Posts Tagged Facebook

New Chart: Perceptions about Social Media are Changing – How Social Media is Perceived at Budget Time

By Sergio Balegno, Senior Analyst

The question was — Which statement best describes how social media marketing is perceived within your organization at budget time?

Considering that social media is at a very early stage in its lifecycle, a 7% confidence rating that it is producing measureable ROI and should be funded liberally is outstanding.

Conservative budget increases by half of all organizations at budget time — based on the promise that social media will eventually produce ROI — is another vote of confidence in the medium for the longer term.

The 17% of organizations who still believe social media marketing is basically free and should stay that way, are destined to get what they pay for.

Not surprisingly, those who have reached the strategic phase of social marketing maturity are far more likely to be producing measurable ROI or at least seeing signs of a return on their investment on the horizon.

On the other hand, marketers in the trial phase of social marketing maturity are more than four times as likely to not recognize the value this tactic has for organizations willing to invest appropriate time and resources.

Social Media Budgeting Importance

For additional research data and insights about social marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.

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Facebook is College Students’ GoTo

According to research by Anderson Analytics, Facebook is not only the overwhelming favorite social networking site (SNS) among college students, it may rapidly become the only SNS that matters. Facebook is found to be the “coolest network” by far among students with over 300,000,000 Facebook active users, half of whom return to the site every day.

Among seven leading social networking sites ranked by college students in the Anderson Analytics 2009-2010 GenX2Z American College Student Survey conducted this fall, Facebook was viewed as “cool” by 82% of males and 90% of females. All other SNS’ were deemed “lame” by significant percentages of both male and female collegiate users. MySpace’ the granddaddy of SNS” was considered “lame” by the largest (31%) portion of college students.

Facebook not only topped the SNS landscape, it overtook Google as the number one most popular website among both genders of college students surveyed.

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eBrand Media Social Manager Pro – Build a movement born from the bond between your friends, fans, followers, and brand.

eBrand Interactive, a division of eBrand Media, is a full service agency, and over the past nine years we’ve successfully created, launched, and managed hundreds of internet media campaigns for many of the web’s leading brands. I’d like to introduce you to the eBrand Media Social Manager Pro. We’ll build a movement born from the bond between your friends, fans, followers, and brand.

If you don’t have a Facebook fan page or a Twitter stream established, we’ll launch those channels on your behalf. If you do have a Facebook page and Twitter account set up but are short on the resources to manage it for the purpose of generating sales while building the brands equity; we can help there too.

Facebook has approximately 500,000,000 members. How many of them are current or potential customers of yours? Keep in touch with your fans. Discover what they want and give it give it to them.

Twitter’s growing presence represents a golden opportunity to create, build, and monetize relationships with people and companies who have chosen to follow you!

Have you built out your company’s presence on social networks? Are you aware of how effective social networks are for not only listening to your audience but for driving revenue too? Looking to expand market share?

If you’d like to get more out of your social networking efforts, we know how to successfully create, manage, and montetize your friend, fan, and follower relationships.

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Andrew Keen on the death of Facebook and the future of the web

by Meghan Keane

Andrew Keen is a former entrepreneur who has since recanted his enthusiasm for Silicon Valley and come out as an outspoken opponent of Web 2.0. Keen is no stranger to controversy. His 2007 book “Cult of the Amateur” argued against the wisdom of crowds and he is known for incendiary commentary, like the time he likened Web 2.0 to a communist society or when he told Stephen Colbert that the Internet is worse than Nazism. In case you were wondering, here’s his definition of blogging: “It’s all about digital narcissism, shameless self-promotion. I find it offensive.”

Keen now writes at The Great Seduction, twitters @ajkeen, and speaks on a variety of topics. This week, Keen wrote that Facebook’s infusion of $200 million from Russian investors signaled “the final act of the Web 2.0 tragi-comedy.”  We caught up with him via phone while he was in Alabama this week (“studying the natives”) to discuss the death of Web 2.0 and what comes next.

** Do you think that the formation of this “cult of the amateur” had anything to do with mainstream dissatisfaction with the “experts”?

I think there’s a strong cultural strain of fear and hostility towards experts and professionals. It’s a historic phenomenon, but it’s getting more and more prominent. With the Internet, the little people have the means to challenge the authorities. It’s another kind of rebellion.

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Why phishers love Facebook (and Twitter)

By Bob Sullivan, The Red Tape Chronicles

Facebook is the new playground for phishers. Why?  The social networking site has made things relatively easy for computer criminals.  So far, the consequences have been relatively mild — mostly, some annoying emails.  But if Facebook and other social networking sites don’t get a handle on security issues soon, a serious outbreak could occur.

Behind every successful criminal computer hack a simple two-step process: gain trust, then exploit that trust with an attack.  Computer criminals will tell you that gaining trust is the hard part. Consider a real-world parallel: Breaking into a bank is difficult.  But if you befriend a guard, he’ll eventually let you walk right in through the front door. 

That’s why Facebook attacks are so easy, says Mary Landesman, senior researcher at computer security firm ScanSafe.

“Facebook users assume a level of trust they just should not assume when using the site,” she said.

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