COOL Website of the Day: ZooLoo

While browsing through TechCrunch.com today, I came across an interesting website called ZooLoo. ZooLoo could be best described as your one-stop shop in terms of social media. You can check all of your friend's status updates on Facebook, see what celebs are tweeting about on Twitter, and see what bands are playing this weekend on MySpace. ZooLoo can integrate all of these sites into your homepage, which is known as your 'website'. You can pick your own URL such as youname.zooloo.com, which is a pretty sweet feature. You can have ZooLoo pull in RSS feeds from your favorite websites, so if you wanted to read the latest news articles from The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, there's a widget for that. They are also in the process of developing an iPhone app, which the company describes as "ZooLoo Home Page Plus". The application gives you the ability to update all of your favorite social networks without going to any of the websites themselves.

If you would like DSL Marketing to handle any of your social media needs, please contact us.

50 Ways to use Social Media, listed by Objective

Brought to you by Jeremiah Owyang through Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan, who continues to dazzle us with his thoughtful and helpful social media blog posts (I recommend subscribing to him) lists out “50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing“.

In twitter, Jon Burg suggests the lists could be segmented to further help understanding, I recommenced doing this by the 5 social computing objectives we’ve found at Forrester.

I’ve taken Chris’s exact list, but have segmented it into the five objectives. This way, you’re not randomly choosing tactics without first having a goal in mind. Of course, the first thing to do is to first understand how your community uses social technologies, start by using this free social technographics profile generator.


1) Listening: Gleaning market and customer insight and intelligence

10. Build sentiment measurements, and listen to the larger web for how people are talking about your customer.
11. Learn which bloggers might care about your customer. Learn how to measure their influence.
14. Build conversation maps for your customers using Technorati.com , Google Blogsearch, Summize, and FriendFeed.
21. Collect case studies of social media success. Tag them “socialmediacasestudy” in del.icio.us.
25. Search Summize.com for as much data as you can find in Twitter on your product, your competitors, your space.
32. Make WebsiteGrader.com your first stop for understanding the technical quality of a website.
33. Make Compete.com your next stop for understanding a site’s traffic. Then, mash it against competitors’ sites.
34. Learn how not to ask for 40 pieces of demographic data when giving something away for free. Instead, collect little bits over time. Gently.
38. Track your inbound links and when they come from blogs, be sure to comment on a few posts and build a relationship with the blogger.
39. Find a bunch of bloggers and podcasters whose work you admire, and ask them for opinions on your social media projects. See if you can give them a free sneak peek at something, or some other “you’re special” reward for their time and effort (if it’s material, ask them to disclose it).


2) Talking: Engaging in a two way discussion to get your message out (and get messages in)

2. Build blogs and teach conversational marketing and business relationship building techniques.
5. Create informational podcasts about a product’s overall space, not just the product.
8. Check out Twitter as a way to show a company’s personality. (Don’t fabricate this).
9. Couple your email newsletter content with additional website content on a blog for improved commenting.
13. Try out a short series of audio podcasts or video podcasts as content marketing and see how they draw.
19. Experiment with the value of live video like uStream.tv and Mogulus, or Qik on a cell phone.
23. Explore distribution. Can you reach more potential buyers/users/customers on social networks.
24. Don’t forget early social sites like Yahoogroups and Craigslist. They still work remarkably well.
26. Practice delivering quality content on your blogs, such that customers feel educated / equipped / informed.
28. Turn your blog into a mobile blog site with Mofuse. Free.
30. Ensure you offer the basics on your site, like an email alternative to an RSS subscription. In fact, the more ways you can spread and distribute your content, the better.
40. Learn all you can about how NOT to pitch bloggers. Excellent resource: Susan Getgood.
41. Try out shooting video interviews and video press releases and other bits of video to build more personable relationships. Don’t throw out text, but try adding video.
44. Experiment with different lengths and forms of video. Is entertaining and funny but brief better than longer but more informative? Don’t stop with one attempt. And try more than one hosting platform to test out features.


3) Energizing: Letting your customers tell your prospects on your behalf (viral, word of mouth)

1. Add social bookmark links to your most important web pages and/or blog posts to improve sharing.
3. For every video project purchased, ensure there’s an embeddable web version for improved sharing.
4. Learn how tagging and other metadata improve your ability to search and measure the spread of information.
12. Download the Social Media Press Release (pdf) and at least see what parts you want to take into your traditional press releases.
36. Help customers and prospects connect with you simply on your various networks. Consider a Lijit Wijit or other aggregator widget.
47. Spread good ideas far. Reblog them. Bookmark them. Vote them up at social sites. Be a good citizen.


4) Supporting: Getting your customers to self-support each other

6. Build community platforms around real communities of shared interest.
7. Help companies participate in existing social networks, and build relationships on their turf.
15. Experiment with Flickr and/or YouTube groups to build media for specific events. (Marvel Comics raised my impression of this with their Hulk statue Flickr group).
18. Start a community group on Facebook or Ning or MySpace or LinkedIn around the space where your customer does business. Example: what Jeremiah Owyang did for Hitachi Data Systems.
29. Learn what other free tools might work for community building, like MyBlogLog.
35. Remember that the people on social networks are all people, have likely been there a while, might know each other, and know that you’re new. Tread gently into new territories. Don’t NOT go. Just go gently.
37. Voting mechanisms like those used on Digg.com show your customers you care about which information is useful to them.


5) Embracing: Building better products and services through collaboration with clients

31. Investigate whether your product sells better by recommendation versus education, and use either wikis and widgets to help recommend, or videos and podcasts for education.
50. Use the same tools you’re trying out externally for internal uses, if that makes sense, and learn about how this technology empowers your business collaboration, too.


Strategy, Training, and Planning
While not one of the 5 objectives, many of these aren’t directly social media tactics, but they are great rules of thumb.

16. Recommend that your staff start personal blogs on their personal interests, and learn first hand what it feels like, including managing comments, wanting promotion, etc.
17. Map out an integrated project that incorporates a blog, use of commercial social networks, and a face-to-face event to build leads and drive awareness of a product.
20. Attend a conference dealing with social media like New Media Expo, BlogWorld Expo, New Marketing Summit (disclosure: I run this one with CrossTech), and dozens and dozens more. (Email Chris for a calendar).
22. Interview current social media practitioners. Look for bridges between your methods and theirs.
27. Consider the value of hiring a community manager. Could this role improve customer service? Improve customer retention? Promote through word of mouth?
42. Explore several viewpoints about social media marketing.
43. Women are adding lots of value to social media. Get to know the ones making a difference. (And check out BlogHer as an event to explore).
45. Work with practitioners and media makers to see how they can use their skills to solve your problems. Don’t be afraid to set up pilot programs, instead of diving in head first.
46. People power social media. Learn to believe in the value of people. Sounds hippie, but it’s the key.
48. Don’t be afraid to fail. Be ready to apologize. Admit when you’ve made a mistake.
49. Re-examine who in the organization might benefit from your social media efforts. Help equip them to learn from your project.

One of Chris’s recommendations was to check out Website Grader, I found that to be very interesting, try that free service.

If this were an official Forrester report, I’d segment even further by prioritizing by usage (polling marketers), cost, effectiveness, and then deliver specific recommendations. At some point in the future, I will probably get that chance to that research.

I could double this list with additional tactics, but I think it’s enough to get started, hopefully Chris’s initial list and my mind meld should help you to improve your objective based social media strategies.

Maximize Your Twitter

Brought to you by seoforgoogle.com

Twitter is expected to be one of the only social networking sites to have long term viability. Twitter usage and name recognition has been growing in leaps and bounds. Many are using Twitter not just to stay connected, but to market as well. So how do you maximize your Twitter?


Get an active Twitter account.

Yes it sounds basic, and you may already have one, but don’t just breeze past this section. We have some interesting tips to help you maximize your usage.

For those of you just getting started, open your account at http://twiter.com/signup. Once you have the registration form complete, connect with as many people as you can. They make it easy by allowing you to search your email lists (see below for more information). Customize your profile to show your main website and your, or your company’s, bio information. Don’t forget to set your location, update preferences and how you want to be notified of friends who have joined the Twitter revolution.


Draw attention with a customized background.

Get creative here. Simply click on “Settings” and then “Design” to choose a premade background or upload your own image. If you have a flair for design and a little Photoshop experience you can create a background that speaks volumes about you and your company. Check out some great custom layouts like:

http://twitter.com/JetBlue

http://twitter.com/BBCClick

http://twitter.com/MarthaStewart


Gather friends and follow interesting people and organizations

Finding friends on Twitter is easy. Three options are available.

1. Search Twitter. Use the “Find People” function to search for anyone from your next door neighbor to celebrities to companies.

2. Search other networks. Connect to anyone in your email contact list. Twitter can search through your hotmail.com, Gmail, Yahoo mail or AOL mail contact lists and if your friends use Twitter they can be added to your list.

3. Manual invites. Have friends, co-workers or clients who are not on Twitter? Manually input their email addresses and invite them to be your friend.


Connect your blog to Twitter

One of the best tools to connect Twitter and your blog was created by Alex King. This plug-in will automatically create micro blogs from your WordPress blog posts. Just follow this link for all the information

http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress

to download this plug-in click here.

If you blog regularly, be sure to review the instructions and support information.


Monitor your Twitter Rank

Twitter offers the Twitter Grader (http://twitter.grader.com) to show you where you rank against other Twitter members. Once you enter your user name, you will see where you rank among a possible 100 points.

Twitter Grading is based on overall rank, number of followers, your following and updates. The more active you are the higher you will rank.


Link your Twitter account to social bookmarking sites.

If you are in the Twitter game, be in it to win it. Build up your social networking account by bookmarking your Twitter account to sites such as Digg.com, Propeller.com, Dropjack.com and others.


Take advantage of advanced search features on Twitter

To really maximize your connection with people in your target market, go to http://search.twitter.com/advanced to use the Advanced Search features Twitter offers. In Advanced Search you can search by keywords or phrases, location, names and more.

Resist the urge to connect with everyone you see. Be choosy and select only the best people who actually have good information to share and are likely to accept your friend request.

As you take these steps to maximize your Twitter impact, you will see your social status rise. As with any adventure, the more you keep at it the better the result

Retailers rely on social media advertising for Christmas

Brought to you by utalkmarketing.com

Retailers and food chains are leaving traditional marketing channels behind this Christmas as 47% look to increase their social media campaigns over the holiday period, according to Shop.org.

According to a report on Reuters, marketers believe that the medium of social media just wasn’t as far along and important last Christmas as it is this year.

A number of brands have said already that they will use sites like Twitter and Facebook to post their best holiday deals to reach loyal consumers.

But the question remains how many of those fans, friends and Twitter followers will translate that loyalty into sales.

Last year's weak holiday results provide e-tailers with a relatively low hurdle to meet, or exceed, past performance. Doing more than just beating last year' s performance will be hard, especially in a year of restrained shopping, when consumers are looking franticly for "free shipping and handling" offers, sales, and coupons to keep their holiday spending costs down.

Social media is luring an increasing number of consumers. Facebook has 300 million users, up from 250 million in July.

Companies are shifting dollars away from traditional marketing and putting them toward interactive marketing, according to Forrester Research, estimating that spending on social media marketing in the US alone is set to reach £370 million in value by the end of this year.

However, many advertisers have admitted they are still trying to figure out how the media can be used to support sales beyond generating a one-time boost, while also not becoming overly promotional.

Meanwhile, eBay Advertising is predicting a healthy Christmas for online retail with 85% of consumers intending to maintain or increase their online shopping, on the back of new findings.

The study also found that more than a third (37%) will shop more online compared to last year, despite the prevailing tough economy. It also reveals 86% of UK online shoppers are shopping the same or more online overall compared to six months ago, citing trust (78%) and selection (70%) and value (70%) as the key reasons.

Facebook 101: A Beginner's Guide

Since the fastest growing demopgrahic on Facebook are those 35 years and older, I thought that a brief tutorial of Facebook could be helpful. There are more than 300 million active Facebook users and out of those 300 million, approximately half of those users log in to Facebook every day! More than 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every day. This site has turned into quite the time killer for those either sitting in an office all day or just bored at home. Here are a few terms that you should know once you begin your journey on Facebook:

"I friended Bob on Facebook."
-Basically, if you find someone on Facebook that you would like to follow or learn more about, you would click on their name and then press the "Add as friend" button at the top middle of their homepage.

"I tagged Susie in a picture from our trip to Myrtle Beach"
-When you upload pictures to Facebook, you have the ability to name the people involved. If you are friends with "Steve Smith" and he was in one of your Halloween pictures that you uploaded to Facebook, you can click Steve in the picture and then select him from your friends list. Congratulations, you have made your first tag! This gives Steve and all of his Facebook friends the ability to view the picture.

"I added the FarmVille app and can not stop playing!"
-You will learn quickly which one of your friends is on Facebook way too much. Applications can be a plethora of things. Some are games, others are calendars; they are basically items to keep you on Facebook as long as possible.

"Yeah, I saw Jimmy's status in my newsfeed."
-Your status is the box at the top middle of your homepage and your profile page that reads "What's on your mind?". It's a place where your friends can place one or two sentences stating what they are doing. "Riding my bike through town" or "Headed to FSU for the big game!" are two examples of this. On Facebook's homepage, you will notice a slew of items. There may be pictures, status updates, application stories, etc. This is your Newsfeed. This is where you can view your friend's newly added activities.

"You should check out Red Bull's Fan Page!"
-Fan pages are a forum where people come together because they have a common interest. If you have a business, start a fan page for it. They are free and a very good way to spread the word about your company.

Hopefully this article will help you understand the ins and outs of Facebook a little bit better.

If you have any other questions or concerns regarding Facebook, contact me at luke@dslmarketing.com.

Google Launches Google Social Search Amid Social-Media Battle

Brought to you by Jessica Hodgson

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--In a move underscoring the escalating battle among Internet companies over what is known as social media, Google Inc. (GOOG) on Monday launched a tool that allows users to find postings from their friends as part of a Web search.

Google Social Search, which is available starting Monday, includes relevant postings by colleagues, friends and selected media sources on feeds from Twitter Inc. and on blogs, as well as in broader Internet searches on its search engine. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company posted details of the new product on a blog.

A search for a restaurant could generate not only official sites and mainstream media reviews, but also comments from friends or colleagues on a range of different blogs or social sites, if they had set up a profile that allowed their data to be searched.

Social Search is being launched days after both Google and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Google's main rival in Internet search, announced separate deals with start-up micro-blogging site Twitter Inc. Microsoft also announced a similar deal with Facebook Inc. to get access to its user information. Microsoft owns approximately 1.6% of Facebook, following a 2007 investment.

San Francisco-based start-up Twitter, which lets users blast short messages from computers and mobile phones which are then displayed on their pages, has seen explosive growth until recently. Marketers are increasingly looking for ways to tap social media such as Twitter and Facebook for ways to better track trend-making topics and reach younger users.

It wasn't immediately clear how Social Search relates to the deal Google announced with Twitter. Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.


-By Jessica Hodgson, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6455; jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com

The Marketing Opportunity of Mobile Social Networking

Brought to you by Noah Elkin

Combining two of the hottest channels in marketing today, mobile and social, would seem a marketer's dream: rising mobile usage, consumers flocking to social networks, and social networking emerging as one of the fastest-growing activities among mobile users everywhere. But in reality, putting mobile and social together is not a classic one-plus-one-equals-three scenario. In fact, because mobile and social are still emerging channels, when you put the two of them together, you get an even less mature proposition.

Part of the problem is ownership: Who owns mobile marketing, who owns social programs, and who takes responsibility when those lines get not only crossed but also inextricably intertwined? And what steps do marketers take to gain a voice in the conversations taking place across mobile social networks? I go into these and other issues in detail in my upcoming eMarketer report on mobile social networking and location-based services, and it's really in the union of the two where the potential lies for marketers.

Stay informed. To learn more about the latest trends in hyper local marketing, attend the iMedia Agency Summit, Dec. 6-9. Learn more about the iMedia Agency Summit.


Location-based social networks are not new. Services like Loopt and Brightkite helped establish the mold of "checking in" to find nearby friends, trendy places, and interesting activities. But scale has remained an issue. Unless you have a critical mass of users, the proposition for advertisers and marketers is not that compelling.
More recently, Foursquare emerged out of the ashes of the now-defunct Dodgeball (which Google eventually converted into Latitude after acquiring Dodgeball in 2005). Foursquare has effectively broken the location-based network mold by adding a gaming element that enables users to compete for badges and points based on the number of times they visit a particular location.

Social competition has given location-aware networks new currency and a big boost in potential. Loopt recently acknowledged the competition by acquiring GraffitiGEO, which offers similar game-playing functionality as Foursquare. Is this an emerging trend we'll start seeing more of? Quite possibly, given that social networking and gaming are both big with mobile users, who may jump at the chance to outdo their friends, and especially when these networks wisely offer easy ways to tap into users' existing social graphs.

What's compelling for marketers is that location-based networks like Loopt and Foursquare encourage users to leave tips or reviews for fellow travelers, creating the potential for a powerful word-of-mouth effect or direct marketing opportunities related to favorite locations. As Circ.us co-founder and fellow iMedia contributor Adam Broitman told me in a recent interview, location-based social networks "are potentially an inroad to the kinds of hyper local targeting that we talk about but which we really haven't yet reached." The benefit of hyper local, he said, is that it allows for "more of a direct response play, which many marketers find more valuable," and may serve as a useful counterweight to the current emphasis on awareness-building on mobile.

The looming question is where the majority of consumers will go to get recommendations and offers. In other words, will social networks effectively serve as the search engines for these types of location-based content or will it be the search engines themselves? Recommendations from friends and family, particularly for something as personal (and specific) as, say, a restaurant, arguably hold greater sway than anonymous reviews, but in some cases, anonymous reviews may have an advantage in terms of scale, especially on a site like Yelp.

The big X factor in this equation is Google, 360i's David Berkowitz explained in a recent conversation. "There's a lot Google can do," he said, citing the ability to tie user-generated content and location to search applications and mobile versions of the site, "but they need to make a real point out of it."

Mobile social networking is a fast-emerging space, and yet another example of consumers moving much faster than marketers, meaning there are a lot more mobile users on social networks than there are marketers. With social networks and their business models still maturing, that's not entirely surprising. But the takeaway is that there's tremendous power in place. The trick is finding a way to tap into it and connect it with people and things.

Noah Elkin is a senior analyst at eMarketer, where he covers trends in mobile marketing, content, and commerce.