Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

How Important Is Internet Intelligence For Your Business?

// August 27th, 2009 // Comments // Social Media Marketing

So What?Did you know that….

Only one in five companies (22%) have an internal strategy that ties data collection and analysis to business objectives.

– Econsultancy//Online Measurement & Strategy Report

There are 251,290,489 internet users in the USA, who account for 15% of the total internet users in the world.

– Nielsen//NetRatings via Internet World Stats, April 2009

221m internet users in the U.S spent an average of 19 hours and 42 minutes online during March 2008. [Source: Nielsen Online, April 2008]

– An average of 52 seconds was spent on each web page visited.

– The number of web pages viewed per person was 2,437.

Socially driven sites are growing at alarming rates :

Worldwide unique visitors (June, 2009).  Source: comScore

  1. Google Sites: 844 million
  2. Microsoft Sites: 691 million
  3. Yahoo! Sites: 581 million
  4. Facebook: 340 million
  5. Wikimedia Foundation sites: 303 million
  6. AOL: 280 million
  7. eBay: 233 million
  8. CBS Interactive: 186 million
  9. Amazon: 183 million
  10. Ask Network: 174 million

“Time spent on social network sites is also expanding: Across the globe in 2008 activity in ‘Member Communities’ accounted for one in every 15 online minutes - now it accounts for one in every 11. In Brazil the average is one of every four minutes and in UK it’s one in every six minutes.” — source Nielsen Wire.

People are interacting and influencing each other as they always have.  The difference with people talking about a restaurant they just went to or a movie they saw last night in everyday conversation offline is that they influence a small subset of people.  When this same conversation happens in an open forum online, the same conversation has a vast reach and the capability to influence many, many people.  Moreover, if the person is highly influential and states something profound about your product or service it could have amazing or damaging consequences.

In the emerging world of internet intelligence or sentiment analysis, businesses like never before will have the opportunity to garner significant amounts of data about customers and competitors.  This is great for people in general because it will force the hands of companies to Raise The Bar and perform, pardon the pun AT&T.

As a business owner, think of using internet intelligence as you would a radar detector scaning the data on a massive beach and then digging for treasure.  But, more importantly, you’ll have a much better idea of what you are digging for with the data in front of you.

Let’s say you are an author with a great book and you have a niche but large audience.  Using the power of internet intelligence you have the capability to reach out and target the audience you are trying to reach quite efficiently.

So, the question is:  what do you think about the opportunities for your business now using internet intelligence?

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Can Social Media Really Make A Difference For Businesses?

// June 22nd, 2009 // Comments // Social Media Marketing, Thought Leadership

Right now many companies large and small are exploring the idea of social media.  Many are unsure about how to social-mediadevelop a strategy.  They don’t know where to start or who to trust.  Moreover, what empirical evidence can a business turn to help it determine the value of building a social media strategy?  Well, these are questions and concerns that I plan to address here.

Last week I raised the question, “How do you systemize social media”?  In terms of process and daily practice, I was hoping to spark a  conversation to understand and uncover other practitioners methods and systems of use.  Little did I know it would create a deeper conversation on a more strategic level.

If you click on the link above you’ll see embeded in the post a conversation stream that took place.  What I learned from a few social media colleagues is that in order for social media to make a difference in businesses, social media at a high level must first be understood.  With out understanding the value proposition of social media at a leadership level, a business or businesses will be hard pressed to allow a socialized media culture to be adopted inside the organization.

Say what?  Social media can only make a difference in a business if the company from top to bottom understands and believes in the value of such a dynamic culture shift.  THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL!

“SOCIAL MEDIA REQUIRES A CULTURE & MIND SET SHIFT”

That is a very BOLD statement but, for social media to really make a difference for an organization it is an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT.  Why is this the case?

It is required because most business were not built on the fact that everyone, no matter what you’re title or position, has the power and opportunitiy to make significant things happen because of the power of the internet.  Everyone in the organization, has the power to produce content and build a following.  People’s voices are the new currency that drives the influence to exchange.

If you’re a company of 10, then you most likely have 10 able promoters and content creators on your team.  Now consider this, “It is estimated that the average person knows about 250 people. And each of those people knows, in turn, another 250 or so people. This means that for each new person you meet, you gain access to a potential pool of 62,500 people separated from you by just two degrees!” – Buzzy Gordon.

Don’t you think the ability to potentially influence approximately 625,000 people is pretty powerful for a small business?  I do.

Now, of course, influencing that many people to actually make a purchase is far fethched but influencing just a small percentage of that group of warm connections by practicing social media makes for a pretty compelling business case.  Would’nt you agree?

To accomplish this though requires leadership to adopt a culture of transparency and expression for the good of its customers and employees.  Giving up control and truly leading is what is required here.  And, leading with an educated understanding is a big step to social media making an impact on a business.  In a future post I’ll show you an example of how social media activities are just starting benefit me.

CONSIDER THIS VIDEO AS A 1ST STEP TO UNDERSTANDING

(Note:  A collaborative team I am working with are in the early stages of developing a resource to help companies understand and use social media.  This video is part of recommended material to be reviewed).

Now that you have a better understanding of how social media might benefit your business, in a future post I’ll show you an example of how social media activities are just starting to benefit me.  Do you have any questions that I might be able to help answer?

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