VIDEO ZINGERS

A co- production of Speaker Services with team member Jack Barnard

Fact Sheet

All programs are customized & offered one-on-one or in workshop format

Definition: One-camera presentation video, 30 seconds to 90 seconds in length, the purpose of which is to demonstrate the uniqueness, the agenda, the personality and the presence of the client — the video subject.

Video Video Video:

These days, everybody is aware of the power of video. If you’re connected to the internet (and do you know someone other than your great grandmother who isn’t connected to the internet?), chances are a) you receive half a dozen cyber-invitations a day to look at someone’s video product, b) you surf YouYube or one of its clones, c) you’re seeing more and more videos showing up on your favorite social-networking sites.

Format possibilities:

1) INTERVIEW: (As if) Answering questions during an interview

2) INTIMATE: Personable, straight ahead, into the camera, one-on-one, as if talking directly to the viewer

Some content possibilities:

1) Problem & Solution

2) Welcome to Website home page

3) Tip(s)

4) Secret (super-tip)

5) What you do

6) Website speaker page intro and orientation

7) Back story: why you’re so qualified, why you do what you do, how you got into it

Pertinent/Selling story

9) Current Insight

10) Ask the Expert

11) Show/Demonstrate/Sell Product

12) Explain System

13) Answer Frequently Asked Questions

14) Online Marketing Secret

15) Explain Seminar/Workshop/Webinar, etc.

16) Demonstrate Brand

17) Call to Action

Uses:

1) YouTube — Justin Bieber isn’t the only budding star discovered on YouTube…it happens everyday. Bottom line: we’re watching.

2) Social Media —  Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter…the more we see you, in all your glory, the greater the connection

3) Website — these zingers can be sprinkled all over your website

4) Marketing — for example: mp4s, as part of your delivery package

5) Blogs — spice them up, stand out

PLAN OF ACTION

Preparation Materials…One-day Workshop…Teleclass…Video Shoot

• Preparation Materials

Before participants gather for the workshop, they will receive a Pointers & Due Diligence packet from coach Jack so that when the group meets for the workshop, they will be already in motion.

• One-day 7-hour Workshop, January 28, 2012, led by Jack Barnard…focusing on:

1) Content: With this program, you can create 5 Video Zingers…what will you cover?

2) Small Talk: your audiences are already sound-bit, delivering your material in 30-90 seconds in a succinct, interesting, authentic manner is essential.

3) Presence: information is important, all the magic happens in the present moment. How do you do that looking straight into a camera?

4) Marketing: Susan Levin will enlighten the class on all the ways that these Video Zingers can utilized.

5) Practice video shoot: At the last part of the day, participants will be videotaped  — and then critiqued — trying out one of their Zingers. This is for practice & reflection only.

• Teleclass

90-minute follow-up to workshop — with Jack  — in the following week.

• Video Shoot…within 10 days of the workshop…staggered schedule…3 clients/day

1) One-on-One, with camera-person and coach Jack Barnard

2) 2 different backgrounds, change of clothes, change of venue (Interview format vs. Intimate format) so that it won’t feel like the videos were all done at the same time — or in the same way.

3) Shooting time: 2 hours. Each participant should be able to pull off 4-5 different Video Zingers in that time

4) Post-production is minimal and included in the VZ package.

5) Clients will receive finished/edited Video Zingers in a format of their choice

• Extra

1) As part of the VZ package, each client will be able to have succinct captions for 2 of their videos. If more than this is desired, there will be an extra post-production cost.

COST

$890 total…payments can be requested, if necessary

Contact:  susan@speakerservices.com, 310-822-4922 PT or jackp.barnard@verizon.net, 310-993-8762 to enroll.

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Samples of one camera videos we have produced

Lisa Cypers Kamen
http://youtu.be/CLK53rgwxsA

Susan Levin
http://youtu.be/U-vwIsXLSgo

Libby Higgins
http://youtu.be/ydtJWg42d2k

Guru Tej
http://youtu.be/aFi4WVwvgEw

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Coach/Video Director: The Video Zinger coach is Jack Barnard, a forty-year veteran of the media world. Jack is a former radio host, president of a six-station radio chain, concert producer, theatrical production company owner, master presentation coach, media trainer and writer. In this latest 15-year chapter, Jack works with speakers, authors and entrepreneurs, both one-on-one and in groups.

Marketing & Training Services since’92

http://www.speakerservices.com

November 3, 2011

CONTENT:

- Update from Susan Levin

- Tips and Advice from experts

- Teleclasses for November

- Tweets & Blog Posts

I have been busy working with clients on speaker marketing and coaching folks on how to Position, Prospect & Land Gigs Now in collaboration with our team member Jean-Noel Bassior. This four step process seems to have hit a nerve as it is a huge issue for folks. We are sharing the strategies for you or your staff to help identify target markets and decision makers. The end result is that you learn how to leave voice message and or e mails that get call-backs. Not only that you get to practice as I prepare leads for you in your target audience.  Want some of that?

I am heading down to Orange County to teach Speak Your Way to More Clients on Monday, 11/7 for the third time with Ursula Mentjes. Carleen Paul, Skills for Success Reading Center shared.  Speak Your Way to More Clients was packed with tricks of the speaking trade!  Following the examples provided during the workshop will be vital to making my next speaking engagement a great success!  There is still time to register

On Wednesday, November 9 in Los Angeles I am speaking with Linda Hollander the Wealthy Bag Lady at Fill Your Purse Event: Get All the Clients and Sponsors You Want join us http://t.co/ah4kHHQj

I just got off the phone with one of my clients who spoke at a Womens Conference recently and received great reviews and several requests to speak at different chapters around the country.  She was thrilled with the invites and even though there was no pay she decided to go.  Unfortunately she had not taken my class Market Yourself as a Speaker and ran into several dicey situations on her travels.  Had she consulted with me she would have had a link on her website for meeting planners for her AV requirements so that the producer of the event would have all of her needs met before she arrived.

She also had booked another gig and it got cancelled which she did not find out until she arrived at her destination.  I said,  No contract agreement with a cancellation clause and a deposit a head of time to hold the date.  Big lessons learned and money spent that did not need to be spent.  She will be at my next workshop in Los Angeles on December 3, Market Yourself as a Speaker. Speaking is a business. You need to be armed with all the collateral find out more.  Not in Los Angeles?  No worries customized telephone coaching is available.

Greg Montana warmed my heart as he shared his accomplishments with me.  Because of www.speakerservices.com and your coaching I’ve shared the stage with Richard Branson, The Dalai Lama, Mark Victor Hansen, Harv Eker and have had some amazing partnerships. Thanks for the boost! Glad to see you are still incubating us speakers!  Congrats Greg.

To your speaking and marketing success,

Susan Levin

Speaker Services, susan@speakerservices.com

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TIPS and ADVICE



DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS IS TRUE?  Daphne Bousquet, CMP” daphne@eventsandprofits.com



One of my favorite things to do is busts myths.  And there are a few when it comes to workshops and seminars.  Often times, these myths can stop you in your tracks and prevent you from achieving your potential. Here is one that I hear all the time and perhaps you may even think it is true.

Ready? 

 You need a big event in order to make a lot of money.  
Nothing is farther from the truth. 

While large events have more potential for making more money, that does not mean that small events can not be very lucrative.

Sometimes smaller events do even better. 

When you have a smaller event, chances are you have a highly targeted audience.  Your ideal audience, if you will.
 The people that are at your event are there for a specific reason: to learn from you. Since the event is smaller, you have fewer demands on your time.  

That gives you more opportunities to really connect with your audience.  You can answer more questions and establish genuine relationships with people who will gladly sign up for your high end offer. (You do make an offer, right?)

After all, they know, like and trust you and the value you can bring to them and their businesses.
 
Now that you know you do not need hundreds of people (or even a hundred) in your event room to make a difference and a profit, does that take some of the pressure off?

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7 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR MARKETING IN 60 SECONDS OF LESS by Sarah Goliger @hubspot.com

We all know it is not always easy being an inbound marketer especially a good inbound marketer. The things we do to optimize our landing pages, create killer content, keep track of all our analytics they take time! Therefore, to be both a successful inbound marketer, we must be able to use our time efficiently http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-monitoring-in-10-minutes-ebook  to drive the best results in the fastest way possible.

The good news is, even when you do not have a lot of time on your hands, there are lots of little things you can do to dramatically improve your marketing . Here are 7 things you can do in 60 seconds or less to drive more traffic to your site, convert visitors into leads at a higher rate, and increase your ROI.

Tip 1. Respond to a comment, post, or tweet.  A big part of inbound marketing is engaging with your fans, followers, and customers, especially through social media. Take a minute to reply to a tweet or a post on your Facebook page, even if just to say, Thanks for the feedback! or Glad you liked our ebook! Following up with your fans  will show them that you value their comments and will help keep them engaged with your business, making them more likely to convert into leads.

Read more
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Top four book promotion activities you can engage in to sell more books in today’s world 
 @John Kremer


, www.bookmarket.com

1. Speak. Speaking builds a word-of-mouth army better than anything else. Speak locally – at garden clubs, libraries, bookstores, Rotary clubs, JCs, poetry nights, story swaps, book club meetings, etc. Then expand out to a wider area, to nearby cities, to nearby states. Eventually, expand out to an even wider audience.

When someone hears you speak, they become a bigger fan than if they had just read your book. If they like you when they hear you speak, they will tell ten times more people than by just reading your book.

2. Book yourself on national TV. TV is still the largest mass market media. It still reaches more people than any other media – and with more impact. It is worth spending the time contacting the ten or twenty news and talk shows that reach your audience. For most national TV shows, you can get the contact information in one of two ways: 1. from their websites, and 2. via your network of friends and fellow authors.

Your appearance on one major TV show will not only expose you to millions of viewers, but it also opens the door to dozens and sometimes hundreds of other media: newspapers, magazines, radio, more TV shows, etc.

3. Create relationships with high-traffic websites. How many major high-traffic websites that attract your target reader have you created relationships with? Are these real relationships where you contribute content to them on a regular basis?  In today’s world, Internet relationships are the key to marketing success.

Uncover five to ten top websites that already reach the audience you want to reach. Look over their sites until you find a way to contact someone behind the site – a webmaster, an editor, the founder. Then email them with an offer of free content for their readers: an interview with you, a review copy of your book, a free article (that is really good), some tips for their readers, a Q&A column on your specialty, etc. Their obligation, in return, is to link to your website or sales page.

4. Do a Superstar Blog Tour. Or a Mega Blog Tour. Or a Blogpalooza. I’m not talking about the old-style humdrum virtual book tour of 15 or 20 blogs. I’m talking about an event blog tour that creates Internet buzz on a major scale. Event blog tours can build brands, create incredible website traffic, and sell tons of books.

The neat thing is that effective event blog tours take less time to carry out than the traditional Amazon Bestseller Campaign – and are almost always more effective in selling books, building a brand, and driving traffic.

If you want to know more about event blog tours, check out this recording of me speaking about the value and method of carrying out an effective impact blog tour: http://www.bookmarket.com/blog-tour-palooza.htm.

These four book marketing techniques work for almost any kind of book: fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, children’s books, how-to, spiritual, business, even cookbooks. You don’t have to do all four. Start with one and work it hard – you’ll get better results than doing Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, EzineArticles, or other Internet marketing flavors of the week.

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Everyone is always looking for the best deal.  Do I have one for you.

Do you know Speakers Community Membership Club ? Over 100 mp3s 60 days free JOIN NOW http://bit.ly/rUSbGI

UPCOMING TELECLASSES

11/16 -  Organize & Optimize Your Social Media Efforts interview with Kim Beasley
- Have you ever felt overwhelmed while trying to figure out how to use social media to get your message out?

- Do you feel stuck in a rut when it comes to connecting with your target customers on social media?

- Are you trying to figure out how to use Google + to develop your business brand and your personal
identity?
Read/register

11/30/11 -  Amazon Bestsellers with Denise Cassino

Discover an affordable way to launch your e-book to #1 Bestseller on Amazon!

All programs apply to both print books and ebooks!

- The steps and strategies of a bestseller campaign?

- How to reach a large targeted audience without the expense of advertising.

- Why it is a win-win situation for the author, the partners and the book buyer.
- The value of joint ventures

 Read/register

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Tweets and blog posts you might be interested in

:

- Top searches on my blog how to market yourself speakers,  speakers schedule of fees, membership site,  making money as a speaker I can help

- Blog Post 10 Social Media Tips for Professional Speakers.  Use Each Form Of Social Media To Strengthen the Others.  http://bit.ly/sK5HeJ

- 


Professional Marketing Materials see list of services http://t.co/5PkGA894 new coaching program Position, Prospect, Land Gigs. Can we help you?

- 

2011 and 2012 Marketing Trends – Be On The Cutting-Edge, Not The Bleeding-Edge! http://steveslightbulbmoments.com/?p=521  via @StevesMoments

- 

Mary Cimiluca I am so proud of you landing several fantastic and high paying speaking engagements. Happy to have you in my corner and that you followed my advise to ask for more and they said YES!

- Grab Your Audiences Attention Right off the Bat http://t.co/fXCnPrBs The opening statement is important do not blow it.

- 

Prospecting: It is All in the Process @wendyweiss The Queen of Cold Calling™ Tips to ensure maximum results http://bit.ly/tejApu

My colleague David Newman at www.doitmarketing.com shares this exceptional list of  ideas with you.

As John Jantsch likes to say, “social media is a tactic, not a religion” and I have to agree. Here are 10 social media tips for professional speakers that will help you balance your mix…

1.    Youtube One Of Your Speeches – The best form of advertisement when it comes to professional speaking is showing your abilities online. When people have seen your electrifying speeches, they will be more likely to want to book you. Adding in a small link to your site during your Youtube video also will bring traffic to your website. Adding your Youtube video to your website will also get buyers more confident in your skills. After all, with many decision-makers and meeting planners, even the most eloquent writing will mean nothing to them if they cannot watch you in action. Try and get video in front of a high-octane audience. The more excited the audience is, the more dynamic your video will be.

2.    Post Blogs On Related Subjects – If you are a professional speaker who makes a living from leadership speeches, having a blog that offers daily leadership tips will get more targeted leads to your site. Moreover, having extremely good leadership information and articles will also get people spreading the word about your site. There are plenty of authors out there who were able to sell books through their blogs; why should you be any different? As a general rule of thumb, the more content that you generate, the better your marketing results will be.

3.    Podcasts Are Your Best Friend – Audio recordings of some of your shorter speeches or “snippets” are a great way to advertise your expertise. Including these in a feed will keep fans and customers updated on your latest work, and also will help spread the word about your speaking abilities. Even better, selling audio programs on your site might just make you a little money. Remember to add a little audio blurb in each audio program telling your audience how to book you for their next event!

4.    Link It All Together – On each of your social media profiles, add your website link, your blog link, and upload some videos, photos, and audio recordings if possible. Making yourself as accessible as possible will let people know that you are serious and open for new business. People also will enjoy the convenience of having everything linked together in an easy-to-access way no matter where they may land in your web empire.

5.    Get As Much Social Bookmarking As Possible – Got videos online? Get them ‘liked’ on Facebook. Encourage your audience to Tweet links to your website, blog, or show pages. Whenever possible, install as many social bookmarking tools as possible, and try to use all of them (Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon). The more that you can get people to share with ease, the more your expertise will spread.

6.    Twitter Is Great – Tweeting your updates is an easy way to keep people informed about your latest thoughts, insights, and audiences. However, the best way that you can use Twitter is to engage your fans and prospective clients. Being able to chat with you via Twitter will show people that you are still a real person, and that your fans/followers matter to you!

7.    LinkedIn Is Best For Corporate Speakers – LinkedIn has long been known to attract professionals in just about every field. For business speakers, it’s a smart move to put your biggest social media efforts into LinkedIn. Then take those relationships offline – perhaps even networking with local managers in your area to get you some steady gigs as their favorite professional speaker.

8.    Keep It All Short N’ Sweet N’ To The Point – No matter what social media tool you are using, make sure to be direct and impactful in your communications. No one is going to read a page and a half of advertising. No one is going to show up at one of your events if you forget to give the date and time. Expect people to have short attention spans.

9.    Use Each Form Of Social Media To Strengthen the Others – For instance, using Twitter to get more Facebook likes will give your Facebook advertising more power. People who have friends on Facebook will see your ad, and then ‘like’ it themselves. Getting people to post your YouTube videos on their walls will make your YouTube marketing efforts more successful.

10.    Search Engine Optimize Your Blog – If your blog gets picked up by search engines like Google, using your social media tools to market yourself will be easier. The best part of using SEO to increase your hits is that you can often do it yourself combining titles, tags, and key words into some simple strategies to greatly improve your organic web traffic.

Now that everyone who owns a business seems to be building Facebook Pages (also known as Fan Pages, Like Pages, and Business Pages), the next inevitable dilemma that we face is what to do with those pages once they’re  created and how to drive traffic there.  I’ve seen companies popping up all over with offers of “1000 new Facebook Fans for $xx.”  I’m not sure that type of strategy is reliable or even works.

What I’ve often seen business owners do, and what they’re encouraged to do, are three things:  1.  Ask questions to promote discussion; 2.  Hold contests; and 3.  Offer regular discounts or coupons.  None of those gets my attention as someone who is a “fan” of many Facebook pages, although sometimes I do check out the discounts or coupons.

However, recently I’ve been paying attention to what attracts me to fan pages.  I am juggling many balls during the day, so any strategy to which I pay attention has to have a very high WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) factor to lure me away from the million other things I have to do.

Here are 5 unique ways I’ve seen others use to drive traffic to their Facebook pages:

1.  Promotion Day:  Consultant Biana Babinsky runs a monthly promotion day where she invites her list and followers to post info about their business and their Facebook page on her business page’s wall.  It’s a great strategy — business owners love the opportunity to talk about themselves, and they get a little free promotion in the process.

2. Brag About Your Blog. Blogging expert Denise Wakeman invites her followers to brag about their blogs once a month on her business page. She is getting amazing results with this strategy, recently reporting over 300 shares when she wrote a follow up post about this strategy.  She encourages business owners to come up with a clever hook that is all about them.

3.  Speed Coaching.  Internet marketing expert Ryan Lee recently let his followers know that he was on a plane to an event and would do speed coaching for them from his Facebook page. A number of people (me included) took him up on his offer, and we got our questions answered while he enjoyed his flight.

4.  Virtual event checkins:  I was on a teleclass recently with Online Business Coach George Kao, and he encouraged us to introduce ourselves and our businesses and interact with each other on his host’s (James Roche) Facebook page.  It was a pretty cool experience, as I connected with some new folks and, in one case, with a current newsletter subscriber.

5.  Host a Q&A day: I’ve watched Social Media Examiner do this every Friday, when they invite an expert on social marketing to be their guest and answer fan questions on their Facebook page.

Take Action Strategy

Don’t take the usual, boring route to engage your Facebook page fans.  Take some time to think about what would really engage them, and implement that on a regular basis. Watch your fanbase grow, as well as your expertise and credibility.

Introvert Marketing Coach Donna Gunter helps professional service businesses stop the client chase and create online businesses that drive clients to them. Want to learn specific Internet marketing strategies that get results for introverts? Discover how to increase your online visibility in this free ecourse, Introvert Marketing Toolkit: 9 Strategies to Make a BOLD Impression Online, at ==> http://www.IntrovertMarketingToolkit.com

bog@hubspot.com

It is clear that social media is increasingly becoming an important part of the marketing mix. Today, Social Media Examiner has released its 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, an annual report surveying marketers about the role and application of social media in marketing.

This year’s report surveyed more than 3,300 marketers. While I encourage you to read the entire report, below you can find an overview of the key findings and data points.

10 Key Social Media Marketing Stats

1. 90% of Marketers indicated that social media is important for their business.

2. Only one-third of social media marketers want to know how to monitor and measure the return of investment of social media.

3. 58% of marketers use social media for 6 hours or more each week.

4. 77% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing in 2011.

5. 70% of marketers want to learn more about Facebook.

6. 69% of marketers want to learn more about blogging.

7. The number-one advantage of social media marketing is generating more business exposure, as indicated by 88% of marketers.

8. Only 28% of businesses are outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing.

9. 32% of the surveyed marketers said they have less than one year of experience with social media.

10. B2C companies were more likely (50%) than B2B (42%) to increase their use of online ads.

Marketing Takeaway

While individually all of this data is interesting and important to marketers, it is vital to look at it holistically to identify major changes in the marketing industry. When looking at this data in its entirety, we see the maturation process of a still young marketing transformation.

The rise of online video in marketing can be attributed to marketers who already have experience with creating text-based online content and are now ready to tackle producing and distributing video content which has a more challenging set of content creation hurdles. Additionally, video content creation has been made easier with smart phones and compact video cameras that are now capable of capturing high-quality video at tradeshows and other offline events.

Another sign of maturation of the social media marketing industry is the reported amount of time marketers spend on social media marketing efforts. It important to note that not only is the majority of marketers now spending more than 6 hours a week on social media, but that time investment seems to underline that marketers are starting to understand the time and commitment needed to be successful with social media marketing.

The low percentage of companies outsourcing social media exposes two issues: social media may be better suited for internal marketers and many marketing agencies are struggling with integrating social media marketing into their existing service offerings.

What did you think of this data?

Read more:

by Niel Robertson @MarketingProfs
Published on March 1, 2011

In this article, you’ll learn…

* Why Facebook and YouTube will figure prominently in SMB marketing in 2011
* Whether Group Couponing and location-based services will work for SMBs
* Why SMBs will rely on crowdsourcing for marketing- and advertising-related tasks

2011 will be known as the year the online advertising industry turned its attention to small and midsize businesses (SMBs). The average SMB, however, will become overwhelmed by the number of new online marketing and advertising tools available this year. The hardest choice for them will be what to focus on and what to ignore.

Small businesses have different types of customers, so every advertising medium is not a guarantee of success for each customer type.

Following is a list of trends that will create the biggest opportunity, and confusion, for SMBs in 2011.

1. Online presence moves to Facebook

I recently saw a print ad with a Facebook address, but without a traditional website URL. Times are changing.

For SMBs, websites are still too complicated to build and update. Just as blogging sites made it easy to publish content online, Facebook is making it easy for small businesses to put their business online. As social commerce takes off, having a Facebook presence will be invaluable.

2011 will be the first year we see successful new businesses with no websites, just Facebook pages.

2. The dawn of the SMB agency arrives

SMBs can’t do it all; they need to focus their efforts on their core business. Online marketing is growing in complexity, which creates new opportunity for SMBs but also makes marketing more daunting.

Intermediaries that target SMBs will sprout up to help reduce that complexity. Though many intermediaries will be startups, some will be large media players that already have relationships with SMBs.

I predict that new, large-scale agencies will be formed directly to help SMBs. They will use a model more akin to that of Charles Schwab (with physical, local offices) than a traditional Madison Avenue firm’s.

3. SMBs take location-based services seriously, but few will advertise

Foursquare and other location-based services (LBS) are upping their game constantly with business-side features. For example, Foursquare allows SMBs to claim and manage their business page, Yelp focuses on the same, and Google Places reaches out to SMBs with a sales force and incentives.

SMBs need to take ownership of their business pages on such platforms and understand how to use them. Other than paying for access to control their profiles, few will advertise through LBS providers—for now.

4. SMBs finally look at the numbers

For too long, many SMBs have spent advertising and marketing dollars with no real measurement, metrics, or targets in place. Small business owners will finally knuckle down and do the math to answer these questions:

* What cost is acceptable for acquiring a customer?
* What is the lifetime value of that customer?
* What advertising mechanisms are producing results in line with these requirements?

5. Many will try coupon sites and fail

SMB owners are excited about group coupon sites. Many will try them— unsuccessfully—for the first time this year (especially as group-coupon platforms become self-service).

Coupon customers will be overloaded with an increase in offers and coupon players, and they will start to ignore offers other than those of brands they already buy from.

Couponing will be transformed from a way to acquire new customers to a way to drive repeat business.

6. SMBs will focus on video, YouTube especially

Consumers are increasingly flooded by blog content, news articles, and reviews. Humans simply can’t consume that much text. Consumer preference will therefore shift toward video as the primary way to learn about products and services.

Producing videos of high-enough quality for a website is only as hard as getting a Flip camera and some video editing software. Video will emerge as a requirement for SMBs, especially when they discover YouTube Promoted Videos, where the cost-per-click is one-tenth that of paid search.

I predict that YouTube will release a scaled-down version of its “branded channel,” which is now priced too high for SMBs. SMB channels will allow SMBs to store videos, provide product and service materials inside the YouTube interface, and highlight links to their websites.

YouTube will try to do battle with Facebook to become the new “home” for SMBs.

7. SMBs will be the biggest consumers of crowdsourcing

SMBs will rely on crowdsourcing marketplaces to perform more advertising- and marketing-related tasks, such as paid search, logo and ad-creative development, display advertising, social media, or content production.

Pay-by-the unit or pay-for-performance crowdsourcing options will become attractive to SMBs looking for quality help without large upfront costs.

Trying a little of everything and not enough of a few things will leave many SMBs questioning the value of online advertising. The smart SMBs will pick a small set of trials (within online advertising) to gather enough data to understand what works for their company, and choose based on that data.

Niel Robertson is the CEO and founder of Trada, the world’s first crowdsourced PPC marketplace. He is also a founding member of the Crowdsortium, an organization for crowdsourcing companies and organizations. Find Niel at Trada.com/blog and @nielr1 on Twitter.

By Mike Sachoff – Tue, 11/23/2010 smallbiznewz.net

Susan note:  Would like to hear your comments.  I believe that social media is a terrific way to market yourself if done properly.

Facebook and Twitter viewed as important marketing tools

Small businesses have increased their use of social media tools and plan to focus more on those efforts in 2011, according to a new survey from Constant Contact.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) cite Facebook and 30 percent cite Twitter as important tools for marketing, up from 50 percent and 25 percent, respectively, from March. In addition the survey indicates that small businesses now see Facebook as equally important as face-to-face interactions; 62% cited face-to-face interactions as important. Traditional marketing activities, including websites, email marketing, event marketing, and online surveys, all saw modest increases in importance this fall.

“Today’s reality is that everyone is trying to do more with less,” said Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact.

“Small organizations don’t have the luxury of full-time, dedicated social media staff like larger companies do, but that’s not stopping them from using social media marketing to broaden their marketing reach.”

When looking for new customers, 91% cite the value and importance of word of mouth. Other online tools rate as very important as tools for finding new customers; 68.8% rate a company’s website and 58.6% rate email marketing as very important for finding new customers. Nearly 75% of respondents said they expect their businesses to grow in the next year.

“While we can’t predict the economy, we expect that small businesses will continue to survive and thrive in 2011 by finding new, innovative ways to grow their businesses using limited budget and resources,” said Goodman.

“We anticipate further adoption of social media marketing tools as a way to give added lift to other proven marketing winners, including email and event marketing.”

Susan’s note: Terrific post as usual

People Over 50 Using Facebook More These Days

It’s starting to seem really cliche to keep talking about how important social media is to businesses at this point, but whenever I think that, I am also reminded how so many small businesses don’t even have a website, and just a year ago, the concept of social media was still a very touchy one for many businesses.

These days, it seems a lot more businesses have embraced it, but there are no doubt plenty that have yet to test the waters, and many more that have tested the waters to some degree, but are still unsure how to proceed. That’s ok. Sometimes it takes time to figure out how to make it work for your business. Not all businesses are the same or have the same goals. That said, if you can find a place for Facebook among your goals, you’ll probably be interested to know that it’s not just the young’ns that are on Facebook.

Facebook’s size is not news. You were probably already aware that it’s huge. Recent estimates put it somewhere at 500 million people – way more than the entire population of the United States. Research from nonprofit AARP indicates that a lot of people older than 50 are using Facebook, and that might be a demographic helpful for you to know about.

Over a quarter (27%) of Americans age 50+ use social media websites, with Facebook being the most popular, followed by MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Here are some additional stats from the AARP’s findings:

- Forty-nine percent of those 50 to 64, and 40 percent of all adults 50+, consider themselves extremely or very comfortable using the Internet.

- Facebook is the most popular social networking site for Americans 50+, with 23 percent of survey participants reporting they prefer it—followed by MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, all at about 4 percent.

- Forty-seven percent of adults 50+ originally heard about social networking from a family member other than their spouse, and of those, 70 percent heard about it from a child or grandchild.

- Among adults 50+ who use social media websites, three-quarters (73 percent) are connected to relatives other than children and grandchildren, three-fifths are connected to their children (62 percent), and one-third (36 percent) are connected to grandchildren.

- Eighty-three percent of those 50+ have heard of the Apple iPad, and among those familiar with the device, 11 percent plan to purchase or want one and 2 percent reported they already have. The numbers are even higher for baby boomers aged 50 to 64, with 86 percent reporting they have heard of the iPad and 14 percent planning or wanting to purchase one.

“The latest data tells us that more and more, social networking is becoming a part of everyday life for Americans 50+, and boomers in particular,” said AARP Chief Communications Officer Kevin Donnellan.

The moral of the story is that people 50-64 are using Facebook more, and you KNOW people younger than that are using it. So, if you do not have a presence on Facebook, you’re continually missing out on new opportunities to get in front of potential customers.

Meanwhile, Facebook is getting integrated with more and more of the web itself. Yahoo just launched deep integration for its users, for example.

By Mari Smith @marismith
Published April 27, 2010 in Social Media Examiner

If you build a Facebook Page, will fans come? This is the great hope for many businesses. However, fans do not magically appear from the Facebook mist.

People must be lured to your fan page. And there are some good and bad ways to go about doing this. In this article, I’ll share a big myth and 21 ways to drive more fans to your Facebook fan page. (Though Facebook recently changed the “Become A Fan” button to the new, omnipresent “Like” button – and a fan page is called a “Business Page” or “Facebook Page” – we can still call them fan pages and people who join are fans!)

The Big Myth
There’s a great myth that once you create a Facebook fan page for your business, the first thing you should do to get fans is invite ALL your friends from your personal profile using the “Suggest to Friends” feature.

Unfortunately, this strategy may not be that effective and can, in fact, often backfire. I have seen many industry gurus complain that when they decline a fan page request, it’s frustrating to continue to be asked again and again.

There are several reasons not to use the Suggest to Friends feature:

Facebook users can only like up to 500 pages and may wish to be selective. (Though I have seen it’s possible to go over this limit)

Fan page suggestions may often build up, unnoticed. (At last count, I have 593 overlooked fan page suggestions and am already a fan of 500!)

To aggressively pursue all your friends to join your fan page – for no apparent incentive – is counterintuitive to the nature of social media.

So, the good news is there are many ways to promote your fan page and proactively increase your fan base without bugging all your current Facebook friends, and also by thinking wider than just Facebook.

Here are 21 ways to get more fans for your Facebook fan page:

#1: Embed Widgets on Your Website
Select from a number of the new Facebook Social Plugins and place them on your website and blog. The Fan Box widget is now the Like Box and it works well to display your current fan page stream and a selection of fans – see screenshot below with Whole Foods Market Facebook Like Box. I would recommend adding a title above the box encouraging visitors to your site/blog to click the “Like” button (which makes them a Facebook fan).

Whole Foods Market Facebook Like Box.

You might also consider the Live Stream widget for more advanced uses, particularly on an FBML custom tab of your fan page itself. The Live Stream widget allows Facebook users to add their comments to a live event, for example, and that activity pushes out into their stream.

#2: Invite Your Email and Ezine Subscribers
Assuming you have an opt-in email list, definitely send out an invitation to your subscribers via email (several times, over time) letting them know about your fan page and encouraging them to join. Ideally, provide them with a description of the page and an incentive to join.

Be sure to have the Facebook logo/badge appear in your HTML newsletters. Instead of the usual “Join our Fan Page,” say something creative like “Write on our Facebook wall,” or “Join our Facebook community,” or “Come add your photo to our Facebook group” (where “group” is actually your fan page). Users have to be a fan in order to interact with your fan page in this way.

#3: Add to Your Email Signature Block
Instead of promoting your Facebook personal profile (if you do), include a link to your fan page in every email you send out. If you use web-based email, check out the Wisestamp signature addon.

#4: Make a Compelling Welcome Video
Create an attractive landing tab (canvas page) with a video that explains exactly a) what your fan page is about, b) who it’s for and c) why they should become members.  The result: you’ll increase your conversion rate from visitors to fans. One of my favorite fan page welcome videos is by Steve Spangler, the Science Guy! After watching his video, you can’t help but want to join!

(By the way, with the new Facebook changes, if your custom welcome tab and video talk about clicking the “Become A Fan” button, you may want to change the wording to “click the Like button” now).

#5: Use Facebook Apps
I recently tested a new live video-streaming app called Vpype. The app adds a tab to your fan page called “Shows” and when you broadcast as your fan page, everyone can view by default. (You can also broadcast as your personal profile and selectively invite friends/friend lists). I wrote up a review of this app here. By announcing via Twitter, your personal Facebook profile, your blog and your email list, you can broadcast regular live Internet TV shows from your fan page and create much buzz.

Another example of app integration is Target’s “Bullseye Gives” campaign. Target had their fans vote on which of ten charities they most wanted to see the company donate to. By voting, a post goes out onto your Facebook wall and into the News Feeds of all your friends, thus providing Target with valuable exposure. (For custom apps, see companies like Buddy Media, FanAppz, Wildfire Apps, Involver, Virtue.)

#6: Integrate the Facebook Comment Feature
My favorite example of this is the t-shirt company Threadless. On their landing tab (canvas page), you can view and purchase t-shirts as well as Like and comment on any item and choose to have that comment posted to your Facebook profile, as shown in this screenshot:

(Screenshot of Threadless Facebook Fan Page landing tab)

Threadless actually has their landing tab set up so visitors don’t have to become a fan to purchase/comment/interact. Yet they have organically built well over 100,000 fans.

As users comment on items, that activity is pushed out into their stream (profile wall and their friends’ News Feeds), which creates valuable viral visibility for your fan page.

For further information on adding the comment box to your FBML page/app, see these pages.

#7: Get Fans to Tag Photos
If you host live events, be sure to take plenty of photos (or even hire a professional photographer), load the photos to your fan page and encourage fans to tag themselves. This, again, pushes out into their wall and friends’ News Feeds, providing valuable (free!) exposure. And, a picture says a thousand words – we notice the thumbnails in our feed more than text. (Props to Nick O’Neil for this tip.)

#8: Load Videos and Embed on Your Site
Facebook’s Video feature is extremely powerful. You can load video content to your Facebook fan page, then take the source code and embed on your blog/website. There is a “Become a Fan” button right in the video itself. For an excellent tutorial, see Nick O’Neil’s post: How To Get Thousands of Facebook Fans With a Single Video.

#9: Place Facebook Ads
Even with a nominal weekly/monthly budget, you should be able to boost your fan count using Facebook’s own social ad feature. It’s the most targeted traffic your money can buy. To buy an ad, scroll to the foot of any page inside Facebook and click the link at the very bottom that says “Advertising.” From there, you can walk through the wizard and get an excellent sense of how many Facebook users are in your exact target market.

Then, when you advertise your fan page, Facebook users can become a fan (click the Like button) right from the ad as shown in the screenshot below. Additionally, Facebook displays several of your friends who have already liked you, thus creating social proof.

My book with Chris Treadaway, Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day (Sybex) contains comprehensive instructions on maximizing your marketing through Facebook social ads.

#10: Run a Contest
This is somewhat of a gray area because Facebook changed their Promotional Guidelines last year. Essentially, you need prior written permission from Facebook and need to be spending a significant amount on ads per month. However, you CAN require Facebook users to become a fan of your fan page in order to enter a contest, sweepstakes, drawing or competition. See these two posts for further explanation. PLUS, good news: you CAN run contests and sweepstakes with the use of the apps created by Wildfire App.

Read more

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Mari Smith
Fast Company calls Mari Smith “the Pied Piper of the Online World.” She’s a relationship marketing specialist and social media speaker, trainer and consultant with particular focus on Facebook and Twitter

Using social media channels as a broadcast medium won’t get the result you’re after.   Engagement is the key to success.

According to the Alterian “Annual Survey 2009” report Are You Ready to Engage? the maturity of digital and social media requires integration of marketing strategies. Marketers must move from a focus on siloed campaigns to an emphasis on listening to, and communicating with, consumers.

“Engaging with customers is becoming paramount and the yardstick by which we measure those brands that survive and those that don’t,” says David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian. “Marketers need to appeal to the individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis.”

A new report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council indicates that engagement is what drives brand loyalty and both customers and marketers agree that deeper engagement and personalized contact is what gets results.   Loyal consumers expect marketers to understand them better and deliver more relevant and valued offers.

The Marketer’s View

Most marketers (61 percent) believe that loyalty program participants are the best and most profitable customers, but that they’re falling down on extracting greater value from customer loyalists. When it comes to in-depth profiling of customers, the vast majority of marketers still only aggregate and analyze limited customer data sets.    73 percent collect basic demographics, but critical insights — such as advocacy rates (14 percent), brand loyalty and attachment (27 percent), personal preferences (31 percent), satisfaction levels (33 percent), and product preferences (38 percent) — are not being leveraged.

The Consumer’s View

According to eMarketer, consumers are demanding engagement, not just discounts.  And they want conversation, not messages.

58 percent are looking for compelling personal benefits and services, as well as more relevant offers or individualized deals. as a reward for their loyalty.  They want the information delivered through multiple channels in the most relevant, personal and customized way possible. (Do I hear RSS feeds?)

Customers are issuing a very clear warning to marketers. Give me relevant communications that reflect my history and connections to you, or I’ll go elsewhere.

Marketers are definitely looking for ways to connect with consumers. Check out this Google Trends graph for Engagement Strategies

A proven ability to engage an audience is also high on the list of desired attributes for companies hiring social media staff. “Let’s say you have a blog and you routinely get people to comment, and you have 5,000 followers on Twitter. That shows you know how to engage people,” says Knight Foundation’s Marc Fest, who is looking to fill an online community coordinator position.

Sadly, only 17% of the companies polled said that their staff is fully prepared for new media marketing and engaging with their customers.

About the author:
Sally is the author of Website Content Strategy blog: Information about the shifts in media consumption and the use of technology in marketing and PR so business can stay in touch with their rapidly moving audiences.

Susan’s note: I agree with Sally.  Business folks do need to connect and in order to create trust in a potential client it is essential to engage.  Speakers’ must engage their audiences as well.  It is all about customer service.  I always answer the telephone and enjoy sharing information with potential clients.  Do you?

Post from Chris Brogan

I’m presenting to the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) conference today. These people all put on conferences for a living, a multi-billion dollar industry (note: I also put on conferences), and work with an events solutions company. What they’ll want to know is how all these social media tools can improve attendance, drive collaboration, extend the value of events, without taking away any potential revenue. They’ll want a very safe path, tried and true, with a step by step understanding of what will add to the bottom line and how to avoid things that will detract.

After years of attending and running events, I can tell you that it’s all still very much a lab environment. That said, here’s what I know.

Social Media Buzzes Up Potential Attendance

Hooking Twitter to your registration system such that it tweets out a message like “I just registered for PodCamp Boston on Jun 14th. Are you coming? http://bit.ly/regpcbos” is a powerful way to get more attendance. Also distributing discount codes and early birds via that method is equally effective.

Jeff Pulver did a lot of his promotion and ticket sales via Twitter for his 140 Conference, but then again, that’s an event about Twitter and real-time social media tools of its kind. Would it work as well for a less technology-based show?

It’s hard to say. The demographics of people joining Facebook, for instance, are promising. 650,000 new people join a day, mostly within the age range of 31-55, a little more than half are women. If your show is less technology-focused, there’s still a potential that you could find attendees via Facebook, as people use the tool in many ways in their off time.

But don’t be too optimistic. I’ve yet to find reports or case studies of Facebook having as successful a conversion for attendance. If you build a fan page, it’s just another place to have to push eyeballs and hope for conversion. To the plus, there are more people visiting Facebook than your website. To the minus, they’re not as well targeted. There’s potential there, but it requires a lot of effort. And Facebook ads have shown mixed results.

What’s required is a kind of social media sherpa, who can find you the audience you seek, who can reach to them on the platforms where they are already congregating, and who can help promote in tasteful ways that fit the sensitivities of the networks where your audiences are found.

Social Media Extends Communities

There are a number of community platform tools in all price ranges that might appeal to conference organizers. Some are custom-built to tie into registration systems. Others are separate-but-robust and allow your attendees to build a profile, make meetings at the event, share media, and a whole host of other potential uses. The upside is that this gives organizers a new way to provide sponsors and exhibitors a new place to make relationships. It’s another potential property to advertise on.

To the downside, these communities are rarely heavily used. I’ve been made to sign up for them in the past (and “made to” is the key takeaway for you), and the return on effort wasn’t exactly there. They can appear to be ghost towns, which might drag down the experience of the attendees and send false signals to all involved. Some are costly and require a lot of customization before putting them into practice.

Here’s the thing about communities, bottom line: if you’re going to build one, realize that you need a community manager capable of making content, capable of keeping the “cocktail party environment” going on the site, and capable of understanding potential business introductions of value that would give all involved some yield for being there.

Video and Audio Materials Drive Awareness

Creating video for a YouTube or other video channel of your best presentations is a great way to build awareness of the event, and a way to give your sales team something to talk about when calling up prospects. It’s also a great way to help prospective attendees realize what they could see at the event. Consider the difference between a printed brochure with a bunch of heads on it versus a series of video posts that show highlights or the entire presentation of past presenters.

There are lots of great ways to use video and audio materials to drum up business. Rick Calvert and Jim Turner did this expertly for Blog World Expo, including creating many anticipatory audio podcast experiences. The double benefit of how Rick and Jim did it was that they got their influential speakers to do these pre-show activities and then those were promoted to some extent, thus driving even more potential sign-up.

Here’s where most show organizers worry that they’re giving away the show, and that they can make money on after-show DVD sales. If you’re making a killing on that business, then don’t listen to me. However, I’ve rarely seen many people tell me with a straight face that their after-show DVD sales are a huge stream of revenue, or that the prospect of trading that stream for more paying attendees wasn’t a worthwhile trade-off.

Remember: this video and audio material makes for good sales lead conversational material, not just attendee awareness.

And just sticking the video on YouTube doesn’t mean you’ll have someone knocking down the door. We can talk about all the various elements that need to go into it, including calls to action and the like, but that’ll be another time.

Nothing Is a Slam Dunk, But It All Can Work

After years of experimentation with the various shows I produce or collaborate on, there are lots of ways that social media tools can add to the experience, and there are lots of ways that it can go horribly wrong. The positives are that shows extended by social media get talked about more, get more coverage, get more exposure, and have better potential to grow using non-traditional marketing methods. The negatives are that bad news travels fast.

All in all, the recommendation is to work with someone who understands and can build the strategy around the tools, instead of just throwing a bunch of tools together that you read about in various places. There are no shortcuts to building social media into events, but the yield from taking an intelligent approach is very much worth it.

I’m always happy to talk with you about how events can be extended. Drop me a line on my contact form and I’ll get back soon.

How Have You Seen It Done, Good or Bad?

What are the ways you’ve seen companies attempt to use social media in events, and what do you like or dislike about it?

Chris Brogan advises businesses, organizations, and individuals on how to use social media and social networks to build relationships and deliver value. You can reach him at: chrisbrogan.com

By Pete Cashmore, Special to CNN

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Mashable’s Pete Cashmore says real-time communication, Internet TV and social gaming will be big in 2010.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Mashable’s Pete Cashmore lists his 10 Web trends that we’ll be talking about next year
• Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time communications trend will grow
• The cloud-computing movement will see a major leap forward in the first half of 2010
• 2010 will be the breakthrough year of the much-anticipated mobile payments market
  

Editor’s note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable, a popular blog about social media. He is writing a weekly column about social networking and tech for CNN.com.

(CNN) — As 2009 draws to a close, the Web’s attention turns to the year ahead. What can we expect of the online realm in 2010?

While Web innovation is unpredictable, some clear trends are becoming apparent. Expect the following 10 themes to define the Web next year:

Real-time ramps up

Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time trend has been to the latter part of 2009 what “Web 2.0″ was to 2007. The term represents the growing demand for immediacy in our interactions. Immediacy is compelling, engaging, highly addictive … it’s a sense of living in the now.

But real-time is more than just a horde of new Twitter-like services hitting the Web in 2010 (although that’s inevitable — cargo cults abound). It’s a combination of factors, from the always-connected nature of modern smartphones to the instant gratification provided by a Google search.

Why wait until you get home to post a restaurant review, asks consumer trends tracker Trendwatching, when scores of iPhone apps let you post feedback as soon as you finish dessert? Why wonder about the name of that song, when humming into your phone handset will garner an instant answer from Midomi?

Look out, too, for real-time collaboration: Google Wave launched earlier this year, resulting in both excitement and confusion. A crossover between instant messaging, e-mail and a wiki, Wave is a platform for getting things done together. Web users, however, remain baffled. In 2010, Wave’s utility will become more apparent.

Location, location, location

Fueled by the ubiquity of GPS in modern smartphones, location-sharing services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and Google Latitude are suddenly in vogue.

As I ruminated in this column two weeks ago, Foursquare and its ilk may become the breakout services of the year … provided they’re not crushed by the addition of location-based features to Twitter and Facebook.

What’s clear is that location is not about any singular service; rather, it’s a new layer of the Web. Soon, our whereabouts may optionally be appended to every Tweet, blog comment, photo or video we post.

Augmented reality

It’s yet to become part of the consumer consciousness, but augmented reality has attracted early-adopter buzz in the latter part of 2009.

Enabled by GPS, mapping data from the likes of Google and the accelerometer technology in modern phones, AR involves overlaying data on your environment; imagine walking around a city and seeing it come to life with reviews of the restaurants you walk past and Wikipedia entries about the sights you see.

When using Layar, for instance, the picture from your phone’s video camera is overlaid with bubbles of information from Yelp, Wikipedia, Google Search and Twitter. The challenge for such services is to prove their utility: They have the “cool factor,” but can they be truly useful?

Content ‘curation’

The Web’s biggest challenge of recent years is that content creation is outpacing our ability to consume it: “Information overload” has become an increasingly common complaint.

In the attention economy, with its millions of daily status updates and billions of Web pages vying for our time, how do we best allocate that scarce resource? One solution has been algorithmic: Sites like Google News source the best stuff by technical means, but fall short when it comes to personalization.

In 2008, the answer revealed itself: Your friends are your filter. With the launch of its Facebook Connect program, Facebook allowed sites to offer content personalization based on the preferences of your network.

Meanwhile, Google’s Social Search experiment is investigating whether Web searching is improved by using information gleaned from your friends on Twitter, Facebook, Digg and the rest. Increasingly, your friends are becoming the curators of your consumption, from Web links to movies, books and TV shows.

Professional “curation” has its place, too: Who better to direct our scarce attention than experts in their fields? I explored this possibility in a CNN article last month titled “Twitter lists and real-time journalism” .

Cloud computing

Cloud computing was very much a buzzword of 2009, but there’s no doubt this transition will continue. The trend, in which data and applications cease to reside on our desktops and instead exist on servers elsewhere (“the cloud”), makes our data accessible from anywhere and enables collaboration with distributed teams.

The cloud movement will see a major leap forward in the first half of 2010 with the launch of “Office Web Apps,” free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote released in tandem with Microsoft Office 2010.

Next year will also see the launch of Google’s Chrome OS, a free, Web-centric operating system that forces us to ask: How many desktop applications do we really need?

Internet TV and movies

Is 2010 the year the majority of our television starts coming to us via the Internet? There’s certainly more activity here than at any other time: Among the early-adopter set, Hulu, Boxee, Apple TV and Netflix’s Roku box lead the field.

Hulu in particular has sustained remarkable growth this year, while the movie studios are getting on board with the launch of Epix, a Hulu for films.

Convergence conundrum

The outlook for devices in 2010 appears somewhat contradictory: While the convergence trend continues apace and many of our gadgets are folded into the smartphones we carry around every day, we’re seeing a converse trend in which task-specific devices gain popularity.

GPS device maker TomTom recently introduced a $100 iPhone app that removes the need to buy a TomTom hardware device. Google then one-upped the company by releasing free turn-by-turn directions on devices running its Android operating system. Garmin and TomTom beware: Standalone GPS devices may meet their demise in 2010.

Also on the endangered gadgets list: Flip video cameras, which PC World declared dead upon the launch of the iPhone 3G S. Meanwhile, Apple executives say the iPhone is cannibalizing the iPod: Why carry two devices when you only need one?

Paradoxically, the e-book reader is seeing traction as a single-use device. With hard-to-read, power-hungry laptop screens proving impractical for reading, and smartphone screens proving too small, the Kindle and its competitors are gaining buzz.

However, I’d argue that the e-book reader is a fad: Carrying an extra device is never desirable, and the major factor preventing convergence is the lack of superior screen technology. Flexible, expanding low-power screens on cell phones might tip the balance.

The real power of Amazon’s Kindle is its ease of use: a virtual bookstore so simple that it does for books what Apple’s iTunes did for music. The devices will converge, but the “app store” model for books will persist across all devices. The technology won’t be with us in 2010, however.

Social gaming

There’s little risk of social gaming proving a bad bet in 2010 — Zynga’s FarmVille game on Facebook now counts more active users than Twitter, claims a Facebook executive. Meanwhile, rival Playfish was recently acquired by Electronic Arts in a deal valued at up to $400 million.

Of growing interest in 2010, however, will be the virtual currencies these games have spawned: In the allegedly unmonetizable world of social media, virtual buying and selling may be the route to riches for some social media sites — a concept I outlined in this column under the title “Is Facebook the future of micropayments?”

Mobile payments

I’d wager that 2010 will be the breakthrough year of the much-anticipated mobile payments market. While much of Asia has embraced the technology, the U.S., in particular, has lagged. There’s reason for optimism in 2010, however: From PayPalX to Amazon’s mobile payments platform for developers, the big players are seizing the mobile payments opportunity.

Meanwhile, newcomer Square, founded by the creator of Twitter, began its rollout this week to much early-adopter excitement: The company enables merchants to accept payments via Apple’s iPhone.

Fame abundance, privacy scarcity

Warhol was right: Fame is now abundant. Social media has birthed a galaxy of stars in thousands of niches: We’re all reality stars now, on Facebook, Twitter and all the myriad online outlets where we hone our personal brands.

We’re seeing the ongoing voluntary erosion of privacy through public sharing on Facebook and Twitter, the rise of location-based services and the inclusion of video cameras in a growing array of devices.

The incredible efficiency of Web-based communication and our Google-fueled appetite to know everything about everything (or everyone) right now are combining to make Tiger Woods the canary in the privacy coal mine. Expect personal privacy — or rather its continued erosion — to be a hot media topic of 2010.

By Anil Batra -

One of my blog reader sent me the following question in response to my blog post, Social Media Analytics Part I

Anil, are there any free tools for social media monitoring (twitter) that you can recommend? Tools, that a small business can use until they can justify the budget for one of the mainstream tools?

Short answer is “Yes, there are free tools for Social Media Monitoring”. Below are two of the tools that I suggest.

1. Google Alerts

Google Alerts is one of the best free tool for monitoring the social media. Google Alert is an email alert service from Google that monitors news, blogs, twitter, sites, youtube etc. and sends you an email whenever a keyword, specified by you, appears in those places.

You can access Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/alerts

Google Alerts provides 6 types of alerts – ‘News’, ‘Web’, ‘Blogs’, ‘Comprehensive’, ‘Video’ and ‘Groups’. According to Google Alerts FAQ

A ‘News’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.

A ‘Web’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.

A ‘Blogs’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.

A ‘Comprehensive’ alert is an aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources (News, Web and Blogs) into a single email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.

A ‘Video’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Video search.

A ‘Groups’ alert is an email aggregate of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.

I always use comprehensive so that it can cover all the sources. (Note: Recently Google has also started to cover Twitter feeds)

2. SM2 – SM2 from Techrigy

SM2 has a free version. It is limited to 5 keywords that you can search on and only shows 1000 results but that should be enough for a Small Business.

There are few other tools that are under $15 a month. I will write about them after I have reviewed them.

 Screenshot of SM2

 About the author:
http://webanalysis.blogspot.com

Anil has over 10 years of experience in Consulting, Business Intelligence, Web Analytics, Online Advertising and Behavioral Targeting. Anil helps companies use Web channel data to improve online business results (lead generation, conversion, retention and self-help metrics). Anil has helped several fortune 500 customers effectively use web analytics and increase their ROI on the web. Anil has worked with customers such as Microsoft, SmartMoney.com, ESPN, T-Mobile, Hoovers, Realnetworks, Starbucks, and TheStreet.com

Anil holds a B. Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India and an MBA from University of Washington, Seattle.

Social networking sites offer businesses and individuals both networking and marketing opportunities, all at no cost. However, if you don’t know how to make your social networking site work for you, you might end up losing business instead of gaining it! Here’s how to put your best foot forward in the cyber world:

Though there are many social media websites out there, it is important to select just two or three to focus on that will help you in achieving your business development goals.  These goals might include; branding, marketing, sales, or even branding for new talent in your organization.  Marketing 101 would suggest that you have a clear plan and definition of your objectives, strategies and tactics in order to head in the right direction.

Once you’ve selected the best two or three sites, focus on the core competencies of each.  For example, if the media is LinkedIn, consider the media’s various applications for your business.  Whether you are looking to create inside connections, find new marketing talent or build your brand, it is important to become familiar with the site and understand its full potential.   If you are interested in branding yourself as an expert in your field, check out the various LinkedIn groups that surround your industry.

Becoming an industry leader and a well known entity online is one of the newest and fastest ways to become famous. Eagerly answer questions and begin discussions that will allow people to see your expertise.  A close friend of mine used this strategy on Twitter and became known as a foremost expert in his field.  Less than one year after building his own personal brand, he was aggressively sought after for his expertise and experience in his field.

Another idea that has been of great help to me and my clients has been the use of social media shortcut sites like Tweetdeck and Ping.fm.  These sites help you save time when using social media by allowing you to send out messages simultaneously from one site.  Ping.fm actually includes Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all in one, which is really useful for heavy users to ping all three media’s in one shot.  One benefit of Tweetdeck is that it lays out all of your activity into workable columns.  You can easily view and manipulate the messages you’ve sent, mentions you’ve had, searches you’re conducting and much more.

When using Twitter, remember that one of the most effective ways to find new clients or opportunities is to know how to effectively use the search feature.  If you are selling a product and want to know if other people are Tweeting about it or to find out what your competition is up to, this is the feature for you.  Simply type in the phrase or key words that someone might use when searching for your business and expertise, and then keep track of the search.  For example, if you are selling a CRM product called ACT, just type in the key words, “ACT OR ACT CRM.” You can also type in a phrase that relates to your search like, “What is the best CRM out there?” Either way, you have the opportunity to oversee the entire world of Twitter to see if your product is being spoken of.  Once you get a hit, you have the ability to begin a dialogue with the other party and see if there could be some business there or answer a question they might have.  This can be a powerful tool for creating new business using social media.

Many users of social media often want to know how they can judge their results. .Fortunately, there are a few useful tools out there to help in understanding your overall effectiveness with social media sites like Twitter.  Check out Twinfluence.com or Twitalyzer.com to see how you are really doing on Twitter.  These sites measure the amount of combined influence you are having on the Twitter community.  They track things like, Reach, Velocity and Social Capital, which in part defines how successful you’re being with Twitter.  As defined by Twinfluence, reach is the number of total followers a Twitterer has, which includes first and second-order followers. It is a measurement of one’s potential audience.  Velocity averages the number of first and second-order followers attracted per day since the Twitterer first established their account. The larger the number is, the faster that Twitterer has accumulated their influence.  Social capital refers to the average first-order network of a Twitterer’s followers.  It is the best way to measure how influential a Twitterer’s followers are.  By understanding where you need to focus your time and energies in order to get the best reach, velocity and social capital, the more effective you will be in obtaining the desired results.

Overall, the world of social media is changing every day.  Just when we think we have it under control, they add another feature that improves on the last.  It is an incredibly exciting time for sales and marketing people to take advantage and reap the rewards of working these media’s.  As for me, I am making new connections and creating new business opportunities everyday from using these tools.  As a speaker on social networking, I do get my share of nay-sayers and non believers in the audience from time to time, but they’ll come around.  I believe this because if they don’t, they may not be able to effectively compete in three to five years.  Whatever you might be doing with social media, stay focused on the social media’s that make the most sense for you.  By tracking and evaluating what’s working and what’s not, you will always come out better in the end.

Post by Steve Fretzin who is a networking expert and president of Sales Results, Inc.

NOTE: Workshop 10/24/09 in LA taught by Susan Levin  Social Media Marketing:  The New Frontier learn more

The New Frontier Workshop with Susan Levin

Saturday, October 24, 1-5pm, $99,  Marina del Rey, CA

Social media has profoundly altered the way we market and communicate.

Social Media Marketing is the use of technology combined with social interaction to create or co-create value.

Content + Context + Connections + Community = Social Media Marketing

Marketing on social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter can help increase the size of your email list and grow your business. The key to success is making sure that members of your target market are in your network.
 
In the workshop you will learn tools, tactics and implementation techniques to:

- Build your business with social networking and increase your online visibility
- Develop a social media strategy presence across the key social media platforms
- Leverage and create content, connection, and community
- Explore why it’s never about the sale, it’s always about the relationship
- Produce and distribute content that can be shared and extends the voice of your brand, product and company
- Discover how articles writing, blogs, utube can create brand awareness and buzz

Susan Levin is the owner of Speaker Services and a marketing strategist, Her expertise includes: speaker marketing materials, lead generation, building and boosting an online and social media presence, creating speaker products and creating multiple streams of income

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Register: http://www.speakerservices.com/teleclasses/detail/151

310-822-4922 PST