Facebook Leading Social CRM Change: It’s Your City, Town Hall, and Digital Conversation Revolution

Today, part of a brand's job is to act like a town hall meeting, a secular and informal public meeting. Everyone in the community is invited to attend, not always to voice their opinions, but hear responses from others.

Image credit to Mashable
We have come full circle, making communication on the Internet more human, and less fragmented, with a rich flow of interactions, like you would find in a large city, but more on a granular level like a small town or village, the most important element being spontaneity of free human exchange. They evolve through an ecosystem that includes your technology, potential customers, and employees.
Almost by definition, a brand's Social CRM can be great only at the expense of a company’s employees, executive leadership (all should have the vision to realize its ROI), and competitors who are less effective at branding and collecting their customers’ social interactions. Money can buy a great SCRM platform, but it cannot buy a brand's social interactions off the shelf.
So, how can a brand gain control of its consumer data, marketing, customer service, and PR efforts in light of the widespread use of social media? Social CRM (SCRM) is one answer (Facebook likely to be the largest), but it can be expensive technology, and still evolving.
At the present time, it is an evolving technology that effectively manages a brand’s demographics, preferences and communications with its audience. It involves fully integrated real-time listening, engagement and measurement workflow process to collaborate with customers, prospects, influencers and employees.

Image credit to Mashable
Let me briefly take you through the evolution of the CRM to the SCRM. Earlier CRM's were involved in social media monitoring and research, and physical listening of digital conversations. These CRM’s could also capture a brand's social presence and gather research. It helped build a brand's social presence by helping companies figure out where and how to engage socially on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It also supported the development of SEO strategies, customer services and marketing channels, while building brand attraction, helping control attrition, and stimulating customer conversations.

Social research was also a part of a CRM’s functionality, as was the business of gathering intelligence, social research sentiment (what is being said or talked about online) activity, and the use of dashboards that captured sentiment activity from different digital communities known as (Buzz Metrics).

Image credit to Mashable
Third party data analysis from research companies such as Nielson could also support a company’s CRM by measuring issues of reputation, customer service and influential power of online. With this information, a brand can better understand how customers communicate, and then create a plan to act on it.
So where are the CRM’s now? Social CRM’s are using technologies that include all of the above functionalities, as well as the following. It can now take socially produced data and bring it to the customer, while grouping this information into personal customer preferences, auto making data (making it presentable), and integrating analytics into its processes. Current SCRM’s also allow for social data augmentation of your services, as you can work with third party firms for added value.


IBM social listening product Image credit to Mashable
Lastly, there is social business process management workflow, which means taking information from the web, understanding and translating, and acting on it in an organized way.
Let’s take a deep-dive into a SCRM’s functionalities; they normally contain following three main components, 1) strategy, supporting product development, customer service, marketing, and the opening up of communications with customers; 2) technology, social media monitoring that helps to glean data and understand text data, and platforms, which can come in the form of community forums. Community forums are good social sources from which a brand's SCRM can gather data.
A brand has greater control of their social digital information when it originates from within its own private digital space. Finally, social monitoring and workflow are also part of the SCRM’s technical capabilities, and it can be described as how a brand manages its data processes; 3) Data, that comes in the form of text or comments about how the public describes your service or product. These come from public and private platforms such as the web and Facebook. You can also improve your understanding of a brand's social data by partnering with social monitoring firms.

Current trends are taking SCRM’s in the direction of having all your digital information residing in one single database, rather than several connected ones.
With technology changes and company purchases such as Salesforce.com buying Radian6, your marketing and PR staff should develop a better understanding of CRM’s, SCRM and customer analytics now that CRM 3.0 (SCRM) is on the way.
Companies such as Dell and Gatorade (Pepsi), have set the gold standard for social media listening command centers of excellence, and have paved the way for the need and use of the next generation of SCRM’s to process socially derived digital data.

Dell Image credit to Mashable

Gatorade/Pepsi Image Credit to Mashable
Dell’s center will track on average more than 22,000 daily topic posts related to Dell, and mentions on Twitter. This information will be sorted into topics and subjects of conversation, sentiment, share of voice, geography and trends.
In the end, your client or company should place considerable value on socially derived data, and its ROI, for the benefits of this technology to be fully realized; otherwise an investment in a SCRM may not work.

search engine optimization

Attracting more free visitor traffic is the goal of any blogger or website owner. Search engine optimization can help with this because it is the process of fine-tuning a web site to attract higher rankings in search engine results.

SEO tactics include modification of key words and phrases visible on the site to visitors, editing of meta tags, improvement in the site’s layout and graphic presentation, and pursuit of links from other relevant web sites. All of these SEO factors combine to make it easier for search engine bots to crawl a web site and more accurately index its content. Improved indexing by search engines leads to improved accuracy in the site’s categorization in search results and therefore attracts even more targeted visitor traffic.

While SEO is part of the larger specialty of SEM (search engine marketing) it is usually designed to increase visitor traffic by improving the site’s free (“organic”) ranking in search engine results, not through the application of paid search (pay per click keyword advertising) techniques.

If you are interested in cost-effective ways to grow your web site or blog’s visitor traffic, learning more about SEO is a good investment of your time.

Facebook Leading Social CRM Change: It’s Your City, Town Hall, and Digital Conversation Revolution

Today, part of a brand's job is to act like a town hall meeting, a secular and informal public meeting. Everyone in the community is invited to attend, not always to voice their opinions, but hear responses from others.

Image credit to Mashable
We have come full circle, making communication on the Internet more human, and less fragmented, with a rich flow of interactions, like you would find in a large city, but more on a granular level like a small town or village, the most important element being spontaneity of free human exchange. They evolve through an ecosystem that includes your technology, potential customers, and employees.
Almost by definition, a brand's Social CRM can be great only at the expense of a company’s employees, executive leadership (all should have the vision to realize its ROI), and competitors who are less effective at branding and collecting their customers’ social interactions. Money can buy a great SCRM platform, but it cannot buy a brand's social interactions off the shelf.
So, how can a brand gain control of its consumer data, marketing, customer service, and PR efforts in light of the widespread use of social media? Social CRM (SCRM) is one answer (Facebook likely to be the largest), but it can be expensive technology, and still evolving.
At the present time, it is an evolving technology that effectively manages a brand’s demographics, preferences and communications with its audience. It involves fully integrated real-time listening, engagement and measurement workflow process to collaborate with customers, prospects, influencers and employees.

Image credit to Mashable
Let me briefly take you through the evolution of the CRM to the SCRM. Earlier CRM's were involved in social media monitoring and research, and physical listening of digital conversations. These CRM’s could also capture a brand's social presence and gather research. It helped build a brand's social presence by helping companies figure out where and how to engage socially on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It also supported the development of SEO strategies, customer services and marketing channels, while building brand attraction, helping control attrition, and stimulating customer conversations.

Social research was also a part of a CRM’s functionality, as was the business of gathering intelligence, social research sentiment (what is being said or talked about online) activity, and the use of dashboards that captured sentiment activity from different digital communities known as (Buzz Metrics).

Image credit to Mashable
Third party data analysis from research companies such as Nielson could also support a company’s CRM by measuring issues of reputation, customer service and influential power of online. With this information, a brand can better understand how customers communicate, and then create a plan to act on it.
So where are the CRM’s now? Social CRM’s are using technologies that include all of the above functionalities, as well as the following. It can now take socially produced data and bring it to the customer, while grouping this information into personal customer preferences, auto making data (making it presentable), and integrating analytics into its processes. Current SCRM’s also allow for social data augmentation of your services, as you can work with third party firms for added value.


IBM social listening product Image credit to Mashable
Lastly, there is social business process management workflow, which means taking information from the web, understanding and translating, and acting on it in an organized way.
Let’s take a deep-dive into a SCRM’s functionalities; they normally contain following three main components, 1) strategy, supporting product development, customer service, marketing, and the opening up of communications with customers; 2) technology, social media monitoring that helps to glean data and understand text data, and platforms, which can come in the form of community forums. Community forums are good social sources from which a brand's SCRM can gather data.
A brand has greater control of their social digital information when it originates from within its own private digital space. Finally, social monitoring and workflow are also part of the SCRM’s technical capabilities, and it can be described as how a brand manages its data processes; 3) Data, that comes in the form of text or comments about how the public describes your service or product. These come from public and private platforms such as the web and Facebook. You can also improve your understanding of a brand's social data by partnering with social monitoring firms.

Current trends are taking SCRM’s in the direction of having all your digital information residing in one single database, rather than several connected ones.
With technology changes and company purchases such as Salesforce.com buying Radian6, your marketing and PR staff should develop a better understanding of CRM’s, SCRM and customer analytics now that CRM 3.0 (SCRM) is on the way.
Companies such as Dell and Gatorade (Pepsi), have set the gold standard for social media listening command centers of excellence, and have paved the way for the need and use of the next generation of SCRM’s to process socially derived digital data.

Dell Image credit to Mashable

Gatorade/Pepsi Image Credit to Mashable
Dell’s center will track on average more than 22,000 daily topic posts related to Dell, and mentions on Twitter. This information will be sorted into topics and subjects of conversation, sentiment, share of voice, geography and trends.
In the end, your client or company should place considerable value on socially derived data, and its ROI, for the benefits of this technology to be fully realized; otherwise an investment in a SCRM may not work.

search engine optimization

Attracting more free visitor traffic is the goal of any blogger or website owner. Search engine optimization can help with this because it is the process of fine-tuning a web site to attract higher rankings in search engine results.

SEO tactics include modification of key words and phrases visible on the site to visitors, editing of meta tags, improvement in the site’s layout and graphic presentation, and pursuit of links from other relevant web sites. All of these SEO factors combine to make it easier for search engine bots to crawl a web site and more accurately index its content. Improved indexing by search engines leads to improved accuracy in the site’s categorization in search results and therefore attracts even more targeted visitor traffic.

While SEO is part of the larger specialty of SEM (search engine marketing) it is usually designed to increase visitor traffic by improving the site’s free (“organic”) ranking in search engine results, not through the application of paid search (pay per click keyword advertising) techniques.

If you are interested in cost-effective ways to grow your web site or blog’s visitor traffic, learning more about SEO is a good investment of your time.

Why Facebook is 2015 not 2010: From Strictly Social to Business Casual

Facebook’s platform landscape is beginning to change from strictly social to business casual. A corporate website was once the most important digital presence a company could own, but the new trend could reduce it to second – a choice branding source. Why? Because websites are now being replaced by social platforms such as Facebook, where you can easily be discovered, the platform and unique URL are free, and you can promote your brand more effectively.
Current digital research shows that Facebook has benefited from this social trend. Facebook receives approximately 41 percent of all social networking traffic (with over 500 million members worldwide), and the number of people joining Facebook in the United States grew by 145 percent in 2009. Facebook now produces more search results than Google.
Some of the largest corporations in the world have a Page on Facebook, and by doing so, increase their brands' awareness and audience engagement locally, nationally, and globally. For example, Barnes & Noble has recently developed over 600 Facebook “Pages” targeting niche markets in the United States. While this would seem overkill for some companies, it is a great engagement strategy for the large or small business because it is cost-effective (free); you can localize your message to specific niche audiences. The Facebook FHTML feature also provides you with the flexibility to design pages specific to your consumer and community. FHTML is easy to use, is browser-friendly, and has the search engine optimization of HTML.
Still not convinced that there is a shift away from corporate websites' exclusive hold on a brand's digital traffic? Then look at the following “Facebook 100” company web pages:
Pepsi on Facebook


Disney Facebook Page

Porsche Facebook Page


And the Pages of these small businesses:
Plush Facebook Page





In the future, the corporate website will either give way to the social platform, or become a referral page for a deeper audience experience on a social media site. It’s a natural fit, because many of their customers are already on Facebook or LinkedIn, and a marketer's goal is to engage the customer. Further evidence of this trend is smart phone sales; they have now surpassed computer sales. Most consumers who own a smart phone are using apps more than the "phone" itself.


For an example, take a look at the Volkswagen Facebook Page. VW no longer uses its website to interact with consumers, they engage and listen on Facebook.

Once you have created a Facebook company Page you can engage with your customers in several ways. If approximately one third to a half of your ad budget is wasted because poor performance, then hypertargeting is the method you need. What is hypertargeting? Hypertargeting allows you to become very specific in your approach to targeting who sees your advertisements. For example, relationship interests, location, gender, age, education, employment, relationship status, and interest keywords are all variables with which to test your demographic.
Because search advertising produces your advertisement at the moment a person is looking to make a specific purchase, it can be very effective. What about those hard-to-reach passive buyers? They can also be reached by social advertisements even though they are not looking for your product or service. Have you ever purchased something in a store even though you did not intend to buy it on the way in?
Finally, for those niche and newly introduced (unknown) products and services, and even for startup companies looking to break into a market, Facebook hypertargeting can be the best advertising approach. Unlike AdWords, hypertargeting taps into latent interests by passive consumers and decreases spending on ad impressions. Your small business or startup can target geography, college, and interest, and hone its messages going forward.
Online social engagement “staying in the real time conversation” and traditional outreach methods are both currently important engagement strategies, and will be going into 2011. The space between digital and traditional community outreach is also fading, as companies such as Groupon and Yelp help to bridge the technology gap between digital and traditional outreach.
While understanding the rules of social online engagement is important, marketers should also embrace iterative feedback, because good listening is a precursor to good marketing. The demand for ongoing audience engagement and listening by brands will prompt the release of new social monitoring and analytics tools in 2011 and beyond.
Global engagement is going to be an important feature in your marketing campaigns going forward; many large companies such as Pepsi and Yahoo have already built or are in the process of creating global digital “centers of excellence.” So if you really want to get the most out of your digital marketing and PR practice, make sure you have your social engagement team armed with an experienced global digital strategist with real hands-on working knowledge for campaign localization purposes.


Why is global marketing experience important for today’s digital strategy if you are not an international brand? For the following three reasons: 1) digital campaigns naturally connect with international audiences; 2) you can quickly increase your unique page views through PR and marketing campaigns; and 3) you can increase your company’s SEO strength through link-backs and other optimization strategies.
While eyeballs are not enough in today’s ROI-driven social media practice, the global strategist can also build an engagement strategy that is future-driven instead of shortsighted. They can also prevent or correct unwanted PR buzz through their understanding of foreign cultures even on a local basis.
Because social media engagement is an important basis of Google search ranking and optimization (SEO), your brand should be in the social game and you should learn to guide the conversion. This is demonstrated by the fact that 33% of top search results are consumer-generated by blogs, comments, links, and other digital processes.
Finally, many companies are actively using reward-based linking (a form of crowdsourcing) to expand a brand's audience awareness. The typical rewards are coupons and other discounts to consumers. Reward-based linking requires the consumer to do more of the company’s marketing process, and is the result of consumer involvement and control over a brand. Consumers and brands know that there has been a shift in who controls the branding process: it is now in the hands of the consumer.

Jumbo Sized Google Sitelinks

Google Sitelinks is nothing new, we've been reporting on it since 2006 and Google has changed the layout and number of sitelinks displayed in the search results over the years.
The latest layout I have been seeing reported over the past few months were a form of jumbo sized sitelinks. We saw sitelinks with descriptions last month but check out the screen shot below.
Here is a screen shot posted in WebmasterWorld. Some people are saying they can replicate the 12 sitelinks, that take up most of the search results real estate for navigational queries such as Amazon, BBC and so on. Here is that screen shot:

What do I see for those navigational queries? I see normal sitelinks:

Personally, I really do not like the jumbo sitelinks. Do you?
One person in the WebmasterWorld said, "That looked so much like a parked page. Hope this is not the future of G!"

Why Facebook is 2015 not 2010: From Strictly Social to Business Casual

Facebook’s platform landscape is beginning to change from strictly social to business casual. A corporate website was once the most important digital presence a company could own, but the new trend could reduce it to second – a choice branding source. Why? Because websites are now being replaced by social platforms such as Facebook, where you can easily be discovered, the platform and unique URL are free, and you can promote your brand more effectively.
Current digital research shows that Facebook has benefited from this social trend. Facebook receives approximately 41 percent of all social networking traffic (with over 500 million members worldwide), and the number of people joining Facebook in the United States grew by 145 percent in 2009. Facebook now produces more search results than Google.
Some of the largest corporations in the world have a Page on Facebook, and by doing so, increase their brands' awareness and audience engagement locally, nationally, and globally. For example, Barnes & Noble has recently developed over 600 Facebook “Pages” targeting niche markets in the United States. While this would seem overkill for some companies, it is a great engagement strategy for the large or small business because it is cost-effective (free); you can localize your message to specific niche audiences. The Facebook FHTML feature also provides you with the flexibility to design pages specific to your consumer and community. FHTML is easy to use, is browser-friendly, and has the search engine optimization of HTML.
Still not convinced that there is a shift away from corporate websites' exclusive hold on a brand's digital traffic? Then look at the following “Facebook 100” company web pages:
Pepsi on Facebook


Disney Facebook Page

Porsche Facebook Page


And the Pages of these small businesses:
Plush Facebook Page





In the future, the corporate website will either give way to the social platform, or become a referral page for a deeper audience experience on a social media site. It’s a natural fit, because many of their customers are already on Facebook or LinkedIn, and a marketer's goal is to engage the customer. Further evidence of this trend is smart phone sales; they have now surpassed computer sales. Most consumers who own a smart phone are using apps more than the "phone" itself.


For an example, take a look at the Volkswagen Facebook Page. VW no longer uses its website to interact with consumers, they engage and listen on Facebook.

Once you have created a Facebook company Page you can engage with your customers in several ways. If approximately one third to a half of your ad budget is wasted because poor performance, then hypertargeting is the method you need. What is hypertargeting? Hypertargeting allows you to become very specific in your approach to targeting who sees your advertisements. For example, relationship interests, location, gender, age, education, employment, relationship status, and interest keywords are all variables with which to test your demographic.
Because search advertising produces your advertisement at the moment a person is looking to make a specific purchase, it can be very effective. What about those hard-to-reach passive buyers? They can also be reached by social advertisements even though they are not looking for your product or service. Have you ever purchased something in a store even though you did not intend to buy it on the way in?
Finally, for those niche and newly introduced (unknown) products and services, and even for startup companies looking to break into a market, Facebook hypertargeting can be the best advertising approach. Unlike AdWords, hypertargeting taps into latent interests by passive consumers and decreases spending on ad impressions. Your small business or startup can target geography, college, and interest, and hone its messages going forward.
Online social engagement “staying in the real time conversation” and traditional outreach methods are both currently important engagement strategies, and will be going into 2011. The space between digital and traditional community outreach is also fading, as companies such as Groupon and Yelp help to bridge the technology gap between digital and traditional outreach.
While understanding the rules of social online engagement is important, marketers should also embrace iterative feedback, because good listening is a precursor to good marketing. The demand for ongoing audience engagement and listening by brands will prompt the release of new social monitoring and analytics tools in 2011 and beyond.
Global engagement is going to be an important feature in your marketing campaigns going forward; many large companies such as Pepsi and Yahoo have already built or are in the process of creating global digital “centers of excellence.” So if you really want to get the most out of your digital marketing and PR practice, make sure you have your social engagement team armed with an experienced global digital strategist with real hands-on working knowledge for campaign localization purposes.


Why is global marketing experience important for today’s digital strategy if you are not an international brand? For the following three reasons: 1) digital campaigns naturally connect with international audiences; 2) you can quickly increase your unique page views through PR and marketing campaigns; and 3) you can increase your company’s SEO strength through link-backs and other optimization strategies.
While eyeballs are not enough in today’s ROI-driven social media practice, the global strategist can also build an engagement strategy that is future-driven instead of shortsighted. They can also prevent or correct unwanted PR buzz through their understanding of foreign cultures even on a local basis.
Because social media engagement is an important basis of Google search ranking and optimization (SEO), your brand should be in the social game and you should learn to guide the conversion. This is demonstrated by the fact that 33% of top search results are consumer-generated by blogs, comments, links, and other digital processes.
Finally, many companies are actively using reward-based linking (a form of crowdsourcing) to expand a brand's audience awareness. The typical rewards are coupons and other discounts to consumers. Reward-based linking requires the consumer to do more of the company’s marketing process, and is the result of consumer involvement and control over a brand. Consumers and brands know that there has been a shift in who controls the branding process: it is now in the hands of the consumer.

Jumbo Sized Google Sitelinks

Google Sitelinks is nothing new, we've been reporting on it since 2006 and Google has changed the layout and number of sitelinks displayed in the search results over the years.
The latest layout I have been seeing reported over the past few months were a form of jumbo sized sitelinks. We saw sitelinks with descriptions last month but check out the screen shot below.
Here is a screen shot posted in WebmasterWorld. Some people are saying they can replicate the 12 sitelinks, that take up most of the search results real estate for navigational queries such as Amazon, BBC and so on. Here is that screen shot:

What do I see for those navigational queries? I see normal sitelinks:

Personally, I really do not like the jumbo sitelinks. Do you?
One person in the WebmasterWorld said, "That looked so much like a parked page. Hope this is not the future of G!"

Digg 4.0 Alpha Overview

I recently got an invite for the new Digg 4.0 Alpha. I have been reading about the arrival of new Digg interface so I got pretty excited to explore the new Digg interface. Meanwhile, I thought to share with my friends and online readers who have not yet got a chance to try the new interface.
I think the new Digg interface is very good and provides a much better user experience compared to the old one. The new most important improvements that I noticed at first glance are:
1) The ability to import blog feeds into your Digg stream. Thus you do not have to submit your own posts manually.
2) You can add links to your Web sites in Digg profile and hence gain more exposure to our sites.
I have prepared a step-by-step walkthrough of the new Digg interface once you sign-in for the first time. Once you log-in you get the option of following famous Digg profiles much like Twitter.

Second you get the ability to connect your Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts with your Digg account.

The activity stream in Digg is broken up into two parts viz “My News” and “Top News.”

This is it! The new Digg interface is simple and attractive . However I have noticed that there is no “bury button” this time, at least in the preliminary version. In the settings menu you can choose the options to add your site RSS in the Digg stream, in this way your friends and followers will be able to find your content as soon as it is published.

The new Digg system focused on building groups and communites of like-minded people on the Web.
Here are three things you can do to kick-start your Digg 4.0 Alpha experience.
• Find and follow your friends, influencers, and news sources you trust! Once you follow these Digg users, you can build a custom news homepage called "My News." My News will display news stories to you as Dugg by your friends.
• Get more followers! Aside from Digging great content, one of the best ways to attract new followers is to update your profile. Add a photo and link to your blog, Twitter account, or Facebook profile.
• Explore the "My News" and "Top News" pages. My News is the custom news page based on the people you follow. Top News is the global zeitgeist showing you the most popular stories on Digg.
I hope you enjoy your experience on New Digg 4.0.

Apple Crushes FAO’s 150 Years of Branding

Social media can be the messenger that drives people and brands to interact. Product design specialists provide input into how brands can maintain a long-term competitive advantage in a dynamic environment.
A recent article in Design Management Review (DMR) discussed authenticity and brands, and William Faust and Leigh Householder at Ology defined brand authenticity. They suggested that a brand should be clear about what it is and what it stands for; proper branding is built from the inside out rather than pandering to the latest trends, fad, or customer segment. Also, best practices branding is accomplished by using a real story, a connection to a fundamental truth, and an appreciation of one's smart customers.
On a recent visit to the Apple Store at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in New York City, I was surprised to see the line of customers of all ages spilling out of the store onto the Fifth Avenue sidewalk. Customers (some tourists) were as happy and excited outside the store as were those inside. While inside, visitors explored the store, trying out the products and purchasing some of Apple's latest technology offerings.

This appears to be a typical customer scenario at this store, and other store locations across the country experience a steady flow of customers as well.
Next door (a 15-second walk past the GM building) is the world-famous FAO Schwartz toy store (now owned by Toys “R” Us). Like Apple is now, FAO. was once a must-see toy store at 57th and Fifth Avenue.
It was world-renowned for its assortment of one-of-a-kind, unique products including toys, entertainment products, and film and TV merchandising. Its products reflected the brand's dedication to the quality that its customers had come to trust for nearly 150 years, but over the past several years the brand's image has eroded, and customers seen to smell blood in the water.
On this particular day, as on many others throughout the year, FAO was suffering from customer attrition and lack of interest in its merchandise.

What also surprised me was the dramatic difference in foot traffic between the Apple and FAO stores. FAO was relatively empty, even though the streets were swarming with tourists looking for an air conditioned and entertaining store to cool off in. Instead they chose to stand on Apple’s long line, which extended from within the store, up the escalator, and outside to the sidewalk in the hot August 90-degree sun. It was like waiting to get into a popular night club—new customers were not allowed in until others left. And this was not an new product release day.


Is Apple better at engaging its customers through digital and traditional media in conjunction with its product releases? Let us take a closer look at these companies' current social media presence:
Apple:
Facebook – 628,516 fans
Twitter (over 50 accounts) – iTunes account has 1,528,755 followers, is following 14, and has 692 Tweets
Apples YouTube Channel –
  Channel Views: 2,760,784
  Total Upload Views: 14,444,703
  Joined: June 21, 2005
  Subscribers: 82,802
FAO Schwartz
Facebook – 4,779 fans
Twitter – 411 followers, is following 5, and has 11 Tweets
YouTube Channel:
  Channel Views: 5,296
  Total Upload Views: 24,626
  Age: 42
  Joined: July 24, 2007 (two years after Apple)
  Last Visit Date: 10 months ago
  Subscribers: 53
  Videos taken by a manager at FAO Schwarz in NYC.
Apple appears to have a stronger social media presence, even though FAO has a 150-year-old emotional tether to people of all ages with its focus on classic toys and historic and current film and television merchandising. FAO was also a strong brand communicator prior to the emergence of social media marketing, and the film Big cemented its place in toy merchandising history. People of all ages also have a psychological attachment to FAO’s products dating from their childhood memories. Its PR and social media branding campaigns began much earlier than Apple's.
Is it that FAO's brand and its related merchandise are not relevant in today’s entertainment market, or is it that their media agency(s) are not working outside the box to connect with its customer base? (I also realize that the big box stores such as Wal-Mart are undercutting FAO's sales through low pricing, although some of their entertainment products and in-store special service offerings are not the same.)
Apple and FAO (both companies market entertainment products globally) speak to the central challenge of social media, as Faust and Householder define it, “creating social dialogue that is both engaging to customers and true to the core of the brand.”
But FAO seems to have lost that “thing” as noted by Faust and Householder that people inside and outside the company can connect to and recognize themselves in. While FAO has suffered from poor management and ownership changes in recent years, that’s no excuse for ruining a 150-year-old brand for lack of a good branding and marketing strategy. If money is the problem, FAO could have employed several young digital strategists to create a successful campaign that is relevant to today’s younger generation.
People of all ages relate to Apple's cool, hip media buzz, design technology releases, and media campaigns that support their products.


Also, Apple's customers are willing to spend more (even in a recession) for Apple’s products than for similar ones made by a competitor. Is it that people today would rather see themselves as cool, savvy, and socially current tech users in tune with the latest trends and fads?
If so, Apple’s approach goes against the current wisdom of some experts in the field of product design, branding, and sustainability, which states that branding is built from the inside out. Apple does not always follow the latest trend, fad, or customer segment, but sometimes that's because it creates them. Maybe Apple is the exception to the rule of best practice branding that states, “for a brand to be successful it should be clear about what it is and what it stands for, and add to it.”
FAO lacks a cohesive branding, marketing, and social media strategy. It is disconnected from its current and potential customers, lacks creativity in its PR buzz process, and doesn’t have an effective social media listening strategy. I do believe that its products are relevant to today’s customers, but evidence of a weak marketing plan is visible in their in-store foot traffic levels and also their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) approach.
From a (SEO) marketing perspective, FAO has 1,067 external links to its home page from other sites (Apple.com has 1,336.191), with FAO’s parent company, Toys R Us, having 6,117 external links to its home page. This means that Toys R Us is cited as a stronger authority in the eyes of Google search algorithms. If Toys R US can improve their own SEO link strength, they can do the same for FAO's. The parent company has a first page, second place position in an organic (non-paid) Google broad search (without enclosing the search term “toys” in quotes). FAO appears up on the second page of a Google search, fourth down from the top of the page.
One strategy Toys R US could begin using is to spend more time on FAO’s SEO organic search strength, which would provide its customers with better online store visibility. This could save money on those paid (PPC) online advertisements. A far as other FAO online competitors, as of this posting, Fisher Toys (with a first page, first place position) has 28,285 external links to its page, eToys (with a first page, third place position), has 842 external links to its page, and KB Toys (with a first page, fourth place position) has 42 external links to its page. (All search results were conducted by using the term “toys” in Google search.) Also, while KB Toys has fewer links pointing to its home page than FAO does, it also does not have FAO’s almost full page of Flash content, which can interfere with search engines' ability to properly index a web page. While there are other SEO strategies that I have not discussed, at first glance these are some of the more obvious ones


FAO’s focus on customer loyalty and marketing of its products based on its one-of-a-kind unique products are no longer enough to forge a powerful connection to a brand that was once the toy store to beat. Today’s consumers expect to interact with a brand, and that can  be accomplished cost-effectively through digital and social media.
Apple’s PR (buzz), social media strategy, traditional marketing, and advertising provide a very different consumer experience. It launched numerous products (including the iPod that proved to be the “game changer,” thrusting the company from a provider of computers to an entertainment company. FAO can learn from one of the most innovative companies operating in today’s business market with an ultra-loyal user base. Over the past ten years, it could be said that Apple had only one new release product flop, the Power Mac G4 Cube (phased out after its first year), while the jury may still be out on the Mac mini and Apple TV.
Apple has marketed itself as a company that can solve your personal entertainment and business problems instantly; their promotions connect to a basic human desire (for life to be easier), and the desire to be fun and cool even if it costs more. They also express something else important about the core of the brand: that Apple is a fast problem-solver. Often that means not only thinking about what the customer would like, but also defining what’s true to the brand. Toys will always be fun. But easy is fun and authentic.

Digg 4.0 Alpha Overview

I recently got an invite for the new Digg 4.0 Alpha. I have been reading about the arrival of new Digg interface so I got pretty excited to explore the new Digg interface. Meanwhile, I thought to share with my friends and online readers who have not yet got a chance to try the new interface.
I think the new Digg interface is very good and provides a much better user experience compared to the old one. The new most important improvements that I noticed at first glance are:
1) The ability to import blog feeds into your Digg stream. Thus you do not have to submit your own posts manually.
2) You can add links to your Web sites in Digg profile and hence gain more exposure to our sites.
I have prepared a step-by-step walkthrough of the new Digg interface once you sign-in for the first time. Once you log-in you get the option of following famous Digg profiles much like Twitter.

Second you get the ability to connect your Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts with your Digg account.

The activity stream in Digg is broken up into two parts viz “My News” and “Top News.”

This is it! The new Digg interface is simple and attractive . However I have noticed that there is no “bury button” this time, at least in the preliminary version. In the settings menu you can choose the options to add your site RSS in the Digg stream, in this way your friends and followers will be able to find your content as soon as it is published.

The new Digg system focused on building groups and communites of like-minded people on the Web.
Here are three things you can do to kick-start your Digg 4.0 Alpha experience.
• Find and follow your friends, influencers, and news sources you trust! Once you follow these Digg users, you can build a custom news homepage called "My News." My News will display news stories to you as Dugg by your friends.
• Get more followers! Aside from Digging great content, one of the best ways to attract new followers is to update your profile. Add a photo and link to your blog, Twitter account, or Facebook profile.
• Explore the "My News" and "Top News" pages. My News is the custom news page based on the people you follow. Top News is the global zeitgeist showing you the most popular stories on Digg.
I hope you enjoy your experience on New Digg 4.0.

Apple Crushes FAO’s 150 Years of Branding

Social media can be the messenger that drives people and brands to interact. Product design specialists provide input into how brands can maintain a long-term competitive advantage in a dynamic environment.
A recent article in Design Management Review (DMR) discussed authenticity and brands, and William Faust and Leigh Householder at Ology defined brand authenticity. They suggested that a brand should be clear about what it is and what it stands for; proper branding is built from the inside out rather than pandering to the latest trends, fad, or customer segment. Also, best practices branding is accomplished by using a real story, a connection to a fundamental truth, and an appreciation of one's smart customers.
On a recent visit to the Apple Store at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in New York City, I was surprised to see the line of customers of all ages spilling out of the store onto the Fifth Avenue sidewalk. Customers (some tourists) were as happy and excited outside the store as were those inside. While inside, visitors explored the store, trying out the products and purchasing some of Apple's latest technology offerings.

This appears to be a typical customer scenario at this store, and other store locations across the country experience a steady flow of customers as well.
Next door (a 15-second walk past the GM building) is the world-famous FAO Schwartz toy store (now owned by Toys “R” Us). Like Apple is now, FAO. was once a must-see toy store at 57th and Fifth Avenue.
It was world-renowned for its assortment of one-of-a-kind, unique products including toys, entertainment products, and film and TV merchandising. Its products reflected the brand's dedication to the quality that its customers had come to trust for nearly 150 years, but over the past several years the brand's image has eroded, and customers seen to smell blood in the water.
On this particular day, as on many others throughout the year, FAO was suffering from customer attrition and lack of interest in its merchandise.

What also surprised me was the dramatic difference in foot traffic between the Apple and FAO stores. FAO was relatively empty, even though the streets were swarming with tourists looking for an air conditioned and entertaining store to cool off in. Instead they chose to stand on Apple’s long line, which extended from within the store, up the escalator, and outside to the sidewalk in the hot August 90-degree sun. It was like waiting to get into a popular night club—new customers were not allowed in until others left. And this was not an new product release day.


Is Apple better at engaging its customers through digital and traditional media in conjunction with its product releases? Let us take a closer look at these companies' current social media presence:
Apple:
Facebook – 628,516 fans
Twitter (over 50 accounts) – iTunes account has 1,528,755 followers, is following 14, and has 692 Tweets
Apples YouTube Channel –
  Channel Views: 2,760,784
  Total Upload Views: 14,444,703
  Joined: June 21, 2005
  Subscribers: 82,802
FAO Schwartz
Facebook – 4,779 fans
Twitter – 411 followers, is following 5, and has 11 Tweets
YouTube Channel:
  Channel Views: 5,296
  Total Upload Views: 24,626
  Age: 42
  Joined: July 24, 2007 (two years after Apple)
  Last Visit Date: 10 months ago
  Subscribers: 53
  Videos taken by a manager at FAO Schwarz in NYC.
Apple appears to have a stronger social media presence, even though FAO has a 150-year-old emotional tether to people of all ages with its focus on classic toys and historic and current film and television merchandising. FAO was also a strong brand communicator prior to the emergence of social media marketing, and the film Big cemented its place in toy merchandising history. People of all ages also have a psychological attachment to FAO’s products dating from their childhood memories. Its PR and social media branding campaigns began much earlier than Apple's.
Is it that FAO's brand and its related merchandise are not relevant in today’s entertainment market, or is it that their media agency(s) are not working outside the box to connect with its customer base? (I also realize that the big box stores such as Wal-Mart are undercutting FAO's sales through low pricing, although some of their entertainment products and in-store special service offerings are not the same.)
Apple and FAO (both companies market entertainment products globally) speak to the central challenge of social media, as Faust and Householder define it, “creating social dialogue that is both engaging to customers and true to the core of the brand.”
But FAO seems to have lost that “thing” as noted by Faust and Householder that people inside and outside the company can connect to and recognize themselves in. While FAO has suffered from poor management and ownership changes in recent years, that’s no excuse for ruining a 150-year-old brand for lack of a good branding and marketing strategy. If money is the problem, FAO could have employed several young digital strategists to create a successful campaign that is relevant to today’s younger generation.
People of all ages relate to Apple's cool, hip media buzz, design technology releases, and media campaigns that support their products.


Also, Apple's customers are willing to spend more (even in a recession) for Apple’s products than for similar ones made by a competitor. Is it that people today would rather see themselves as cool, savvy, and socially current tech users in tune with the latest trends and fads?
If so, Apple’s approach goes against the current wisdom of some experts in the field of product design, branding, and sustainability, which states that branding is built from the inside out. Apple does not always follow the latest trend, fad, or customer segment, but sometimes that's because it creates them. Maybe Apple is the exception to the rule of best practice branding that states, “for a brand to be successful it should be clear about what it is and what it stands for, and add to it.”
FAO lacks a cohesive branding, marketing, and social media strategy. It is disconnected from its current and potential customers, lacks creativity in its PR buzz process, and doesn’t have an effective social media listening strategy. I do believe that its products are relevant to today’s customers, but evidence of a weak marketing plan is visible in their in-store foot traffic levels and also their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) approach.
From a (SEO) marketing perspective, FAO has 1,067 external links to its home page from other sites (Apple.com has 1,336.191), with FAO’s parent company, Toys R Us, having 6,117 external links to its home page. This means that Toys R Us is cited as a stronger authority in the eyes of Google search algorithms. If Toys R US can improve their own SEO link strength, they can do the same for FAO's. The parent company has a first page, second place position in an organic (non-paid) Google broad search (without enclosing the search term “toys” in quotes). FAO appears up on the second page of a Google search, fourth down from the top of the page.
One strategy Toys R US could begin using is to spend more time on FAO’s SEO organic search strength, which would provide its customers with better online store visibility. This could save money on those paid (PPC) online advertisements. A far as other FAO online competitors, as of this posting, Fisher Toys (with a first page, first place position) has 28,285 external links to its page, eToys (with a first page, third place position), has 842 external links to its page, and KB Toys (with a first page, fourth place position) has 42 external links to its page. (All search results were conducted by using the term “toys” in Google search.) Also, while KB Toys has fewer links pointing to its home page than FAO does, it also does not have FAO’s almost full page of Flash content, which can interfere with search engines' ability to properly index a web page. While there are other SEO strategies that I have not discussed, at first glance these are some of the more obvious ones


FAO’s focus on customer loyalty and marketing of its products based on its one-of-a-kind unique products are no longer enough to forge a powerful connection to a brand that was once the toy store to beat. Today’s consumers expect to interact with a brand, and that can  be accomplished cost-effectively through digital and social media.
Apple’s PR (buzz), social media strategy, traditional marketing, and advertising provide a very different consumer experience. It launched numerous products (including the iPod that proved to be the “game changer,” thrusting the company from a provider of computers to an entertainment company. FAO can learn from one of the most innovative companies operating in today’s business market with an ultra-loyal user base. Over the past ten years, it could be said that Apple had only one new release product flop, the Power Mac G4 Cube (phased out after its first year), while the jury may still be out on the Mac mini and Apple TV.
Apple has marketed itself as a company that can solve your personal entertainment and business problems instantly; their promotions connect to a basic human desire (for life to be easier), and the desire to be fun and cool even if it costs more. They also express something else important about the core of the brand: that Apple is a fast problem-solver. Often that means not only thinking about what the customer would like, but also defining what’s true to the brand. Toys will always be fun. But easy is fun and authentic.

How to Avoid 7 Kid Creativity Crushers

The call for creativity in education is picking up steam. Educators around the globe are inventing new, innovative modes of teaching to help build creative thinking skills. In order for creativity to take hold, parents need to model creative behaviors at home. Sometimes, figuring out what not to do sheds light on the best practices to employ. Here are 7 surefire ways to crush a child's creativity. These are based on research by Amabile and Hennessy (1992):

1. Surveillance - putting your kids under a microscope and making them feel like they're being watched
2. Evaluation - judging your kids performance
3. Rewards - giving your kids trinkets and tokens for achievements
4. Competition - creating a situation where there can be only one winner (as opposed to competing against oneself)
5. Over-control - micromanaging how your children accomplish tasks
6. Restricting choice - not allowing kids to tap into their curiosity
7. Pressure - setting expectations that cannot be met

Awareness of these creativity crushers can help parents model creative behavior and foster a creative environment at home. Some tips to try include giving your child room to imagine and praising your child's work. When praising, be specific about what you appreciate. While saying, "I like what you've done" is helpful, saying, "What I like about your project is how you explored the use of color to highlight the main character" goes even further in building a creative climate. In the second scenario, isolating the specific positive feedback lets your child know you're really paying attention. This type of "reward" helps to build intrinsic motivation which has been shown to be a better motivator than extrinsic rewards.
Source: Amabile, T. M., and B. A. Hennessey. "The Motivation for Creativity in Children." In Achievement and Motivation: A Social-Developmental Perspective, edited by A. K. Boggiano and T. Pittman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Book Review: Attract Visitors to Your Site: The Mini Missing Manual by Matthew McDonald

With so many free (or very inexpensive) and easy website builders, including Apple’s iWeb, Google’s Blogger, and the open source Wordpress it is pretty easy to set up and maintain a web presence for your personal brand or business. What is not so easy is getting visitors to see your website. If they don’t know your site exists they won’t come read it.
In Attract Visitors to Your Site: The Mini Missing Manual Matthew MacDonald walks readers through the very basics of SEO (search engine optimization). He discusses reciprocal linking, web rings, the importance of descriptive Meta tags and Keywords, using web directories and search engines, and how to track your visitors using Google Analytics.
While there is some good information for the absolute internet newbie, I found little in here that I didn’t already know and found for free online. The importance of a quality site with fresh content and quality reciprocal links is pretty well known, and Google seems to change its search engine algorithms for page ranking every other week to keep webmasters from figuring them out. Basically, content is the key and I do not need a book to explain that one.
Buy this book only if you are completely new to the web and internet marketing. There is very little of use for anyone who has had a steady web presence and has done any research into SEO.

How to Avoid 7 Kid Creativity Crushers

The call for creativity in education is picking up steam. Educators around the globe are inventing new, innovative modes of teaching to help build creative thinking skills. In order for creativity to take hold, parents need to model creative behaviors at home. Sometimes, figuring out what not to do sheds light on the best practices to employ. Here are 7 surefire ways to crush a child's creativity. These are based on research by Amabile and Hennessy (1992):

1. Surveillance - putting your kids under a microscope and making them feel like they're being watched
2. Evaluation - judging your kids performance
3. Rewards - giving your kids trinkets and tokens for achievements
4. Competition - creating a situation where there can be only one winner (as opposed to competing against oneself)
5. Over-control - micromanaging how your children accomplish tasks
6. Restricting choice - not allowing kids to tap into their curiosity
7. Pressure - setting expectations that cannot be met

Awareness of these creativity crushers can help parents model creative behavior and foster a creative environment at home. Some tips to try include giving your child room to imagine and praising your child's work. When praising, be specific about what you appreciate. While saying, "I like what you've done" is helpful, saying, "What I like about your project is how you explored the use of color to highlight the main character" goes even further in building a creative climate. In the second scenario, isolating the specific positive feedback lets your child know you're really paying attention. This type of "reward" helps to build intrinsic motivation which has been shown to be a better motivator than extrinsic rewards.
Source: Amabile, T. M., and B. A. Hennessey. "The Motivation for Creativity in Children." In Achievement and Motivation: A Social-Developmental Perspective, edited by A. K. Boggiano and T. Pittman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.