Is the Secret to Twitter Success Link Sharing?

When it comes to using Facebook to promote your business or blog, it seems pretty straightforward as to how exactly to use it. Sure, there are always things we can learn to help boost our Facebook fan numbers and interaction with them, but as far as structure goes, it’s pretty simple.

But what about Twitter? What’s the secret to Twitter success? According to this article, it’s link sharing. The article is rather long, but basically what it’s saying is that we have the same basic tool – 140 characters – but it’s exactly how you use those that counts.

A few interesting studies have been published lately that
all seem to point to the same conclusion –
the secret to Twitter success is driving links.

This infographic from Get Satisfaction shows the top reasons why people follow brands. For Twitter, it shows the third reason is interesting or entertaining content – so link sharing.

The article sums up Twitter success as seeing what works best for you. Do you get better results when you do one link a day, link to a video, say something before the link that grabs your followers’ attention?

What do you use Twitter for the most? Getting information, entertainment, interacting with your followers and do you think link sharing is the key to Twitter success?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

Why Musicians Should Consider Google Plus For Online Music Marketing

Marketing music online isn’t an easy job these days. There are many places to be and a gazillion tools to use. With all the learning and managing required your head can start spinning pretty quickly and your precious time can evaporate quicker than Windex on sun-drenched windshield. But I think Google Plus might just help us with that.

At first thought Google+ looked like another take it or leave it ploy by Google to grab some attention away from the Facebooks and Twitters of the world. But after reading Chris Brogan’s Google Plus 50 post, I have changed my mind.

He goes through and points out how Google+ – along with some of the new features like Circles (more on that below) – will bring all of their stand alone tools like Picasa, Gchat, Gmail, etc together for a one stop social party. Which got even more weight a day later when Google announces is will rebrand Picasa and Blogger.

Add that to fact 400,000+ Android phones are being activate per day it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see Google might have something here that is useful for music promotion.

Here is the part of the Chris’s post that really perked my interest:

“How long before we see our first Hangout live music “jam?” That’s one record button away from being supercool. And one “name your price” Google Checkout tweak away from being instant micro content for sale.”

How cool would that be? Monetized (or not) push button live shows – with all the promotion tools included – at your finger tips. Almost makes sites like Ustream and StageIt sound complicated.

Circles

CDBaby also recognized the potential of the Google+ Circles feature in a post.

They bring up a great point:

Basically, you can put your friends into different categories and communicate with each of them separately. For most users, circles would probably include “family,” “close friends,” “acquaintances,” “work associates,” etc. But for musicians, this function could have some added benefits if account holders are allowed to create circles for in-town fans, fellow musicians, booking contacts, studio owners, journalists and bloggers, etc.

That will be pretty slick. How many times do you want to share links, vids or chit chat with other artists about music marketing on various social networks but don’t because you don’t want to share that conversation with your fans and vice-versa?

Being able to segment conversations means you may not have to have two Twitter accounts or multiple fanpages to log in and out of.

The Tip of The Iceberg

And really that is the tip of the iceberg. I can’t get in to try out Google+ at the moment to really poke and prod but you can bet I will be in there playing around the minute I get a chance. Stay tuned In the meantime, go check out Google+ for yourself. And I strongly encourage you to go and read Chris Brogan’s Google Plus 50 post and check out the conversation going on in the comments because he goes into way more depth than I have time or first hand knowledge to here.

Oh and as a side note, Google getting bigger and better is kind of freaky. Hell, between my email, my reader, my phone, etc, the conspiracy theorist in me knows they have a crap load of my information. But [fingers crossed] hopefully it is much ado about nothing and I can reap some time saving and fan finding benefits of pretty innovative thinking on their part.

What about you?  Do you know something I don’t? Will you use Google Plus?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

6 Reasons Businesses Need to Blog

A business blog is central to a successful inbound marketing strategy that will help you get found and generate more inbound leads online. Why? Here are 6 reasons your business needs to blog:

1. Build thought leadership by showing your expertise and becoming a go-to resource for prospects and media.

2. Get SEO value for each blog article. More content = more opportunities to get found online.

3. Engage in a dialogue with customers and prospects through blog comments. Host conversations and respond to issues or questions.

4. Attract social media followers. Businesses that blog enjoy more social media reach because they have content to share.

5. Generate more leads online. A HubSpot study found that businesses that blog generate more than 67% more leads online compared to businesses that don't blog.

6. Humanize your brand by giving your company a voice of the people behind your brand.

What benefits is your business seeing by blogging?


PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

Facebook to Roll Out Major Changes

The Only Constant is Change

Facebook is driven by a single, unique goal. Its priority isn’t to gain more users (it already has 750 million of those), nor does it feel compelled to find stupid ways to increase pageviews. Its primary goal right now isn’t to increase revenue, either — that will come later.

No, Facebook’s goal is to become the social layer that supports, powers and connects every single piece of the web, no matter who or what it is or where it lives. On Thursday at its f8 conference in San Francisco, the world’s largest social network will take a giant leap toward accomplishing that goal.

I have seen what Facebook is launching on Thursday, and it’s going to change the world of social media. And while I won’t talk about the mind-boggling things Facebook will be launching, I will say this: The Facebook you know and (don’t) love will be forever transformed. The news that will come out of Facebook during the next few weeks will be the biggest things to come out of the company since the launch of the Facebook Platform.

For Facebook, it all boils down to one problem: emotion. Facebook has hundreds of millions of users and spectacular levels of engagement, but it is a platform that has lost its emotional resonance over the years. More and more people visit Facebook out of necessity rather than desire. It’s a platform people prefer to hate, but won’t leave simply because all their friends are there.

It’s a relationship gone stale. After years of dating, the magic between Facebook and its users has dissipated. It’s a natural evolution in any relationship, but now there is another suitor vying for Facebook’s users. And a lot of people think this suitor is easy on the eyes.

Watch Zuckerberg's Announcement at F8 2011

That’s why Facebook launched three recent changes: revamped Friend Lists, a real-time news ticker, and the subscribe button. Friend Lists lets you share content with just your closest friends (with whom you have the strongest emotional connection), and the ticker lets you have real-time conversations with your friends as soon as they do anything. Subscribe lets you fill your News Feed with people you admire and respect, fostering a different type of emotional connection.

But these changes are just the beginning. The changes Facebook will roll out on Thursday are designed to enhance the emotional connection its users have to each other through Facebook. These changes will make Facebook a place where nearly everything in your life is enhanced by your social graph. These changes will make it so you know your friends better than you ever thought you could.

On Thursday, developers will be elated, users will be shellshocked and the competition will look ancient. On Thursday, Facebook will be reborn. Prepare yourselves for the evolution of social networking.

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Designhttp://www.phantompower.co/

Preparing for Hurricane Irene

An earthquake rattled the entire eastern seaboard for just a few moments this week. It gave no warning, absolutely no indication it would ever happen, and then in a matter of seconds, it disappeared. By late afternoon, everybody was back into the Manhattan groove – and whatever passes for it in Washington, Philadelphia and so on.

But the quake was only the lead paragraph on what will be a week-long weather story about another, more slowly approaching bit of tumult: Hurricane Irene.

Before the storm:

• Listen to a NOAA Weather Radio for critical information from the National Weather Service.
• Check your disaster supplies and replace or restock as needed.
  

  
• Bring in anything that can be picked up by the wind (bicycles, lawn furniture).
• Close windows, doors and hurricane shutters. If you do not have hurricane shutters, close and board up all windows and doors with plywood.
• Turn the refrigerator and freezer to the coldest setting and keep them closed as much as possible so that food will last longer if the power goes out.
• Turn off propane tanks and unplug small appliances.
• Fill your car’s gas tank.
• Talk with members of your household and create an evacuation plan. Planning and practicing your evacuation plan minimizes confusion and fear during the event.
• Learn about your community’s hurricane response plan. Plan routes to local shelters, register family members with special medical needs as required and make plans for your pets to be cared for.
• Evacuate if advised by authorities. Be careful to avoid flooded roads and washed out bridges.
• Because standard homeowners insurance doesn’t cover flooding, it’s important to have protection from the floods associated with hurricanes, tropical storms, heavy rains and other conditions that impact the U.S. For more information on flood insurance, please visit the National Flood Insurance Program Web site at http://www.floodsmart.gov/.

During the storm supplies needed:

• Water—at least a 3 day supply; one gallon per person per day
• Food—at least a 3 day supply of non perishable, easy to¬ prepare food.
• Flashlight
• Battery powered or hand crank radio (NOAA Weather Radio, if possible)
• Extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Medications (7 day supply) and medical items (hearing aids with extra batteries, glasses, contact lenses, syringes, cane)
• Multi purpose tool
• Sanitation and personal hygiene items
• Copies of personal documents (medication list and pertinent medical information, proof of address, deed/lease to home, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)
• Cell phone with chargers
• Family and emergency contact information
• Extra cash
• Emergency blanket
• Map(s) of the area
• Baby supplies (bottles, formula, baby food, diapers)
• Pet supplies (collar, leash, ID, food, carrier, bowl)
• Tools/supplies for securing your home
• Extra set of car keys and house keys
• Extra clothing, hat and sturdy shoes
• Rain gear
• Insect repellent and sunscreen
• Camera for photos of damage

After the storm:

• Continue listening to a NOAA Weather Radio or the local news for the latest updates.
• Stay alert for extended rainfall and subsequent flooding even after the hurricane or tropical storm has ended.
• If you evacuated, return home only when officials say it is safe.
• Drive only if necessary and avoid flooded roads and washed out bridges.
• Keep away from loose or dangling power lines and report them immediately to the power company.
• Stay out of any building that has water around it.
• Inspect your home for damage. Take pictures of damage, both of the building and its contents, for insurance purposes.
• Use flashlights in the dark. Do NOT use candles.
• Avoid drinking or preparing food with tap water until you are sure it’s not contaminated.
• Check refrigerated food for spoilage. If in doubt, throw it out.
• Wear protective clothing and be cautious when cleaning up to avoid injury.
• Watch animals closely and keep them under your direct control.
• Use the telephone only for emergency calls.

Tips for recover:

As you rebuild

• Secure double entry doors at the top and the bottom.
• Strengthen existing garage doors to improve the wind resistance, particularly double- wide garage doors.
• Protect windows with permanent storm shutters or one-half inch marine plywood that is pre-cut to fit your doors and windows.
• Clear loose and clogged rain gutters and downspouts to prevent flooding and unnecessary pressure on the awnings.
• Select trees that are not as subject to uprooting to replace damaged ones. A gardening or landscaping professional can give you excellent advice.
• Identify a place to store lawn furniture, toys, gardening tools and trash cans that is away from stairs and exits to prevent them from being moved by high winds and becoming missiles.

Ask a professional to

• Ensure roof sheathing is properly installed.
• Ensure end gables are securely fastened to the rest of the roof.
• Fasten the roof to the walls with hurricane straps.
• Elevate your home if it is near the coast and subject to flooding from storm surge.

A resource for hurricane readiness is http://www.ready.nj.gov/ or call 2-1-1. In the event of an emergency after business hours, dial (866) 413-9850 to reach a representative of Wentworth. Please note, an emergency is a situation involving imminent danger to property or individuals and which requires immediate attention.

How to Measure and Grow your Social Media Reach

Social Reach is the total number of individuals across all social platforms you engage who actively follow (fans, followers, subscribers) your company. For example, a company with 10,000 Facebook fans, 5,000 Twitter followers and 1,000 YouTube subscribers has a total Social Reach of 16,000.

A company’s Social Reach drives the level of benefit for all social media efforts. Most companies are engaged on multiple social channels, but how many social channels are enough? There are no hard and fast rules, but the experts agree that companies should participate in as many social channels as possible - as long as their target customers can be found there and sufficient resources can be dedicated to ensure high-quality execution in all chosen channels.

Jason Falls, principal at Social Media Explorer, explains, “Companies need to prioritize social media channels by how extensively these channels are being used by a company’s target audience. Every company needs to grow their reach - this is the foundation on which to share content over time.”

Andrew Patterson, manager of new media at MLB Advanced Media, says that “the decision on number of social media channels for a company is contextual. What is important is how consistent you are with engaging in a social media channel. You can’t be there one day and gone the next. If you have the resources to be consistent across multiple channels, then by all means do it. But if you spread yourself too thin, you will end up disappointing your fans and followers and jeopardizing your social marketing initiative.”

Social Platforms of Choice

Facebook, Twitter, and the use of landing pages and company blogs are the leading platform choices for brands of all sizes, with a growing number of companies reporting planned integration of YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr and Foursquare in 2011.

Best-in-class companies use three to four social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) vs. the average company, which is using less than two social media platforms. Best-in-class companies also have multiple channels within each social media platform as shown in the next two graphs.

Measuring Social Reach

To measure your company’s Social Reach, you need to measure the number of total social profiles you have accumulated across all of your social media platforms.

Use that initial Social Reach to measure your Social Reach Velocity – your Social Reach Velocity is your ability to grow your Social Reach with social marketing over time.

How are you measuring your social efforts?  What platforms prove most effective for you?  Have you ever considered Social Velocity?


PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
www.phantompower.co

Why Musicians Should Consider Google+ For Online Music Marketing

Marketing music online isn’t an easy job these days. There are many places to be and a gazillion tools to use. With all the learning and managing required your head can start spinning pretty quickly and your precious time can evaporate quicker than Windex on sun-drenched windshield. But I think Google+ might just help us with that.

Brogan Knows
At first thought Google+ looked like another take it or leave it ploy by Google to grab some attention away from the Facebooks and Twitters of the world. But after reading Chris Brogan’s Google+ 50 post, I have changed my mind.

He goes through and points out how Google+ – along with some of the new features like Circles (more on that below) – will bring all of their stand alone tools like Picasa, Gchat, Gmail, etc together for a one stop social party. Which got even more weight a day later when Google announces is will rebrand Picasa and Blogger.

Add that to fact 400,000+ Android phones are being activate per day it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see Google might have something here that is useful for music promotion.

Here is the part of the Chris’s post that really perked my interest...

“How long before we see our first Hangout live music “jam?” That’s one record button away from being supercool. And one “name your price” Google Checkout tweak away from being instant micro content for sale.”

How cool would that be? Monetized (or not) push button live shows – with all the promotion tools included – at your finger tips. Almost makes sites like Ustream and StageIt sound complicated.

Circles
CDBaby also recognized the potential of the Google+ Circles feature in a post . They bring up a great point:

Basically, you can put your friends into different categories and communicate with each of them separately. For most users, circles would probably include “family,” “close friends,” “acquaintances,” “work associates,” etc. But for musicians, this function could have some added benefits if account holders are allowed to create circles for in-town fans, fellow musicians, booking contacts, studio owners, journalists and bloggers, etc

That will be pretty slick. How many times do you want to share links, vids or chit chat with other artists about music marketing on various social networks but don’t because you don’t want to share that conversation with your fans and vice-versa?

Being able to segment conversations means you may not have to have two Twitter accounts or multiple fanpages to log in and out of.

The Tip of The Iceberg
And really that is the tip of the iceberg. I can’t get in to try out Google+ at the moment to really poke and prod but you can bet I will be in there playing around the minute I get a chance. Stay tuned

In the meantime, go check out Google Plus for yourself. And I strongly encourage you to go and read Chris Brogan’s Google+ 50 post and check out the conversation going on in the comments because he goes into way more depth than I have time or first hand knowledge to here.

Oh and as a side note, Google getting bigger and better is kind of freaky. Hell, between my email, my reader, my phone, etc, the conspiracy theorist in me knows they have a crap load of my information. But [fingers crossed] hopefully it is much ado about nothing and I can reap some time saving and fan finding benefits of pretty innovative thinking on their part.

What about you?  Do you know something I don’t? Will you use Google Plus?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

Sell the HOLE – Not the DRILL

"As much as creative marketing and promotions can help a product, service, or company stand out," writes Linda Ireland at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog, "it always comes down to a simple premise: Did you solve the need that triggered the customer to act in the first place?" In other words: You can surprise and delight customers all you like, but it won't matter if you don't fix what they asked you to fix.

So keep your focus on this goal with tips like these:

• Do what you said you would do
  You'll impress customers by providing the product or service you promised, on time and without any surprises along the way. It would seem self-evident, but this oft-forgotten concept forms the foundation for every positive customer experience.
• Don't create more work for your customersThey're paying you to make a pain point go away—it won't seem that they've gotten their money's worth if they have to jump through hoops to get anything done.
• Don't tout unnecessary benefitsA slew of new features won't excite a customer who doesn't need them; if you insist on discussing them, it'll start to feel like tiresome oversell. "Keep it simple," she says. "Fix their problem. Then stop. Then solve another one."
• Don't forget the emotional aspect of customer experienceInspire loyalty and satisfaction by matching your actions to the way a customer should feel at each stage of the process.

The surest way to surprise and delight a customer is to roll up your sleeves and solve her problem.

Do you have a secret for identifying customer's problems so you can figure out how to solve them?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

10 Reasons Why Twitter Is So Popular

I was pondering today why the social networking site  Twitter is so incredibly popular. So I thought I would Google it and read what others are saying about Twitter. Surprisingly I couldn’t find much out there so I wrote down some thoughts and it wasn’t long before I came up with the following reasons for Twitter's popularity.

Everyone seems to love lists so here are my 10 reasons why I think Twitter is so popular.

1. Twitter is so darned easy to use - period. No further explanation is required. 
2. It’s a lot easier to get Twitter followers than it is to get Blog newsfeed subscribers. 
3. Twitter is a complete no-brainer. Absolutely no technical know-how is needed. Just open an account and start tweeting. 
4. It’s an excuse for being a bad writer. Because of Twitter’s 140 character limitation you can be excused for bad judgement grammar and abusing abbreviations. 
5. Twitter makes you feel like you are a part of something greater than yourself. You never have to feel alone again.
6. For the ‘always-connected’ generation Twitter keeps you in contact with all of your ‘friends’ no matter where you are. When you are mobile and on-the-go it’s like a free conference text-messaging service in your cell phone.
7. Having lots of so-called Twitter “friends” makes you feel you are popular. How else can you make a lot of friends as quickly? Where else can you find an audience interested in what you ate for dinner and threw up later?
8. Is there a better way to keep in touch with your favorite celebrities? Twitter is an instant social fan club. You can write to them and they (or their entourage) might respond. You can almost reach out and touch them. Do you feel the love?
9. Similarly, if you follow your favorite a-lister they will probably reciprocate and follow you back. Wow! Is Howard Stern really tweeting?  He really is the King of All Media.
10. Twitter is a great way to pretend being someone’s friend so you can sell them something later. Backdoor marketing for the new media age. 

Perhaps you have your own reasons for Twitter’s popularity. Did I miss anything?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

Do You Need a Facebook Fan Page?

Cultivating a Facebook Fan following is a unique and powerful form of permission marketing, whereby your target audience have consented to your constant contact.

• They’re yours to share your message with time and again.
• They already like you.
• They already stick around for the long haul.
• They already care about what you have to say about your business.

But the profitable impact of Facebook goes much further than just a medium to contact customers.

What’s better than you being able to share your message every day to your target audience?  Having them share your message for you, to every single one of their friends on Facebook!

When your customers take 1 second out of their busy schedule to hit "like‟ on your Fan page, a small easy step... it is a HUGE public commitment that they’re a fan of and recommend your business! They are publicly declaring themselves a fan of your business, a very powerful message to both themselves and their peers.  It literally shows up as clear and direct as “Sally Buyer likes YOUR BUSINESS”.

Now consider that if your average customer has even 50 friends on Facebook, 10 "Likes‟ = 500 brand exposures for your business, with a cost of $0... Can you think of another way to get your customers to recommend your business to pretty much everyone they know, with 1 click, for free? A few of their friends will also hit „like‟ and so the profit virus spreads, without you having to do a thing.

Needless to say, these numbers are conservative given the dramatic adoption of Facebook among basically the entire developed world. Most of your customers will probably have over 100 friends... now that’s the kind of math we like! Of course as a business owner, you’re more than likely aware that “word of mouth” is the strongest form of marketing around. You’ve worked hard to make sure your customers have a great experience, but how many of them are really spreading the word? I bet it could be more. Don’t let that goodwill go to waste, let your customers share it on your Fan page!

With some clever marketing that relies on some basic principles of human behavior, you can build a following you can bank on in no time.

Here are some things you can do with a Facebook Fan Page:

• Give your customers an incentive to like your page, i.e. a discount that reveals itself when they click that magic "Like‟ button.
• Stay at the top of their mind so when they want something they think of your business.
• Sell directly to your fan base with special sales.
• Showcase new items.
• Get rid of slow moving stock or fill your venue during off peak periods.
• Run competitions that encourage your customers to spread the word about business.
• Collect people’s email and mail addresses from your fan page to execute direct mail or email campaigns.
• See who your customers are. Take the time to browse through a few of your customer’s profiles. Notice their age, their likes and interests, where they live, what engages them.

You’ll be getting access to market research that would have cost a small fortune not too long ago. The possibility of your business message going viral, your name spreading like wildfire and your customers raving are well worth pursuing when you think of the impact this can have on your bottom line.

Create A Facebook Fan Page

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/