Social Media
Have We Gone 2.0 Far? Facebook Wedding Invites!?
I got an email from Facebook this morning, informing me that I had been invited to the wedding of one of my best friends:
I repeat, I got an email from Facebook this morning, informing me that I had been invited to the wedding of one of my best friends.
Apparently, he and his fiancé — also a friend — are worried their close friends, all devout music geeks, might buy tickets to this concert in September (a legitimate fear in my case) and thus have an excuse (albeit a weak one) to miss the wedding (which they would understand because they’d totally be there if they weren’t, um… getting married).
Have we gone too far?
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Written by:Robert Gorell
webcom Montréal 2008
Who: Bryan Eisenberg
What: At webcom Montréal 2008, Bryan discusses “The Golden Rule of Interactive Marketing.”
The golden rule states that he who has the gold rules. However, today’s customers have the gold and they are clearly in control of their power that is the outcome of the transparency of choices interactive marketing offers. The voice of the consumer has never been so simple to find and so difficult to decode. Marketers are venturing into new, unfamiliar territories, juggling multi-channel strategies, allocating ad dollars among media, and trying to maximize new technologies — all at a time when consumers seem to find it easier than ever to bypass and ignore those efforts.
Today’s marketers are also being held to an unprecedented standard of accountability. The answer can’t be to A/B test everything and see what sticks. New York Times bestselling author, Bryan Eisenberg will show you a how to persuade these redefined customers as they ignore marketing.
When: May 14, 2008
Where: Head Office of the ICAO | 999, University Street | Montréal (Québec)
Why: Because you want to know more about the impact of social media and emerging technologies on your marketing strategies — and you’ve been looking for an excuse to visit Montréal.
How much? Only $ 395 CDN for the day. Other discounts apply. Visit the webcom Montréal site for details.
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How to Find Your Website’s Voice (Even if it’s a Blog)
In our “Ask the Experts” post, Dina asks how to find her voice — her copywriting voice, that is — for a blog:
“Copywriting for a lifestyle blog is a mystery. How can a blogger create compelling copy that resonates in the short opportunities available, i.e. tagline, front page, about page, social media profiles so that readers subscribe?
“Long copy strategies just don’t work on my baby boomer marriage blog. There’s not enough room to describe the content, show personality and be keyword-rich without sounding crazy.
“What style of writing works best in a blog situation?”
As social media evolves, businesses of all sizes are struggling to maintain a balance in tone between website, blog, and anywhere else their content and brand are represented.
You may already know how to find your website’s voice, so let’s unpack Dina’s question a bit and see if it applies to your social media strategy as well…
Hi Dina!
First, subscribe to Brian Clark’s Copyblogger. He’s got concrete advice on web copy and content creation in general, and he’s the best of the best when it comes to copy that’s specifically tailored to blogging. In fact, one of his writers just did a post about “How to Create a Rock-Solid Tagline“.
Second — Before we, or anyone, can help you find the right tone for your blog, it’s essential to understand its goal.
How are you measuring success? You say you want to generate subscriptions, but to what end? Do you plan on monetizing the blog — and if so, how? Question your own assumptions. You’re suggesting that there are only a few “short opportunities available” to ask people to subscribe, but don’t forget that each post can present an opportunity to subscribe.
Your About Us page should be about more than just “keyword-rich” copy; it should tell your story. Take a look at Nike’s About Us page. Powerful, isn’t it? Sure, they hit all of the essential, dry corporate facts, but those few sentences that stick out let you know why people care about their brand. Your About Us page shouldn’t need to be as dramatic as Nike’s, but it should reflect your blog’s purpose. Remember, you’re asking people to subscribe to your blog, not search engines.
Let people know what you’ve done; where’ you’ve come from; what’s in it for you; what’s in it for them. Future Now’s About Us page isn’t perfect, but hopefully we’ve been both honest and persuasive — two things that are essential to our blog’s voice as well.
In your case (Dina runs a lifestyle blog about boomers getting married), here are a few questions that might help you find the right voice:
- What is the overall emotional stance that your blog has towards its subject?
- How does your blog view marriage?
- Write down some adjectives or perspectives to help.
- If your blog where an actual person, who would it be? Is your blog:
- Another girlfriend to talk to about marriage?
- A marriage counselor?
- A sincere talk show host?
- A close friend of the opposite sex who you feel comfortable asking sticky questions?
- A favorite aunt who has been there, done that, and gotten the t-shirt?
- Is there a favorite quote you have on marriage that sums things up for you?
- Is there one particular moment in the life of your blog that would capture its essence in a nutshell?
- Do certain words or phrases keep popping up in your blog, and would they help show your style/voice?
It may seem silly, but this stuff works.
Third, once you’ve established your blog’s voice, make sure it resonates in the details. Comment directions, error messages, category titles and the like are all good places to indicate your personality. But most of all, headlines are key. Make sure the post titles reflect both your brand’s personality and voice.
Finally, to the degree possible, make sure the content on the blog matches its editorial voice as well. This may be harder to do with multi-author blogs, but having a central blog voice can help. Send the style and voice guidelines out and simply ask for your writers not to stray too far from it. When some of them (quite inevitably) do stray, you can simply make it your policy to brand the post slightly differently than normal, so the readers know that not everyone shares the guest blogger’s perspective.
When in doubt, you can always ask your readers what they think.
. .
Editor’s Note: These are all things we’ve tried to do while finding our own voice at GrokDotCom. It’s not easy, particularly when offering what one hopes is constructive criticism, to be percieved as actually having been constructive. Of course, subscribing to a blog feed or a newsletter does not mean you subscribe to everything its authors say or how they say it. And as Seth Godin points out, “Sometimes, the web is more of a cocktail party than a club meeting.” Very true — and doubly so for those of us who offer advice.
On that note, we’d like to hear your thoughts on how GrokDotCom’s voice has evolved over the days, months, or years you’ve been reading. Don’t worry about hurting our feelings, either. We’d only be hurt if you thought we weren’t listening.
Feel free to share your comments below or email Robert (that’s me) directly. Thanks!
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Written by:Jeff Sexton
Why Virgin’s Banner Ads Work, Even on Facebook!
Traditional banner ads can be frustrating. They’re easy to ignore. And all too often, the landing page on the other side of the click doesn’t fulfill the promise of the ad.
So why not try something new, like placing an ad on Facebook, where captive users are forced to see it right there in their news feeds?
That’s Virgin America’s strategy. But is it anything new?
Despite the hype, social media ads are rarely different than traditional banner or pay-per-click ads. The landscape has changed slightly, but the need for fundamental persuasion and conversion tactics remains. As always, better planning makes all the difference. Let’s take a look…
A Smooth Takeoff
Here’s Virgin’s latest “sponsored news feed item” — i.e., fancy contextual banner ad that targets only certain demographics:
As you can see, the language is simple and engaging. A time limit (March 28) is set, thus creating a sense of urgency without drilling it into the customer’s head.
Nobody likes to be yelled at, especially not on an airplane. So why yell at them to “BUY NOW”? Virgin knows better, and this ad’s subtlety makes it that much more click-worthy.
A Soft Landing (Page)
The landing page continues the scent trail that started with the banner ad. Notice how the exact wording carries over.
See that? Change may be “in the air,” but Virgin was smart to stick with their original verbiage.
What’s even more interesting is that this landing page is actually the VirginAmerica.com homepage. It was the homepage last week, when the March 28 promotion was happening, anyway. This week, there’s a new promotion, and a new homepage message to match.
Consistency across channels is what ensures the success of Virgin’s ad buys. By adjusting the homepage to match their current campaigns, they’re capitalizing on the persuasive momentum of their various banner ad campaigns. (This screen shot proves that Virgin’s Facebook ads are no different than any of their other banners. Would they change the company’s homepage just to match a persuasion scenario that starts at Facebook? Nope.)
Persuade → Qualify → Convert
Virgin America continues the momentum from click-to-click by keeping it simple and keeping visitors engaged on the active window. By showing all March 28-related promotions on a single page, they’re reduce friction in the buying process.
Virgin uses this page to reinforce the visitor’s original interest while introducing a few more offers, thereby qualifying our needs. We click through, and it’s off to the booking engine.
Like most e-commerce shopping carts, it seems flight-booking engines were made to confuse us. Not Virgin’s. Theirs is intuitive and straightforward. As you can see, several steps are combined into one. It’s the website usability equivalent of the magical airplane stall door lock (which doubles as a light switch, and triples as a switch for the fan).
The only downside to having a site that works this well is that now Virgin needs to make sure people enjoy the flight as much as they enjoyed booking it. But if the real experience is anything like the one online, it looks like they’ve got you covered.
CMO’s should take notice.
While there’s no such thing as a perfect website, you should still try to convert like a Virgin.
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Written by:Peter Lee
The Fight Against Shopping Cart Abandonment
Liberty Fillmore is a man with a purpose.
He’s no hero. No, sir. Just an ordinary guy placed in extraordinary circumstances.
His mission: End the plight of abandoned shopping carts everywhere.
Fillmore has a natural talent for saving carts. He was born to do it. He is… The Cart Whisperer.
. . . everywhere I go, I see shopping carts tossed aside. Cast off. Abandoned. In super-value-store parking lots. And, more and more, on the interweb which is online. People say, “I’m all gonna fill up my shopping cart with things,” and then before they hit the BUY button, they say, “Oh, I don’t feel secure. I ain’t buying this stuff here.”
Well, boo hoo, cowards. How do you think that cart fills? Left there, full up and then abandoned before she can fulfill her cartly duties? Well, that’s why I rescue abandoned carts. And why I welcome the support of VeriSign and their EV SSL Product Thing. Join our ranks, and put your cart abandonment issues to rest.
How do you think that cart fills, indeed. Won’t somebody please think of the carts!?
Cart Awareness Starts at Home
Now, before you go door-to-door petitioning for cart awareness, you should know that — although we wish he were — The Cart Whisperer ain’t a real guy. No, ma’am. What we have here is a clever viral marketing campaign from VeriSign.
Let’s take a peek at a day in the life of Liberty….
According to VeriSign:
The … campaign is aimed at highlighting the pain companies experience as they try to understand why consumers fill online shopping carts, only to abandon them before buying. In the face of an uncertain economy, online retailers are clamoring to find ways to turn shoppers into buyers. At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues lost to abandoned carts.
From a branding perspective, this works — assuming that people actually end up going to NoMoreAbandonedCarts.com (otherwise, they’d have no idea VeriSign was behind it). At the moment, though, over 1 million people have seen “The Cart Whisperer” clip.
Only time will tell whether this campaign boosts VeriSign’s bottom line, but it sure does its part to spread cart awareness.
On our mark. Get set. Trust us!
Trustmark logos are helpful, but they’re not the whole answer. If you think adding a trustmark to your e-commerce shop is enough to “end the plight of cart abandonment,” think again. (Sorry, Liberty, but ya cain’t save ‘em all by yer self.)
Trustmarks can boost conversion rates and lower cart abandonment to a degree, but there are many other ways to build trust. Here are three:
• Simplify your privacy statement Roughly 75% of consumers assume that, as long as a site has a privacy policy, it won’t share data with third parties. Not only should you have a privacy policy, it should be clear and concise (e.g., “We value your privacy,” “We will not share your personal information — ever”). Try putting a clear statement like that next to your “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” calls to action and test whether it improves conversion.
• Get a decent “About Us” page. It’s amazing how few small e-tailers make the “About Us” page a priority. If your brand’s logo isn’t trustmark enough, customers need to know more about who you are if they’re going to be comfortable giving you money.
• Optimize your shopping cart. Don’t blame Liberty Fillmore for an 80% abandonment rate. It’s possible you’re not giving would-be customers enough information. Do visitors need to click “Add to Cart” to see your pricing and shipping rates? If so, maybe your cart abandonment rate is misleading. Maybe it’s time to learn a few tricks from Amazon.
Godspeed, Liberty Fillmore. Your noble quest is our own.
. .
Shopping cart lonely? Gonna be in California on March 27th? Want to be a cart whisperer?
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Written by:Robert Gorell
Is Your Reputation Worth $15 Billion?
Before you answer that question, consider this: At Facebook’s current valuation of $15 Billion, a lot of folks think your network’s net worth is about $258.62 — give or take some pocket change.
Since the middle of last year, when they opened up the platform to third-party Web developers and Microsoft invested in the company, Facebook has been the marketer’s gold rush du jour. From books and hobbies to zombies and “hotties,” it seems everyone’s trying to get in on the action, regardless of whether they’ve actually stopped to consider whether a real business model is there. What’s even more troubling — or should be — are the ways some companies willingly exchange their brand’s reputation, and occasionally yours, to dive head-first into social media marketing.
In our debut op-ed for Forbes.com, Bryan & I ask, “Is Your Reputation Worth $15 Billion?”
Oh, and don’t forget to check out the slide show that goes with it.
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Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
Top 3 Problems of Social Media
“The problem with social media is… there are more people writing it than reading it. That isn’t very social, huh?”
I laughed when I first heard it, but my friend explained:
At last count, there were some 75 million+ blogs out there, but very few of those blogs have many readers besides the writer, his mom and the family pet; and if it’s a cat, they just casually glance at it. If you care to argue that people use it as a personal journal, I’d suggest they use a more elegant and simpler technology, a moleskine notebook and a pen.
In fact, besides a few really popular blogs, most blogs don’t have enough readers for a pickup game of basketball. Please don’t lecture me about the long tail — I understand niche, even micro-niche. I think as marketers, though, we have bigger issues to overcome if we ever expect to see the acceptance of social media as a viable media channel.
1. Splogs, Scrapers and Money Making Fakers
Way too many of the blogs out there have been created because someone heard the search engines love blogs. And eventually, some low life figured they could get more traffic is grabbing garbage content from others to post and post and post. The frightening part is that Google and Technorati can’t filter out these content thieves and their sites often show up in listings so that in aggregate they deliver traffic. Both blog publishers and readers feel this pain.
Also, according to Google, of the 2 billion or so pages containing the word “blog,” only about 200,000,000 of them don’t contain the word “money” somewhere on the page.
Based on these statistics, close to 90% of the blogs you’ll find on the internet are the products of get rich quick schemes.
2. New Year’s Resolution Makers and Promise Breakers
Do you have your list of things you plan to do in the new year? Ready for a fresh start? Do you plan to lose weight, start exercising, find a better job and quit smoking? Like many people, you might sign up for the gym the first week of January; you’ll feel the burn of that first session you have with the personal trainer. You’ll thrill from buzz and bustle of the crowds. Waiting for your next machine may whisk you back to memories of standing in airport TSA lines during the holiday travel season. You’ll return, but, unfortunately, by March the gym will be so empty that you’ll hear an echo every time you swallow. Sure you’ll keep going, because you’re different.
Blogging, like any of these resolutions takes a real commitment. Out of the 75 million plus blogs started, in April Technorati reported that 15.5 million of them were “active.” What exactly does that mean?
Technorati claims about 1.5 million new posts a day. Take a look at popular blogs like, Boing Boing, Engadget, TechCrunch, Lifehacker, Scoblelizer, Search Engine Watch, and Search Engine Land, and you’ll notice many of these are publishing 5 or more posts a day. Meanwhile others — top marketing blogs like Seth Godin, SEOmoz, Duct Tape Marketing, Search Engine Journal, Marketing Pilgrim and us at GrokDotCom — try to publish a couple of posts a day. To really feel the benefits of blogging, or any of those other resolutions, you have to do it regularly and you have to do it well. How many actual blogs do you think are doing it and not just polluting the interwebs?
3. Link Baiters and Content Masturbators
If you don’t have easy access to Reddit’s leaked algorithm or know the secret formula to be Dugg, let me tell you how most people get to the front page of these sites.
- Create a list. Title it any of the following: The top 10…, a definitive guide…, 101 resources for…
- Pick a hot topic. These include: Apple, Ubuntu, Linux, Wii, Halo, Ron Paul, or choose something trendy from Google.
- Link to a whole bunch of other people’s posts.
- Voila, you have viral post.
Need an example? Just this week I saw a post on analyzing traffic and improving conversions rise through the social media networks. Not to take anything away from the effort made to create the post, but its first link is to a parked GoDaddy domain page with no content. Even still, people saw the list, didn’t read, didn’t click, but just bookmarked it. Is that the promise and purpose of social media?
Bring the Social Back to Social Media in 2008
Promise to create useful, updated, and unique content every day. I toast each and every one of you who make valuable contributions to this blogosphere every day. It’s hard work and I, for one, respect and appreciate it. Will you?
P.S. Happy New Year to you all.
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Spooked by Spock?
Logically, just a few days ago, I received an email from the Spock Team:
“So and so Jones” has added you as a trusted contact on Spock. By accepting trust, you will be able to search each others’ network, share contact information, and get news.”
It continued…
“Since you are a person I trust, I would like you to join my network on Spock so we can always stay up to date on how to contact each other.”
Now it’s like a Klingon invasion! First, on impulse power, came another invite, and then another, until now, when they are approaching warp speed. In the name of tribbles, what gives?
First it was LinkedIn and Facebook, and now we all feel compelled to “socialize” using the latest shiny new object. Any ideas what will start appearing on my tricorder in the near future?
Spock said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one,” so consider that, lest you photon torpedo contacts from your address book with similar invites — your friends may not have their phaser on stun. Besides, we wouldn’t want you to wind up a casualty of the Social Network Wars of the early 21st century.
I’m in a no-win situation. I would have sent you to StarTrek.com to help you fetch a universal translator to decipher this post, but it’s shutting down. 
The solution to my own Kobiyashi Maru test is to go where all the fans have gone before.
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Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
ESPNU to be a Fast Follower of NASCAR
Recently, Mashable reported that “The worldwide leader in sports” is opening up its collegiate arm, ESPNU.com, to user-generated videos. The service, known as Campus Connection, will allow students, faculty and fans of all colleges and universities to supply the videos, including play-by-play analysis, sideline reporting and even televised events. Much like NASCAR.com, where fans have transfered their enthusiasm for a niche (if it’s possible to call millions of die-hard fans a “niche”) sport into a thriving photo and video-sharing community, ESPNU wants to put the fans in the proverbial driver’s seat.
While this sounds intriguing and may cause a stir on campus, I wonder, can this really bridge the gap in national coverage between the perennial powerhouses and the “What division are they in” schools?
While it may be a start, it’s unlikely that smaller schools will reap the same long term benefits as the household names. Initially, this should increase the support from individual schools by making the games more of an event (”Let’s post that touchdown pass video on ESPNU!”), but it won’t sustain on its own. ESPNU needs to make a concerted effort to highlight videos from all schools, with no bias toward the bigger brand-name schools. If they don’t ensure that there’s fair representation, students and alumni from other schools will stop participating and the experiment will fail. If they’re not careful, ESPNU could easily cave to supply and demand, highlighting content they think viewers want to see instead of promoting the community and its members, which is exactly what drives a thriving social network like NASCAR’s.
With more and more people joining some form of social network each day, ad revenue is pouring into social media. E-Marketer estimates that social network advertising will nearly quadruple in the next 4 years. With such huge potential for a collection of niche online communities (i.e., for smaller schools and for individual sports), ESPNU has the ability to harness all of that growth potential.
If they’re going to do it right, ESPNU should adhere to the 3 triggers of word of mouth by keeping the focus on the online community and its members instead of covering the same old headline-grabbers and stories from the ESPN.com homepage.
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Written by:Peter Lee
College Tonight Tries to Convert the Facebook Fatigued
In the world of social networks, Facebook is getting all the buzz. But despite Facebook’s much-blogged-about $15 billion valuation, MySpace rules the roost when it comes to total members, unique visitors and advertisement dollars. In fact, according to Alexa.com, MySpace ranks as the 3rd highest trafficked website in the US (sixth place worldwide), while Facebook sits at a respectable fifth in the U.S. (seventh place worldwide). So why would College Tonight, a new social network geared toward, well, college students actively going against the two giants of the “social graph”?
According to their ‘about us’ page, “College Tonight focuses on nightlife events and social opportunities both directly on a student’s campus and within their broader communities.” They even claim to be a social network “that promotes actual social interactivity rather than the sedentary lifestyle nearly all “social networks” relegate its users to behind a physical computer screen.”
But how is that really different than what college students already do on Facebook or MySpace? One thing College Tonight seems to ignore is that the internet is the playground for the introverted. Social communities have virtually replaced the pickup line. And, by the way, introverted students already use those other sites to do extroverted things in real life; to go to concerts, promote campus activities, you name it. In fact, doing anything online is an introverted activity.
If College Tonight really wants to peel attention away from Facebook, they shouldn’t define themselves as being “different” than other social networks in terms of how people will use their site. (People who already use other networks will read that message as self-hype.) Instead, College Tonight should try filling the void left by Facebook a year ago, when it decided to let mom, dad and anyone else who wants to, join. They should sell themselves as a network for college students only. “Want to know what’s happening on your campus tonight? Here’s the place to be.” Not only is that what College Tonight was set up to do, it’s the smartest way to get local and big-name advertising revenue. If they tell that story, it’ll be easier for Pete’s Pub (or whatever the local bar may be) to place an ad, and they’ll have cleaner data to help bigger brands target specific campuses and groups.
Although they’re big and getting bigger, there are a lot of concerns about Facebook right now. If College Tonight is smart, they’ll stay small and leverage that by using a Unique Value Proposition that fits.
Otherwise, it’s like David versus Goliath, but without the slingshot.
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Written by:Peter Lee
