One of the things Ted McDonald, Web Analyst for Verisign noticed at both his current and his last position, was the amount of junk traffic cluttering up reports with misinformation.
McDonald, who managed the web analytics program at Carfax before joining Verisign and managed web analytics at National Geograpic before that, will be discussing a few unusual tricks of the web analytics trade at the Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, next Wednesday and Thursday (Sept. 28-29).
He is an expert at using Omniture products, like Discover and TestandTarget, and assessing the ROI of SEM and social media marketing efforts McDonald will be joined by dozens of experts, executives, and entrepreneurs in digital media, e-commerce, and the web world at the event.
Traffic that mucks up your data
One of the things he’ll discuss is how to detect that junk traffic and what to do about it.
At Verisign, he says, he has to deal with “A large number of people trying to hack us.” Seeing a lot of Eastern European traffic might be one clue that is happening, he notes.
Another problem he deals with is that of registrars hitting the site dozens of times a day. So to solve that and filter other traffic that isn’t relevant to the company’s consumer report, he looks at IP addresses and domain names.
He has triggers set up in the company’s web analytics program, Omniture, to alert him if a certain IP address is looking at the site’s Whois information a number of times a day and so on.
An allied problem to be on the watch for, says McDonald, is that for some reason, a number of site cruising bots – whatever they are – start visits on a site’s order confirmation page. That can seriously distort results if hits to the confirmation page are being used to count transactions. “It mucks up your data,” McDonald says.How
How many visits result in a transaction?
We asked if there are any metrics people should be looking at they might not be aware of. Mostly not, he says, but added, “There is one metric I like to look at that most analysts don’t: the impact of your pageviews on transactions. What you don’t know from a lot of standard reports – the top pages report, bounce rate, all of that – is of how many of the say 1,000 visits to a page resulted in a transaction five or six steps down?”
That is information that’s not readily apparent and “It’s something I look at that most folks don’t even know is an option,” he says.
McDonald says he’ll elaborate on these topics and others at the conference next week.
People don’t get up at 3 a.m. and search for cruise vacations, says Search Engine Marketing expert Kevin Lee, CEO of Didit and first chair of SEMPRO.org. “Marketing initiatives – including paid advertising – stimulate search,” Lee says.
Getting the right marketing mix to drive search interest and harvest the resulting demand requires some “high level communication between search marketing, public relations, paid marketing and social media teams,” Lee adds.
Otherwise, “You can end up shooting yourself in the foot.”
If a company ships a million product catalogs, for instance, “Search goes through the roof,” says Lee. If the people doing the catalog were not part of a wholistic campaign, he notes, “The company may not have enough staff budget to harvest the demand created by other marketing activity.”
Speaking at Digital East
Lee will be discussing how to create media mix models, given any size budget, to create demand and interest the way traditional media does at TechMedia’s upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
Lee’s Didit was part of the 2007 Inc 500 (#137), and has received a #12 position on Deloitte’s Fast 500 for 3 years in a row. Kevin authors a “Paid Search Strategies” column for ClickZ and has written several books, his most recent is Search Engine Advertising. Kevin was recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008
A set of strategies and tactics for a marketing media mix “Boils down to applying economic theory to media and advertising,” Lee explains.
Strategic thinking required
In the end, though, he says, “Trying to allocate a marketing budget across options is a mathematical challenge, although it is more of a process than a formula. You may end up with a formula that does a good job for each marketer, but the way you arrive at it is different depending on what business you are in. The way a person makes a decision to buy flowers is different from the way they decide to buy an automobile.”
So, he says, “Someone in charge of the media mix model needs to understand the buying triggers and the processes people go through for each purchase. You can’t build a buying crescendo to get someone to buy a dozen roses. It’s an impulse decision made in the hour of purchase. But the process of buying a car or deciding where to go on a honeymoon may take a month or more.”
It requires a lot of strategic thinking, Lee says.
He adds, however that companies with smaller marketing budgets – under $4 million a year or so – may not have enough resources and data to accomplish that, but “If you have a couple million a year in your marketing budget, you need to figure this out.”
A few years ago, the idea of paying for virtual goods online with real currency seemed outlandish to some. “It blew people’s minds,” says Rogelio (Ro) Choy, COO of the question & answer social site Formspring. But game companies such as Zynga, creator of Farmville, among other popular Facebook games, are successfully using that model.
Choy is one of dozens of Internet mavens, social media experts, marketing gurus, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs participating in the upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
He’ll be discussing how to monetize social media efforts. He’ll address display advertising, brand advertising, performance advertising, social currency, mobile advertising and virtual currency. He’ll discuss each in some detail based on what he’s learned in a career packed with social media experience.
Choy was previously the CEO of Peerpong, a Q&A service using NLP/semantics for identifying interests and knowledge from social streams. Prior to Peerpong, Ro was Chief Revenue Officer for RockYou and responsible for leading all the business efforts for the company and Director at eBay Motors, leading the online parts business. Prior to eBay, Ro co-founded Cima Systems, a leading VOIP software provider for auto dealers.
Advisor on social media
Choy serves as an advisor to a number of social media focused startups including Applifer, Nanigans, Wildfire Interactive, Project Slice, Adnectar, 500 Friends, Guestmob, Facepad, Replybuy, J2Play, GamesthatGive and Groupcard.
We asked Choy to elaborate on using virtual currency to monetize social media.
“It’s a completely different way of imagining how people can make money on the web,” Choy says. It works because making social media platforms such as Facebook an intrinsic part of the game dramatically reduces the cost of acquiring customers.
In 2011, according to eMarketer, Choy notes, “27 percent of all Internet users were social gamers of some sort and 42 percent of all social networkers play games. In all 62 million people are playing social games of some sort. So a lot of people are playing games in a social network and buying certain types of virtual products.
Those virtual products are consumables tied to achievement in the games, not permanent objects, usually, Choy says.
Hooking people on achievement
“It’s the concept of hooking people on achievement within the broader concept of gamification. You get people used to making short goals,” Choy says. Then you present them with a longer, more difficult goal they may wish to attain, but they may lack the time to complete and want to speed up the process. “That’s where you monetize.Once they’re hooked on achievement, then you charge.”
The concept can be applied to anything, content, e-commerce, any experience that’s social in nature and involves friends, Choy adds. “Where people want to surpass time or material constraints, that’s where you monetize. Build achievement into how you think about offering your products or services on social media platforms.”
Choy says there are compelling opportunities in brand and performance advertising, social commerce and mobile marketing as well. Social commerce, for instance, “Is probably the least developed, but potentially the most compelling,” he says. We could tell from our interview that you’ll be hearing practical ideas that will get the gears of your mind cranking.
Not many tech products or services target the low income consumers, although it is a large and growing segment of the U.S. population. But says Ken Eisner, vice president for Policy and New Business Development at One Economy Corp., there are a number of reasons why the smartphone and app development industry should focus on that group.
Eisner plans to elaborate on this idea at the upcoming Digital East Conference at Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
For one thing, Eisner points out, “Some of these populations are expanding the use of a smartphone as their primary way to access the Internet.”
He notes that a recent Pew Internet study showed that 87 percent of African Americans and Latinos own smart or featurephones and are more likely to take advantage of a wide array of phone data functions. They send as many as 200 more text messages a month than whites consumers, for instance.
Maximize profits while doing social good
Corporations could maximize profits while doing social good by targeting these lower income groups, Eisner says. But right now, “There is no focus on this group. There is no pricing oriented to them. And there are not enough apps developed for it.
“Look at app stores, you’ll see things created specifically for this group. Apps to monitor diabetes medication, or how long you have to wait in line for a government servcie, or how to file for earned income credits. But too few are developed. Most developers in Silicon Valley don’t have much contact with this group. They have no knowledge of the need. They have the notion there are no business models to be built around it.”
To help remedy that situation, One Economy has developed the concept of apps for social good, with a focus on apps for health, education and civic participation created especially for this group, Eisner says.
In June, the company and AT&T disclosed winners of its first App for Good contest. The grand prize winner was Brendan McBride and his colleagues from New York City, for their application “Remás.” The team received $10,000 to continue the development of their “app” that enables users to find the lowest cost overseas money transfer option closest to their location.
Other winners and their prizes include:
• Ysiad Ferreiras won the $5,000 Health prize for his application, SnapFresh,
which helps food stamp recipients find healthy places that accept Supplemental
Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) payments (formally known as food
stamps).
• David Simnick and Daniel Doll won the $5,000 Education prize for their webbased
application, TalkChalk, which leverages the power of social gaming and
networking and applies it to how students learn.
• Nick Jacobsen won the $5,000 Banking prize for his application, MobileSaver,
which is a mobile web portal for the management of an Individual Development
Account.
• Robert Hellestrae won the $4,000 Gaming prize for his app, Nutrition Missions,
which introducers users to delicious, nutrient dense foods by completing steps of
varying difficulty through fun and healthy “missions.”
Other opportunities
Others opportunities for marketing to the low income group would be apps around the jobs market, considering the current unemployment situation, says Eisner. “There is also a great opportunity on the banking side,” he adds. “Sometimes we need to take our cues from abroad, where mobile banking and mobile payements became a fantastic business.
Eisner plans to go into more detail about how to approach this group at Digital East.
“From the One Economy viewpoint, it’s better to hit some true needs (with smartphone app development). Instead of just looking at the top of the pyramid, try to solve bigger problems such as those banking and mobile payment issues or new forms of communication that focus funds at the lower end.”
Today’s video, higher quality and more accessible than ever, can save companies scads of money on travel expenses alone, but too few use video well enough to realize the ROI it can provide. So says Tim Markey, president of Visual Bridge and former Director of Cisco’s Global Performance Services for Business Video.
Markey is one of more than 80 top digital media, Internet, and social media experts participating at the 2011 Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
Markey was responsible for all Services for the Americas Region as part of TANDBERG.
TANDBERG was the leading manufacturer of video conferencing and collaboration infrastructure and endpoints prior to being acquired by Cisco. Tim joined TANDBERG from Amdocs, where he was the Vice President of 4G Wireless and was responsible for the successful deployment of Sprint/Clearwire’s 4G Wireless back office suite of systems.
Markey says that over and over again he’s seen cases where companies buys a lot of video equipment but doesn’t get a lot of uptake or use, so they miss out on the ROI possible. “A lot of the time the IT department goes out and buys this stuff on the ‘build it and they will come’ theory. It’s not that easy.”
Some companies even deploy their video resources in a fashion that makes it awkward to use. “I’ve seen cams ten-feet in the air looking at everyone’s head,” Markey says, “and small equipment in a huge conference room. I’ve seen cams next to a window where sunlight keeps people from even seeing that you’re on video.”
Best practices really help
So, Markey, says, “Best practices really help in deploying video, lighting, where the cameras are located, equipment that is appropriate for the room – do it right the first time.”
Video often needs a champion within the company to get full ROI from deployments, he says. “The COO of a Virginia company that was spending $60 million a year on travel said he could cut that in half with video. Once it was deployed around the world, it saved more than half. A champion drove the change in video behavior.”
Another best practice is to provide some education. “I’ve interviewed people in companies who didn’t know they could use video – or didn’t know how to use it,” Markey notes.
Internal marketing campaigns help
He says an internal marketing campaign, including simple educational materials such as how-to-guides, make people aware they have a video option and prevents them from being intimidated by lack of knowing how.
In any event, Markey says, “Video is the wave of the future. Travel savings are the easy ROI. Day to day productivity also increases.”
Visual communication can help improve a firm’s level of communication and make meetings go more quickly, he says. “Just having eye-to-eye contact forces you to pay more attention,” he adds.
The video deployment was very successful at TANDBERG, where Markey says “We used video every day. Desk phones rarely rang. Once you do it, going back to regular phone calls feels like you’re moving backward. I had meetings with people in Singapore and Hong Kong on video in my office. It made us a much more productive, efficient and lean company,” he says.
What to consider before a video deployment
If you’re thinking about deploying video in your company, he suggests you ask yourself what the business case for doing so is. “What do you want as a benefit? Save on travel? Increase efficiency? How are you impacting the people of your organization? Look at your overall processes. Will any change because of video? How will you pay for it?”
Travel savings using video don’t have to relate only to meetings with people in Singapore or Hong Kong, he points out. “We’ve seen lots of savings in government agencies with an office in Virginia and another in Maryland where people had to spend hours getting from one to the other every day. You can save on travel across town.”
Markey says he fields lot of other questions about the business use of video and you can ask him a few of your own at Digital East.
Marty Weintraub, CEO of aimClear, author of "Killer Facebook Ads"
By Allan Maurer
The current buzz says that brands should not be selling, selling, selling on Facebook, but rather, building community. While there is definitely truth to that, “We’ve sold hundreds of millions of dollars of products on Facebook,” says Marty Weintraub, CEO of the online marketing agency aimClear and author of the new book, “Killer Facebook Ads.”
His agency has managed Facebook ad campaigns generating over 10 billion impressions internationally. Client credits include MarthaStewart.com, Siemens, Second Life, Budget Direct, and other global brands.
He’s written extensively for respected Internet marketing trade publications including SearchEngineWatch, SearchEngineLand, SearchEngineRoundTable, and been quoted in many others.
The aimClear Blog (aimclearblog.com) has been cited as among the Technorati Top 10 Small Business Blogs, Cison Top Ten Social Media Blogs, PRWeb’s 25 Essential Public Relations Blogs You Should Be Reading, and listed in the AdAge Power150.
Weintraub is one of hundreds of top Internet mavens participating in the upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29. He’ll be talking about demographic targeting on Facebook, particularly targeting by occupation.
More than 20 billion Facebook impressions
Weintraub has a wealth of experience to draw upon. “We’ve been doing Facebook ads since 2007,” he says. “We’ve served more than 10 billion impressions on Facebook.”
People who say they can’t meet their goals on Facebook “have the wrong goals,” Weintraub says.
The first thing anyone who plans to buy Facebook ads should consider, he suggests, is “Understand what you get free and what you have to pay for on Facebook. That’s really important.” The site monetized its viral elements, he says.
Second, he says, “Understand who your customers are.” To do that, he says, use the Facebook Paid Advertising tool. Facebook will let you drill down to very specific sets of demographics – people 51-54 in the U.S. Midwest interested in Popular Mechanics, say.
“Use screen capture to find out who your customers are,” says Weintraub. He points out, however, that just targeting the bullseye in not enough.
Keep an open mind about other interests
Someone interested in tennis is the obvious choice if you’re selling tennis rackets. “But,” Weintraub asks, “Can I get them interested in water bottles or fuzzy wrist bands? If they’re 58-61 and live in New York, can I interest them in the New York Philharmonic subscriptions? You have to have an open mind about their other interests.”
Then, take action. “You have two options, serve them ads or chat with them,” he explains. So you’re goals will be to sell things, or to get them to like your Facebook page or provide information.
The selling itself should take advantage of the medium, Weintraub notes. If you’re trying to sell radically new MRI technology to a neurology surgeon, you don’t advertise, “Radical new MRI equipment.” Instead, “You go, ‘Because it’s so sad when children die of neurology disorders,” with a photo of a grieving parent. “The person clicks through with an emotional connection,” Weintraub says.
Then you don’t take them to a landing page that shoves a form in their grill. You take them to a story about how the equipment saved a kid’s life.
“Don’t look just for literal targeting. If you’re selling organic cereal bars, look for people into sustainable living, recyling, and the environment. If you just target for organic cereal bars, you won’t have that much success. People are too literal in association sales.”
Be likeable
Another type of association to look for is competitive, where you target positive or negative sentiment toward a competitor’s product. That’s where you sell Xooms to people who say iPads suck.
You have to provide content that actually matters to the Facebook user, he says. “You have to play, ‘Now you’ve got me right where I want you.’ But you have to talk to them respectfully. If you’re crude, you’ll turn off the Facebook user.”
Even if all you’re trying to do initially is to build a Facebook fan base, he says “You have to offer something that matters to people for them to like you. The best way for someone to like you anywhere is to be likeable.”
WASHINGTON, DC – While tracking social media related to your business and participating in discussions is important, “You shouldn’t obsess over either,” says Jamie Grove, vice president of Evil Schemes and Nefarious Plans (aka Marketing) at ThinkGeek.com, the site where you can satisfy your geek lust with such things as pizza slicers shaped like Star Trek’s Enterprise.
Instead, when done right, social media create a “halo effect” around a brand in which customers create excitement around your brand.
Grove, who has worked online at places such as CompuServe before the Internet boom and as VP of e-commerce at Highlights for Children, has also been architect of several eCommerce websites and created iPhone apps, will talk about how retailers can use social media at the upcoming Digital East Conference at Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28.
Thinkgeek does things differently
“We do things a little differently at Thinkgeek,” Grove tells us. Once marketers “get hold of something, they tend to ruin it,” he says. “Most brands are trying to control the social media conversation. Many firms have poured resources into social media and now they’re scratching their heads trying to figure out how to make money from it. Our approach is more about participating in the community and celebrating it.”
That is a direction we’ll see more companies taking, he predicts, noting that it’s based on a really simple idea: treat your customers the way they want to be treated.
Slashdotted
A top 200 online retailer, Thinkgeek focuses on fun gifts and toys. The 12-year-old firm has revenue of about $100 million annually. The company describes its genesis this way on its website:
“ThinkGeek started as an idea. ThinkGeek started as a way to serve a market that was passionate about technology, from programmers, engineers, students, lovers of open source, to the masses that helped create the behind-the-scenes Internet culture.
“Three out of the four founding ThinkGeek members started an ISP in the Northern Virginia area way way back in 1995. We couldn’t afford Solaris, learned about a free UNIX-like OS, and spent almost an entire day downloading it onto over 50 floppies for installation on an old 486 laptop with no cd-rom (thanks Slackware!). After a few years with the ISP gig, the ThinkGeek idea popped into our heads, and, operating out of a spare room at the ISP office we setup shop and launched the site on Friday the 13th, 1999.
“A month or so later we were Slashdotted. Promptly thereafter, ThinkGeek was acquired by the good folks at Andover.Net who through an acquisition and a bunch of name changes, is now known as Geeknet. So we’re part of a cool gaggle of sites including slashdot.org, sourceforge.net, linux.com, and freshmeat.net.”
Grove says the first thing a retailer getting into social media needs to consider is “what are you going to talk about?” A lot of companies come out “blabbing about themselves all the time basically,” and that’s the wrong way to go. “People like to associate themselves with brands,” Grove says, “But they don’t want to hear about them all the time.
“Stop trying to use social media as an acquisition channel.” In fact, he says, company’s would be better off putting their social media into the hands of staff responsible for customer satisfaction rather than acquisition. “Put it in retention, not acquisition,” he says.
What brought the customer to you in the first place?
Be careful before you outsource your social media functions, he warns. “A lot of large firms outsource to PR companies or corporate communications. Those folks are not always in touch with your brand, so that may not be the best strategy. Find someone in your company who uses social media and is passionate about your brand. That’s the type of person you want handling your social media.
He suggests, “Think about what draws that customer to you in the first place.” In Thinkgeek’s case, he notes, “We’re a geeky company and we celebrate the geeky product line we sell. We share our geekiness with others. So, conversations revolve around topics such as “Star Wars,” or “Star Trek,” gadgets, computer stuff, or other things that bring its customers to the site. “Get into it,” he says. “Interact with followers. Point out other people in the community.”
Thinkgeek has done that with a variety of approaches. “We’re the granddaddy of Internet pranksters,” he says. “We create fake products. Last year it was a Playmobile Apple computer store.” Sometimes the company will actually makes and sells them if they’re popular enough, such as the iCade, a retro game arcade cabinet for the iPad it launched this year.
Grove says you should do as much tracking as you can, but don’t obsess over it. “We’re very heavily into paid search and affiliate marketing so it’s in my nature to collect a lot of data and analyze it. But don’t obsess. Build tracking in where ever you can.”
It’s probably a mistake to look at social media just for ROI, he notes. “When you’re really good at social media, you get a halo effect,” he says. “Social media sharing creates deep interest in a brand. People get excited about what you’re doing and share it, creating excitement around your brand.”
SANTA CLARA, CA – Intel Capital has created a $300 million fund to invest in “Ultrabook” computers, the super thin mobile devices as light as MacBook Airs but with full PC capabilities. Intel sees Ultrabooks as the next big thing in personal computers. The move is seen as a way to compete more effectively with Apple Inc., which has been dampening Intel sales.
Intel, which disclosed it Ultrabook plans at a June trade show, says the Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund aims to invest in companies building hardware and software technologies focused on enhancing how people interact with Ultrabooks, achieving all-day usage through longer battery life, enabling innovative physical designs and improved storage capacity. The overall goal of the fund, which will be invested over the next 3-4 years, is to create a cycle of innovation and system capabilities for this new and growing category of mobile devices.
“Ultrabook devices are poised to be an important area for innovation in the $261 billion global computer industry1,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. “The Intel Capital Ultrabook fund will focus on investing in companies building technologies that will help revolutionize the computing experience and morph today’s mobile computers into the next ‘must have’ device.”
There are three key phases in Intel’s strategy to accelerate its vision for this new category. The company’s efforts begin to unfold this year with Intel’s latest 2nd Generation Intel Core processors. This family of products will enable thin, light and beautiful designs that are less than 21mm (0.8 inch) thick, and at mainstream prices. Systems based on these chips will be available for the 2011 winter holiday shopping season.
They sound like products that may give Apple, tablet makers and netbooks some real competition. A very light machine with full PC performance is something we would like to have in our equipment bag when covering TechMedia events such as the upcoming Digital East in Tysons Corner, VA. Price points will probably be very important here – but if they’re competing with Apple’s traditionally inflated prices, they should be able to offer better deals.
To ship Ultrabook devices this year required significant collaboration amongst the entire computing industry. Intel has worked very closely with its customers to ensure that Ultrabook devices deliver compelling and unique value to consumers. Many OEMs have been collaborating on this effort from the very beginning.
“Ultrabook takes the best technologies and marries them with sleeker designs and extraordinarily long battery life for a new kind of computing experience,” said Peter Hortensius, Lenovo’s Product Group president. “This new type of personal computing aligns with our continual focus on engineering innovative laptop solutions that push the boundaries on mobility.”
If you read a number of positive reviews for a product or restaurant, one negative one might actually boost your regard, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. That is true as long as the negative information only creates a minor blemish and if you can’t think deeply about it.
This reinforces what we heard at recent Tech Media digital conferences (the next is Digital East in Tyson’s Corner, VA, in September). Negative reviews online can actually increase the perceived validity of positive reviews.
“Imagine that you are considering a new restaurant and reading reviews of it online,” write authors Danit Ein-Gar (Tel-Aviv University) Baba Shiv, and Zakary L. Tormala (both Stanford Graduate School of Business).
“Most of the reviews are very favorable: Great food, pleasant music, relaxed atmosphere. Then you come across a review that mentions that there is no parking nearby, a piece of information that is negative but not quite central to your value proposition for restaurants. How does this small dose of negative information influence the positive impression you have begun to form?”
A negative can accentuate the postive
The authors found that when consumers receive negative information after receiving positive information, especially if that negative information is relatively minor and just “blemishes” the product, it accentuates the positive information—if it’s encountered after the positives and if the consumers are somewhat distracted.
In one study, the researchers presented consumers with information about a pair of hiking boots. The boots had many positive attributes (orthopedic soles, waterproof, warranty) but they came in a box that was slightly damaged. In another study, college undergrads were offered a chocolate bar on a hot summer day. The chocolate bar was a favorite and it was chilled, but broken in half.
Presenting negative information online has advantages
The authors varied the amount of distraction participants faced. “Under low thought conditions—when participants were distracted or had fewer resources available for thinking about their decisions—we observed more favorable reactions to the products when participants received positive plus minor negative information rather than exclusively positive information,” the authors write.
“In situations that encourage careful thinking, presenting exclusively positive information still does seem to be more compelling,” the authors write. “But in settings that might make careful thought unlikely—as is true of most online ads—presenting some negative information has advantages.”
When you hear experts discuss social media during interviews for stories or at events such as the Digital Summit or upcoming Digital East and Internet Summit events TechMedia puts on annually, you begin to hear a consensus evolve regarding best practices. Top Rank’s Lee Odden captured 35 such insights from a key note presentation by Brian Solis, summing up many of the best business approaches to social media marketing we’ve heard.
First, Solis says, keep in mind that social media provides and opportunity to do something more meaningful than just marketing.
He notes that social media provides tools to help you connect and engage and that each social platform is its own community. Where do you start? Ask “what makes your business special?”
It’s easy enough to go wrong. Why do people unlike brands on Facebook? Solis says the brands “post too often and posts are too promotional.” That’s exactly in line with what we hear from other experts. You can’t just sell, sell, sell in social media communities. “It’s not just about engagement, it’s about being engaging.” — Allan Maurer
SANTA CLARA, CA – Intel Capital 
If you read a number of positive reviews for a product or restaurant, one negative one might actually boost your regard, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. That is true as long as the negative information only creates a minor blemish and if you can’t think deeply about it.
