Session Blog Reviews

Posts Tagged ‘people’

While it’s not a surprise that social media is growing it can often be a bit stunning to hear some ‘actual’ numbers to back up the assertions and assumptions that the industry itself can be prone to making. The latest data that tells us about who is involved in social media comes from Arbitron and Edison Research via MediaPost . What it shows is that the young crowd has greater saturation in who has profiles but the older age groups are seeing large percentage increases in social networking profiles. This should make marketers happy because the older the person the more money (supposedly) there is to buy stuff. Overall, though, about half of the people in the US aged 12 and older have at least one social network. Here’s a picture for you. You can get a copy of the Arbitron presentation here . Another point of interest in the study, which was done in January on the phone with 1,753 participants includes the following insight into the importance of TV vs. the Internet. While the percentage growth of use in social networks is on the climb in older Americans it is obvious that if faced with a choice between the Internet or TV, the older you are the more tied to TV you are. With so many people tied more and more to their social networks online there is plenty of work for marketers to do. What will be the most important task is to make sure that marketing programs are never weighted too heavily toward one medium or another. It is not likely that an online only approach will yield optimal results and the same holds in the reverse. So while the numbers may be interesting what will be most interesting is the response by those trying to reach consumers through these channels. How do you see this playing out between the Internet and TV in this decade? When we look back in 2020 will the Internet be the king or will there still be a balance? We would love to hear your thoughts. Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

More here:
Research Shows Social Media and TV Importance By Age

It struck me the other day that I worry about other people’s marketing efforts way more than my own! In fact, I don’t worry about my marketing efforts at all. Because I don’t do marketing for myself. That’s right I don’t do any marketing for my business. A few of my SEO colleagues like to tease me about how badly my site is optimized. I have never bought a paid ad for my business. I do not offer any type of affiliate promotions. But despite my own marketing inaction I am always busy with work. Seriously, I usually have 2 or 3 clients waiting in line for me to get to their projects, and most of them are willing to pay top dollar. So how have I been able to grow a solid service with zero marketing efforts? Friends. No not that cheesy 90s sitcom. I am talking about real friends in the industry I work in. Almost 100% of my clients come to me from referrals from friends or other clients! I guess you could say that my only marketing strategy is relationship building. I love relationship building! Not only is relationship building an amazing way to build and expand your business its also extremely fun! Seriously can you think of any better way to make money than hanging out with amazing people? How to build a strong referral network through relationship building: Make friends with as many folks as possible in your market. Out of these new friends identify the ones that you get along with most and are well connected to others. Cultivate these relationships by being a friend, supporting these folks when needed and engaging them authentically. After you have won their trust make sure they know what you “do” and engage them with “work talk”. Sit back and wait. Soon you should start to receive referrals. Here’s when it’s crunch time. You have to deliver solid products and services on these referrals. If you fail to deliver on referral projects your whole network will suffer. Because instead of being the “cool guy or gal” that someone just met at the last conference, you turn into “the guy or gal that can’t deliver”. And then all your relationship building efforts are ruined! How to get started? Well you can start using social media sites like twitter or facebook to start meeting amazing, well-connected people. But if you want to take those relationships to the next level you need to take it offline and meet them face to face. One of the best ways to meet folks face to face is to go to industry conferences and trade shows. About a year ago I went to an amazing conference called Internet Marketing Spring Break. While there I met some of the most influential folks in the world of internet marketing. I also got to hang out with folks that I had gotten to know on twitter. After making these connections and building a relationship and trust with them I started receiving referrals left and right. This year the same conference has a new name but promises to be just as amazing! One reason that I love this conference so much is that it has a limited capacity, only 100 attendees. Whether you are able to attend or not, remember relationship building is the key to building a strong referral network! So get out there and meet some new people, cultivate the relationships you already have and start growing your business with referrals today!

Go here to read the rest:
Cup of Joe: Marketing Is For People With No Friends

Nanaimo Daily News TGC '10: Why Twitter and Facebook Are Key for Games Marketing Escapist Magazine Though Ms. Beasley said that the goal of social media marketing and PR was the same as traditional methods - to get your product out in front of as many ... Social Media Overload in Marketing Your Business or Project Black Web 2.0 Social Media : An Inside Look at the People Who Use It Retail Customer Experience How to Get a Job in Social Media : R/GA mediabistro.com (blog) OfficialWire (press release)

The Telegraph reports on the rise in syphilis in several English communities—cities in Britain where Facebook is the most popular. Professor Peter Kelly, director of public health in Teesside, publicly announced that they had, in fact, found a “link” between the two. And by “link,” he means “ cum hoc, ergo propter hoc. ” That’s Latin for “correlation doesn’t imply causation”—Facebook’s response to the allegations. (Okay, really, the Latin translation is “with this, therefore because of this,” and is a logical fallacy.) I think it should be fairly obvious that Facebook use can’t directly cause syphilis. (As I understand it, there still needs to be physical contact for the transmission of everything but computer viruses—and yes, Facebook can enable those hook ups, but really, the people still make those decisions. Come on.) There may actually be some relationship here—but most likely there are other variables affecting the findings, too. (Perhaps sexually promiscuous individuals are more “socially promiscuous” online, on any social network.) Kelly says that Facebook use, especially among young women in Teesside, is contributing to the spread of syphilis. Apparently he does still understand how the disease is spread, since he warns that “Anyone who has unprotected sex with casual partners is at high risk.” He claims that Facebook makes it easier for people to get together for such encounters, and in the cities where there have been a fourfold increase in syphilis cases, young people were 25% more likely to use Facebook. Have they looked at any other factors? Is cell phone use on the rise there? (Heck, landlines? Text messaging? Paging, Tweeting?) Have they even tried to establish that the same young people using Facebook are the ones spreading the disease? In the absence of a scientific study—or at the very least, a survey for the people actually testing positive for syphilis—it’s impossible, irresponsible and illogical to blame Facebook. Facebook points out that, if this logic held true, you could blame them for anything else on an upward trend in the UK. They respond: The assertion that Facebook is responsible for the transmission of syphilis is ridiculous. Facebook is no more responsible for STD transmission than newspapers responsible for bad vision. Today’s reports exaggerate the comments made by the professor, and ignore the difference between correlation and causation. As Facebook’s more than 400 million users know, our website is not a place to meet people for casual sex – it’s a place for friends, family and co-workers to connect and share. Obviously, there’s nothing inherent about Facebook that makes it the most likely source of STDs. In fact, the increase in Facebook use might only indicate that more of the young people in the area have abandoned Bebo, MySpace, Twitter and other social networks more quickly than in the rest of Britain—they don’t offer any data on social networking in general, which would seem just as likely to facilitate casual sex as Facebook. (Hello, Craigslist personals.) What do you think? Is there enough here to make a conclusion? Or is someone angling for links (when they might want to worry more about advertising condoms on social networks)?

Originally posted here:
Is Facebook Causing Syphilis?

We haven’t heard much from bing as of late so it makes sense that they would use SES NYC to make a few announcements about their Google slaying search engine bing. Of course, it would be a little more interesting if there were announcements of actual product enhancements rather than the following from the bing blog : Today at SES New York we shared with attendees our plans to begin testing some new Bing features as we start to move into the next wave of innovation which will be rolling out later this spring and summer. Our focus remains consistent – we want Bing to be the best place to help you make better decisions. When we launched last June, one of the ways we helped customers get to better decisions was by providing a more visual, more intuitive, and more organized experience. This spring we will continue this evolution by making some changes to our user experience and providing new experiences throughout search. I think the search industry needs to have a very strong second player to Google and I wonder if bing will have the chops to pull this off. Google’s rate of search innovation is dizzying and they don’t “pre-roll” ideas too often. Instead, they put the ideas and concepts to work in Google Labs or slap an indefinite beta on them (after the usual backend testing unless we’re talking about Buzz). The announcement is made when the product / service is at least somewhat available and the people can have at it. I don’t get that same feeling of urgency from bing and Microsoft. Maybe their time and energy is being sapped with the Yahoo integration or maybe this focus on the integration is taking away the creative minds that are needed to innovate at a more rapid pace? I don’t really know. I am just speculating here. One thing I do know that is a marked difference with how bing and Google talk about their offerings. Google tries to keep it loose and somewhat conversational in their blogs while bing’s ‘excitement’ around their future product rollouts are about as inspiring as a clinical trial. Here is an example that is talking about these future new offerings. But we are constantly looking for ways to make the experience even better. Jeff Henshaw, GPM of our user experience team put it well, “We have a vision for Bing to serve as a vital assistant to your online decision-making. In these latest designs, you’ll see a lighter, cleaner presentation of results that highlight key actions that will efficiently guide you toward your goal. Every day, Bing gets more intelligent about tasks that are important to people like you and me, so we continue to streamline and polish the Bing experience in ways that let you tap into that intelligence.” This reads like a product manual (which Microsoft knows something about) rather than something that inspires the reader to get excited about any offering. While the weather may be wet at times out in Redmond the products appear to be very dry. Oh, so what is being announced as bing enhancements for some future point in time? Moving QuickTabs functionality to the top of the page More link options to publications in support of real time search Taking real time data from foursquare and integrating it into Silverlight maps Here’s a picture so at least you can get an idea of what will be happening in one of the upcoming seasons of the year. As for today? Same stuff different day for bing. Don’t worry though. There may be more announcements of something that will be rolled out at some time in the future when Microsoft deems the time to be right to let you play with their toys.

View original post here:
Bing’s Features for Someday in the Future