The Social Network: Truth or Fiction?

There’s a lot of talk going on about Facebook these days, from the massive outage on September 23 to the new movie, The Social Network, coming out on October 1, a story about the founders and origins of Facebook.

Biographies are intriguing, and for Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals involved in Social Media, this movie is particularly compelling. We’re advised to take it with a grain of salt, though, because there’s a bit of controversy brewing about whether or not the movie gets the facts straight.

According to a blog post on AllFacebook.com, most people don’t know the movie is based on a fictionalized and sensationalized story about the founding of Facebook as described by Eduardo Saverin, one of the initial co-founders. This story became Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires and then was adapted into a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Apparently Saverin presented co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in a bad light because he was bitter about being kicked out of the company, and AllFacebook.com says, “It’s pretty clear that the movie is an attack on Mark Zuckerberg’s character.”

In an interview called “Aaron Sorkin talks ‘The Social Network’“, however, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin asserts, “We were meticulous in The Social Network about sticking to facts,” and goes on to explain the type of online and first-person research they did.

Another point of interest is the fact that neither the screenwriter nor the director of this movie has a Facebook account, which makes you wonder what their perspective is towards Facebook.

But regardless of what people think of this movie or Facebook in general, this is a tool that has become firmly embedded in the fabric of our culture, and for that reason (as Virtual Assistants and business owners), we need to look at ALL the ways we can leverage this powerful tool for our business.  So whether the movie is true or not, Facebook Marketing is definitely a reality that has provided tangible results for businesses seeking to build their brand and customer base.

Now we’d like to hear your opinion! Do you plan on seeing the movie, and would a shady past change your opinion of Facebook and the role it plays in your business?

Bananas and Branding in a Social Media World.

“I’m Chiquita Banana and I’ve come to say, Bananas have to ripen in a certain way…”

(lyrics from the original Chiquita Banana theme song)

Does your food talk to you?

Probably not.

Does it ask you to talk to it?

Maybe.

In this new social media driven world, even food has become interactive online, as you may have seen last week in a recent post on our VAClassroom Facebook Page. When Craig grabbed a banana as a quick snack, little did he know it would have a sticker on it that read “Chiquita – find us on Facebook to vote!” As he said, “This is a web 2.0 banana I am eating – banana branding at its best!”

So we checked out the Chiquita Banana Facebook Page, and this is what we found:

•    Facebook Page summary – “This is a page for all things banana. Pay a visit to our site and see just how bananas our bananas can get. Eatachiquita.com. Or follow us on Twitter @ChiquitaChatter.” (Chiquita Bananas are also on Twitter!)

•    Info tab – containing a link to the Chiquita Banana website, as well as a Company Overview and a list of Products.

•    “Organics” tab – promoting organic bananas and inviting people to vote. Chiquita will donate 10% of organic banana sales sold in September to the environmental non-profit organization with the most votes.

•    Photos tab – with photos from Chiquita as well as from fans. (Wow, a lot of people really like Chiquita Bananas!)

•    Page Terms tab – explaining the Chiquita Banana Community Guidelines. (This is a great idea!)

•    Several other tabs and an active Wall – with posts from both fans and Chiquita Banana itself.

Chiquita adds posts regularly to the wall and is great about interacting with fans by replying to any questions or comments.

Here are some examples of Chiquita’s wall posts:

•    Contests – e.g. “Chiquita Banana Sticker Design Contest” and “Chiquita Champion” (nominating an athlete or an athletic team who has accomplished something amazing)

•    Product Advertisements – e.g. “Exotic” varieties like red bananas and Manzano bananas

•    Fun Facts – e.g. September 21 is National Banana Day.

And if the response is any indication, people are “eating up” this Facebook Page! At this time, Chiquita Banana is “liked” by more than 20,000 people!

Moreover, the contests attract people to the Chiquita websites themselves as they are mostly held off of the Facebook Page. For example, in honor of National Organics Month, Chiquita is hosting an organic smoothie recipe contest on their blog. This is a great way of directing people to read the blog posts!

So what do you think of this banana branding and use of Social Media? Many of us had parents who told us, “Don’t play with your food,” and now here we are, entering Chiquita Banana contests and “talking to our food” on Facebook.

The great thing about this Web 2.0 world is that it can foster a sense of collaboration and trust between businesses and consumers. As companies use Social Media as a way of branding their products, consumers can interact, voicing their opinions and concerns.

A quote from the blog post “Social Media Case Study: Cindy Cieluch, Photographer Building a Brand” sums it up perfectly:

“… Whether you’re a small, medium, or large business there are small and simple things you can be doing with social media that will help with your brand building efforts while at the same time building those relationships and getting people what they truly want which is a relationship with the company before they make business and do business with them.”

So, as a Virtual Assistant or Online Business Owner, how would you use a Facebook Page or other Social Networks to build your brand in this New Media World? The possibilities are endless, so we’d love to hear your ideas!

The Power of Article Writing in a Web 2.0 World

Does article writing still have a place in this new interactive Web 2.0 world? It’s a question many Virtual Professionals and online business owners may be asking themselves as Social Media Marketing and Video Marketing gain prominence.

Well, we would argue that article writing does have a place and that it is still a prolific marketing channel in this Social Media Arena. Here are some of the key reasons why:

• Increases brand visibility and interest.

• Establishes authority and thought leadership.

• Ignites SEO potency (Tons of backlinks).

• Creates opportunity for your content to go viral.

• Generates targeted website traffic and sales.

As an illustration, check out this case study described in “Article Marketing – An Hour A Week To Web 2.0 Success!”

Here the author reports how spending 45 minutes writing three articles (targeted to his sites and online products) yielded the following results one week after being uploaded to a professional online article submission service:

• 55 pages indexed and live in Google showing his resell rights article

• 43 pages indexed and live in Google showing his Article Marketing article

• 51 pages indexed and live in Google showing his Affiliate Marketing article
He summarizes the results this way:

“That’s 149 more places for people to run into my name and solid info from me online, 149 more links back to my sites, each capable of attracting tightly-targeted traffic to my salespages and affiliate marketing pre-sell pages. For one hour’s work, total. That’s the immediate benefit to article marketing – almost instant spidering by the search engines, and a number of new profit conduits set up aimed at your payment button or affiliate links.”

In addition to uploading your articles to online submission sites like EzineArticles.com, you can use Social Media channels to further maximize the exposure of your content. Here are some common ways of doing that:

• Use the EzineArticles.com Bookmarking feature.

• Schedule article tweets in HootSuite. (Send it out 2-3 times.)

• Share your article in targeted social network groups and forums. (Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning)

• Include the article link in a relevant blog post.

• Submit your article to other general and niche social bookmarking sites. (Digg, Delicious)
We cover this in more detail in our Internet Marketing Specialist 2010 course since it is such a crucial step in harnessing the power of Social Media to mass-distribute your articles.

And when you’re writing, always remember the Golden Rule of Article Marketing: CONTENT IS KING! The credibility and influence of your Virtual Business will grow if you consistently provide valuable content that is directed towards your target audience.

Now we’d like to hear your thoughts! Have you used articles to promote your Virtual Business? Do you feel Article Marketing is still an effective marketing channel in the Web 2.0 world?

Facebook for Business – a Love / Hate Relationship

We love Facebook, don’t we? Yes, we do… most of the time.

As Virtual Assistants and online business owners in general, many of us have come to love Facebook Pages as an effective Social Marketing channel to build brand awareness and community. With such features as Static FBML, we have devoted a lot of time to customizing our Pages and adding unique features that make them stand out from the rest.

For example, on our VAClassroom Facebook Page, we have added featured members photos, banners and navigation bars to the left-hand side. Now some sweeping changes due to take effect the week of August 23 will have a profound impact on our Page and many others.

Here’s a summary of the changes according to the Facebook Profile and Page Roadmap Update:

•    The “Boxes” tab, boxes on profiles and Pages, and application info sections will be removed.

•    Beginning the week of August 23, all profile and Page tabs will be resized automatically to a new width of 520 pixels.

According to a blog post by AllFacebook.com, “the removal of the boxes tab is a sweeping change that will see the disappearance of all profile boxes on the left-hand side of Facebook Pages.” A Facebook spokeswoman advised AllFacebook.com that the removal of those boxes will require page owners to move that information to the info page or a custom tab. Page owners also need to be aware of the fact that the new narrower tab width may affect the appearance of their Pages.

So how can page owners best prepare for these changes leading up to August 23?

A HubSpot blog post entitled “3 Ways Facebook’s Pending Page Changes Affect Marketers” has some good advice:

•    If you’ve created any custom tabs for your Facebook page, click on these tabs to make sure the look and feel of each page hasn’t been distorted. Because pages will now be narrower, it’s possible that images or banners you’ve added or formats you’ve used previously will now need to be resized or reformatted.

•    Be sure to take a look at the boxes on your page’s sidebar and in your Boxes Tab ahead of time so you can decide what you will need to create custom tabs for once the boxes disappear.

So, it seems that Facebook consistently makes changes that can present headaches. And yet, the upside is that is an amazing channel to connect with the right audience and has so many cool apps and tools that enhance the business pages.

For now, this newest change will create a lot of work for Virtual Assistants who serve as their clients’ Social Media Specialists. In the long run, will it have a positive impact on Facebook for business?

We’d love to hear your thoughts. How are Facebook’s changes affecting you and your business page? Please share your comments below.?

Social Media Outsourcing: A Wise Choice

They say that timing is everything, and often success comes from recognizing the right opportunity at the right time. This is especially true in the ever changing Internet landscape. A recent Industry Report released by Michael A. Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com, reveals some untapped potential that bodes well for those with Social Media Marketing skills. We’d highly recommend downloading and reading the full report from the website, but for now check out this quick video summary:

When we read the report, we were struck by the following statistic:

“Social media outsourcing underemployed: Only 14% of businesses are outsourcing any aspect of their social media marketing.”

This was fascinating because on the other hand, it’s clear that an increase in benefits is directly proportional to the amount of time spent on Social Media Marketing. Here are some of the benefits that were reported:

•    Helped close business
•    Generated exposure for business
•    Resulted in new business partnerships
•    Generated qualified leads
•    Reduced overall marketing expenses
•    Helped business rise in the search rankings
•    Increased traffic/subscribers/opt-in list

However, since the concept of Social Media outsourcing is still relatively new, and many marketers are still new to Social Media Marketing itself, the report predicts it may be another year before businesses embrace the idea of seeking outside assistance.

But with at least 67% of marketers planning to increase their use of blogs, Facebook, video/YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, the tide is definitely going to turn. How else will business owners juggle everything they need to do and still devote enough time to Social Media Marketing?

So what kinds of things will businesses need help with as they ramp up their Social Media activities?

Here are some of the important roles an outsourced Social Marketing Specialist can fill:

•    Social Media Coach (very important)
•    Social Media Community Manager (set up and optimize system)
•    Company Representative (manage customer relations)
•    Social Media Eyes & Ears for Your Clients (SM Monitoring)

Most importantly, businesses need a proper Social Media Strategy, and there will be amazing client opportunities coming available for Virtual Assistants who can perform the following tasks:

•    Create a clear and measurable social media strategy (#1 priority)
•    Research & identify the right social networks
•    Build social networking presence
•    Manage & optimize social networking presence
•    Measure results of social networking activities

So if you have Social Media Marketing skills like these, get ready to catch the next wave in this very popular and profitable niche! Keep your skills current and up to date, and you’ll be in the ideal position when more and more businesses quickly realize they need to outsource their Social Media activities! In our newly updated Social Marketing 2010 course, we provide cutting-edge training to equip Virtual Assistants to deliver the key services clients desperately need and will be asking for in the near future.

Five Reasons I Love Facebook Fan Pages

A quick skill testing question for you….

What do you think are the two hottest pieces of Real Estate in the Social Media Frontier right now?

Any ideas….?

I would have to say that Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages are the “shining stars” among the business community right now!

I have been so amazed at the rapid growth of Facebook Fan Pages since the big changes Facebook made back in February 2009 to make them look like FB Profiles.

Check out this video on “Five Reasons Why I Love the New Facebook Fan Pages.”

Also, we have just released a new course that might interest you at VAClassroom called: “Fantastic Facebook Fan Pages” – Check it out!

The Many Voices of Social Media

Social Media is a wonderful thing isn’t it? It is literally turning the way we communicate upside down! Social Media allows ANYONE to have a voice and be heard, which is both liberating and scary.  While Social Media promotes the Freedom of Speech and the opportunity for anyone to share their views and opinions, where do we draw the line on commentary that is hateful and even harmful? Are there clear ethics or even a “moral compass” to Social Media or is that not even possible?

In this post, you are going to get a few random thoughts that have been percolating in my head for sometime, so bear with me…. I have a point to make.

Over the past few days, I am sure you have all watched the events unfold in Iran following the tainted election results.  We have seen a Twitter Revolution emerge as many Iranians tweet their concerns and disgust over the political corruption in their country. One university student in Tehran actually had his website shut down and was attacked, but was able to still let his voice be heard through Twitter.

Social Network sites like Twitter and Facebook are giving a global voice to people who would typically not even have a voice in their own country – truly amazing!

Social Networks have given a voice to great organizations like the Salvation Army to bring awareness and increase their donation base during a down economy.

A Facebook group helped to raise awareness and build support for an  American Father (David Goldman) seeking to regain custody of his son who was taken to Brazil.

Social Media has provided amazing opportunities for people to have a voice and share their plight and situation.

Now, if I was to stop there, we would all say… WOW, Social Media is having such a powerful and positive impact on our world (which it is), but let’s look at the other voices emerging as well.

A couple weeks back, an interesting post emerged on Tech Crunch titled, “Holocaust Museum Death Won’t Change Facebook’s Mind on Hate, But Advertisers May be Able To.“  A great dialogue ensued on the ethics of allowing Anti-semetic Hate groups to set-up Facebook groups to collectively voice their harmful views. There are Facebook groups promoting the idea that the Jewish Holocaust which saw 6 millions Jews murdered was just a myth.

These groups are given the opportunity to share their hateful and discriminative opinions on Facebook and other Social Networks. Is that right? Should we give a voice to those that promote hate against certain races? Are we able to draw a moral line in the sand where certain voices are accepted and others are not? Is that possible?

Take for instance this story…. A few months ago, a Facebook  group emerged called “National Kick a Ginger Day“, in which they encouraged their members to “get them steel toe boots ready” and kick a red-head at school. Well, even though the founder of the group said it was just a big joke, many acts of violence occured that day as a result of this nasty Facebook campaign.

So, I ask the question again….Where do we draw the line on WHO should have a voice in Social Media?

Some say that censorship on Social Networks will only hinder freedom of speech and ruin the original intent of Social Media. That is one perspective.

Here is my thought…. While I love the freedoms of Social Media and the voice it gives to the average person, I believe that a moral line DOES need to be drawn in the sand. I believe that Facebook should monitor, screen and ban groups that promote hate or harm to another human being. You might say that everyone is entitled to their opinion, even those with hateful sentiments towards another race. I would say that in our history, we have seen these types of groups act out their hateful views through violent means (Such as the recent shooting at the Holocaust museum in Washington), so why give a voice to group with a capacity for harm?

I believe that sites like Facebook and Twitter need to have a screening criteria in place that flags those posts or groups that are promoting hatred or harm to others. Isn’t that the right thing to do?

These thoughts have been floating around in my head for a while and I just needed to get them out! Again, I truly believe Social Media is a great thing, but I still think there are some guidelines or measures that need to be put in place to prevent these kind of  groups and commentary from easily finding a voice in the Social Networks.

Okay, I am finished….. I need to hear others perspectives on this? What do you think? Where do you stand on this?

Social Media Marketing Specialist – The Hottest Service Niche for 2009

One of my personal passions at the end of each year is to read the many posts from Internet Marketing Experts setting their predictions for a coming year! I must have read a dozen or so posts and guess what topped each of their lists as the fastest growth area for 2009…..

Social Media Marketing of course!

Kind of a no brainer, I guess!

Many businesses took all sorts of Social Media Training in 2008, but the reality is that the majority of them are simply too busy to apply what they learned to their marketing game plan. Others are still overwhelmed with the magnitude of Social Media and are not sure where to begin!

As a result, it is not surprising that Social Media Marketing Specialists and Consultants will be in serious demand in 2009 as businesses seek to leverage this powerful new channel.

We actually just finished our first Social Media Marketing Training Program a while back and are impressed at how some of the graduates have already secured new projects and clients as a result of learning such skills as:

- Online Video Marketing

- Social Media Strategy & Action Planning

- Twitter and Facebook Marketing

- Online Reputation Management

- Social Media Content Distribution

- Social Network Profile Management

- Blog Marketing

These seven “in-demand” services actually make up the curriculum for our new Self-directed Social Media Marketing Training Program.

The future is bright for Social Media Marketing Specialists and Consultants in 2009!

The Top Seven Social Marketing Services for 2009

Well, many of you that follow my blog regularly know that I love to talk about what is going on with Social Media. For the past two years, Social  Marketing services has become of passion of mine and I have absorbed pretty much every PDF guide, webinar, ebook, podcast I could my hands on regarding this topic!

It is an undisputable fact that 2008 was the year Social Media dominated the Internet and ultimately changed the way we comunicate and market our businesses in the online world!

But, most experts predict we are just at the tip of the iceberg! Social Network Sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LInkedIn all experienced tremendous growth 2008, but that does not even come to close to what is anticipated for 2009.

So, with the rapid growth of Social Media and the influx of businesses using it to build their brand and exposure, I am going to make a bold, but obvious prediction for 2009…..

Social marketing services will become the most “in-demand” skill and service requested by small businesses (possibly with the exception of design and copy) As I listen to Internet experts and connect with my online business pals, Social Media is quickly moving to the top of their marketing priority lists. Many of them took Social Media Training Courses such as StomperNet’s SMARTS program, but here is the fundamental problem: “Most simply don’t have time to maximize the potential of Social Media Marketing for their respective businesses.

So, it probably goes without saying that one of the hottest niches to further develop your skills falls in the area of Social Marketing Services.

Based our our extensive research, I have broken it down into the Top Seven Social Marketing Services that businesses will be desperately seeking in 2009….

On October 28th… we will will be running a live, FREE webinar event,

“Seven Profitable Social Marketing Services To Offer Your Clients in 2009″

If you are interested in Social Media and and see the huge potential in positioning yourself as a Social Marketing Specialist in 2009, then this webinar is for you.

Just visit the below web page to view a short video on this upcoming Social Media event. We are limiting this webinar to 200 seats so be sure to sign-up as soon as possible. I will be in touch soon with some more details!

http://www.vaclassroom.com/socialmarketing