Nick Cifuentes

Facebook made a bit of noise last week when they introduced the new Business Pages layout. Then, several days later, made changes to the Home page of all user profiles, and integrated a ‘Twitter’ like wall stream - Facebook’s strategy in building out a more real-time conversation tool.

As usual, when Facebook decides to make changes, your entire office, your close friends and other random people you might see throughout the day - they all have something to say, and I am sure you’ve heard the complaints already. However, I am here to bring calm to the storm…rest assured, Facebook is making a very intelligent change in status here. And most importantly, businesses will be able to flourish greatly from this move.

When it comes to the new business pages - it will now look and function much like personal profiles, offering stronger brand connections via the wall stream, which now takes center stage. When a fan comes to your page now, the very first page they look at is the ‘wall stream’. On this page, businesses that create content often, will thrive in this new environment. As a brand, the wall stream page will gather content and post information about the page and posts by the page itself. Also, content shared by you, links, photos, videos and short text updates via the status updates, and posts by your fans left for you - all now show up in the wall.

In this update, which is really the holy grail here, the wall updates you post will publish to your Fans’ news feeds, and posts by your Fans will go to their friends’ news feeds as well. So, think about this a second - the more content you are able to place and create in your channel, the more you engage with your fans, in turn, the more people you will be able to reach constantly. A single status update of your business profile seeds through Facebook into your fan’s news streams. Now, all their friend’s see this, and can ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on the update, and possibly go one step further and become a Fan of the page.

The wall stream will be a large key in driving attention to your page - use it wisely! You are familiar with how Twitter works, Facebook is integrating the same concept using this wall stream - homepage stream. The more frequency of status updates on your page, the more chance you have to stand out with your fans in the Facebook stream.

When it comes to the layout of the page, Facebook rid themselves of the long ‘leaderboard‘ layout, and moved to a tabbed layout - exactly how your user profile pages now function. And now, when a fan goes to your business page, they are defaulted to the Wall tab, so that fans can see the most recent added content to the page. And for non-Fans that visit your page, you can set a default landing page within your business profile page.

With the ability to send new potential fans to your business page, you can highlight a specific default tab to send them to that might have the most appealing or interactive elements within your page. This will allow users to better promote different portions of their page by driving ad traffic or new fans to certain sections of your profile. By driving potential fans to landing pages within Facebook, you can dramatically grow your fans and leads that ultimately improve conversion rates.

If you are running a specific campaign, or have a new application, event, or interactive element on your page you want new users to connect with - now you can easily create that conversion path for the user.

Some interesting analytics were also integrated into new business pages. Facebook now allows you to track video views, comments posted, news feed posts viewed, and this is all in addition to page views and unique views. And even better, all this data is exportable via CSV sheets.

New Design Makes Advertising on Facebook Irresistible

Facebook is clearly trying to drive more advertisers to use the platform, and it makes a lot of sense now with Facebook allowing you to drive non-fans to specific pages inside your business profile. This is going to add value and interest for users who will make their way to your Facebook page. Brands should embrace this tactic and give Facebook advertising a shot - you won’t be disappointed this time around.

People in the past have been reluctant to spend money on advertising within social networks. The real fact is, social network members are co-creators of content, and in turn, feel they have a sense of ownership within the site. Advertising needs to be more about participating in relevant conversation with consumers rather than simply pushing ads onto a social network user. Advertising should focus on being part of the conversation, not invading the social space.

Advertising needs to be about adding value to a user’s experience, as social networks are built around members adding value to each other’s lives through interaction. This is why fan sites and sponsored groups are truly one of the most successful strategies when marketing within the platforms. This act touches on the principles of interactivity, and adds value to a user’s experience via offers, previews, and the ability for user’s to help create content.

The true challenge though in creating a perfect marriage between social network advertising - marketing and that network’s user, is time. There is no quick-fix in social network marketing, sure there can be exceptions, but those are few and far between. Much like a friendship, social media marketing requires effort, time and a continual investment in the platform to build and foster relationships. Remember, your messaging needs to be authentic and humble, and built on two-way conversation, not a push (one-way) model - in the end, this will add value to the consumer’s decision.

For more information on social media marketing, please review our services, and contact us or myself if you have any questions.

Inauguration & Facebook Connect.

As today marked the first day of what many people hope is a shift in direction for the United States, CNN also embraced the day with live video coverage tied into the Facebook Connect platform.

Inauguration Day, the day Sen. Barack Obama became the first African-American President of the United States.  The day the 44^th President of the United States expressed that although we are in a midst of crisis, and the challenges we face are real, they will be met. More importantly, President Obama expressed this thought through not only television and radio, but also through streaming online video on thousands of websites across the Internet. One of those websites who met this challenge and decided to integrate the most widely used social network with this online video component, was CNN.

On CNN.com, video was integrated with the Facebook Connect platform to create a streaming conversation piece that utilized the Facebook message status capabilities along with live streaming video. This combination turned into a very successful technique that allowed users to connect with their friends during the Inauguration, and chat directly with them through the status update & comment capabilities.

This is a great example of allowing social media to connect with important, live events in today’s society. This is the kind of connection that we need to enhance in today’s web 2.0 world. Tired we are of the naysayers who express that social media is for those who have too much time or use it too frivolously. This allowed people to interact on a personal level with each other while watching a highly publicized event. Going one step further, it allowed users from across the world to access the event and make their points through conversation.

With just this example, a simple CNN.com live webcast - we see the powerful message not only in the direct message itself, but through the community we interact with daily. Your friends, friends of friends, everyone involved in the Facebook community, were able to see each other’s comments and create interaction on the platform - using a large, public event and tying it to Facebook.

Quick numbers just in courtesy of the CNN.com broadcast, during the speech, there were over 1 million people who updated their status messages, more than 85,000 updates just a minute before President Obama began to speak to the crowd. Numbers alone…wow! To say that is impressive is an understatement. The crew at Facebook said that this was the largest number of user status updates ever, in such a short period of time.

Web 2.0 - Time for “Change”.

It was not only a powerful speech, but a powerful move in a web 2.0 world. We all know that social media has had a very strong impact on this past year’s election, and something we should recognize is the fact that social media is being embraced by the current administration. Barack Obama utilizes Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and many more social networks to help connect with the users on a personal level, and realizes how important these social community networks have become in relation to his message.

Not only will President Obama’s message be relayed through these channels, but it will also help build grass-roots support for his agenda.

In a major move just done this morning, the official WhiteHouse.gov website was switched over from the old interface to the brand new ‘Obama’ look about an hour before his Inauguration. The new website looks very familiar when compared to his campaign websites. The most important aspect to recognize here, beyond the design, is the interactive features he offers on the platform. Tremendous calls-to-action that create a significant gateway to features such as his blog, videos, slideshows and much more!

Conclusion.

In the end, we have to examine the priority when confronting not only politics, but social media as well - to stand alone or stand together? When I see the new administration and analyze how they have reached where they are now - they did this with efforts that can be contributed greatly to social media and its external reach.  And when we look at a president who can connect with us in these channels and not just speak to us, BUT WITH US - no matter what party affiliation you are - you have to respect that!

God Speed.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

When approaching the subject of social bookmarks, (aka website chicklets), think about your strategy. I know it might seem easy enough to just place a ’share this’ or ‘add this’ widget to your website, but you need to consider the ‘little’ things about these valuable marketing assets.

I am not going to dive into the definition of what these devices are (as you should be aware) - you have seen these on hundreds of thousands of websites. These social bookmarks, also referred to as website chicklets, offer the ability to share content easily through social content network websites, such as Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Google, Windows Live, Yahoo Buzz, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Fark, Magnolia and many others.

These sites might seem silly at first, but if you are a fellow blogger or social media enthusiasts; you know how valuable this social media strategy is for you. These websites allow access to an audience of hundreds of millions of people who converse inside these channels daily. I don’t know if I need to go into numbers, but why not…let’s do it.

During the time frame of December 2007 through December 2008, the following are the number of unique visitors to each respective social community network website: (Remember these are unique visitors to the website - NOT overall traffic for the year)

• Google Bookmarks: 140 million people
• Yahoo! Buzz: 134 million people
• Windows Live: 88 million people
• Facebook: 60 million people
• Digg: 33.5 million people
• Twitter: 4.4 million people
• Stumbleupon: 4.2 million people
• Delicious: 1.8 million people
• Fark: 451,000 people
• Mag.nolia.com: 90,000 people
  (**numbers courtesy of Quantcast)

I think you see my point - these networks are growing on an exponential level. To think of the daily traffic numbers these websites receive every single day - it could make you shiver. Google Bookmarks alone probably sees close to 100 million visitors a day, if not more. And the numbers given above are just unique visitors to the website. Do you know how many more hundreds of millions of people come back daily to take part in what these websites offer?

These social networking channels are key components in driving not only traffic, but linkage to your website. Placing your website into these networks allows you to drive thousands of unique visitors based upon submission of your content through the social bookmark channels.

Sites.

Blogs, News sites, content networks, article banks, products of any kind online, almost anything with original content tied to it is attached to a social bookmarking tool. Some of the best and worst examples come with news websites.

The New York Times are one of those examples of great placement and overall use of website chicklet attachment. Placing this option on EVERY story on the website, as the NYT does - allows them to gain great traction on linkage and enhance their overall presence on the social network community websites.

An example of a misguided attempt at using website chicklets would be on Boston.com. I look at their placement and say OK, that is fine - but their call-outs are poorly designed, as this example blends in too much with the story overall. It is best to create a completely separate call-out-box, such as the NY Post and Philly.com does in their examples. Otherwise, look at the New York Times (above) and see how they separate it off strategically to the right side of the story - not in line with the copy. This is wonderful placement!

You need to think, when a reader is about to take hold of a story, they look at the picture and title initially, and then start reading down, looking for their CONTENT first, not a social bookmark chicklet they can pass to their friends. They have not even read the first couple paragraphs of the story yet. You have to allow the reader to get comfortable with the material before having them pass the story along to their chosen social network or email it to a friend option. In the Boston.com example, you don’t see any particular call-outs; you only see a ’share this’ application that does little for a user who is unfamiliar with the chicklet. In the NYT example, you see separate icons (calls-to-action) for Linked In, Facebook, Digg, and then you see a button to press for more options - much more effective!  Do you see my point?

Conclusion.

Whether you are a website that offers products or content of ANY kind - consider using these social bookmarks to help grow your traffic. These websites offer the ability for people to easily ’share’ your content, as well as create a number of outbound links for your website. You might have a blog, or other types of content, a viral product, videos, pictures, etc…whatever it might be - you can attach these chicklets to your overall marketing strategy and allow users to push your content into these social community content websites.

Try it - and just see what happens!

Fin.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Social Media Map.

Late last week, our team at Overdrive Interactive released the first version of the Social Media Map. This map is designed to help marketers and random people alike view the components of the social media landscape and determine how it can be best leveraged for their marketing or personal branding needs.

“We know how complex and overwhelming the social media landscape can be,” said Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive. “We wanted to map it all out, so that marketing professionals can use it as a guide to what we believe are the most important social media tools out there. The power of social media is growing exponentially by the day, and now is the time to harness it.”

The map details the ‘key’ social media websites that Overdrive believes you should know about. As a key component in putting that list together - I can’t stress enough the importance of what we did with this social media map.

Our efforts to bring you the most up-to-date social media strategy for you company is key in our mission of social media branding. You have all heard me talk in the past about various websites that come and go, and the social media websites that seem to be flashes in the pan - but remember, they are all relevant in someway. They are helping us shape society on the Internet, and the way people, brands and identities communicate with each other.

Think about the various social engines that are present in the social community; micro-blogging, social bookmarking, groups, life-casting, travel, wikis, B2B social networks, blogs, and more! Many of these have become key points of interest in your daily Internet life, and many of you might still be wondering what certain websites do, and how you can utilize them. That is where this social media map comes into play - for you to see what type of ‘expressions’ on the web you might be curious about, and how you can get started involving yourself in them.

Soon, we will have an interactive version on the web - so stay tuned! Although for now, head to http://www.ovrdrv.com/social-media-map to download your copy today & take part in the revolution!

Fin.

I came across a viral branding website yesterday for a popular television show on HBO, Flight of the Conchords. The TV show is about two men that live in NYC doing sketch comedy and singing their comedic folk songs inside a once a week half-hour show that looks at the everyday happenings of the two main characters, Bret and Jemaine

The idea.

Take a concept of the brand and distinguish it as a ’sensation’. I know that might sound complicated - but it’s really so easy, and I don’t understand why other companies aren’t utilizing their ‘usable’ assets for something similar.

This is exactly what the Flight of the Conchords are doing with their new micro-site - “Lip Dub Video Fansterpiece.” The concept is to learn the lyrics of one of the songs the two main characters sing, and then you are supposed to videotape yourself lip-synching the song, and then upload it to the website - where you might be added to a final “Fansterpiece” that will air on HBO. This content is being advertised only on social channels, and is completely viral - meaning this is not having any media or TV dollars spent on the campaign.

The contest was launched in mid-November, and will last until the new season of the show starts in mid-January.

Simple. Simple. Simple.

I can’t get over how simple this is, but how effective it has become. They don’t give away any lavish prizes, you don’t win a trip to any special destination or big lump sum of money - just about 10 seconds of a small amount of fame.

At the same time, they do a great job of implementing bookmarks or sometimes referred to as chicklets. These are the type of calls-to-action that include the ability to post the “contest” to Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Delicious, and you can also email to a friend. These are all tactics in “spreading” the word-of-mouth further into the social networks.

The video service they are using is YouTube, making it ‘free’, as well as very viral! This allows HBO to spread their contest through the social channels with little to zero promotion on their part, which was their full intention.

Statistics.

Since the website launched in mid-November - the main website where they utilize the videos, the YouTube channel that was created for the contest - has seen nearly 8,000 views since the project launched on Nov. 13. I know those numbers are not monumental, but you have to think about the ‘trickle’ down effect from this contest alone.

On the microsite, you also are able to access the Flight of the Conchord’s Facebook and MySpace pages. Their current Facebook page has a more than 245,000 fans, and they have a little over 25,000 friends on MySpace. These channels were setup well before the contest started…but both channels have seen an increase in activity in fans/friends since the middle of last month.

So What?

Well, I tell you this information because it’s important to consider the outreach of a ‘viral’ campaign, such as this one, and what it can do for a brand. Chances are, many people are going to submit videos to try and appear on the channel, and many more people may just watch the videos other people create. Either way, their creating a ‘buzz’ about the show and the new season, interest of not only current fans, but new fans of the show are found through the ability of allowing others to easily spread the contest into the social content networks, such as Digg, Delicious, Twitter, and so on. They attach links to the show’s page on the HBO website, as well as create easy access to the show’s MySpace and Facebook pages.

Through a viral campaign like this, you should explore your brand further to see what kind of similar outreach you may be able to do. This is social media branding 101 friends - don’t take something as small and ‘funky’ as this to be something silly - when in all honesty, they spent next to nothing to engage new fans and current fans of the show - to stay tuned to the new season, maybe buy the DVD, purchase some apparel, or some other Flight of the Conchords related materials. It’s genius.

The point is - you need to think about social media branding if you have not already. Agreed, for some brands social media might not be the way to go - but as they say so often - “don’t knock it before you try it.”

Chances are, I think it will.

For more information, and if you have any questions on viral or social media branding - feel free to contact me @ nicholas.cifuentes@gmail.com

Twitter.

What if there was a business tool that existed, which could allow companies to listen in on discussions about how people are using their products, analyze what people are saying about them, and could allow that company to respond to that “person” directly.

It’s a tool that effectively hones in on embracing the early product adopters and influencers who are then able to share with their friends, followers and other individuals related to these “key” components.

It’s is Twitter. But more importantly, it’s a Twitter built around building discussion, interest and awareness of your products and overall branding strategy.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows a user to create short posts, or better known as “tweets” - which others then can follow, reply and respond to as they see fit.

But, you have to realize, this is much more than just telling someone what you had for dinner a last night or that you just finished your laundry. This is a tool that creates a bridge of genuine interaction with people who choose to use your products. If a company properly integrates this process - you can utilize Twitter to capture “conversation” between your company, customers, clients and colleagues.

Proper Conversation.

But you have to remember, Twitter is a conversation tool, and you have to treat it as such. People will STOP following and paying attention to you quickly if you blast them with blatant “marketing.” They don’t want to see your latest press release. Trust me…I and many other have quickly “de-followed” brands which do so. This kind of “tweeting” could leave your brand in a worse position then when it started, and leave your reputation tainted.

Get The Most Out of Twitter.

Who are you trying to reach with Twitter? Is it the key influencers in your field, or might it be the possible users who wish to engage in using your products? Choose one and stick with it.

To do this, it might be best to create an online persona for both - so think one twitter account to get the “news” out, another to harness customer complaints, and maybe a third to take part in the conversation. Just please don’t use one account for all three purposes - this will hurt you severely in the end.

Followers.

To use Twitter in the most effective way - you have to “listen” to the conversations and what others are talking about. As a brand, you do not want to go just follow 2,000 random people and hope that is going to work - think quality, not quantity.

To achieve this goal - utilize the many twitter search tools that exists in the social space. One very useful Twitter search tool is search.twitter.com to find people who are tweeting about you, your brand, competitors, and products you offer. Follow these individuals who you have identified as key constituents for your brand, and then begin to engage them back in conversation.

By following customers, clients, colleagues and leaders in your industry or field, this shows them that you want to “hear” what they have to say. These people will almost always “follow” you back.

Don’t Be Boring. Please.

Always remember to offer something of value to the conversation. It could be advice about your products, news about the company, quality information about what you do, or maybe the occasional joke - Twitter users want to be informed, entertained and kept interested at all times. Don’t constantly push self promotion with no value and consistent ad-rhetoric - this will quickly hurt your Twitter reputation.

Show interests in your users…share with them in their experiences, and ask them questions, engage them! This will quickly show them that you are interested in what they are doing, and will allow them to respond, follow, and possibly use your product.

Beyond Twitter.

Twitter has so much potential for harnessing conversation and interaction. Don’t allow the conversation to stop there. Tie Twitter to your blog and blog posts, link it to your Flickr account, Facebook & MySpace pages, and YouTube Channels…there is so much you can do with this platform and pushing it beyond the Twitter bubble will allow you to further expand your presence in the social media channels.

Utilize Those Twitter Tools.

Twitter can be a bit confusing to the newbie…but there are so many available Twitter tools to take advantage of that allow you to easily perform keyword searches, send direct messages, shorten URL’s and mark tweets as read or unread.

The Twitter website offers the advanced search tool, which allows you to enter keywords and seek out tweets. You can even subscribe to search as an RSS feed.

TweetDeck is a desktop client that allows you to run multiple searches that update in real time. It allows you to see your replies and direct messages in separate columns in the same interface. Twhirl is another client that acts in the same way, but a smaller interface.

Another tool I like to personally use is FriendFeed, a social media website that allows you to consolidate more than 45 different social media and social networking websites, including Digg, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, Flickr, Stumbleupon, MySpace, and more.

And then in the mobile space, you have three fantastic Twitter applications for the iPhone, Blackberry and Treo. Twitterific for the iPhone, and TwitterBerry & TinyTwitter for the BlackBerry and MoTwit on the Treo are great applications to utilize - who knows when the next great thought might come to you? It could be when your standing in line for a cup of coffee or in a business meeting that just doesn’t end, or maybe your waiting on the runway for the plane to take off, either way - it’s more than just a fad.

It’s Twitter.

Fin.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Yammer.

So what is all this Yammer-ing about? After coming across a NY Times article posted Monday that spoke about one of my favorite websites Twitter, and another similar modeled website called Yammer, the question came up - microblogging for business? Yes, I know many people have asked this before, but when combining that question & the topic of non-existent ‘dollar-generating business models’ - what is the outlook?

I cam across Yammer last month when I noticed they won the TechCrunch50, and after reading about them in depth more yesterday - a very interesting point arose - the Twitter for the business world - could it really work?

Yammer, a service that mimics Twitter, but charges from the outset…(applaud). Sort of, Yammer is aimed at the corporate customers, and already has 60,000 users. And they aim to answer the key question, “What are you working on?” Their goal is to make offices more productive through updates on company events and work-related questions that will not clog e-mail boxes with mass mailings.

And how is that money made you ask? Well, TechCrunch, a Web 2.0 technology blog, that gave them the TechCrunch50 prize for start-ups, said they were “Twitter with a business model.” This is no knock @ Twitter though - they have been around since 2006, and have more than 3 million users, but have been criticized by some for their lack of a proper “business model”, as said by several VC’s. More on that shortly….

However, Yammer’s business model is interesting, because it spreads virally in a sense. Anyone with a company email address can sign up and start using Yammer for free. But when a company “officially” joins Yammer, giving an administrator more control over security and how employees use the service - it pays $1 a month for each user. And unlike Twitter, that will limit you to a 140 characters in a message, Yammer let’s you type as much as you need to. In Yammer’s first six weeks, it had 10,000 companies with more than 60,000 users sign up, although only 200 companies with 4,000 users are paying so far.

Now that is certainly not a massive amount of income, but Yammer is similar to what Twitter has been - a decision to grow first and monetize second.

Twitter has raised a reportedly $20 million from venture capitalist, and are similar in belief to the ‘grow first, monetize second’ - but has the economic downturn changed that mindset?

Last week, Twitter pushed aside engineer and creator of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, and gave the job to Evan Williams, Twitter’s chairman and more experienced executive. This leads to that overall question…how does Twitter generate revenue?

Early next year, Twitter has plans to introduce many ways to introduce revenue streams into the current business model. I believe one idea is to charge companies that want to use Twitter as an official channel to talk with their customers and monitor what they are saying.

It seems that many companies grew on the idea of first growing the product and then monetizing thereafter - Google began as a search engine with no revenue before turning a lucrative advertising model that turned it into an internet god. But any company needs to know, chances they will have ‘Google-like’ success - doubtful.

Let’s go back to Yammer though for a minute - obviously chances everyone @ your workplace is on a computer?  Very good. Now, let’s promote in-house conversation how? - emails do get very cluttered and does everyone read them? No.

I admit, I have never read everything that came from the ‘higher-ups’ from places I once worked for, that includes stuff from HR or other departments that just get overcooked in your inbox - you don’t have time, and many the patience to read it all.  So here comes Yammer - ‘a corporate Twitter’ that includes a bevy of security features, include limiting I.P. addresses, requiring passwords, cutting off ex-employees and removing certain messages. Once that company administrator takes over, Yammer charges a $1 per user per month.

Yammer has already recruited companies like Cisco Systems, Xerox and Hewlett-Packard, motion picture companies, and a large casino company.

We have to look @ the obvious for a second though - Yammer is a new way to do a lot of stuff people already do in the workplace. Social enterprise software like SharePoint, Jive Software offer many of these features, as does Twitter and Facebook to communicate with co-workers. But with Yammer, will this more concentrated method of communication change the way businesses communicate?

I suppose all we can do is wait on this one.

As Democratic Sen. Joe Biden and Republican Gov. Sarah Palin prepare to square off tonight in the first Vice Presidential debate, I need to step back to a moment last week and talk about something Twitter launched for the election – that has the social media world stirring in its belly.

For the presidential debate last week, Twitter launched a niche application site called Twitter E08 that focused directly on the presidential election campaign in the United States. The website worked by simply filtering twitter messages (tweets) from all users by certain keywords and aggregating these messages into one page.

In addition, a user can go directly to the section on the website and send a message directly, and it is seen in the twitter timeline immediately. I love the idea of this, as does the community – if you head to the election page – you see it is constantly updating – the interaction is priceless, or useless…depending who you ask.

By promoting the election – Twitter has finally begun to think about ‘micro’ sites within Twitter that will not only aggregate conversations, but build out ‘channels’ per-say of different topics, sports, fashion, marketing, schools, and dare I say ‘business’?

Let’s walk into one of those channels, oh, look, a big transition ad for the NFL.  Oh look, now were in the football channel – with 543 other people talking about football. You see my point. I am not against this at all.  I am actually 100% for it.  I am sure Twitter is tired of hearing criticism surrounding their business model and how they generate money.  I think this election is the starting point for something ‘big’ twitter is considering doing.  Twitter is run by a group of 20 people, that’s it!  I am sure their partner channels and VC funds are well stocked, but naturally you think ‘bigger’ and growth.

I know we would hear endless people complain about a new layout, if the site were to take on niche groups and starts with ads galore; but I think only the current twitter use would complain. Look at the people who now wish to ban the new Facebook layout – because they are too lazy to see their precious applications are on the bottom toolbar – in static mode. Facebook was tired of seeing user pages that would just go down for miles with comments, applications, etc…this opened the door to keep everything within the “user’s level” – instead of having to scroll down 30 seconds to see what someone said about somebody else (you know you care about that!)

Either way, this election and what Twitter is ‘experimenting’ with is just the beginning of a new style Twitter will be undergoing. You know it. I know it.  We all know it.

Go Twitter!

Your blog is like a baby, you nurture it, feed it daily, take care of it when it is sick and watch it go to sleep every single night…yes, my friend – blogs are addicting.  It is 2008, time to build readership, and begin to grow your brand’s awareness through the social media channels.  As popularity has grown in blogs, and blogging, there are some key steps you can take to market your blog and grow effective strategies to increase readership.

Here are some key strategies for growing your blog in 2008:

Bring your Blog Home: One tactic to consider when trying to harbor more traffic, that will almost always work, is to localize your blog.  Targeting a specific market and reaching out to them, using their language, all is a great way to reach more outlets.  Localization allows you to cover topics that competitors probably won’t take the time to cover…something that should be considered when considering new material to write about.

Have Others Write It: User generated content is a great way to expand your blog’s reach.  You can ask the public to submit articles that you feel might benefit your blog’s purpose and publish them accordingly.  This can be gained by seeking out online writers, using article PR services to get content, and affiliating with other blogs in your field.

Start A Forum: A forum is great way to let your users interact with each other.  You want reasons for your audience to come back to your blog, socialize, and interact with each other online.  A forum is a great tool that will encourage this.  By creating this outlet, you create a magnet for your users, which encourage them to return to your brand daily.

Start a Newsletter: Newsletters are an excellent way to reach an audience with information that differs from your blog.  Depending on your product, newsletters are almost necessary to keep your customers returning.  Newsletters are an excellent way to send out narrow messages, or more concentrated, to your audience.  Create a weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly newsletter to connect to your followers.  One of the great advantages a newsletter has is being able to monetize it in several ways (advertising, premium content), as well work them into effective methods for capturing leads.

Social Media Anyone: Social Media Optimization starts with social bookmarking.  Creating an outlet for other readers to take your content and submit it, talk about it, or even blog about it in the social media channels will ultimately grow your traffic.  Allowing applications like Twitter, Facebook, Digg and countless other social news websites, can help disseminate your information to a target user.  Open up accounts in these channels and begin the process yourself, befriend the influencers in each channel and begin to watch your content wind its way through the Internet, and leads grow on your blog or website.

New Writers: New writers can be a great way to bring a new ‘voice’ to your blog.  Otherwise, a change of pace.  Just remember, when you pay someone per an article, make sure they are the best at what you need.  Don’t bring in writers who are unsure and could question your blog’s voice, keep it lively, bring in TALENT, and then you can pay more attention to marketing the blog instead.

Premium Content: This is a great way to further monetize a blog.  Premium content refers to exclusive content that is not made public to everyone and anyone who may fall upon your website.  Create member only pages inside your blog that you can tie to subscriptions and promote alongside your free content.  One suggestion I do have, when you do this, please make sure the content is original and most likely can’t be found anywhere else – it is what makes it PREMIUM!

Other Blogs Like You Too: Working with people in your industry can bring surprising results.  Collaborating with other bloggers in your practice would be done to initiate some sort of social network possibly, large writing projects, online applications, awards, and contests.  This helps build your brand and drive specific traffic to your website.

Videos & Podcasts: Consider video blogging, as a new tactic to your approach.  Your content can reach an entire new audience through some major social video websites like YouTube, Metacafe, Dailymotion, and other high traffic video websites.  Podcasting works the same way, obviously your hearing instead of visually applying yourself.  Viral video marketing also falls into this category, and should not go overlooked.  You will be surprised how much traffic and new conversions you see using this technique.

Overall, in 2008, be creative!  High quality editorial content will keep audiences interested, however, building a supportive audience and broadening your distribution channels will only help the original cause.  Expanding your blog through some of these channels will increase your user participation, create new delivery channels, grow your reputation and influence the audience around you.

Get Blogging!!