Marketing Pilgrim

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Bob Ferguson of Oxfam America regarding their use of social media to help enact change in the world. Oxfam America’s vision and mission are pretty straightforward:

Our vision: A just world without poverty.

Our mission: To create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social injustice.

While we normally get caught up in and discuss the marketing aspects of the online space so we can sell more things, it’s important to remember there is other value as well. Some might argue convincingly that is the real value. The ability to reach people around the world in more ways than ever before also creates opportunities to help those most in need like never before. If you are not familiar with Oxfam hopefully this interview will serve as an introduction to their work. Enjoy.

Google+ pulled the wraps off three new features today and for the first time, I’m really starting to see the shift from same old to something new.

Two of the new features, What’s Hot and Ripples are all about expanding your social media world. For marketers, this is a big step away from the one-way conversation of Twitter and the me-centric world of Facebook.

What’s Hot

The title of this new feature couldn’t be any plainer. Google+ now provides a stream dedicated to the trending topics. The list will appear at the bottom of everyone’s profile stream, or it can be viewed as a stand alone stream by choosing that option from the sidebar.

Every Friday, I prepare a social media report for a client and the very top number is how many Facebook followers we gained that week. Sure, it’s a random number with no proven correlation to the success or failure of a campaign, but it’s all we’ve got.

Facebook has taken a stab at creating more meaningful metrics with their new “reach” and “talking about” stats but it comes down to this: the number of followers is the one metric we all understand.

That’s why Chief Marketer found that 60% the marketing professionals they surveyed use follower (friend, fan, etc) count as their chief method of measuring social media success. And it’s the favorite by a mile. Sharing, leads and time spent came in under 39% and incremental sales was only mentioned by 25%.

Chances are you’re a pro at using Facebook. You have your Page optimized, ads targeted, and your privacy settings impenatrable. So why is it that I see so many glaring issues that could cause the average person to have their account life hacked?

I come across these 5 issues below every day. Any one of them could result in a someone nefariously hacking your account, stealing your identity, or even ransacking your home. If you have these covered, congrats, but please share them with your Facebook friends, because many of them are leaving themselves vulnerable.

Website owners and companies with sites are obsessed with traffic as well they should be. It’s the lifeblood of any online presence and it’s not as easy to generate as most would think. What is becoming more and more apparent is that we live in a mixed marketing world. many of the older “go to” marketing ideas are struggling or flat out dying. The way we live life is changing and marketers really need to adapt or die.

There is, however, a bit of a marketing sweet spot of sorts that can be found that mixes some traditional activities that are not going away and the new world order of online life.

If you read about the impact of social networks and deal sites on how people shop and what they buy when they are shopping, you would think that everyone is doing it on a regular basis, right?

A study conducted by Performics and ROIresearch gives the impression that while many people are using social networks and other online shopping options like deal and shopping sites to influence purchases, it may not be as prevalent as we might like it to be. Look at the results that examine what percentage of those surveyed use any of the mentioned techniques on a daily basis to influence their shopping activities.