Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Business On Google
Increase Your Google Adsense Revenue?
Business On Google by acano
Recently there has been a lot of discussion about people who earn over ,000 a month just from Adsense. Furthermore, there are rumors of a few individuals who earn over million a year just from using the power of Google advertisements.
So what is Google Adsense and how can you use this program to earn a six-figure income?
About two years ago, Google created this program to help websites to monetize their web-traffic.
Here’s how it works:
Webmasters obtain a special code from Google which then displays targeted ads on their website. Whenever a visitor clicks on one of these ads, the webmaster earns a commission. Unlike other online businesses, there is no selling involved. All you need to do is get people to click on the ads.
Although this is an excellent way to generate an income, many websites are not effectively maximizing their Adsense potential. As a result, they are leaving a lot of cash on the table.
The question is how can you increase your Adsense revenue without increasing the number of web visitors? The key to earning an income with Google Adsense is to have your ads match the rest of the site, making them look like part of your content. Your focus is to avoid having the Adsense blocks look like blatant advertisements.
The following are six ways that you can do this and increase your revenue at the same time:
1) Find the right place- Most website visitors read content that is in the middle of a webpage. As a result, the best place to put your Adsense block is in the top part of the page, at the beginning of your web content. You want to weave the Google Ads into your web content to give the appearance that they are extra links which expand on the information of the page.
2) Use the Large Rectangle–With Google Adsense, you have the option of picking different ad formats. Most of the time people opt to use the Leader board (728×90) or Wide Skyscraper (160×600) style ads. Unfortunately, this is the wrong choice, because both look like blatant advertisements. Instead smart webmasters have found that using the Large Rectangle (336×280) yields the best amount of click-thrust.
3) Ditch the border– Many people experience a sharp increase in Adsense revenue when they changing their border. What they change is very simple…they get rid of the border on their Adsense blocks. This is another way to make the advertisements look like useful web content.
4) Adapt the font- Whenever you write content, for more details visit to www.instant-adsense-dollars.com it should be the same font size and style as your Google Adsense block. This will help make it appear that the advertisements are a natural part of your website.
5) Match the colors– In addition to changing the fonts, you also should match the colors of your website. For instance, if your content is written in black, and your hyperlinks are blue, then the Adsense blocks should also be the same color. Again, this helps the advertisements appear to be normal web content.
6) Don’t have too many distractions- On a webpage, it is important to give web visitor a limited number of options. By having too many links and graphics, for more details visit to www.google-atm-machine.com the web visitor might go to a section that doesn’t help increase your profits. While it is important to inform and entertain your web visitor, it is also vital that you monetize your site. So if the main focus of your site is to earn an income through Google Adsense, then get rid of all non-essential links and graphics.
By taking the time to implement these six simple steps, you’ll see a dramatic increase in the click-thru ratio of your ads. If added to all of the content of your site, your Adsense income will skyrocket!
The Quality of Your Product Doesn’t Matter (That Much)
Now I don’t like this fact.
By Darren Hardy
I would philosophically argue against this fact. But it is a fact… and the evidence is all around us.
Who makes the best-tasting hamburger in the world? Doubtful you’d anoint McDonald’s with that title, but they outsell everyone else by many billions of dollars.
What is the best wine in the world? Certainly Franzia (which comes in a box!) wouldn’t be your first or 100th guess, but it is the best selling.
What is the highest-quality bottled water? If you tested it, it certainly wouldn’t be Aquafina (owned by www.PepsiCo.com), Dasani (owned by www.CocaCola.com) or Poland Spring (owned by www.NestleWaters.com), but those are the number 1, 2 and 3 best selling.
Nine times out of 10 it is not the best or highest-quality clothing line, automobile, restaurant, CPA firm, real estate agent, lawyer, furniture manufacturer, refrigerator, etc. that sells the most or becomes the biggest—it is the ones who market themselves the best.
This is the business axiom that I witness all around me every day:
The ultimate success of a product or service is 10% the quality of the product and 90% the quality of the marketing.
Now while I don’t necessarily LIKE that fact, as I believe the success of a product or service should be what’s most important and it should stand ENTIRELY on the value it delivers, that is just not how it works in reality.
Even if you are simply an individual in a sales organization this is true. It is not necessarily the best, the highest quality, highest class, most refined people that make it to the top… it is the ones who market themselves, network themselves, position themselves with credibility amongst their peers and demonstrate their growing and developing selves to the circle around them that end up at the top of the sales organization.
Now, let me also add this: If your product or service is bad… or even if you are bad, unethical or without integrity, no amount of marketing will make you or your product or service successful—especially in this day and age of Yelp, Twitter, Facebook and Google. You and your product or service reputation will die a certain and expedient viral death.
Here is a not so funny (literally) great example of this: When the greatly anticipated and greatly marketed movie, coming off the hit Borat by Sacha Baron Cohen, called Bruno was released; it had one of the biggest first day attendance statistics ever. But then people walked out of the theatre and Facebooked, Twittered, blogged to their friends how bad the movie was… the movie died that very day.
So the lesson is, yes you must create a high-value, quality product or service, but even more important to the ultimate success of it will be determined by how well it is marketed. Don’t forget to see the last 90% of the way through to success.
Even though I lack personal experience, I equate it to giving birth to a child. It takes nine months to gestate a child, which is like product development. But when the child is actually born you don’t just set it on the shelf and hope for the best. No, 90% of developing a successful child happens after birth. This is also the ratio of marketing to product development to create a successful product or service (loose analogy I admit, but gives you the picture nonetheless!).
For our August issue of our SUCCESS Audio Series (private SUCCESS partner product—not available for public sale) I interviewed two of today’s marketing wizards—Jay Abraham and Frank Kern. Let me pass on a couple of key tips they shared with me for your (free!) benefit:
1. The heart is closer to the wallet than the head is.
Right now write out a one- or two-sentence description of what you sell (pause your reading now). Is your description a solution… is it an emotional outcome? Or is what you wrote more of a description of your product or a functional benefit?
Peter Drucker said, “People buy with their hearts, not their minds”.
So, is your description trying to appeal to a prospect’s head or heart? Gotta redirect your efforts to the heart.
Homework: Write out the three most important solutions or emotional outcomes your product or service produces and start clarifying and focusing your messaging around that language.
2. Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Now turn your emotional description into an irresistible headline. This alone could improve your results—not by 10%, 25% or 50%, but by 3, 5 or 10 times. Not just the headline as in a print ad, banner ad, Google Adword or even email. This headline is the attention-getter in every form of communication—prospecting call, sales presentation or stage presentation you do. The response to your headline needs to be: That’s me or… that’s what I need or… I’ve gotta to know what that is… NOT… So what?
Homework: Fashion three sensational headlines that fit your product, service, company, opportunity or presentation.
3. Results in Advance.
How can you help prospects in advance of them actually purchasing or paying for your product or service or getting into your business? What can you give them or help them with? Maybe it is as simple as education, research, a valuable report, connection to resources or other people, a tip from someone else in their industry, etc.
Homework: Think of three ways you can help your prospective clients get results in advance of them even purchasing your product—in a way that will make them want to come to you begging to buy because you have been so valuable in helping them get results—in advance.
Okay, your turn. Contribute one or two great marketing ideas that you have proven to work in the comments below. Can’t wait to read!
Small Businesses Still Reluctant To Use Social Media
Brandon Zeman wrote
When I come across articles like the one posted on TheStreet.com last week, I can’t help but get excited. Titled “Business Owners Question Social Networking” the article quotes some research that finds that a majority of small business owners haven’t seen value from social media, and that most don’t even use it themselves. A key section of the article reads:
Among the 500 small-business executives surveyed, 76% said social networking hasn’t help them generate leads or expand their companies in the past year. And 86% said they don’t turn to these Web sites for business advice or other information.
The majority, 61%, depend on big search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, for business advice and information. Only 13% use social networking sites and only 10% rely on expert blogs.
So why on earth would I be excited that small businesses don’t use social media and haven’t seen value from it yet? Opportunity. Plain and simple. For me, there is huge opportunity to teach and inform small business owners that, yes, social media can benefit just about ANY business, no matter the size. And yes, you can use social media for business to increase sales, improve customer service, and all that jazz.
Obviously, as the article states, not every industry has customers who are active on Twitter, or even Facebook. But chances are, somewhere deep in the caverns of the internet, there just might be a small community of those users, and it’s up to you to find them (of course, we can help you with this). Not to mention people are probably talking about your company or industry, whether they are customers or not. What they have to say can be valuable as well, even if they don’t directly contribute to your bottom line.
After reading that so many companies have yet to ‘see the light’ so to speak, I’m glad that we offer courses especially for teaching these small business owners about internet marketing and social media. We might not be able to convince every small business to get involved, but we love being able to help those that do!
A 31-Year Look at Mark Parker’s Nike Career
Over the Years……
By: Fast Company StaffSeptember 1, 2010
Photographs Courtesy of Nike 1979
Mark Parker joins Nike as a footwear designer and product tester.
1980 Revenue $270 Million
1980
Nike goes public. B shares set at $22, close at $23.
1981
Parker moves from the R&D facility in New Hampshire to Oregon HQ as director of design concepts and engineering.
Parker designs the Odyssey, a running shoe focused on stability.
1982
Parker’s Pegasus hits the market. The line, including 2009′s Air Pegasus 26+, is still Nike’s most popular running shoe.
1986
Parker and Tinker Hatfield work on the first cross-training shoe. John McEnroe tries a prototype and wears the cross-trainer for the rest of his career.
1987
The Visible Air technology, patented in Parker’s name, debuts. More than 600,000 pairs of the Air Max alone are sold.
1988
Parker becomes VP of R&D. The first Visible Air shoe in the Michael Jordan line is released.
1990 Revenue $2.2 Billion
Mid-1990s
Parker begins commissioning artists, such as Futura 2000, Mr Cartoon, and Os Gêmeos, to create limited-edition sneakers.
1996
Parker, now VP of consumer product marketing, helps sign Tiger Woods to a 20-year, $40 mil-lion endorsement deal.
1998
As general manager of global footwear, Parker drives Nike’s purchase of Cole Haan, the first in a series of acquisitions that includes Hurley and Converse.
1999
Parker green-lights the Presto, an ultralight running shoe at less than 20 ounces.
2000 Revenue $9 Billion
2001
Parker and Charlie Denson become copresidents of the Nike brand.
Parker helps recruit marathoner Paula Radcliffe.
2002
HTM, an exclusive line of shoes designed by Parker, Tinker Hatfield, and Hiroshi Fujiwara, launches.
2003
Parker okays work on Nike Free, which simulates barefoot running.
Parker’s third year as copresident is marked by multimillion-dollar endorsement deals with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Serena Williams.
2004
Parker oversees creation of the yellow Livestrong band for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
2006
Parker becomes CEO. He launches Nike+iPod and designs the first Nike+ shoe.
2010 Revenue $19 Billion
2010
Nike stock closes at a record high in April.
Read More About Mark Parker’s Success at Nike: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/148/artist-athlete-ceo.html?page=0%2C0&nav=inform-rl
A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places
Tips for Using Facebook’s New Location-Based Feature
Facebook has just announced Places, the long-awaited feature that brings location-based functionality to the most popular social network in the world.
(http://www.facebook.com/places)
Whether you’re a developer with a great app idea, a business with an interesting location marketing plan or just a regular Facebook user who wants to get involved with Places, there are a few details to note before you start using Places. The feature is fascinating, but it still has its limitations. And our guide isn’t without caveats, especially for users.
If you’re ready to start playing, here’s what you’ll need to know about Places.
How to Use Places
First of all, you or a Facebook friend in your group will need a smartphone. If you don’t have an iPhone, you’ll have to use the Facebook touch mobile site on a browser that supports both HTML 5 and geolocation.
The company does plan to roll out Android and BlackBerry versions of Places, but they haven’t released any specific dates for those releases yet.
To use Places, go to the Places tab on the iPhone application or touch.facebook.com. You’ll first be asked if Facebook is allowed to know your location. Once you click “allow,” you’ll enter the Places interface. From there, you can share your location with friends, find out where your friends are (if they’re using Places), and discover new places near you.
You can add places, check in to places that already exist, and tag people who are with you. If you’re checking in for a group, make sure you tag your friends before you checkin, yourself. For example, I added my house and checked in there. I then opened the Places page for a nearby sushi restaurant, tagged my boyfriend, and checked us both in there.
We’ve noted that it is possible to checkin from other non-smartphone devices in a regular, non-mobile browser, but you will have to use Facebook’s touch site.
You’ll also need to live in the U.S. Facebook’s goal is to launch all over the United States within a few days. International launch dates haven’t been released yet.
Other Services That Will Use Places
Tomorrow, Facebook is opening up certain data that will allow any and all developers to access parts of Places. That means that a lot of applications will start pulling information from Places, scraping it for data about people, locations, groups and more.
For right now, though, only a few apps have been selected to push information back into Places. Initially, Gowalla, Foursquare, Booyah (creators of MyTown and Nightclub City) and Yelp will integrate with Facebook Places.
If you use a Yelp mobile app for checkins, you’ll be able to push those checkins to Facebook Places, as well. Gowalla and Foursquare checkins can also be pushed to Facebook Places.
Booyah plans to launch a location-based social game called InCrowd; it will be built on Facebook Places. The company says it will be “a playful social app based on interacting with people and sharing real-time posts at real-world locations” and will allow players to “socialize, meet new friends and track popularity” in the app. It will be available in the iTunes App Store soon.
What About Privacy?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this feature isn’t about sharing your location with the world; it’s about finding places and sharing them with your friends.
That being said, your checkins will appear by default on your profile, in the news feed and in the activity stream for that place. We’ve also noted that your friends can, by default, check you in without your explicit approval or permission.
If you want to change who can see your checkins, go to your account’s privacy settings. You’ll see that “Places I check in” is by default shared with “Friends Only.” You can change who views your checkins from this area.
If you want to change whether or not others can check you in without your knowledge or permission, you’ll have to click “Customize settings” on your privacy page, then scroll down to the “Things others share” section. You will note that by default, you enable others to check you in. You can disable this setting; there’s no option to allow checkins-by-proxy on individual approval.
Also, another default setting on the “Customize settings” page is “Include me in ‘People Here Now’ after I check in.” When you check in, your location is visible to your friends and also to anyone else nearby. If you’d rather be more private, you’ll have to opt out of this setting.
We’ve written a bit about preliminary concerns voiced by the ACLU over Facebook Places and privacy. With much of the Places-related information being shared by default, it’s clear that most users will want to revisit their privacy settings before jumping wholeheartedly into this new feature.
Places for Businesses and Developers
If you’re a business, you can use Places to give Facebook your business’ location. Once your location has been added to Places, either by you or by another local Facebook user, just go to the Place page from Facebook.com and click the link that says “Is this Place Page your business?”
If you claim the location as your business, it will become a Facebook Page. You can then post updates to people who like the Page, update your business information and more.
Places can only be claimed by official representatives. Verifying a Place claim requires uploading some kind of official document, such as a local business license or Better Business Bureau accreditation.
If you’re a developer and are interested in using one of the Places APIs to use this feature’s technology in your application, you’re in luck. Facebook is launching a Read API tomorrow. This API will scrape checkins from identified users and their friends and will gather public data about Places, as well.
Facebook has also developed a Write and Search API that allows third-party apps to publish checkins and run queries on Places data. That’s currently in private beta; partners include Gowalla and Yelp, among others. We don’t yet have a date for when that API will be opened generally, but we’ll keep you posted.
When Places Go Wrong
In addition to changing your personal privacy settings, you can also report Places that aren’t correct or that infringe on your own rights somehow. Facebook allows users to report Places for incorrect data, abusive behavior, the permanent closure of a business or duplication of other content.
Reported Places are flagged; removal may not occur immediately.
You can immediately remove checkins from your own profile, and you can also untag yourself if someone else has checked you in without your approval. Just click the “remove” button next to the story on your profile or news.
When There’s 118 Seconds Between You and Success
Learn the secret of the 118-second pitch in today’s tip from my buddy, expert marketer and celebrity CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett (www.hayzlett.com). It’s from his new book, The Mirror Test: Is your Business Really Breathing?, all about how to best position your company to grow. It’s already on at least three bestseller lists and I highly recommend you check it out after you hit the blog and share your 118. – www.KeithFerrazzi.com
I had him. I knew it. I had been ready with my pitch and when I got him on the phone, I sold him big time. But as soon as I heard he was hooked, I stopped. I didn’t try to close the sale then and there. Instead, I tried to better position myself to take advantage of his interest and asked him for a bit of time a few days later.
“Well…”
“Let me ask you, are you an early morning person or an afternoon person?”
“Morning.”
“Great, so are you a coffee or tea man or do you like juice or water?”
“Coffee.”
“Milk or cream? Light or dark?”
“Milk, light.”
“Bagels, donuts, muffins, or cottage cheese?”
“Bagels.”
“Great. So I’ll see you Tuesday morning at 7:15. I’ll bring bagels and coffee and give you a fifteen-minute presentation of my product as you eat your breakfast.”
Once again, my “118” had succeeded. Now, I could close the sale the way I like: in person.
The 118 is my version of what some people still call “the elevator pitch”-an out-of-date name for the worthy idea that you need to sell what your company offers (and you) in the span of an elevator ride. Problem is that time used to mean up to three to five minutes. Now, it’s mere seconds. Technology has not only made things (including elevators) move faster but also has increased the need for speed and immediate relevance in pitching. You have seconds before I tune you out and maybe two minutes after that to completely sell me with your initial pitch.
The 118 comes from the 118 seconds you actually have to pitch: 8 seconds to hook me and up to 110 seconds to drive it home — less than two minutes with only seconds to spare. The first eight seconds is the length of time the average human can concentrate on something and not lose some focus. It is also the length of time of one of the toughest rides in the world: a qualified ride in professional bull riding. In these first 8 seconds, you must be compelling, strong, and focused to be successful. You must hold on as one of the meanest, toughest animals in the world tries to throw you off – just like any good prospect will. Make it those 8 seconds, and I’ll give you 110 more to drive your message home with no bull. But if you have not sold me at the end of the 118, I will start to tune out. At that point, we are moving forward to a sale or not.
I speak at hundreds of meetings, conferences, and events worldwide every year, and I am constantly amazed by the inability of entrepreneurs, business owners, their managers, or their sales and marketing representatives to deliver a great, relevant 118.
The 118, like the elevator pitch before it, sells much more than a business’s products or services and unique selling proposition (USP). It is an essential piece in building your brand. It conveys who you are, the assurance your business offers, and the promises you will deliver on. Think you have a brand? Brand is the biggest business buzzword, but what does it mean? To me a brand is just a promise made and kept to a customer. Your 118 helps define what promises your brand will build or make. It connects every promise you make to those around you. Too many businesses don’t focus on these promises and eventually they not only fail to build a brand, they just fail.
The 118 connects directly to the foundation of every business’s growth. I’m not saying a bad one means certain failure, but I have rarely seen a good one deployed in the right way fail to help a business grow. How could it not? It conveys to anyone what he or she will get from your business.
This is usually where people start to nod their heads as if to say, “I know.” But I am not looking for an “Amen.” I’m looking for action. This is proof of life, people, and no time to nod in agreement or say, “I know I should do that” or “I’ll get back to that after I keep reading.” Even when business owners can answer the “Why?” questions (and thus know why they are doing what they are doing), the typical stammering and yammering when I ask for their pitches indicates to me a huge inability to convey what they are doing to their team and customers.
So, put the book down and write down your 118. Even if you have a good one, do it. I’ll wait…. Need help? I asked a few top performers about the best and worst pitches they received. Here is what a few had to say:
“I was riding up the Gherkin elevator with Will Harris, the marketing director at Nokia. I asked, ‘What if you could get dozens of user-generated videos for less than $1,000 each with www.mofilm.com?” He signed up before we reached the top floor and then Nokia went on to win the Cannes UGC competition with one of those videos.” – Jeffrey Merrihue, CEO, Accenture Marketing Sciences (London)
“This [insert idea here] gives us competitive advantage (the only factor that leads to profitable growth), and trades on the four things we covet: our core essence (what we know how to do and what our consumers consider our credentials/leverage), speed (because speed kills), surprise (because surprise disorients even smart competitors), and concentration (the only way smaller guys break through enemy lines with ‘fewer resources’).” – Russ Klein, President, Global Marketing, Strategy, and Innovation, Burger King Corporation
“The worst elevator pitch is one I hear frequently. It goes like this: Prospect: ‘What is it that you do?’ Salesperson: ‘I represent XYZ Company.’ Stop! What does that do to help build the relationship we all need in sales? Describe not whom you represent but what you do to help people solve the problems they have. Why not answer with, ‘I help people solve the problems of living too long, becoming disabled, or dying too soon.’” – Robert D. Lowrey, Managing Partner, Northwestern Mutual
“The Best: We make print clickable. The Worst: We do anything and everything a company needs us to do as cheaply as possible.” – Andy and Julie Plata, Co-CEOs, OutputLinks, Inc., Graphic Communications World
Adapted from The Mirror Test by Jeffrey Hayzlett www.hayzlett.com
Tags: Success, keith ferazzi,top performers, business growth, marketing, entrpreneurs, business owners, jeffrey hazlett, competitive advantage,
www.KeithFerrazzi.com
Goals for Business Social Media Use
I probably don’t have to tell you that many businesses are still struggling with the concept of using social media. Many simply can’t find a good reason to use it at all, and many more find themselves using it but struggling to validate that use. They can’t find the ROI. They feel that too much time is being wasted. Basically, they’re just using social networks because they feel like they’re supposed to. They just want to keep up.
Many businesses are even banning social media from the workplace entirely. In fact, a great deal of our readers have expressed that they feel that social media doesn’t belong in the workplace because employees are there to “work,” not “goof off.”
Well, that may be the case, and perhaps social media doesn’t fit into your business at all, but considering your general business goals can help you decide whether or not there is a place for social media, and whether or not your employees can fit into that puzzle.
As social media enthusiast Chris Brogan told WebProNews in a recent interview, it’s time to get over the touristy part of social media and start getting down to business.
He says it’s not “Gee whiz, it’s cool” anymore. It’s “What are we gonna do with it?”
“Great you can type. Now what?” he says.
Tracking Facebook Activity Just Got Easier
For small businesses that have already jumped into social media marketing, keeping track of your www.facebook.com activity just got a little easier. (And if you haven’t gotten involved with social marketing yet, what are you waiting for?) Facebook has a tracking feature called Facebook Insights that allows page administrators to measure activity on
their Facebook pages, tracked over a 7-day period. This detailed information is critical to understanding how well your Facebook page is performing for your business.
To see your Facebook activity, all you have to do is log in to your www.facebook.com account, and then click on the Facebook Insights link displayed in the left column of the page (remember, this will be visible only to administrators of the page). Data is typically updated 12 hours after each full day, so you can see fresh stats on how your fans are interacting with your content, and easily watch for trends and overall performance.
You can look at your data in two main ways; 1) by fans that have “interacted” with your page called the Fan Interaction Dashboard, or 2) by all fans of your page, called the Fan Dashboard. An “interaction” occurs when a fan writes on your wall, leaves a comment on a post, or clicks on the “likes this” link on your page. So visitors and fans that simply read your latest information but don’t click on anything or leave a comment will not be counted in this data, but will be counted in the Fan Dashboard instead.
The Fan Interaction Dashboard
Some of the stats available in the Fan Interaction Dashboard include:
Total interactions – the number of wall posts, comments, and “likes”
Interactions per post – the average number of comments, wall posts, and “likes” for each piece of content that you post
Post quality – the score that measures how engaging your content is to visitors – the more engaging your content is, the higher your post quality score will be
Total posts – the number of posts made to your wall or in video
To help boost your interaction stats, you need to encourage visitors to interact with your content in some way. Like any other form of online marketing, you must contribute high-quality content to your Facebook page if you want your fans to actually interact with that content. For instance:
Make sure you post your latest news and events to your www.facebook.com page, so your fans can see your interesting stories or upcoming events and share them with their own networks
Add web video whenever you can, since videos are popular with users and will help engage them
Post photos on your wall that visitors will find interesting – commenting on photos is one of the most common types of interaction on Facebook
Be sure to post regularly – but not too often – to give visitors additional opportunities to interact with your content
When fans interact with your content, it helps distribute your content virally on Facebook, which in turn helps build organic links for you and increases the amount of your high-quality content that gets published and shared in other peoples’ profiles and/or pages.
The Fan Dashboard
The other way to look at your Facebook data is by looking at all fans in the Fan Dashboard, which includes:
Total fans / unsubscribes – The total number of your fans, and the number of fans who have chosen to hide your posts (unsubscribe)
New / removed fans – number of new fans, and number of people who have stopped being a fan of your page
Total page views – the number of times your page has been viewed per day
Media consumption – how many photo views, audio plays, and video plays your content has received
You may have already noticed that within the last few weeks, Facebook has started automatically sending a weekly email to page administrators with a brief summary of their Facebook activity, along with a link to their Facebook Insights stats. This can be a helpful reminder to review your weekly Facebook information, and also to remind you to post your most recent relevant, high-quality content to draw in and engage your visitors.
400 Million Users Can’t Be Wrong
Of course, www.facebook.com is only one of the many social networking platforms that can help you market your small business, but it is certainly the most-used social site today (it has even surpassed www.Google as the most-visited site on the web!). There are more than 400,000,000 active Facebook users, and that number continues to grow every month. Like it or not, your customers are already using Facebook, and you need to meet them where they are spending their time.
But with Facebook Insights, it is now a little easier to measure how your Facebook page is performing for your business. By watching the data over time, you can identify the things that really capture interest or result in better visitor interactions, then focus your efforts on doing more of those things. The more you can build your fan base, spread your content to others, and provide high-quality information, the better the results from your social marketing efforts.
Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional website, marketing, and social networking services to small businesses and non-profits at affordable prices, giving clients access to customized services that meet both their needs and their budgets. More at: www.fivesparrows.com
Business Intelligence and the Soccer World Cup
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Business Intelligence and the Soccer World Cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa finished today (Spain won the World Cup, congratulations Spain!) During the world cup, I saw some interesting initiatives regarding BI and the world cup.
SAP created a BI solution called SAP BusinessObjects 2010 Football Experience. According SAP’s website: “Can’t travel to South Africa this year? Let SAP bring the excitement of world soccer to you! Whether you’re a novice or an obsessed fan, “YOUR World Soccer Experience” lets you become part of the action and participate in a whole new way. See how a live working business intelligence system from SAP can help enhance your experience of the game.” Timo Elliott published a good post in his blog detailing the SAP solution.
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idashboards created an interactive dashboard software to track the 2010 World Cup tournament. According idashboards’ website: “These dashboards monitor the matches played by each team, match scores and points earned by each team in easy-to-view charts and graphs which are updated after each game. Teams compete to make it past the Group Stage and be among the top 16 teams. From the Round of 16, users can view at-a-glance information on team standings and follow who wins the title. There is also an interactive customized map of South Africa where users can roll-over a stadium to see the matches being played there.”
Bruno Aziza created a YouTube channel called Soccer Analytics, where he is publishing several videos about analytics and soccer.