I can’t tell you how frustrated I am with FLIKR. 

A photo storage area I’ve used for nigh on two years, easing and streamlining my blog building process, has let me down. 

For the first few months after starting this blog I used WordPress’s fiddly proces of embedding photo URL’s.  It’s fiddly enough to rival building a model of the Eifel Tower, to scale, in toothpicks.

Getting allignment and keeping text from wrapping around the pics drove me mad.  A friend enlightened me and said, “I use FLIKR!  You just copy and paste. No issues!”  The sun broke through, the angels sang, I switched to this process and have been doing so for over a year, now. 

Imgine my surprise when I started working on the blog to follow (El Dia de los Muertos) and I could no longer rt click, copy, and paste photos in.   Now, I’m back  to fiddling with pasting the pic’s URL into WordPress’s HTML system.  On the blog to follow, I’ve spent twice as long fiddling with allignment issues.  (Text wrapping around, photos smashing against each other, etc etc. I could cry.) Why?  why?  I’m back where I started.

There is a bloody spot on the table where I now sit from my forhead whacking it.  (Not really, but close.)  What to do?

Algunas empresas todavía están asumiendo que necesitan de un sitio web como un importante canal de comunicación para la promoción de sus compañías, venta de sus productos, organización de sus departamentos de recursos humanos, apoyo a sus canales comerciales, apoyo a sus clientes, entre otras muchas razones (es necesario recordar de nuevo que en el mundo de la pyme todavía cerca del 43% de empresas no disponen de website) cuando llegan estos frikis de internet y les contamos que además, es importante estar en redes sociales, hacer SEO (Search Engine Optimization o posicionamiento natural en buscadores), utilizar campañas de marketing en buscadores (SEM), hacer SMM (social media marketing).

¿Es esto cierto? ¿Cómo este tipo de redes pueden ayudarnos en el mundo de la empresa? ¿Cómo lo hago para posicionarme en estas? ¿En qué redes sociales me posiciono?

Intentando contestar a estas preguntas, es absolutamente cierto que debemos empezar a posicionarnos en estos canales ya que van a dar mucha visibilidad y van a socializar nuestras relaciones con el entorno de nuestras compañías:  clientes, posibles clientes, proveedores, empleados, etc.

Es necesario que contemos con perfiles corporativos oficiales antes de que algún empleado o admirador los cree (ultimamente es algo que estoy viendo con cierta frecuencia). No podemos ejercer un control absoluto sobre esto pero si es cierto que “ordenaremos” nuestra presencia en este tipo de redes.

No solo son las redes sociales la única estrategia necesaria sino la combinación de estas con herramientas web 2.0 como videos, potcasting, blogs, foros, etc.

De hecho está cambiando incluso las pautas de búsqueda de información en la red. Actualmente Youtube, el canal de videos, se ha convertido ya en un importante buscador de información. El hecho de que nuestra compañía no disponga de material en dicho canal por tanto, puede empezar a ser un handicap para nuestra imagen ya que simplemente no existiremos.

Las redes sociales pueden ayudarnos de diversas formas:

• Son un amplificador de tráfico. Al conseguir que usuarios se adhieran a nuestros perfiles, contamos con visibilidad en todos los amigos de ese usuario en progresión geométrica (si yo me hago fan de una compañía, mis amigos  y los amigos de mis amigos conocen este hecho y pueden hacerse a su vez seguidores de dicha compañía). Una buena estrategia en este sentido puede aumentar nuestra popularidad y por ende el tráfico hacia nuestro sitio web de forma muy relevante.
• Por el mismo hecho anterior, amplifican la información que colocamos en estos canales llegando a más público objetivo en menos tiempo.
• Permiten plantear campañas de marketing hiper-segmentadas. Por ejemplo Facebook cuenta con un sistema de anuncios en el cual podemos definir la segmentación de una forma absoluta. Personas de entre 20 y 30 años, que les guste el teatro, la música y la lectura y que residan en la provincia de madrid… Esto permite aumentar el éxito de las acciones de marketing de forma clarísima.
• Realización de Focus Group. Podemos “preguntar” a un grupo de usuarios (siempre con un gancho lógicamente como puede ser un regalo por participar) sus preferencias sobre un producto, marca, etc.
• Ganar credibilidad en el mercado aumentando nuestra presencia en la red

Para posicionarnos en este tipo de redes es necesario contar con profesionales que nos indiquen en qué redes debemos estar. No todas las redes son válidas para nuestros propósitos. No son las mismas necesidades las que tiene una entidad financiera que un hotel o una empresa de distribución, por ejemplo. Por tanto  y es necesario estudiar este extremo antes de lanzarnos a crear perfiles.

by Johana Cavalcanti

Asimismo con la creación de nuestros perfiles, no logramos absolutamente nada si después no dedicamos tiempo a confeccionar información para actualizar estos canales. Semanalmente deberemos dedicar tiempo a ello. En caso contrario, mejor no estar !

La externalización de estos servicios puede ser una correcta decisión debido a la falta de tiempo y conocimientos en este ámbito.
Podemos además incluir un factor variable en el pago de los servicios a la empresa o profesional que nos los presta. Con un buen reporting mensual sobre incremento de tráfico y aumento de fans en nuestras redes contaremos con elementos suficientes para establecer ese variable en el pago de estos servicios además de la completa involucración de dicha empresa o profesional.

IMPORTANTE: No debemos usar estos canales para realizar promoción indiscriminada de nuestra compañía, productos y servicios ya que ello se puede volver en nuestra contra. Puede considerarse como Spam y conseguir el efecto contrario que perseguimos.

My creation, originally uploaded by Miss O’Brien.

Check out my Andywarholizer photo! Go to fickr.com and create your own image to compose to!

ok we got our flikr, twitter, fb, domain name and now blog up and running today.

that means we are up and running, but doesn’t mean I am an expert on this yet! Thank you for dropping by!

This week will show many changes!

Stick around!!!

So I am in love with Flickr.  I get so inspired (and waste a lot of time – but is it really wasted if I am having a good time?) clicking around the site.  My contacts are all super talented people and I love seeing their photos from day to day.  Recently I have been inspired to do the 365 day challenge.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, it is a project in which you take a self portrait everyday, once a day, for an entire year.  I hear and I can imagine that it is super rewarding to actually complete this project and see how you have changed.  I feel like I am at a turning point in my life.  I am finally taking control and letting go at the same time.  I am working towards a career now that I am passionate about instead of one guarenteed to make me lots of money.  Happiness is not money right? So I feel like I will be doing a lot of changing this year and thus it would be the perfect time to start this.  Feel free to join me if you would like.  You can learn a little more about it here – it will really force you to get creative!

Anyway, since I have decided to start this and bring my flickr back from the depths of cyberspace (I don’t use it much anymore ) I wanted to post of a few of my past pics from flickr!

There are no Creative Commons licsenses on these right now guys so please do not use them without my permission.  Thanks.

It’s about time I posted something Minnesota-related…given it’s home for me and all…

I’ve been living in Minneapolis for a while now…but I’ve never made it out to see the annual fireworks show at the end of the Minneapolis Aquatennial…a week-long festival steeped in history that, growing up, I never knew about.  So last Saturday night, I took a break from my regular life and headed downtown.  The show is sponsored by Target, and I must say, it really makes me proud to think Target, as nation-wide and successful as it may be, is a Minnesota original that invests in its own homeland…

My picture from my “disposable” digi is blurry…altho I do like the dreamy effect that it lends and I like the setting…I took this shot from underneath the Stone Arch Bridge, which traverses over the Mississippi and is the site from where the works are shot from…

The show is definitely a crowd pleaser, and much better than the 4th of July works in my small hometown…where it’s just one explosion following another as opposed to a visual fantasmagoria…

You can get a better idea/appreciation of how spectacular the works are via Flikr, where real photographers have uploaded some of their beautiful images.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Sumi né??
Bom estes dias estava ajudando minha mãe a montar um quebra-cabeça de 3.000 peças. depois trago uma fotinho para vc´s verem como ficou lindo… é que acabei de passar cola e ta secando.

Gente eu ainda não havia conhecido estas bonecas chamadas Blythe , e achei sem querer estes dias no flikr e achei elas uma gracinha… Tb to muito afim de comprar uma… Só que como estou desempregada e cheia de dividas, ai complicou néH?!
Bom assim que começar a trabalhar de novo e sanar minhas dividas vou comprar uma para mim!

Bom estes dias não fiz nada de tãoooooo interessante, por isso não tenho muito oq dizer.
Ah! Estou jogando “tomb raider” no PS2 , to achando legalzinho o jogo, é bem do estilo que eu curto (aventura e misterio), só que estou encalhanda em uma parte que pretendo passar hj!

Por falar em jogo:
Eu salvei o “Codigo da Vinci” e achei muito bom o jogo, tem muitas coisas diferentes do filme, igual o livro tem muito mais coisas q o filme :/
Mas adorei..
Outro que tb adorei jogar e salvei 2 vezes foi o ” N.A.R.C” é de um policial q anda disfarçado na rua … Vc tem que cumprir varias missões, até vender drogas para se infiltrar numa gangue de policiais corruptos….
Muito legal tb!

Bom gente vou ter que sair …
Amanhã volto
bjinhus :*

Hi, everyone!

I’m happy to announce that my wallpapers on now online for more than just Twitter!

We’re now on Flikr, so head on over & check it out!

Thanks for looking!
- Ashley :O)

PS – Also, if you have any requests with particular photos of Mr. Pattinson himself or any song lyrics or a special quote you would like used, just let me know! I love doing special requests! You guys are awesome! :O)

Okay…I have been messing around with this social media stuff long enough!  I fought against it (kicking and screaming I might add) thanks to the teeny-bopperish-ness of the pioneers such as Myspace and You Tube (still don’t like either one).  Then several minister friends had po

sted through their blogs that they now had a Facebook page and we should follow them on there as we would have quicker access to things that were going on and could be more collaborative.  I finally acquiesced.  Now nearly a year later I find that I am in a heightened state of learning about this frontier in communication.

Much like everything related to computers and information technologies this arena is rapidly growing and expanding.  And by no means do I even come close to being an expert (intermediate maybe, but no expert).  However, I

do like to try new things and explore how they work and how they can be applied.  You’ve already heard me mention Myspace and You Tube (and yes I have accounts with both that I never use).  Myspace bugs me because it simply is just too dang slow.  I want places that I visit on the web to load quickly (hey I’m running a 4GHZ sy

stem, and on cable modem at home and work).  Sorry Myspace but you

didn’t cut the mustard…and what’s with all this “pimp your space” crap about?  Sheesh!  I am not much of a video person or picture taking person so I am already a little biased against these kind of sites.

But I can tell you this… if there is a video to be had you bet you can find and everything else in the universe related to it on You Tube!  More than likely if you’ve never heard of You Tube you probably just crawled out from under rock and said, “What is this inter

net thingy and can I find a video on it?”  Great service, lousy search function.  Sometime later the conservative folks, tired of seeing people make complete fools of themselves by shaking their booties or getting hit in their privates, formed God Tube (now known as Tangle).  Much better run in my opinion and the se

arches are not quite as broad in their results.  And there are many, many more video applications.  If you would like to know more about them

, I suggest dropping a line to @TonySteward.
Now for picture management on the web.  Oh where to begin?  How about the favorites like Flikr, Picasso, and Twitpic are all great services.  Like I said I don’t do much video or pictures.  Word of wisdom?  Sure.. try one out till you find one you like!
Now that all the background has been set, let’s talk about t

he major three networks:  Facebook, Twitter, and Friendfeed.  In a nutshell here is a look

at all three:
Facebook – Much like Myspace but traditionally has been for folks that are a bit less interested in pimping their backgrounds and adding music players to their “space”.  Facebook is a service that is supported by

commercials and advertising.  Fortunately for us that use Facebook, the ads are in unobtrusive places and generally do not cause a hindrance to the sites functionality.  Positives include the ability to search and find people of interest or relation in vast number of ways including game applications.  Ability to promote organizations, causes, events, and so on, quickly and easily (and free).  And the folks at Facebook are quick to

offer ways to promote what ever it is that you need to promote for a small fee (really is reasonable).  Negatives include an onslaught of these little apps that have no quick way to preview until you’ve already agreed to take a look.  You may also find yourself quickly addicted to at least one of a great number of game applications that seem to draw people into endless hours of waste.  To each his own.  Conversations with groups of people is not in real time and generally your status updates (or posts) are directed to the masses.  Facebook does have a chat feature, but seems to have a proble

m with reliability and only allows a conversation with one person at a time (try having three different conversations sometime like that…AHHHHHH!).
Twitter – Everyone is talking about it.  Everyone seems to be

joining a twit-this or tweet-that.  Yes Twitter literally exploded onto the social networking scene a couple of years ago and ca

ught on like wildfire!  Quite simply, Twitter is a simple communication app that allows you post at status (“What are you doing now?”)  Why?  I asked myself that very same question and have discovered that there are many folks out there genuinely interested in what you might have to say.  I regularly have conversations with people all over the world in short 140 character bursts.  It’s not as easy as it sounds, but now that I am nearing my 3000th tweet I am confident that I can post most anything in under a 140 characters!  But I digress…  One of the great advantages of Twitter is that it was built around the same engines that make texting possible.  Hence, if you have a smart phone Twitter is suited for instant application between desktop, laptop and mobile use.  There have also been a whole slew of Twitter-based applications that deserve looking into.  More on that later…  Downside to Twitter?  You bet there are!  First of all is the most obvious:  140 stinking characters!  For those of you that are language purists, just walk away.  Then there is the difficulty in actually having a two or three way conversation while everyone gets to see what is going on.  Once again you can have a private conversation, but only with one person at a time and not in real-time.
Friendfeed – despite it’s rather cannibalistic name, this is a great little application that seems to draw in the best of both Facebook and

Twitter worlds.  Status updates appear as threads.  And each thread gives the opportunity for you like the comment (simple and painless when no comment is needed), comment, or hide (should you find the thread offensive or not exactly work-friendly).  Like Facebook and Twitter, you still get to choose who you subscribe too, but you also get to choose what discussions groups you want to belong to (a great way to meet folks with similar interests).  Now the really cool parts:  All of the comments are real-time and auto-update!  Conversations can be individual private threads or collaborative public threads.  You have a ton of flexibility to meet your needs.  Your threads can even be set to post to Twitter and Facebook.  Another great feature is the posting of pictures directly to the threads.  In Twitter you are able to only post a link to a video or picture service (such as twitpic).  In Friendfeed the pictures and videos are directly posted in real time.  Too cool!!!  I just recently began using Friendfeed and will update you with some of the neat changes coming in the future.
Bonus – Tokbox – For those of you into live streaming video/audio, I strongly recommend Tokbox.  This is a free service that allows you to create a real-time video conference.  I have joined in several of these little get-togethers and have seen as many as nine people involved in active exchange.  A great service to consider using and it will only continue to improve.

Now that you have all this under your belt, go and try some on your own.  If you want more information on any of these apps, try tweeting some of these folks, the true gurus of emerging technology:  @human3rror @TonySteward @djchuang @CynthiaWare

Recently, Weise Communications sat down with Shawn Halls of Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) to discuss social media’s impact on SMH and the way in which they communicate with the community. Below is our Q & A session.

Weise: How long has Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) been using Twitter?

SMH: We registered the site in November 2008 and promoted a $49 cardiac disease assessment special we were offering in December. But we didn’t start actively posting or following anyone until March 2009.

Weise: How has SMH’s Twitter account been able to add value to your patients’ experience?

SMH: When we first started we were like a lot of organizations, just trying to figure out how, or even if, Twitter could be part of our larger communications strategy. We tweeted our hospital promotions and a few stories from patients who had called to praise our care.

Then in April we were contacted through Twitter by a former patient. She had a somewhat negative experience while in our care, but actually had more of a negative experience trying to figure out who she should contact to discuss the issue.

Suddenly, Twitter, and social media in general, became not just a platform to communicate to patients, but a tangible way for our community to communicate directly with us as well.

Since that first patient contact, we have been Direct Messaged through Twitter by other patients with various questions. In our experience, more often than not a patient’s frustration is not about the care they received but the challenges associated with navigating healthcare.

Many people still prefer to call us directly, but increasingly customers are using Twitter and other social media platforms to initiate contact. It’s an interesting dynamic.

Most recently we had a patient’s family member find us on Twitter and ask for the name of a local florist so they could send flowers and ensure delivery prior to the patient’s surgery. This was a really easy one to handle, and we were able to communicate back to him within 10 minutes of his initial contact.

(SMH’s Twitter account)

Weise: Were there any reservations about using Twitter to communicate with the general public? If so, how did you overcome/justify establishing an online presence?

SMH: We did encounter resistance, because there are still a lot of unknowns about Twitter and other social media platforms as they relate to business. All social media platforms are blocked in our healthcare system, so we had to petition the chief information officer to allow our team access to Twitter. There is a valid concern that spending too much time online may distract employees, but we believed a balance could be struck. An organization with quality managers who engage their employees on a daily basis greatly reduce the risk of distraction. Certainly there are some who might abuse the privilege, but there are ways to prevent abuse that do not include a blanket policy to block access for all. Remember the era of codes to access copy machines? The idea was companies would lose too much money if employees had free access. Copy codes seem absurd in 2009, but we’re facing a similar issue with social media access today.

Weise: Do you think all healthcare providers should establish an online presence via social media? Why?

SMH: We do believe it’s important to have a social media presence. While social media won’t replace other avenues of communication, it’s important for providers to encourage communication through avenues people are using. With 200 million people on Facebook and nearly 10 million on Twitter, healthcare providers are missing an opportunity if they do not have a social media presence. Increasingly, healthcare is about building relationships with our customers. In this era of choice, patients choose which doctor to see, which outpatient lab to use, and certainly which hospital they choose. Social media helps us foster relationships with our customers by humanizing the healthcare system. We’re not just Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, we are 4,000 individuals who are part of our larger communities, and we enjoy communicating with our customers because they’re also our neighbors and friends. Certainly there are challenges for healthcare providers in establishing their social media presence, but we believe the benefits outweigh the challenges.

The one caveat, I’d say, is don’t create a social media presence if someone is not directly responsible for maintaining that presence. As effective as social media can be, an unanswered contact or an infrequently updated Facebook page could have n opposite effect, leaving prospective customers wondering if other aspects of their care would be hit or miss as well. At a fundamental level, social media is an extension of your healthcare brand, so it’s important to treat it with the same level of attention as other communication strategies.

Weise: SMH also has a Facebook fan page. What value is your page creating for the hospital and your community?

SMH: Hospitals and healthcare providers are brands people typically prefer not to interact with. Most of the time, people only use our services when they are sick or otherwise vulnerable, and healthcare is one of the few brands that can literally have life and death implications.

As I mentioned above, increasingly healthcare is about fostering relationships, and while Twitter is excellent for communication, Facebook allows for a more intimate interaction with our community. We are able to post photos of community events and share information that may not necessarily be hospital business but impacts the community in which we live and operate.

We recently posted information about eight students who received educational scholarships from us because they are going into the healthcare field. There isn’t really another format where we could have communicated that information, but it’s perfect for Facebook.

(SMH’s Facebook page)

Weise: Does SMH have any plans to adopt more social media into their marketing strategy? Perhaps, creating a YouTube channel to show video testimonials, events, interviews with doctors etc.?

SMH: Each market is unique, and Sarasota is no different. What’s splashed across the media today may not be the same next year. Since social media is so dynamic, we let our customers dictate which platforms to use based on their adoption of it. We are in the process of coordinating our first Twitter surgery broadcast – an amazing brain mapping procedure where the patient is awake during the entire procedure – and we’ll use YouTube to archive it. We’re also actively developing our Flikr, MySpace, and Delicious accounts and believe there are tremendous opportunities in those applications to help with patient education.

Weise: If you had one piece of advice for someone new to Twitter, what would you offer?
SMH: Don’t be afraid to bring a little personality into your tweets. It’s a lot more engaging for your followers and a lot more fun for you. ☺

About Shawn:

Sarasota Memorial’s Twitter feed is managed by Shawn Halls. Shawn is the market research manager at Sarasota Memorial and is responsible for measuring and communicating consumer insights throughout the organization. Before joining Sarasota Memorial, Shawn knocked ‘em dead at the University of South Florida as a senior statistician who had the unusual skill of being able to communicate complex statistical findings to statisticians and non-statisticians alike. Shawn holds a master’s degree in applied sociology from the University of Central Florida, proving you can actually get a job with a sociology degree.

Mi inocente incursión en el mundo de la foto.

Intentaré no dejarme llevar por la gratuidad de la foto digital y publicar solo lo mas interesante, visualmente hablando claro.

Echarle un ojo ;-D

alx en flikr

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizing by Clay Shirky is a book that helps us realize how we use social media applications as an organizing tool for public dialogue. Ultimately this book emphasizes that social media tools gives us (individuals) power. At the risk of sounding cheesy or rather celebrating unnecessarily, based on the discussion in this book—I, ME, a single person—in a sea of many has the power to galvanize forces and make her presence known.

This book uses MySpace, Flickr, Wikipedia and other such mediums to make its case as well as deliver very colorful anecdotes. I have a personal connection with what Shirky was talking about. Two years ago, my brother, Ivan, and I started a podcast. At the time, I had no idea what a podcast was, so when Ivan explained that it was a free way for us to “publish” ourselves, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. We decided to create our podcast around something we both loved—in this case, movies—and in turn delivered a weekly podcast (both video and audio formats) in which we offered movie reviews as well as an opportunity for our fans to engage in a dialogue with us.

Our podcast was titled “Worst Movie Ever.”

Together, our mutual love for movies, and our desire to connect with others, led to a number of people tuning in each week. We received Facebook friend invites, posts, comments, personal emails, letters, etc. Eventually we had quite a following as well as some regular fans that would comment each week on our podcast. Some of our audience was international. I’d like to think we were pretty popular in Denmark based on the number of Danish friends Ivan and I have on Facebook now.

When our audience grew, we started having monthly contests, people donated to our podcast. Essentially, the participation level increased dramatically. Here two “kids” from their basement in Waterford, VA, provided a platform to interact, discuss and eventually organize an online community. This example relates to the book, Here Comes Everybody, as in a number of case studies, “normal” people chose to use online tools to organize. An example in the book is on p. 219 when the author comments on friend-of-a-friend networking.

I particularly liked this book because it captures all of the excitement surrounded by revolutionary technologies including blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 applications. Author Shirky gives solid examples about the digital networking devices that we have to show how people get and maintain power. This book provides a clear way of thinking. He also does a great job of connecting how businesses, individuals, and society uses these tools. He describes the future of social interactions due to social-web tools.

Ultimately, this book examines how group dynamics in an online environment are transformed due to web-enabled tools on the Internet. The author says the book is about “what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures.” Additionally, Shirky makes the point that every webpage is like its own community. To take this point a step further, these “communities” can be either weak or strong depending on whether or not the people involved are interested in communicating with each other.

Wikipedia, Second Life, Craigslist, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Flickr point the way to a future where sharing caring groups of amateurs can connect in ways that will be satisfying, friendly, and above-all exciting. This point brings us right back to my experience with the podcast, The Worst Movie Ever. Additionally, it gives me insight into how my fictional client, Pixar, can use these tools to galvanize forces in an online community as well as share information quickly to its key fans, stakeholders and customers.

Before, I conclude, I just want to take a quick moment to vent. My biggest flaw with online social organizing as it is presented in this book, is that because the opportunities are limitless, and it’s so easy to “say whatever you want to say,” sometimes people neglect to think about what they are saying or the ramifications of what they say. People still need to be judicious when making comments. And still think about what they say before they say it.

Ok, we have product leaving the shelves as fast as councilmen at a skatepark fundraiser in Jacksonville!   So, we know you guys are buying it!  Now show us that you’re wearing it!  If you e-mail a pic to this address  ⎯ good99days+private@photos.flickr.com ⎯ then it will be posted on our Flikr account.    So show us what you guys are about… out grindin’ or chillin’ at the crib.  We would love to see what y’all are all about.

Oh, and if you’re local to Jacksonville FL, be sure to hit up Knuckle Up SK8 shop for all of the latest EC gear.

Now go get ya grind on… however that may be.

Times in London in September 2009 are interesting.  Some businesses are moving ahead, others are having more parlous times.  The CBI reports the recession is easing, but anecdotally I hear various sectors especially in training, design & print are quiet.

Realising this, my main purpose in life is to make sure that whatever we provide to our customers, works.  That is, telephones ring from new enquirers.  Email addresses and contact us forms produce new and genuinely interested prospects.

Few can have not heard about the Social Media Marketing buzz that swept London last week.  In the well attended Business Scene event last Tuesday Nick Tadd spoke about the end of the marketing department and the rise of the findability experts.

And in the packed eCademy meeting last Thursday Penny Power impressively and passionately described a social world of facebook, twitter, and blogging (especially eCademy blogging) where business happens, and will increasingly so.

Marketing agencies are not so sure, and a number of ’show me the money’ questions are appearing.  A safe starting convention is nothing stays free on the internet for long.  Clearly my view is some people are doing very well with Social Media Marketing.  My observation is also that some people have worked very hard to promote their businesses through social media with little result.

As an agency who focuses on making phones ring, upping sales enquiries and multiplying e-commerce sales, we own the responsibility of carefully selecting and costing the right marketing channels that will let our clients customers find them, and be genuinely in a frame of mind to purchase.    We also need to be at the forefront of sales generating marketing technology, and embrace exciting developments that genuinely help win enquiries and sales.

However, whilst I have my own opinion, I am going to ask for yours.  Between now and the end of November, I’m running an online survey aimed at London’s businesses already running Social Media Marketing campaigns or actively considering them.  How well or otherwise is social media working for your business.  Get your views across, here’s the link:

http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?94B0DCC092D2C4CE

Pre-release results will be circulated exclusively to everyone completing the survey and leaving their email addresses at the end of November, and the surveys will be published in early January.  Email addresses will be deleted and not used for any other purpose.

By then we will all know how effective or otherwise Social Media Marketing can help our businesses.

Link again:

http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?94B0DCC092D2C4CE

Make your views known and we’ll share and bank the knowledge.

Chris Clark

_______________________

Chris Clark is MD of Clark Marketing, a digital marketing company focussing on keeping clients’ shops full, getting the Hillingdon Mayor to see one of our success stories for herself, turning £5-figure e-commerce site sales to £6 figure, and more.  Chris has just completed his diploma in interactive and direct marketing for the IDM at Kings College, London, and was the oldest one on the course!

We found a few more statistics on social networking from Econsultancy, and wanted to share. (Posted August 2009).

• Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities online, including personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites.
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.
• 80% of companies use, (or are planning to use), LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees during the course of this year. The site has just celebrated reaching its 45-millionth membership.
• Around 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns, with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week.
• It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people… In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.
• Wikipedia currently has more than 13 million articles in more than 260 different languages. The site attracts over 60 million unique users a month and it’s often hotly debated that the information it contains is more reliable than any printed Encyclopedia.
• The most recent figure of blogs being indexed by Technorati currently stands at 133 million. The same report into the Blogosphere also revealed that on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a single 24-hour period.
• It’s been suggested that YouTube is likely to serve over 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during this year.
• The top three people on Twitter (Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears) have more combined followers than the entire population of Austria.
• According to Socialnomics, if you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you would earn $156.23 per hour.
• The online bookmarking service, Delicious, has more than five million users and over 150 million unique bookmarked URLs.
• Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month, according to some analytical sources.
• Formed in 2004, Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.
• Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs.

Do you have any cool stats on social networking? Share with us in our comments!

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finally. it’s overcast this morning and almost drizzly…. i’ve been getting anxious for autumn now that so many cute boots are popping up in windows and pumpkin spiced lattes are back. it’s a nice break from the heat of summer and a nice little welcome for tomorrow – the first day of autumn… i’ll be really excited once i need to pull out an umbrella!