10-Steps to Getting Started in Social Media Marketing

Like it or not, you need social media to develop and protect your reputation, and to grow your business.

When it comes to using social media marketing to build yourbusiness, the worst action is no action, and your biggest problem isbeing invisible, not being talked about negatively. As long as you'repart of the conversation on the social Web, you can hear what's beingsaid about you and massage negative perceptions about your business.But if no one is talking about you, you have no chance for growth. Thatmeans you need to get involved on the social Web as soon as possible,not only to capitalize on the opportunities that it presents to yourbusiness, but also to develop and protect your reputation.

It's a good idea to start with a plan that has goals and anorganizing framework to keep you on track. If you start down a path onthe social Web and hate what you're doing, you can change thingsaround. Just as you change networking and conversational approaches inperson, you can do so on the social Web. The only differences are thaton the social Web, you're talking through your keyboard, and your potential audience is much, much larger.

Here are 10 steps to get you started.

1. Determine your goals.
What do you want to get out of your social Web participation? Why areyou doing it? Are you trying to generate direct sales? Are you tryingto offer a form of customer service? Do you want to build relationshipswith customers and boost loyalty? Your answers to these questionsgreatly affect the type of content you publish and the activities youparticipate in on the social Web.

2. Evaluate your resources.
Who is going to create your content? Who is going to maintain yoursocial media accounts? Who is going to respond to questions and be theface of your business online?Do you have the technical ability in-house to join the onlineconversation? If not, are you willing to learn? Can you or someone whoworks with you write well? You need to be sure you have the necessarypeople in place to execute a social media marketing plan before youstart.

3. Know your audience.
Where does your target audience spend time online?What kind of content and conversations do the audience members get mostvocal about? What kind of information do they want from you? What dothey dislike? Remember, you're not just pub¬lishing marketing messageson the social Web. You need to find out what your audience wants andneeds, so you can provide the kind of content they find useful andinteresting. However, you also need to be personable, so they actuallywant to interact with you.

4. Create amazing content.
Once you know where your audience spends time and what kind of contentaudience members want, take the time to give them more of that kind ofcontent. Don't give up. You need to continually offer your audienceamazing content, which also comes in the form of conversations, inorder to build a loyal fol¬lowing of people who trust you as a sourcethat can meet their needs and expectations.

5. Integrate your marketing efforts.
All of your efforts at social media marketing should feed off eachother. Cross-promote your efforts both online and offline, and makesure your social media and traditional marketing efforts work togetherseamlessly.

6. Create a schedule.
Allocate specific times during your day to devote to social mediamarketing. For example, spend five minutes on Twitter before you checkyour e-mail each day and another five minutes before you leave workeach day. When you create a schedule, it's easier to stick to it andmake sure you don't skip your social media marketing activities eachday.

7. Adopt an 80-20 rule.
Always spend at least 80 percent of your time on social mediaactivities that are not self-promotional and no more than 20 percent ofyour time on self-promotional activities.

8. Focus on quality, not quantity.
It can be easy to get caught up in the numbers, but don't become aslave to followers and subscribers. It's better to have 1,000 highlyengaged, loyal followers than 10,000 followers who sign up to followyou but then never acknowledge you again.

9. Give up control.
You must let your audience take control of the online conversation andmake it their own so they develop an emotional attachment to you, yourbrand, and your business. Remember, on the social Web, apathy orinvisibility is a bigger problem than negativity.

10. Keep learning.
You can never stop listening and learning. For success in social mediamarketing, you need to be flexible and accept that change is good.

This article is an edited excerpt from 30-Minute Social Media Marketing by Susan Gunelius (McGraw-Hill, 2010).

We Want Your Questions for Founders of Twitter, LinkedIn

Tech Europe is going to the exclusive Silicon Valley Comes to Oxfordforum and we want to put your questions to the likes of Biz Stone ofTwitter, Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and Saul Klein, partner atinvestors Index Ventures.

We have arranged for your questions to be put to a star-studded panel of investors and entrepreneurs at the opening and closing sessions of this largely invite-only event which takes place on Nov. 21-22.

The conference, at the Said Business School, Oxford University,invites entrepreneurs, technologists and investors to exchange ideas,deliver masterclasses and engage in discussions about the state of thesector and the dominating themes for the coming year.

This year’s event marks a decade of Silicon Valley Comes to Oxfordand participants will reflect on the defining moments of the lastdecade as well as the lessons learnt and key issues that entrepreneursand investors will have to grapple with to create the next Google,Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Tech Europe will cover the day’s events through video, podcasts andblog posts. The coverage will make for essential watching, listeningand reading for budding entrepreneurs and those who want to learn howto charm investors and venture capitalists.

If you have a question for the great and good of Silicon Valley,post it on the comment field below and the team here at Tech Europewill select the best which we will put to the panelists at the openingand closing sessions of the event.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Apple's iAd Helping Rivals

Mobile Advertising Companies Say Initial Worries Overblown as Businesses Gain

AppleInc.'s iAd interactive mobile ad service is having an unintended impacton rivals: It's largely helping their businesses by generating broaderadvertiser interest in mobile phones and gadgets.

But instead of losing business, ad executives say Apple's entry intothe market is giving them a boost. That's because iAds has gotten bigmarketers to pay attention to mobile advertising in the first place

Apple has "brought sexiness to mobile ads," said Carnet Williams,chief executive of San Francisco-based Sprout Inc., which helps createand deliver interactive ads. Mr. Williams said it has gotten roughlyfour times as many calls from publishers and agencies since Appleturned the spotlight on iAds.

Until recently, the mobile advertising market was a small fractionof the $25.1 billion U.S. online advertising market, according toresearcher eMarketer. Now that's changing as Apple has joinedpre-existing providers of interactive mobile ads, such as GoogleInc.'s AdMob unit, in offering ads that let consumers play a mini-gameor interact with the ad without having to leave or the close the appthey were using. Google said during its third quarter earnings callthat mobile advertising is adding $1 billion annually in revenue.

Some ad executives say Apple's foray into mobile advertisingparticularly spurred marketers to boost their spending in the broadercategory. And not all those dollars are being allocated from digitalbudgets, with some coming from more traditional ad spending like TV ordirect response, said Phuc Truong, managing director at Mobext, amobile ad agency owned by French ad company Havas SA. Its clients include Sears Holdings Corp., regional McDonald's Corp. co-ops, and Exxon Mobil Corp.

Alexandre Mars, head of mobile for Publicis GroupeSA, adds Apple's cachet with big brands has helped legitimize theentire market. "The mobile marketing business is different now," saidMr. Mars, noting that none of the other mobile advertising companiescould have attracted the interest that Apple has gotten from topbrands.

Yet many ad agencies and brands find Apple's rates too high, givingcompetitors like Google, Medialets Inc., Crisp Wireless Inc. and 4INFOInc. an opening to grow their businesses by offering cheaper rates todo similar things. People familiar with the matter have said Applerequires a minimum $1 million iAd commitment, but rival agencies saidthey can put together an ad campaign for as little as tens of thousandsof dollars.

"A seven-figure mobile media spend historically has been few and farbetween, so if we're able to create a beautiful unit similar to the iAdbut without the spending commitment, that's always a good alternative,"said Mr. Truong.

Rivals have also stepped in when some brands have grown frustratedwith iAds. People familiar with the situation have said marketers wereexperiencing delays in getting their iAds to market as Apple kept atight rein on the creative aspects of ad-making.

NewYork-based Medialets, for one, benefited when luxury brand Chanel SAdropped plans this summer to launch an iAd. Medialets, which sellsmobile ads with video and other interactive elements, stepped in andsaid it was able to offer Chanel the same experience as an iAd plusmore.

While Apple currently only offers iAd for iPhone and iPod touchapps, Medialets and others can serve rich interactive ads on iPads aswell as other devices. For Chanel, Medialets built an interactive adfor the New York Times' iPad application. The ads promoted Chanel's J12watch. Users could tap the ads in the campaign, which ran through June,to explored the watch collection or expand it across a full screen anddisplay a film. A spokeswoman for Chanel said it was "very happy withthe experience."

Overall, "it's become easier to make a pitch," said Crisp WirelessChief Executive Boris Fridman, adding that his company has seen between30% and 40% increase in its business since iAds launched. Crisp has runads for brands such as Dell Inc. and Toyota Motor Co.'s Lexus.

That's not to say that Apple isn't a threat. Mobext's Mr. Truong,for example, says that one of his clients signed up with Apple'sservice. The Sears iAd launches next week.

Apple has also upped its game since it launched iAd, beefing up itsstaff, reducing the time it takes to produce the ads, and loosening itstight control, according to a person familiar with the situation. Applerecently expanded iAd to Japan and is expected to soon offer it inEurope. Apple watchers believe it's likely a matter of time before itis also available for iPad apps.

"When Apple gets into the game, it raises the stakes for everyoneelse," Mr. Truong says. "It is like the tide raising all ships."

Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said iAds were onlyavailable for iPhone apps. They are available for iPhone and iPod touchapps.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Android Overtakes IPhone

It looks like Steve Jobs may have something to be nervous about after all.

Google Inc.’s Android platform has taken the lead in the U.S. smartphone market, according to several new reports by technology research firms.

In the third quarter, devices with the Android operating system were installed in 44% of smartphones, while Apple Inc.’s iPhone came in second place with 23%, according to market research firm, NPD Group. RIM’s BlackBerry trailed behind in third place with 22%. One big caveat: NPD tracks consumer activity, but doesn’t measure corporate cellphone purchases.

“[Android] has a very strong story to tell in terms of lack of licensing fees, high degree of customization and a significant advantage in terms of an app market,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD Group.

Tech research firm Canalys said that the smartphone market has exploded this year, growing 95% in the third quarter from a year earlier. In the U.S., Apple was able to muscle past RIM, shipping 5.5 million smartphones in the third quarter, compared with 5.1 million for RIM. But because Android does not charge for its software and is available on a range of devices, it catapulted to the top spot with 9.1 million shipments in the third quarter.

Mr. Jobs blasted the Android platform during the company’s quarterly conference call last MONTH, saying app developers are turned off by having to create multiple versions of the software for the numerous devices that run on Android. The company’s iPhone sold 14.1 million units, 91% more than a year ago. The line of smartphones had an average selling price of $610, which includes subsidies paid by wireless carriers, Apple said.

But it may be that RIM has the most to worry about. RIM’s share of the operating system market declined by 53% from a year earlier, NPD said. Apple’s iOS took a 21% hit.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Opinion: Google Android is only 'open' if you're the phone company

(Business Insider) -- Google loves to talk about how "open" Android, its operating system for mobile devices, is. Especially when it comes to comparisons between Android and Apple's iPhone, openness is Google's favorite talking point.

But what, exactly, does it even mean that Android is "open?"

Google would point to a number of broadly related facts about the OS, but here's the essential point: Android is "open" in that Google distributes its source code under something called the Apache License.

Code distributed under an Apache License is free for anyone to use as they wish. Importantly, unlike some open source licenses, the Apache License lets anyone use the code in question as part of proprietary software.

That is, if you write something and distribute it for free under the Apache License, I'm free to tack on some modifications, keep the added code a secret, and charge customers for the whole package.

So, while Google likes to say that Android's openness is about giving the consumer freedom, the real freedom here has nothing to do with consumers. Consumers don't buy operating systems.

They buy phones. Phone manufacturers -- and the mobile carriers with whom they form partnerships -- are free to add code to Android as they see fit before loading it on to their handsets and selling them to you.

They're also free to throw up all sorts of hurdles to make it difficult for you to get rid of their software and install a "clean" version of Google's OS.

The changes that handset makers and carriers make to Android are generally bad news for the consumer. Many pre-install shoddy, proprietary software -- "bloatware" -- which can't be removed, to drive users to their own services.

They also cripple phone features. The latest version of Android, for instance, lets you use your phone as a mobile hotspot, allowing you to access the Internet wirelessly from your nearby computer, using the phone's data connection.

Unfortunately, on most phones, that feature is broken by default, and can only be enabled by paying your carrier an extra monthly fee.

Google's response to this is that because many different manufacturers are competing to sell Android phones, consumers will always win out in the end.

If consumers didn't like the bloatware that came with their phones, other manufacturers wouldn't include it, the bad actors would lose customers, and everyone would have to adjust. As Eric Schmidt put it: "that's how markets work."

That is how markets work in textbooks. It's also more or less how unrestricted markets for undifferentiated products with large numbers of sellers work in practice. Unfortunately, it's not how the market for cell phones works.

There are just a handful of corporations in the world that make quality, high-end phones. And, in any given area, there are only a few carriers to provide service to those phones. There are two oligopolies in between you and Android, and they're working together. With all due respect to Eric Schmidt, that sort of market generally doesn't work very efficiently at all.

To be fair, there are lots of great ways in which Android really does give users more freedom than the iPhone. For one thing, Google doesn't try to prevent you from downloading apps of which it doesn't approve.

And, for the most part, opening up the OS to competition between different hardware manufacturers is terrific. These aspects of "openness" are a big part of why I switched to Android, and have no plans to go back.

But letting handset makers and, especially, carriers make the Android experience worse is a bad move, and one the hurts Google's customers. And, contrary to what the company claims, it wouldn't have to betray any principles of open source to fix this. Google can go ahead and give away its source under the Apache License, and let people run wild with it. But it shouldn't give away the "Android" brand to any company that cripples the product. Google is spending lots of money hyping that brand, and it is staking its reputation on it. These companies are taking full advantage of that.

Google can be open without letting companies release inferior products with Google's name on them. That kind of openness is bad news for the consumer, and ultimately bad news for Google.

Source: CNN news

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