Fanminder Blog

Wondering if marketing via social networks is worth your company’s time? New stats from Nielsen should help you answer that question.

According to Nielsen’s recently released research data, consumers worldwide spent more than 5 ½ hours on social networking sites in December 2009. That’s up from a little more than 3 hours in December 2008, and 2 hours and 10 minutes in December 2007.

So according to Nielsen, time spent on social networking sites by people around the world has increased 82% in just one year. In addition, overall traffic to social networking sites has significantly spiked as well.

Nielsen says Facebook captured 67% of the global social media audience last month, with 206.9 million unique visitors. In the United States specifically, Facebook towered over its peers on the list of most visited social networking sites.

Read Full Article and View Data.

Even though the whole social media trend seems to be in full force, not everyone has quite jumped on board yet. Most people know about social media, or at least have a understanding of what it is, but that doesn’t mean all are using it; however, the greater majority seems to have adapted to email by now. That is why Microsoft Outlook 2010 looks promising for a social media push.

Microsoft Office 2010, in beta release now, may change the game on social media and turn participation into email plumbing. The MS Outlook 2010 blog reveals the new features that hints to this conclusion. (Although in stunningly Microsoft fashion the first bit of info on the page deals with a crash report update.)

Here’s the deal – depending upon who you ask, Microsoft Outlook, including Exchange, powers somewhere around 65% of enterprise email and probably more than that when it comes to the small business desktop. GMail and other SaaS tools have begun to eat away at this margin, but many a computer user sees the Internet through the eyes of MS Outlook. This post isn’t a plug for MS Office, I haven’t downloaded or tested the new version yet, it’s simply an explanation of the impact I see this new release ultimately having.

Read the Full Article.

While the devices and platforms that deliver digital content and advertising campaigns remain integral to mobile marketing, at the heart of mobile marketing’s future could very well be mobile applications.

Catering to the runaway popularity of mobile apps, the first day of the Mobile World Congress brought with it an unprecedented announcement from twenty-four major wireless carriers that speaks volumes about the power and potential of the mobile applications industry.

The announcement proclaimed the forthcoming development of a “wholesale applications community,” a global app store of sorts made possibe through an alliance of carriers like AT&T, Verizon, NTT DoCoMo, Deutsche Telekom, China Mobile and Vodafone. All have pledged their cooperation in developing an “open technology platform” in one year’s time, the standard of which will be independent of smartphone type or operating system.

Read the Full Article.

Six powerful persuasion techniques from Dr. Robert Cialdini’s famous Influence book.

1. Reciprication.  In Cialdini’s words, the rule for reciprocation “says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us. If a woman does us a favor, we should do her one in return; if a man sends us a birthday present, we should remember his birthday with a gift of our own; if a couple invites us to a party, we should be sure to invite them to one of ours.”

And so it is in social media: we’re more likely to retweet someone who has already retweeted us.  We link to people who have linked to us.  And we tend to give a business far more trust after it has provided us with a lot of free value.

Used manipulatively, this turns into autofollow bots that help you amass thousands of followers in a breathtakingly short time—none of whom may actually care what you have to say.  Doh!

Used more positively and constructively, if you focus on initiating reciprocity by providing no-strings-attached value to those in your network, you’ll ultimately wield far more influence.  Not because the gift economy is a new fad in marketing, but because following the law of reciprocity is how we’re wired as humans.

2. Scarcity.  Apart from reciprocity, this is perhaps the most used tool in social media.  When bloggers open up a class or inner circle membership or subscription service, it is never for an unlimited number of customers or for an always open/unlimited time.  Smart bloggers either create or fully leverage already existing scarcity by limiting seats available, length of time to buy, etc.

Laura Roeder has rather famously made scarcity a centerpiece of a signature technique,  wherein bloggers hold competitions with free services as a prize.  When contestants don’t win, they then value the prize more highly precisely because of the newly perceived scarcity.  This makes them more likely to accept a consolation prize of getting the services at a slight discount.

Read the Full Article.

Here are seven key points you need to know if you want to get more targeted traffic from Twitter.

1. Know Your Audience.  Growing your traffic always starts with your audience if you want to do it right.Untargeted, uninterested “hits” are a waste of time and resources at worst, and at best just pure vanity.

• What does your audience want and need?
• How do they like it delivered?
• Which topics are on their minds right now?
• Are there trends that are growing in popularity?
• How do these folks speak? What words and phrases do they use?

This means that driving traffic starts with listening and observing. Get to know your target so you can most efficiently engage them.

Twitter has a tool for this. Use search.twitter.com to find what people in your niche are talking about and follow some of their conversations.

Once you get an idea of what people are interested in, join in those conversations and talk to people.

2. Build Engagements. Talk to people.

Engage your followers. Don’t just see them as a passive list of eyeballs! Treat folks as human beings and you will do much better at this stuff. It is called social media for a reason.

• Ask questions
• Hold conversations
• Dip into others’ conversations
• Encourage feedback

Read the Full Article.