Get Noticed
Archive for March, 2010
Does Twitter Offer Anything Besides Following Celebrities?
Mar 28th
Twitter is great for celebrities. If we look at both the number of followers and retweets received, celebrities are among the top Twitter users. This is something that annoys me. Twitter is an open communication platform which means that it should give voice to everybody. However, those who flood traditional media end up having an omnipresence on other social media. As a result, social media becomes an extension of traditional media. TV viewers are first fed with stuff on Entertainment Tonight and then start commenting about that stuff on social media. It is a convergence of traditional and social media towards the same kind of useless nonsense about the silly life of celebrities.
After celebrities, other known faces take the second spot on Twitter. A-list journalists for instance happen to have a lot of followers. So once again, the propaganda machine is doing a great job of having all kinds of media converge on the same subjects. Is there a way out of this situation? I believe so, but it is going to take time.
A Forrester report shows that 70% of people on Twitter are spectators. When a spectator signs up with Twitter for the first time, he is offered to follow a list of people who are celebrities. For this person, it is only a natural to follow celebrities because his other source of information does not expose him to anything else that celebrities. This is the first obstacle to real social media: people just don’t know where to start since traditional media has kept them in the dark about a lot of real issues.
The second obstacle to real social media is time and effort spent by alternative sources of information to reach people and attract their attention. Since people are used to a certain kind of conversations that are dominant on TV, new ideas are marginalized and it is going to take time before people can find meaning in them. The danger is that Twitter and the Internet in general are cheap media but it doesn’t mean that competition is free. Traditional media can also broadcast for low costs and they have the kind of muscle to direct people to their websites. However, the possibility is there for innovative communicators to broadcast new ideas with relatively low costs. Once every a while, when someone will be tired of the same old opinions being exchanged on CNN or the Wall Street Journal, he or she might try something new and here we go. A new person joins the crowd of those who wanna do something good with social media.
If You’re Not On Facebook, It’s Most Probably Because You’re A Terrorist
Mar 21st
When octogenarians have Facebook accounts, the only people that don’t have one are those who have something to hide. A terrorist for instance would prefer to operate in the dark and not let everyone know with who he is connected. One thing is sure: someone with a Facebook account has at least a few friends to show off, something that could create an attachment to life! The problem is that being on Facebook doesn’t clean someone as we have seen in the past, many radical religious groups have used social media to promote their ‘ideology’ and ‘achievements’. My point is that it is the absence of Facebook presence that could mean danger.
Do you know people who are proficient with computers and do not have a Facebook account? You should report that person to law enforcement. The person is probably planing a terrorist attack and obviously doesn’t want to update his status! Or, if it’s a Jihadist or Taliban, the person might not have a friendly picture to put on the website. At least, the person might think that putting a Taliban-fashioned picture on Facebook might attract the wrong kind of friends: the FBI.
There are also those who think that Facebook is evil. I’m talking about those who think that Facebook promotes debauchery and that it is not compatible with divine law. Those guys will probably not like to be part of the debauchery and avoid computer all together. Of course, when 300 million people use Facebook, it might be an indication for that person that debauchery and corruption is widespread to unacceptable level. What’s next? a terrorist attack.
All an all, the census bureau should have a list of residents who do have Facebook accounts. All the other residents are potential terrorists and added to a watch list. Of course this seems to be very discriminatory and a breach of privacy, but is it really impossible?
A Guide to Social Media Marketing Techniques
Mar 9th
In my previous article, I was somehow critical about the state of advertising in social media. I do believe that marketing is a necessity in a free market and that it can give great results when done with integrity. And by that, I mean not disguising Ads into user generated content. And I have to admit, there are a number of companies that just do that and they have gained a lot as their customers have gained also. In this post, I will talk about a few techniques that can be used on social media for marketing purposes. As you know my philosophy, I’m against black-hat techniques when it comes to selling products, so everything here might sound very boring to some…
Social media for promotion
Let’s say a friend of yours just had a great deal at Best Buy. The deal is so good that he had to tell you, which led to you buying that same product. That’s great because Best Buy benefits from word-of-mouth marketing here. First, they promote their products and then word-of-mouth happens with sales flowing. Social media offers very much the same possibility. When people retweet or tag a page on Facebook, their friends get notified which is the same as if they had talked about it. Now what’s great with social media is that marketers can easily measure the impact of their campaign by using a brand management and monitoring solution. Some companies have used this technique with great results and their increased effort in this direction is just a proof of it.
Broadcasting techniques
When markets are global, broadcasting become effective way 0f marketing. There are marketers that use Twitter to reach as much people as possible. Of course, having a lot of followers helps in this technique. However, social media is very good at minimizing the cost per person reached. A follower will not cost more than a few cents to acquire so people can be reached for a very cheap price.
Customer retention techniques
It is common knowledge to say that customer retention is an important issue for marketing. It is also known that personalization of customer communication is a big factor in customers loyalty. The good thing with social media is that it can create a community around a certain brand which is going to be active about how to deal with a lot of things. The marketing management’s role here is to coordinate and participate in the conversation and get to know the customers. since distance between the customer and the company is diminished, effort can be spent on stuff like keeping in touch with customers and receiving frequent feedback. Again, brand monitoring is great when it comes to sensing important issues that need to be addressed. Here, the idea is to turn the fire off when things get nasty on social media.
Local business marketing techniques and Social media
With location-based social media gaining popularity, businesses that offer services need to be present on those platforms. Don’t forget that there are intangibles involved with services, so it’s always good to adopt cutting edge techniques and have a presence where your competition isn’t really present. Also, people are increasing using things like Google Map to look for services in their area. So marketing needs to be there and be active so it can get the right king of attention for the business.
Marketing techniques and integrity
Of course, all of these should be done by user accounts that clearly indicate a link with the brand. Without this indication, companies are misleading consumers about the nature of the messages that they are sending out there. While this technique can be fruitful in the short run, people will end up uncovering the deceitful methods and things can get worse than if no effort was spent on social media at all.