Social Media Marketing

Alphonse Ha: Social Media Marketing Strategies

Twitter is Good for the NBA

September 4th, 2009. Published under Twitter. No Comments.

Twitter Kevin Durant

I have been following NBA star Kevin Durant’s Twitter for a while. I must say, I think it is a good thing he tweets. He tweets like he breathes and that can get a little annoying, not all his tweets are interesting to me. In fact, he Tweets so much that I saw him respond to people complaining that he tweets too much. However, Twitter is a great time filler. Now that it is the NBA offseason, he often lets out his boredom.

The guy is 20 years old, so he is technically not old enough to hit the clubs and party with the booze. Twitter allows him to stay connected with his fans. He often ustream live, ask questions on Twitter like what music are you listening right now, etc.

This is a great thing because it keeps him busy, it keeps him away from trouble, unlike J.R. Smith for example.

As much as I don’t find him very interesting, Kevin “the god of basketball” Durant is very authentic and very down to earth, unlike make NBA players who aren’t even as good as him *cough* JR Smith *cough*. He is showing his true self to the world. Love him or hate him. Your choice. He’ll be fine with either. He will continue to share his #musicmondays, continue to be bored, ask what’s up with his fans, respond to them and continue to ustream. I just hope he keeps it up when he’ll be 25.


photo by: tlianza

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Google Quietly Bites Facebook’s Ass

August 28th, 2009. Published under Facebook. No Comments.

iGoogle vs Facebook

Facebook claim that they have 250 millions active users. I think Google has nearly a billion active users”. Their biggest challenge is to shift their users into members. I would be very interested to know how many people have Google as their homepage vs Facebook as their homepage. With iGoogle quietly making moves to connect people together I can see Facebook finally getting a worthy opponent. Perhaps it will be an ICQ vs MSN messenger part deux?

Google is launching their Chrome OS, an operating system for PCs. Google can cut Facebook off before the user even opens the browser. I am keeping a close eye on what Google is doing with their “social” campaign. I believe that Google has much better talent and engineers, thus they can deliver better products but Facebook is the expert on socializing on the web by a landslide.

photo by: Geek&Poke

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Facebook Hacked

August 27th, 2009. Published under Facebook. No Comments.

Ok, so it isn’t Facebook that got hacked per se. Rather, it is Ann Cousins’ Facebook that got hacked (I have no idea who she is). My mother e-mailed me a Yahoo article and it got my attention:

Wed Aug 26, 3:36 PM
ST..JOHNS (CBC) – The online message sent from Ann Cousins’s Facebook account said the Newfoundland woman had been robbed of all her money at gunpoint while vacationing in London, England, and was desperate for help from her friends.

In fact, Cousins was at work in Port Aux Basques, on Newfoundland’s southwest coast, at the time, unaware that her account had been hacked and someone was trying to con her friends and family.

Once again, I call this a typical media scare tactics. In the end of the article, Ann Cousins (Who the hell is she???) states that she plans on permantently shut down Facebook and never get back on there. Riiiight, well, there is a good chance she won’t but I think she will most likely get back on there. My call is within a year or max 2.

Something like this can easily be fixed if you diversify your social media presence. If your Facebook got hacked, then you can still post on Twitter, LinkedIn, Seesmic, YouTube, you name it.

Creating a new account after being hacked is not a good idea because you have nobody to update. On the flipside, if you have multiple followers on multiple accounts, it is no big deal. So your Facebook got hacked, ok just announce it on Twitter, ask people to notify others on Facebook if they have it and to RT. The same can be said with YouTube and any other social media channels.

The world is getting more connected thanks to social media. The answer is not to hide but to increase our visibility and presence.

Just don’t have the same password across different platforms. I’m going to go change mine now… :D

photo by copyfighting

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Yeh! Yogourt & Café – SMM Done Right.

August 24th, 2009. Published under 101, Facebook, Social Media Marketing. 4 Comments.

Great example of Social Media Marketing done right by Yeh! Yogourt & Café.

It is important to note that one of the key reasons why it is done right is because they are active in their social media presence. They did not only put up a page and leave it there.

The Good

The Twitter account brings the visitor to their website’s homepage which has great branding. They also have a call to action front and center inviting people to join their Facebook Fan Page.

They communicate with their audience in the language of the media: “We will now be open on Saturday until midnight :) Yeh!“.

They reply to the feedback on their Facebook Page when a customer post on their wall

Please, please bring back strawberry.

I beg of you

Their Facebook page has customer/user engagement. People are posting photos of them enjoying their product on their wall. They are even uploading videos of their children!

The Bad

There aren’t much I would do differently. Just keep your communication strategy updated. The website states that it will be open in June (we are in August) and get your Facebook username. It is better for link building and SEO. You are allowed to get yours after you have more than 100 fans.

The Ugly

Nothing really to say :) `

2 social full-of-yogourt thumbs up!

Photo taken from Facebook Fan page.

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Social Media, CEOs, and ROI

August 21st, 2009. Published under Social Media Marketing, Twitter. 2 Comments.

I stumbled through the best article about Social Media for businesses and its ROI via a tweet from Lee Odden.

The article is written by Ronn Torossian, the CEO of 5WPR, one of the 25 largest public relations agencies in the U.S. and I think his comments hit home on a lot of point. It is a great reality check for most social media marketers.

Reality: CEOs are busy enough as they are and it is unrealistic to expect them to be able to tweet and engage with their following.

Yes, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos did it but there are always exceptions to the rule. Many social media gurus like to use exceptions and make them the rule.

Torossian says that Twitter is wrongfully percecived. Twitter is not instant messenging like Google Chat, AIM or MSN Messenger. It is a mix of social and broadcast media. Which is very true and it is a reality that many SM marketers forget or ignore.

I had a discussion with Julien Smith about how can you engage with so many people on Twitter and truth be told: you cannot. It is humanly impossible to engage with thousands, nevermind 10 of thousands, or 100 of thousands and more.

This is not to say that you cannot use Social Media to monetize nor that you cannot use Social Media to engage with your customers, target market and clients. Torossain discusses how there will be a business etiquette that will be different from user etiquette in social media and I agree. Social Media is still very young. In my opinion, it is in an embryonic phase – we will see a lot of stride in social media and social media marketing. Over time, people will be more comfortable and will learn to manage their expectations. Twitter and Facebook are still very new and are thus exciting. Let’s just give it time.

Meanwhile, brands and CEOs can still use Twitter to influence. As Torossian puts it perfectly:

When launched, Twitter was hailed as a microblogging site, a way in which individuals and/or thought leaders could share information with their followers, as opposed to the way in which it is mainly used today, as an instant-messaging service.

CEOs do not have time to reply on Twitter, but they can share information. If they read a great article they like, they can share with their following. They can take 5 minutes a day to peruse their twitterfeed and try to retweet once a day. Their level of engagement is just different. Retweeting is a form of engagement, sharing quality information is another form of engagement.

In an economy starved for lead generation, as long as they do not only push their own content, CEOs can definitely use Twitter to influence and demonstrate expertise. Expecting them to reply to every comments, however is ludicrous.

photo by: Antoine Lendrevie

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You Ignore Social Media? Shame, Shame!

August 14th, 2009. Published under 101, Social Media Marketing. 2 Comments.

Dear large Canadian corporations,

How can you ignore social media as being a part of your marketing? It is obviously big enough (read popular enough) for Telus to go bananza with it’s advertising and splash social media logos everywhere in one of the biggest metro station in Montreal.

Social Media Marketing Ads

So you are tellng me that you recognize social media and use it as bait but where are you in social media? Where is your social media marketing?

You know that audience you were trying to get their attention by using a Facebook logo? Do you know you could of really gotten their attention in another way?

Yeah! You can! Through a really cool website called Facebook and by engaging with them, by listening and by conversing with them!

Please step up.

Yours truly,
The targetted audience that cares.

PS: The use of social media logos and other apps isn’t the problem, it is because you don’t combine it with effective and engaging social media marketing.

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Facebook Search? Watch Out Twitter and Google!

August 11th, 2009. Published under Facebook, Social Media Marketing. 2 Comments.

Facebook Search
Facebook made an announcement yesterday that they improved search for everyone:

You now will be able to search the last 30 days of your News Feed for status updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you’re a fan. If people have chosen to make their content available to everyone, you also will be able to search for their status updates, links and notes, regardless of whether or not you are friends. Search results will continue to include people’s profiles as well as relevant Facebook Pages, groups and applications.

This is a big threat to Google because Facebook owns a lot of data. After acquiring FriendFeed, Facebook is also looking Twitter right in the eye because the talent acquisition will help Facebook position themselves in real time search and compete with Twitter. Like I have discussed previously, this is a huge step for search or, more specifically, social search because Facebook owns a lot more data than Twitter.

What does this mean for Social Media Marketing

Well, I couldn’t have said it better than Gary Vaynerchuk:

For the purpose of Social Media Marketing, Twitter allows brands to engage with new customers, fans, prospects. This was limited with Facebook because the only way to interact with them was through the fan page. Now that Facebook gives us access to 250 million active users, it is a lot easier to engage new clients, new customers, new prospects, new fans just like Gary showed in his video.

I guess this is how it feels to have the world in the palm of your hand? Thank you Facebook! :D

photo by: jaycameron

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NBA Players on Twitter

August 6th, 2009. Published under Twitter. 1 Comment.

I know there are Twitter directories but they are all so awful and hard to find so I figured I would make a interesting lists of people on Twitter (They are listed in alphabetical order by first name). If I am missing any NBA players from my list please send me a tweet: http://twitter.com/alphonseha! :D

Tip: press control+F or Apple+F (if you use a mac) and type your favorite Basketball player to find him quickly.

List of NBA players on Twitter

List of former NBA players on Twitter

I am also thinking of doing a list of Porn Stars on Twitter… that could be interesting :P

photo by: topgold

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The YouTube Optimization Experiment Aftermath

August 6th, 2009. Published under YouTube. 2 Comments.

Here is the aftermath of my YouTube Optimization experiment. On July 27, 2009 I recorded the Michael Jackson Flash Mob Tribute in Montreal.

The goal was just to have content. I know that my camera handling was very poor and my angle sucked. However, I knew that the Flash Mob would make the news and a lot of people would be searching for videos about the MJ Tribute. Flash Mobs in general are pretty cool so I knew I had interesting content. I wanted to share the event with the world but I also knew that I had something people wanted to see.

Stats:

Within hours:

  • I got on the first page for Most Viewed of the day in the category Entertainment.
  • I had more views than the Bande à Part (Radio-Canada) video of the Flash Mob.

It is important to note that the Bande à Part Youtube channel has a lot more subscribers (238 subcribers vs 3 subscribers), their video was embeded on multiple the major TV network web pages and it was also later picked up by Radio-Energie’s website (A major radio network).

Within 24 hours:

  • I made it to the 2nd page of Most Viewed of the day in all categories.

48 Hours

  • I recorded over 10,000 views.

48-72 Hours:

  • I was in a tight competition with the official video, which was released a few hours after me (the official video was edited, showed all 4 flash mobs, had multiple cameras and had better angles).
  • I recorded over 20,000 views.
  • It took over 3 days for the official video to pass my amount of views and even when it did, we were very close. We were both only a few spots away from the first page of most viewed of the day in all categories.
  • Once the official video got to the first page of most viewed, it was over for me.

5 – 10 days:

  • For a week, I still had more views than Bande à Part’s Video despite them being a “Featured Video“. It took them more than a week to pass my amount of views.
  • After 10 days, I recorded over 34,000 views, 59 ratings and 67 comments. Not too shabby for a badly filmed video.

Search:

In less than 24 hours…

  • I was the first Flash Mob result for the search query: Michael Jackson Tribute Montreal
  • I was the first Michael Jackson Flash Mob result for the search query: Flash Mob Montreal
  • I was the first result for the search query: Michael Jackson Flash Mob Montreal
  • My video was found for the search query: Michael Jackson Flash Mob
  • My video was found for the search query: Michael Jackson (Yes, for only Michael Jackson!)
  • My video was also found for the search query: Flash Mob

I stayed at the top of the YouTube Search Engines for my keywords for a long time.

Here is a screen shot of my YouTube Insights for discovery (click on picture to see full size):

YouTube Optimization Stats

After 10 days, 75% of my views were either from Search or related videos. I should of taken a print screen of the first 3 days, my search results were dominating.

Here is a screen shot of my YouTube Insights for demographics (click on picture to see full size):

YouTube Insights Stats

  • The genders for all age groups are 50/50.
  • The 2 most viewed populations are between 45-44 and 45-54. I guess it makes sense because they are the population that embraced Michael Jackson when he was with the Jackson 5 and when he was at the top of his career.
  • Despite being born after Thriller, the 13-17 generation recorded more views of the Flash Mob Tribute video than the 18 to 24 (who were also born after Thriller). This is most likely a proof that the 13-17 year olds use YouTube more than the older generation for their search of information.

Conversion

I created a blog post about the Michael Jackson Flash Mob Tribute in Montreal where I obviously embeded my video but I also embeded a YouTube playlist I created that had other interesting videos of the Mtl Flash Mob. My conversion were fairly low because despite having a link straight to my blog post at the beginning of the YouTube video description, a lot of people did not click until I added annotations with a call to action to read the description for more information. Nevertheless, I had 319 visits to my blog in 7 days. That is more than my average visits per month!

  • 200 unique views in the first 2 days (Of my blog post)
  • 364 page views in 10 days on over 34,000 video views.
  • That is roughly a 1.07% CTR.

YouTube Optimization – How to Get More YouTube Views

So how did I do it? Here are the secrets to optimizing your YouTube videos and get more views:

…

I will have that in my next blog post :P

photo by: blakeburris

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Semantic Search VS Social Search: The Future

July 30th, 2009. Published under SEO. 2 Comments.

social search
I want to discuss is the impact of the Yahoo-Microsoft search partnership on the future of the search industry. Reading Yahoo committed seppuku today got me thinking… Jason Calacanis states that Yahoo committing suicide is good news for emerging competitors of Google:

And so ends the second chapter of search and begins the third.

  1. Chapter one was inception up until the launch of Google.
  2. Chapter two was Google’s rise and Yahoo’s death.
  3. Chapter three will be the two-horse race of Microsoft and Google, with the inevitable emergence of a third and fourth player.

Yahoo’s Suicide Opens Doors for Smaller Players

With Twitter revamping their home page and putting search front and center, Bing integrating Twitter in their search, Facebook owning the information of over 250 million users across the world and Google developing Google Friend Connect to compete, that 3rd and 4th player won’t be looking on the sideline; they will be major players.

In fact, using the Yahoo-Microsoft news as an example, I was thinking that we are getting flooded with information more than ever. Google’s rise to prominence was due to its ability to filter and sort information. However, it is now becoming easier to publish ourselves and accordingly, more and more people are doing it. Moreover, social media creates more lines of communication, hence the rise in the level of the flood.

Google is no longer relevant

Searching on Google is no longer enough. When I heard about the Yahoo-Microsoft deal, I wanted to read more than the facts of the deal. I wanted to read insightful opinions, its impact on the search industry, etc. It took me 2 days, reading multiple websites and tweets, before I found Calacanis’ insightful post thanks to a RT (retweet) in a Facebook Status.

Since I have been using Twitter, filtering information has become a priority. I unfollowed a lot of “gurus” in the industry and “power users” because they just post too much. I decided that the most important information will reach me through RT anyway, thus following them is unecessary.

Social Search is filtering by people instead of robots

Semantic search has been a hot topic lately but I think that social search or social filtering of information might be where the money is at. By social search, I don’t mean finding people online, rather I mean how information can be filtered and sorted through online social interactions. I am picky about the people I follow on Twitter because of the pertinence of the information they deliver.

In a way, I have developped my own search engine by choosing the people I decide to consume their information. Titles of the web page or articles is instrumental in my decision to click but the distributor of the content is perhaps even more important.

It only makes sense, doesn’t it? That people filter and sort information rather than robots? Of course, I am aware that algorythm or “robots” would still be needed to sort the social information but atleast, it is social based rather than link and keyword based. We have always resorted to referrals and recommendations from other people or from people we trust. Why stop now?

Social Search is not (only) Twitter

Thus, whoever can develop the best social search engine will be the new Google. Twitter seems to have a head start but I don’t believe they have the firepower to get it done. Social search is more than just tweets, albeit tweets are currently a great ressource, other forms of social interactions such as comments, ratings, sharing, etc come into play. I just wonder if Google will be the new Google or if somebody else will.

With the flood of information, I am becoming more reliant on people feeding me information than Google. I believe that semantic search is necessary but social search is indispensible.

Perhaps “social search” is the wrong term. Any suggestions?

How do I Know I can Trust you?

What do you think is the role of trust in the social search engine? How can it be measured or calculated? Can it be calculated?

photo by: Clearly Ambiguous

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