Media World Forum in New York City that dbmei staff learned how NASA had a thriving social media presence and how it had been built by the brave souls who volunteered their time to generate a new communication tool for NASA. Unlike many other agencies and organizations NASA cannot advertise, which until recently left the agency at the hands of reporters. Now social media provides NASA with the opportunity to communicate and reach out to millions of followers. In addition to the recent TweetUps, they had the opportunity to do some location based services checking in on Foursquare, from SPACE?

Stephanie is passionate about change and everything space, but what you might miss is the underlying message about how she does that, it’s through communication.

While most can get lost in causes and ideas, Stephanie has stayed true to the core value that it’s all about communication. Stephanie sees social media as a “tool” that has done wonderful things allowing people and organizations to communicate. This was relayed intensely when she talked about both her experiences at NASA and with the British Council’s Transatlantic Network 2020. Stephanie shows great interest in communications being the tool to understand one another, in fact when faced with the question “What advice would you have for young people who face struggles and failure?” Stephanie immediately went back to her core explaining that critical evaluation has to be done to understand the “why” and ask questions to both yourself and the people around you.

Stephanie’s advice seems to consistently be about communication and exploration, she urges young professionals to reach out to experts but not be afraid to try something new, and again understand the “why” if someone is critical or when you face failure. Stephanie also warns to be careful, if you do something make sure you enjoy doing it because once you become the expert, it’s only natural that you’ll be expected to do that from now on.

As the President Elect for Women in Aerospace, Stephanie is passionate about opening the doors and setting up support systems by both men and women to help generate more resources for women to seek out careers in “everything from aviation to space and all that in-between”.

Stephanie was raised in Colorado, and has done quite a bit of moving around, but says she is enjoying the east coast for now, and in talking to her you can’t help but wonder if this star eyed professional has something more grander in mind for her future.

Stephanie Schierholz seems to be paving her way to something great, based on the roles she is in now and her passion for exploring new ones, you cann’t help but expect we will be hearing a lot more about her as time goes on.

As of today, Stephanie Schierholz is a passionate and professional contributor to society, social media and a role model for communicators everywhere.

Video: Interview done via Skype has been edited for sections to share on the post and via YouTube, the video is edited from the 45 minute original video to 15 minutes and includes sections thought important by the author.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAQwpsXnBTU]

dbmei.com previous article on NASA from Stephanie L. Schierholz Presentation at Social Media World Forum North America:

#SMWF: NASA’s ‘Out-Of-This-World’ Social Media Engagement Success

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#SMWF: NASA’s ‘Out-Of-This-World’ Social Media Engagement Success

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NASA has quite an impressive social media plan in place that has already created quite a social buzz. There innovative and interactive ideas has gained them a solid reputation for achieving success with social engagement. At the Social Media World Forum in New York, I had a chance to hear Stephanie L. Schierholz, Social Media Manager talk about what NASA has been doing with Social Media, and specfically location based services recently.

NASA Partners with Gowalla

Gowella, a mobile and web service, partnered with NASA in 2010 to provide them with an interactive contest where users check in via Gowalla to help locate four NASA-related virtual items. Those items were a NASA patch, a spacesuit, space shuttle, and a moon rock. NASA displays moon rocks from past moon missions at expositions, planetariums, and museums throughout the world. Moon rocks were easily located when users checked in to any location where an actual moon rock was on display.

Gowlla in collaboration with JESS3 created a special edition of a visual map to help users locate the moon rocks and the other required treasure hunt items could be found by checking in through Gowalla at any one of the over 400 science centers, observatories, nature centers, aquariums, museums, and planetariums that are part of NASA’s large Museum Alliance. Gowalla users that collected at least three of the four required items received a special pin in their digital Gowalla passport.

Plus, the first one hundred people who collected three of the four items also received a hardcopy version of the map in the mail.

Tweets from Above and Beyond

During this impressive social media campaign, NASA also had Astronaut Douglas Wheelock, or @Astro_Wheels, check in from Space Station announcing. “Houston, I’ve just unlocked FourSquares’ NASA Explorers badge.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rztX3xZR9go]

Check out the NASA Explorers Badge at FourSquare.

Campaign Statistics

This NASA social media campaign turned up some pretty impressive stats for Gowalla and Twitter. Gowalla had never had a past completed by so many, so quickly. Over thirty-thousand of each of the four required items were located through check-ins, and followers were increased by 4,278 during this campaign.

Since this campaign began more than 10,000 people have unlocked the NASA Explorer badge, and over 130,000 people now follow NASA on Foursquare.

Aside from the statistics, NASA’s campaign on Twitter has had other benefits as well. Some of the photos posted by any given @Astro to Twitpic can be what Douglas Wheelock referred to as ‘life-changing’ such as this photo of the earth’s aurora from space.

Incredible!

You Don’t Have to Be an Astronaut to Learn from NASA

Check out what the social media manager for NASA has to say about their relationship with Twitter and how they engage with their followers, as well as how you can engage yours!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-u_hKhtxAI]

Some lessons that NASA social media staff has taken away from their campaigns may help you as well.

  1. Use Twitter yourself first. Know the format and how it works. Get familiar.
  2. Identify the specific business case for your use.
  3. Locate new resources for growth.
  4. Keep the account active.

“You may not have a spaceship, but your company has a fan base. They won’t think of themselves as fans until they’re in a room with like-minded people. They won’t think of themselves as members of a community until YOU bring them together.”

-David Rosen, @davidhrosen (group VP, Makovsky + Company)

 

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LinkedIn Groups: Analytics, Stats, the data

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LinkedIn is by far the biggest professional social network and the second, after Facebook, in the total registered users in the social network world. 120 million register users as of August 2011 in about 200 countries and in 10 languages.

What started as a place to connect those who are hiring with those who are looking for work, and to do that based on personal contacts and recommendations, offers now much more than that. Users can upload photos to help in recognition, they can follow different companies and get notified when a job in one of those becomes available, and they can form a Group. As of 9 months ago, there were 870,612 groups, most of them employment and business related.

Group enables a limited discussion area and moderation by the owners and managers. It can be accessible to members only, or open to all. It is an effective way for B2B advertising, building leadership and driving traffic to your site.  Groups draw users for a longer session, experts say, and thus enabling a person to introduce himself and become noticeable. This has become a way for a person to establish himself/herself as experts in their field, on top of being a wonderful way to target customers.

Up until now, users only knew the number of people in a certain group, but this month LinkedIn added Statistics to the Group function to show in a very visual way, the most important facts about the group; a summary, the demographics, the growth and the activity of the group.

Within those tabs you can see the information in greater detail; where, geographically, are most members located, how many active members the group has, the discussion rate and how many people joined recently.

This kind of information, LinkedIn thinks, will give new members more in depth information and make the decision process, whether to join or not, much easier.  In marketing, this information gives the business owner information that he did not previously have. If you are a local business owner, the location of the people in the group you are targeting is an important factor.

The statistics shows the growth of the group, a great tool for the group manager, which enables him to see the daily activity and response to ad campaigns.

LinkedIn have been paying attention to its Group function in the past few months, unveiling new features. In November their numbers grew to 131 million members  worldwide and 1 million groups.

Why data?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akLmMAnQDVk]

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Google+ Pages Open the Doors for Brands and Businesses

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This past June, immediately after Google launched it’s highly anticipated Google+ social network, internet savvy businesses like Ford, Dell and Mashable.com rushed to create pages for their brands. Only to have them removed a few days later. Google’s announcement soon followed: “In the meantime, we ask you not to create a business profile using regular profiles on Google+. The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. (Christian Oestlien Ads project manager on Google+)

One hundred days later Google delivered on its promise. On November 7, 2011 Google+ announced the grand opening of Google+ Pages worldwide.

Google+ Pages allows businesses, brands, and organizations create their own page and establish a circle of like-minded people who enjoy the brand and want to talk about it. Not only does the page allow having a conversation with brand representatives in a way of personalized customer service, it also allows the group of followers to have a conversation with each other.

As Google+ puts it, when it talks about the customers: “…we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands… this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.” (Google’s blog)

Not only brands and businesses are involved. Google+ wants to enlarge the circle of users to local business, products, corporations, institutions, organizations, arts and entertainment, sports teams and more. They have been working with businesses since the launch in June to understand the needs and requirements of brand names. You can see the pages of these businesses already active:

  • Dallas Cowboys
  • Macy’s
  • Pepsi
  • Toyota
  • Anderson Copper 360
  • X games
  • Zen Bikes
  • The Muppets

Having pages for brands and businesses is nothing new, but Google+ has a few advantages over the competition:

  • People can recommend the brand easily by pressing the +1 button, and start sharing immediately.
  • A brand can have more than one page. A car manufacturer, for example, can have a page for each of its models.
  • Although Facebook has over 500 million users, and Google+ has, so far, about 50 million, the biggest advantage of Google+ has to do with the billions of queries made every day on the search engine, most of them looking for businesses or services. Google will include Google+ pages in its search results.
  • Direct connect – The easiest way to find a band you like to follow or a product has been amended as well. Typing the sign + before the query will take the searcher straight to the brand page. (Try it with + Angry Birds)

The official announcement on Google’s blog ends with these words: “With Google+, we strive to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. Today’s initial launch of Google+ Pages brings us a little bit closer, but we’ve still got lots of improvements planned, and miles to go before we sleep. So stay tuned.

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Facebook Ad Campaigns – Are They Working?

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A World Obsessed with Facebook

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJXOavGwAW8]

With so many potential customers on Facebook, Facebook ads should be a profitable and beneficial to your business. With over 850 million users, and 225 million of those in the United States, there is quite an audience to target through the use of Facebook ads.

How Facebook Ads Work

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhn0-MrDR18]

The Facebook Ad Marketplace

Like other online advertising options, Facebook ads are a type of marketplace where the user bids on how much they are willing to pay to reach their prospective consumers and how much they will pay if those consumers take action.

Facebook has become a common place for businesses who are using customized Facebook Fan pages to increase the amount of fans on their page, thereby increasing their consumer base. Fans are simply customers waiting to happen. So how do you make sure you are getting a good ROI from the investment on the ads?

Basic Marketing 101 – ROI

To determine your ROI you should take your gross profit, subtract the capital spent on your Facebook ad campaign, then divide by the expense. This should give you a good comparative measure in which to determine which of your marketing expenditures are most effective for your business.

Has Anyone Had Real Results from Facebook Ads?

If you watched the video above, you heard from Bob Ford, a representative for Papa John’s Pizza. He describes how an ad placed on Facebook increased their Facebook fans by 130,000 fans overnight with a one day engagement ad.

Starbucks ran their own event on Facebook ads for World Aids Day and had an overwhelming 950,000 people who agreed to attend the event. Alex Wheeler, a Starbucks PR rep shares, “I think it (Facebook) is really effective because its part as the content experience that people have on Facebook. They can interact with it. They can actually participate. We can have these shared ideals with our customers.”

The Value in a Facebook Ad as Part of Your Marketing Campaign

The ultimate benefit, just as the Facebook developer in the video states, is that Facebook itself provides not only the venue to advertise to direct demographics, but that its very nature encourages other Facebook users to share the content with their network. This means that with an effective Facebook ad campaign, many of your connections could be made for ‘free’ in the form of users who willingly share your content with others. This digital version of ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising has proven to be highly effective for some.

“The conversations are happening, with, or without the brands participation.”

Do you want to be a part of the conversation?

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