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MySpace Exec: Embrace Fan Networks

posted on December 10, 2008

Captain CrunchJay Stevens, MySpace‘s vice president of international online marketing, recently said that corporations should embrace fan sites on networks like MySpace and Facebook versus seek legal action against them. His comments come during a panel at MediaPost’s Email Insider Summit.

Sitting with Stevens on the panel was Karla Venell, the manager of database and email marketing at General Mills. Vernal says, “most of the (fan sites are) probably good for us.”

When speaking about the folks that create brand centric fan pages Stevens says, “The best thing to do is empower those individuals as much as possible and engage with them.” He then goes further to say, “They like the attention and notoriety that comes with being a brand ambassador.”

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Tips From Karl Havard For Brand Engagement Via Social Media

posted on December 5, 2008

By Joe Hall

Karl Havard from Propellernet just wrote a really great article called “Top ten tips for brand engagement via social media“. You can really tell that Karl has a very polished understanding of social media. I think it would be smart for everyone to go read Karl’s article. However, I am going to highlight a few of my favorite parts.

Before Karl got to his list of tips he laid out 5 common themes from his research. One stuck with me.

Less innovative and early adoptive brands see getting involved with social media as “high risk” to the business. I would argue that the risk of not getting involved is much higher.

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An Interview with SMM Guru: Brian Chappell

posted on December 4, 2008

By Joe Hall

Brian will tell you that he doesn’t call himself a guru, but in my opinion, others should. Last week, I came by a video on IM Broadcast that caught my attention. In this video social media marketer, Brian Chappell, responded to people that claim they are Social Media Marketing Gurus, but in reality they lack any real experience. Brian’s video reminded me about the constant discussion in the SEO community about fake SEO’s. I wanted to get a better understanding of what exactly successful social media marketing looks like, so I asked Brian if he would be willing to answer a few questions for the Marketing Pilgrim community.

Here is my interview with Brian Chappell (an active member of the SEO community, works at Ignite Social Media and blogs at BrianChappell.com)

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Power.com Offers One-Stop Shop for Social Networking

posted on December 1, 2008

By Joe Hall

Logo From Power.comOk, let me first start off by saying, Power.com is awesome! What is it? Power.com is a one stop shop for social networking and instant messaging. Think about it this way: with Power.com you have the ability to navigate and use Myspace, Facebook, Hi5, Orkut, MSN is live. Yahoo Messenger, AIM, and soon Gtalk, all at the same time.

Today Power.com will attempt to reach out to an American audience for the first time, since this Brazilian based startup first caught the attention of funding powerhouses Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Esther Dyson. And I am willing to bet that its going to go over very well.

Consolidating Web 2.0 services is a hot trend at the moment with companies and tools such as pidgin and friendfeed helping manage a barrage of different networks and protocols.

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Social Media: Failure to Launch

posted on December 1, 2008

By Peter Young

Social Media is a name on many peoples” onclick=”return TrackClick(”,’%2F%2Fwww.coneinc.com%2Fcontent1182′)” list, and a channel on many advertisers” onclick=”return TrackClick(”,’%2F%2Fwww.coneinc.com%2Fcontent1182′)” marketing plans – however – as many advertisers have recently found – it may not necessarily be the most effective channel in terms of direct response.

Certainly the research would suggest the potential traffic is there. Research suggests that around 60% of Americans use social media sites, with around three quarters of this figure visiting a site at least once a week. That by itself would suggest that there is a significant branding opportunity alone via social media sites, so what are the problems?

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Why Social Media May Not be Right For You!

posted on November 28, 2008

By Patricia Skinner

Have doubts about how useful social media can be to you?

Let’s get right to the main reasons why social media may not be right for you personally:

  • You hate publicity
  • You have something terrible to hide
  • You are too busy being a star to bother with networking
  • You’re less than ten year’s old or over 100
  • You already have too many customers
  • You’re dead

Seriously, there are very few situations where a social media profile will not be of some use in your business or private life.

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SMX London – SEO & Social Media Marketing

posted on November 24, 2008

The social media sessions at SMX last year were a packed affair and this year was no exception with the subject proving equally in demand.

Jane Copland – SEOMoz

Jane told attendees that relevant link bait is not just a good idea these days but a necessity. However with the link bait explosion there were some winners and losers and this year there was noticeably a more serious tone in the air…

She cited a case study where a web based widget was originally created and used on a dating website. The widget had a link contained inside back to the source website whenever it was placed on a website.