I simply love stumbling across all types of interesting new content on the Internet through the social bookmarking site StumbleUpon. Although the site has been around for years, a good friend of mine recently introduced me to the site and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Although I’m fond of the site, I was still pleasantly surprised when I came across the newest statistics surrounding the site. These statistics are ones that social media strategists might want to pay attention to, courtesy of column five media’s recent infographic. (See Below)
Here are the top 5 results of their study:
- StumbleUpon now drives more than 50% of all social media site traffic in the United States, beating both Facebook (37.4%) and Twitter (3.23%).
- A popular link shared on StumbleUpon will get 83% more stumbles after 24 hours.
- The half-life of a link (period of time when a link has received half of the engagement it will ever get) is 400 hours on StumbledUpon.
The above two statistics are so high because of StumbeUpon’s ability to show a user a link regardless of how old it is.
- The average page view on StumbleUpon lasts 72 seconds, which is 25% longer than the average web page view (58 seconds).
- In one sitting, the average user spends on average 69 minutes on StumbleUpon. Conversely, the average Facebook session lasts 23 minutes.
What do these statistics mean to the social media strategists of businesses?
It means that depending on their product or service, they may want to consider having their content posted on this site. Although I would not dare say that every business could benefit from being on StumbleUpon, I do believe that for some businesses it may be a hidden gem.
What are your StumbleUpon plans for 2012?
Photo Credit: Column Five Media
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Dec 8th, 2011. 
There has been a lot of discussion on which site is best for marketing your business. It seems like their are more pages to manage than there are hours to keep up with it all. How do you choose a Social Media platform for your business?
6 Things to Consider Before Creating a Company Page on Google+ Pages, LinkedIn Company Pages or Facebook Fan Page:
1. Which Social Media Platforms do your Ideal Customers use most?
My rule of thumb is Linkedin for B2B and Facebook for B2C or individuals who are sole proprietors or small biz owners. Google+ pages are unproven, but will likely favor early adopters of technology until it goes more mainstream.
Bear in mind that although your customers may be on face on Facebook or LinkedIn, they may not be looking for your content when interacting with the site.
For example, just because there are a lot of Sales Managers on Facebook, they are not likely to be looking for tips to motivate employees while surfing Facebook. They are most likely sharing photos and using it for entertainment.
Those same people may be using LinkedIn to find tips to help Sales Managers because their frame of mind is around their business.
2. What is your Value to customers when they use your Google+, LinkedIn, or Facebook company page?
You need to be willing to create compelling and relevant content in order to drive viewership, or at least sharing relevant content from elsewhere in order to hold their attention. You must give them a reason to visit your page more than once. Numbers mean nothing if your customers don’t do anything once they get there. Consider making your company page around a related topic and not necessarily a sounding board for your company. One way is to share your expertise in your field to stir discussion. If your page is a resource on your field it will attract customers who need the information and will add brand credibility to your company. Try not to use it for just sharing the same content you share elsewhere or product announcements.
3. What do you want Customers to do once they get to your Company Page on Google+, LinkedIn, or Facebook?
One big mistake companies make is to not have a clear purpose for their Social Media pages. You need to determine the action you want people to take and why. Are you trying to generate business leads or simply do some branding for your company. These two strategies will have vastly different implications on how you design your page and your content. If you want to build a brand image, focus on spurring customer to customer conversation that is relevant, but not directly tied to your product. If you are trying to generate leads, be sure to lead the conversation back to your products and provide an incentive to get them off LinkedIn, Google+, or Facebook and on to your email list or sales page. If you are generating leads all the content shared should be your own as it will drive people to your site. And then you can work to get their email and converting them to customers.
4. How does a Google+ Company page, Facebook Fanpage, or LinkedIn Company Page Integrate into your Current Marketing Strategy?
People feel like they are missing out on opportunity when they don’t have a presence on each and every social media site. That is not necessarily true. Yes you need to be in front of your potential customer as much as possible, but just because you are in more places doesn’t mean you will generate more leads. Having a deeper and more meaningful presence on one Social Media Platform does more for your business than have a shallow presence on many.
Think of it this way, when you see a Facebook Fanpage with 30 people on it , would you consider it an “Authority” on that topic? Would you then check LinkedIn or Google+ to see if the company has other pages on the same topic to total up their followers? Of course not. Now what if I said that same Company had 7,000 likes, a lot of content, and a bunch of user interaction on their wall? You would probably think about this brand differently. If the topic and content was relevant, you would probably join into the conversation and like the page.
So make sure you are not spreading yourself thin. If you already have a successful Fanpage, don’t commit to a Google+ or LinkedIn page unless it fits your model and you can dedicate the necessary time or resources to it so that it becomes as engaging as your current efforts and more.
5. How are you going to manage it? What Social Media tools?
As social media gets larger, more feature rich, and fragmented, social media management tools have increased in importance. You need to make sure you know how you are going to update your content, reply to posts, and generally interact with you customers on our pages. There are great tools out there, but not all of them are appropriate for your purpose. For example, hootsuite is a great tool, but it doesn’t have support for Google+ pages in their iPhone app. For me, that prevents me from managing my page from my mobile and forces me to sit at a PC. That is wasted time given that I travel a lot and don’t want to take out my laptop to reply to a post. What does your current tool support that you can use to manage your presence.
6. Who will Manage our page on Google+, Facebook, or LinkedIn?
Your page doesn’t need to be managed by you, but it does need management. If you don’t have the time, you have a few options. You could hire a social media manager. You could outsource to a Social Media Marketing company or you could hire a virtual assistant.
If you plan to do it yourself, I would recommend doing something semi-automated with an alert tool. Remember that none of this should be fully automated. Nobody wants to talk to a robot. Alerts can be automated, but responses should not be. Automated alerts tools will allow you to know when there is a post while not requiring you to log in each hour or day to your page.
A poor mans method for Alerts is to set up a filter in your email that puts all your Facebook, LinkedIn, or google+ notifications in a folder. You can check them each morning and generate your responses. This saves time and effort without forking over any money.
Once you answer these questions you are prepared to choose a platform. For tips on how to build a profitable fanpage find me @MrSimpleMedia on Twitter.
If you know of any tools, tips, or have questions, leave a comment below!
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Nov 23rd, 2011.
In a tough economy, one market that frequently does well is beer. In hard times, people turn to their love of good beer to maintain their spirits. Microbrewery fan, Kevin Dragone of Phoenixville, Pa., is turning his love of tasteful beer into a new business venture. Dragone has created a new site, http://www.phoenixvillepubcrawl.com/, inspired to bring attention to the area’s bar and restaurant scene.
Dragone’s expectations are to build an audience through the site, its Facebook page and Twitter account. The site reviews the beers and events hitting the area every month. Dragone hopes his potential followers begin to post their own insights into the area’s beers and restaurants.
“Phoenixville is more than just my home for 27 years. The pride I take in myself comes from the people and the businesses that make up the community. I’m doing what I can to show the love of the area and to do it with a good beer,” Dragone said.
The site plans to offer videos of interviews with bartenders, owners and drinkers. The site also includes photos such as a recent visit to the Philadelphia Zoo for its annual event, “The Brew at the Zoo.” Dragone wanted to focus on the Phoenixville area and its amazing people. The beer scene has been highlighted in the magazine, Philly Beer Scene with awards being given to Sly Fox Brewery.
As Dragone’s motto goes, “Live, laugh, clink, drink.”
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Aug 6th, 2011.
Harry Potter-mania has to be the the most long-lived hysteria that I’ve ever lived through. Since the publication of the first book, through the movies, and up till now, fans of the series remain thrilled with any new development in the world of Hogwarts. Take for instance the bestseller status of a tiny collection of companion material know as “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” or the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Theme Park. Yeah, the boy wizard is still pretty popular.
Potter fans may now have something else to focus their internet attention towards, other than making Twitter trending topics out of Ron Weasley and Luna Lovegood. A mysterious site has popped up called Pottermore and the only thing on it is “coming soon” and JK Rowling’s signature.
The site was unveiled by a Harry Potter scavenger hunt, where map coordinates were placed on various fan websites like The Leaky Cauldron. Nine were placed on these sites and the final one was tweeted out yesterday on the newly established Pottermore Twitter account.
@pottermore
pottermoreThat tenth secretstreetview.com location you were looking for… here it is! 53.476311,-2.22971 #pottermore
21 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
The coordinates, once entered into the search box at secretstreetview.com, would reveal a photoshopped letter on some Harry Potter-themed site. The “M” in “PotterMore,” for example, was a reference to Manchester Station where JK Rowling first conceived the idea to write the beloved novels.
If you click on one of the owls on the Pottermore website, you will be directed to a YouTube page called “JK Rowling Announces.” It doesn’t say what, only contains a countdown clock that now reads about 6 days, 10 hours until her announcement. The poster profile says that fans will be able to watch her announcement exclusively on the YouTube channel.
So what in the mudblood could this site be? Rowling’s lawyers have said that it is not a new Harry Potter book. The Leaky Cauldron has this to say –
Speculation on the trademark information of Pottermore has also been making its way around the internet. The info, which was registered in 2009, says that Pottermore is trademarked for, among other things, multiple-user networks, online boards, digital audio, printed books, toys, retail stores, and more, and more, and more – in short, pretty much everything. We don’t feel this gives much direction one way or the other.
Right, that points simply to a giant fan site, possibly a Harry Potter themed social network? If Call of Duty can try it, so can Harry.
Gizmodo says that an anonymous tip told them something about a Harry Potter branded smartphone. Now wouldn’t that be interesting?
What do you think the new site will be? Something magical I’m sure. Are you excited about all new things Harry Potter? Don’t forget, this comes out very, very soon guys…
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jun 16th, 2011.
It’s no secret that some people are uneasy with Facebook’s privacy practices, despite the company revising its policies repeatedly. Netpop has released an interesting study finding that 8 in 10 social media users feel “uneasy” or “ambivalent” about sharing personal information on social media sites.
Here’s the break down (also pictured above):
“Social media is growing in the United States and around the world, prompting Internet users to share an ever-growing amount of personal information,” says Netpop. “Social media platforms are, of course, in the business of making it fun and easy to share more, and do more, with more people. But where does the information go? Who sees it? Who owns it? And how is it used? These questions become increasingly important as social media expand and sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are driven to better leverage (and monetize) our information and social connections.”
“Findings reveal that the vast majority (80 percent) are uncertain or uneasy about the social sites they use,” the firm says. “This is particularly true of Facebook: 85 percent of Facebook users are either uncertain or explicitly concerned. Findings also show that privacy concerns and distrust bear a negative impact on social brands: Users have a significantly lower perception of social brands if they are concerned about privacy or distrust the site to use their information appropriately.”
The study also found that users with privacy concerns rate social sites significantly lower. This is something to think about in all of the Facebook-connectedness of the web today. It’s gotten to the point where it is pretty hard to find a site that doesn’t use some kind of Facebook integration.
The fact is that it is simply to attractive to webmasters to use Facebook for a variety of reasons, – engagement and traffic among the top. The study brings up an interesting point of discussion. Are some consumers trusting you less because of your Facebook and other social integration?
I don’t expect the findings will sway too many site-owners away from Facebook integration, but perhaps it does highlight the need for giving consumers different options in terms of how they connect with your site.
Facebook’s own score drops over 100 points in the findings, among those who distrust the social network to use their information appropriately.
Another study released this week, finds that 47% of Facebook users have profanity on their walls.
Now here’s how you can get more Facebook likes, more traffic from Facebook, and more search traffic stemming from Facebook.
Expert Articles – WebProNews
Internet Marketing Tools For The DIY’er HERE
Filed under Internet Marketing by on May 25th, 2011.
