WELCOME Spring 2010 Class!

Karl Kasca and I team teach Social Media Marketing at UCLA Extension and we are delighted to have you in the class.  

Congratulations!  You have signed up for a class that is absolutely leading edge!  This class is more than state-of-the-art - it's marketing in real time.  The class is full and we have a great semester planned for you with real world case studies and terrific guest speakers.  

Get ready for a fast-paced 12 weeks.  Class materials, links, powerpoint lecture material, etc is on Blackboard.  See you tonight!

5 Essential Apps for Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page

email

share

If you’ve already searched for some Fan Page inspiration and undertaken the task of building a custom landing page for your business’s Facebook presence, you may now be in the market for some features that will further engage your fans.

A nice feature of the modern social web is that it’s modular. You can plug in and customize pre-made pieces of software (often created by other users or companies), and mix and match what works best for you without a lot of technical know-how. Facebook works the same way with apps.
 

Many Facebook apps are built for casual use, like the social games and quizzes you may see your friends using in their personal feeds. But there are quite a few apps that are ideal for a business Fan Page. These are useful for customizing your page with greater detail, showcasing your content from other social sites and getting more information from your customers. Here are five essential Facebook apps that your business may want to take for a spin.

---

1. Static FBML for Your Page Sidebar

---

We’ve already discussed how the Static FBML app can be used to make your Fan Page a unique destination. But this versatile plugin can also bring some interactivity to the column that appears on the left-hand side of your page.

Vertical, left-hand navigation is something users expect to find on most websites. They will be comfortable looking there for additional links, promotions and contact details. Moving a Static FBML box over to the left-hand column is a great way to exploit this valuable real estate. Here’s how to do it.

If you haven’t already done so, add the app to your Fan Page and make sure it’s functioning as a “Box” rather than a “Tab.” Add content to your box using standard HTML. Graphics cannot be uploaded to Facebook here, so you must reference them from a URL — likely one on your own hosted website or blog.

For a sidebar, think about adding some clean graphic buttons or icons that link out to other destinations your fans would be interested in, such as your company website, blog or Twitter () account. This sidebar will be visible no matter what Fan Page tab your visitors are on, so consider using graphic elements that coincide with your existing logo and color scheme.

Once your content is added and saved, it will appear as a box on the “Boxes” tab. Head over there to ensure that your HTML has rendered properly. If so, click the “Pencil ()” in the top-right corner of the box and select “Move To Wall Tab.” This will display your content in the left-hand navigation of your page.

---

2. Promotions

---

Contests and giveaways are a great way to engage people with your brand, especially on the social web. A chance at some free stuff is one of the top reasons people follow and friend brands in the first place. The Promotions app makes it easy to build and publish a contest on Facebook in a way that is inherently social and shareable.
 

Promotions is different from many Facebook apps in that the content you create for it lives on the developer’s website. This makes it a versatile tool, but you’ll have to sign up for a free account at wildfireapp.com.

Once you create an account and connect the registered app to Facebook, the promotions you generate on WildFire will populate the tab on your Fan Page. Promotions are easily built through a step-by-step process. Provide the dates of the contest, the types of prizes, the fields for the entry form, specific parameters about contest entry and rules, and upload any additional artwork you want to include.

A nice advantage of having contest data centralized on WildFire is that it can be sourced out to other social networks, and even to your own company website. Any changes or additions you make to your promotions will dynamically update on all of the locations where your customers and fans find you on the web.

Note, the cost to publish a basic promotional campaign through Wildfire is $5, plus $.99 for each day the campaign is active. Additional packages with more customization and publishing options are available.

---

3. Social RSS

---

If you already have great content from your company’s blog or another social network that you’d like to bring to the fore of your Facebook presence, Social RSS is a smart tool.

You can configure this app to automatically pull in updates from any RSS or ATOM feed and display them as posts on your Fan Page, either on a dedicated tab, a wall tab (on the left side) or as part of your core news feed. It’s a useful way to automate your content and eliminate the need to republish things manually to your Facebook Page.

Take note, however, that fans on social networks are much more responsive to curated content. Especially on Facebook, where people connect to a smaller community of personal friends and family, an unfiltered pipeline of RSS content may not be welcome in all news feeds. If your core customers are already subscribed to your blog and other social accounts, a double-dose of the same exact content may trigger some to hide your updates or “un-fan” you. Consider relegating your Social RSS feed to a tab if this is the case.

Test () where and how an app like Social RSS is best implemented on Facebook, and adjust as needed depending on the size and response of your audience.

---

4. Poll ()

---

Sometimes you just need a little feedback. That’s what social engagement is all about, right?

On Facebook, it doesn’t get any simpler than the Poll app. There’s no account to sign up for. Once you connect it to your Page, all the setup and data lives right in your settings panel.

A poll can be a casual way to get a read from your fans about a new product, a new page design, or your business in general.

In the poll settings, simply name your burning question (What do you think of our new spicy burritos?), list your choices (Delicious (), Pretty Tasty, Needs Work, Offensive) and select your publishing options.

Polls can be published to your Page wall/feed, live on a custom tab or be popped into your left-hand navigation where visitors can click anytime they come to your Page. You can invite your friends to take a poll, and they can easily share it out as they would any other post or app. Both you and your visitors can see the poll results without leaving Facebook.

Publishing a weekly poll about new products or changes in your industry is a great way to keep fans coming back to your Page and talking about your brand.

---

5. YouTube for Pages

---

If creating video content is part of your business’s social media strategy (and we recommend it should be) you can squeeze more views out of your productions by dedicating a Fan Page tab to your YouTube () channel.

That’s exactly what the YouTube for Pages app does. To activate the app, you’ll have to set up a free account at the developer website involver. Once it’s connected to your Fan Page, simply input the YouTube channel you’d like to pull videos from (it could be your own or anyone else’s), pick a few more settings, and you’re all set.

The app “features” your most recent upload or favorite, and displays thumbnails for previous videos on a simple, clean interface. The videos play directly on Facebook () of course, so fans can watch without ever leaving your Fan Page. Just be sure to add the tab in the app’s “Application Settings.”

TurboTax’s Social Media Strategy

If you live the U.S., you’re probably thinking about next month’s tax deadline. You’re also probably using TurboTax to file your tax returns.

TurboTax is a brand built on the principles of word of mouth. For 25 years, TurboTax (and its parent brand, Intuit) has focused on building relationships with its customers — even doing “follow me home” research to get 1-to-1 feedback about how people actually do their taxes.

Here’s a presentation by the brand’s Social Media Marketing Manager, Christine Morrison, in which she describes how the company is extending the fundamentals of word of mouth marketing to social media for customer acquisition and retention. She shares how social media is helping them build a persuasion engine, how they’re making user reviews more relevant, and how they’re using their Twitter presence for customer support.

Takeaways:

• Help customers share the great experiences you create. Customers feel a colossal sense of joy and relief when they finish their taxes. TurboTax helps them share this with a “Publish to Facebook” option after they submit their e-file.
• Customers trust each other more than your ads. TurboTax is reporting some striking numbers vis a vis the social-media engagement model anecdotes we’ve all heard. On Facebook, for example, they’ve found News Feed publications are four times more engaging than banner ads and have 30% higher conversion rates.
• Customers love to help each other. Motivated by little more than the satisfaction of sharing their expertise and helping others, TurboTax’s community members are doing amazing things. One retired CPA answered over 50,000 questions last year, and more than 5,000 customers viewed his content.

Watch the  case study presentation and follow along with the slides below:

How to Use CNN’s iReport to Market Your Company

From Under 30 CEO

Photo via CNN.com

File it under trendy but true: Online video will be a transformative marketing tool for entrepreneurs in 2010.

Online viewers consumed 33.2 billion videos in December alone, with the average viewer taking in nearly 190 per month last year, according to recent statistics from comScore. That represents a staggering 2 billion jump in total videos watched from just a month before.

Multimedia represents an increasingly powerful way for small businesses and startups to boost credibility and brand awareness. You don’t need a TV studio and a teleprompter to pull together brief, informative videos that underscore your expertise and help create separation from competitors.

For most entrepreneurs, a bare-bones trinity will do the trick: Handheld camera, tripod and a whiteboard.

The key is adding value. Video is becoming a killer marketing avenue for companies committed to true utility — offer quality information on a timely topic and, more often than not, you shall be rewarded.

If you’re really lucky, that reward will be some serious love on one of the world’s busiest news sites.

CNN: Go Big or Go Home

The demand for quality video and citizen journalism has carved out an exciting new space for entrepreneurs.

Citizen journalism sites like CNN’s iReport and MSNBC’s First Person allow everyday citizens to post videos and photos on a variety to topics. Submissions run the gamut from low-brow nonsense to breathtaking commentary.

These video sites represent a prime marketing opportunity for companies willing to take a leap and develop content rooted in education and analysis.

The beauty is these aren’t social spaces ruled by Digg nerds and social marketers who can easily manipulate success. The video equivalent of link bait isn’t likely to land much success at sites like these, where thousands of submissions pour in every day.

That isn’t to say that getting a piece to go viral is impossible. Just ask David Siteman Garland.

The Rise to the Top of CNN

In mid-January, we posted our first iReport piece for one of our satellite companies. We took a journalistic approach, putting together a three-minute video that explored new regulations for mortgage originators and the potential impact on home buyers.

We also took that approach because we have a former journalist on staff. That isn’t a requirement for success here. These citizen news-sharing sites welcome all manner of video, whether it’s commentary, opinion, a review or any other snippet that imparts information.

A few weeks later, I suggested the iReport route to our friend David Siteman Garland, who runs the phenomenal marketing site The Rise to the Top.

Now, David churns out well-crafted videos every day, so the concept wasn’t foreign. But he soon proved how the combination of quality content and a hot trend can send your site into the stratosphere, traffic-wise.

A day before Apple’s big iPad announcement, David posted a piece to iReport on how the yet-to-be-unveiled device could save the dying publishing industry and bolster innovation and entrepreneurship.

The next day, a CNN producer called him about five minutes before Steve Jobs took the stage and asked David if he would shoot another video after the announcement. He agreed and his second iReport piece soon had top billing on the CNN Tech page and a prominent link on the CNN home page

We’re talking about a site that averaged 1.7 billion page views a month in 2009.

David’s success is still the exception. But here are five suggestions for boosting your chances with public journalism sites like CNN’s iReport:

-Harness a Trend

You have a much better shot at attracting the attention of network producers if your piece is timely. Keep an eye on trends and the news and look for ways to interject your expertise or insight. CNN’s iReport also has an “Assignment” desk that solicits submissions on specific, ever-changing topics.

-Create Quality Content

Video that’s cobbled together with little planning and poor execution is doomed from the start. Look for a way to connect to viewers and explain why this topic or your commentary is important to their lives or their wallets. Take the time to write a script or at least have a solid understanding of why your insight is key at this particular point in time.

-Exude Expertise

Pieces that come off as overly promotional in nature will probably fail to take off. Most of these citizen journalism sites require a producer’s approval before a piece can wind up on the company’s main pages or even on its airwaves. Don’t make this a walking talking brochure; do stake a position as an authority or expert when introducing your topic and your take.

-Sneak in Some Self-Promotion

That said, there are ways to ensure your brand gets out there. Make sure you clearly mention your company at the beginning and probably at the end of your piece. Provide contact information such as an email address or the company website so viewers with questions can inquire further. You can also embed links in the small text area beneath the video player on some of these sites.

-Pound the (Electronic) Pavement

Pump your tweeps and light up your other social networking hubs. Slap an “As Seen On CNN iReport” tag on your site. Driving traffic to your video can also garner the attention of producers and other movers and shakers in your industry and beyond. In turn, use your video pieces to leverage new content and posting gigs.

Live Webinar: The Science of ReTweets with Dan Zarrella

FROM HUBSPOT - They put on very useful webinars and this one look excellent.

Tens of thousands of businesses are using Twitter every day in an effort to increase their visibility to prospects and customers. With just over 600 tweets created per second, only the best tweets are retweeted, helping businesses and individuals improve their social reach and digital authority.

For the first time in human history, marketers and researchers are able to aggregate millions (100 million in this case) of conversations to deduce exactly what it is about those conversations that made them "go viral."

This webinar will cover:

* What are retweets and why do they matter

* What makes a tweet retweetable and how does that influence your authority, reach and viral spread

* How can you construct tweets so they are retweeted more often

* What is the science behind retweets

Social media scientist and author of O'Reilly Media's "The Social Media Marketing Book,", Dan Zarrella's ReTweets Study has been mentioned in Fast Company, The New York Times and in a wide variety of other online and offline media. His last HubSpot webinar drew a record-breaking 12,000 registrants.

Photo credit: travelinlibrarian, jimmiehomeschoolmom

The Science Of Retweets Webinar

Tweet this webinar

Share on LinkedIn

Share on Facebook

Live Webinar: Friday, March 19 , 2010, 1:00 PM ET (?)

** Space is limited for this webinar. Reserve your spot below!**

Reserve your spot for the webinar now

The Future of Twitter - Mashable

Wednesday, March 31, SPRING 2010 Social Media Marketing

The class is capped at 50 so register now.  Karl Kasca and Beverly Macy team teach the class and invite guest speakers from businesses and industries around Southern California to come share best practices and lessons learned with the class.

 

Social Media Marketing
  Over 100 million-plus videos are downloaded from YouTube each day. Technorati tracks over 50 million blogs. Social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and others, contain millions of user profiles. Is this just hype or have marketing, advertising, and communication changed forever? And how do these tools fit in to a company's tradional integrated marketing strategy? This course looks at the new channels of marketing, advertising, and communication that make up social media and Web 2.0 space. Using case studies and real-world examples from large corporations and small business, you explore current examples and future opportunities of how marketing professionals embrace online social networks, user generated content and content sharing, blogs, podcasts, wikis, and even Twitter, to create brand awareness and buzz. Learn practical tips and techniques as well as see the bigger picture to help successfully leverage social media marketing for your own environment and purpose.