Author Archives: Jon Victor

How will the new changes with Twitter affect Engage121?

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Jon Victor| Leave a comment
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The changes you have read about affect us just a bit. It is important to recognize that we are “Social CRM,” and as such, an industry participant that Twitter wants and needs to support – especially since we are a potential source of significant advertising revenue. And, applications like Engage121 are really not part of the problem(s) that Twitter is trying to solve.

To be more specific:

• There will be no impact on our source(s) of Twitter data; and the content available to you will remain unchanged. We access (now and in the future) the Twitter API to support our ad hoc searches, and we connect to Twitter firehose re-seller(s) for background tasks such as measurement and analysis. That will not change.

• However, as a participant in the Twitter ecosystem we are obligated to slightly change the presentation of Tweets in our application to more closely comport with Twitter’s new standard. These changes are already in our development pipeline and you should notice changes over the coming month or so.

It seems to me that Twitter’s primary intent is:

(i) to control the user experience (look and feel) of its product – Tweets;
(ii) guide consumers who do want a platform to the Twitter-owned Tweetdeck, which, again, provides Twitter more direct control over the user experience, and
(iii) eliminate superfluous middleware that stand between native Twitter and its users.

If there is one thing we have learned about social media, it is to expect change. Today, Twitter is trying to gain more control over the product it delivers to users, but without adversely the ecosystem that is vital to its developing revenue model. Tomorrow, expect radical changes from Facebook as its users increasingly access the platform through mobile devices that are far less able to carry advertising. And the day after, who knows. We will do our best to stay on top of the changes – that’s a promise.

 

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Posted in Announcements, Engage121, Marketing Tools, Social Media News, Twitter

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We’re here to help . . . Facebook

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Jon Victor| 3 Comments
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It has been almost a year since Facebook announced support for “Parent/Child” businesses. The businesses this functionality targets, which include franchise companies, multi-store retailers, dealerships and the like, are typically nationally branded companies that distribute through local outlets. In other words, the very same companies that are just like many of our clients here at Engage121.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Facebook widely publicized its support of Parent/Child pages at the recent International Franchise Association conference in Orlando, this functionality is not yet well understood. So, let’s clarify what Parent/Child can do:

• Perhaps most importantly, the administrator of a corporate (“Parent”) page can efficiently upload multiple local outlets to Facebook, automatically creating local (“Child”) pages for each of their outlets. In the past, we have had to manually create local pages. And, that was time consuming and expensive. Facebook has now made this as easy as completing a spreadsheet and hitting a button.

• The Parent page is automatically linked to all Child pages. This enables some useful functionality, especially on the Parent page. For example, check-ins from all Child pages are aggregated, users can search for the location of the closest physical outlet and a tab is created detailing all outlet locations. Also, each Child page links back to the Parent, and consistency of branding is enabled among all the pages by sharing images.

Facebook provides a great start. And there is a lot we can do to help.

Let’s start with the content creation process. It is well known that social media content gets stale, fast. And, as previously noted, EdgeRank conspires against dated content by increasingly limiting the distribution of content as it ages. To complicate matters, operators of local business come to work every morning ready to sell shoes, make pizza or fix cars. They don’t come to work thinking about social media, or any other kind of media for that fact. Engage121 allows corporate teams to create content that can be localized to each local store or office, providing a continual flow of new, fresh and relevant content.

What about Facebook apps? How many local stores care to manage the development of Facebook apps? Engage121 enables a corporate team to create contests, coupons and more that each local store can customize, if desired, or post to their fan page as is – engaging their local fans with technology and sophistication equal to any of the big national brands.

And, Facebook ads are lost on most of the local stores we know. They are turned off by Facebook’s complicated interface and intimidating process. Inside Engage121, however, local stores follow a simple wizard that produces a variety of paid promotions that play an increasingly important role in today’s social media world.

My bottom line – Facebook’s Parent/Child provides targeted companies a great start. And, we can help make Parent/Child even more usable for nationally-branded companies that maintain local stores or outlets.

 

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Posted in Community Manager Tips, Engage121, Engage121 Clients, Engage121 Product Features, Facebook, Marketing Tools, Social Media Management, Social Media Marketing

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Who owns your Facebook Fans?

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Jon Victor| 2 Comments
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Many companies, and most all Engage121 clients, have invested lots of creativity, money and time building a Facebook fan base. And, most of us would agree that our Facebook fans are a key marketing asset – just like our client lists or opt-in email lists.

But, who actually “owns” our Facebook fans?

A knee jerk reaction might be, “we do!” The argument might be that our company has expended resources to build a community possessing an affinity for our offering. We try to nurture that affinity through engaging content and offers and we have earned the right to access that community for our individual business purposes.

Well, the argument may be sound. But, the conclusion is probably incorrect. In fact, for most purposes, Facebook owns our fans and we merely rent access to them.

Remember: our fans are also Facebook’s users!

Ad Age recently reported , and we have discussed on this blog, that Facebook is implementing a tollgate controlling access by brands to its users – aka, our fans.

Facebook’s message to brands is clear: “Social at scale will not be free.”

OK, we get it. Not free. We have to pay to access our fans, but how much, and for how much access?

We have some numbers to consider:

“[Facebook’s] pitch is that just 16% of fans currently see organic content posted by brands: Most of it is weeded out by Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, designed to enhance users’ experience by putting only the most relevant content in their news feeds. Using the paid ad tool could increase a brand’s exposure percentage to as high as 75%.”

So, if you want content to reach just 6 of every 100 of your Facebook fans, continue posting – a lot – and eventually you will reach all your fans. Not consistently. And, certainly not the message you want, when you want.

To extend our reach to all fans – and Facebook suggests that “all” means about 75% – we need to recognize that it is Facebook that controls access to its users. Er, our fans. So, we need to pay a toll. And, as I have said before, depending on the toll, I think that is fair to both Facebook and brands.

But, that begs the question – how much is the toll? Our answer: very reasonable.

A couple of weeks ago we announced several enhancements to our application. We posted the announcement on Facebook and established a “Sponsored Story” promotion budget of $5.00 per day. That, we figure was probably in in the budget of most every Engage121 client!

Our results were impressive. Typically our posts have a reach of about 200. Our sponsored post ad had a reach of 422,847, and, over the past month, has received 75 clicks at a cost of $56.07.

Our bottom line is that Facebook has changed its business model, and if we are to use Facebook effectively, we need to change our practices. We recommend that all posts to Facebook should be promoted as Sponsored Stories, even at a minimal budget. Otherwise, we will be reaching only a small fraction of our intended audience. And, that makes no sense.

Our fans are Facebook’s users. We don’t have exclusive ownership of our fans any more than Facebook owns our client lists.

We need to adjust our practices to reflect Facebook’s new reality.

 

 

 

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Posted in Community Manager Tips, Facebook, Marketing, Social Media Marketing

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Reports of the Death of Facebook Tab Applications

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Jon Victor| 1 Comment
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Almost as soon as Facebook had finished unveiling its new Timeline, marketers were abuzz about the death of Tab Applications.

I received a call earlier today from a member of our team. He wanted to know what I thought we should tell our clients, many of whom use Engage121 to develop and manage Tab applications. Are Tab applications dead? He heard the buzz.

Well, I’m not sure the buzz is correct. The death of Facebook Tab applications may be greatly exaggerated – if not premature.

So, what prompted the buzz?

Facebook’s redesign moved Tabs from a conspicuous position on the left-hand panel, readily viewable by anyone who arrives on a brand’s landing page, to almost hidden under a drop-down box on the right side of the new Page. Taken at “face” value – almost a pun there – Tabs are certainly less obvious to the user. But, I don’t think this is an effort by Facebook to kill Tab applications. That said, I also do not believe Facebook’s relocation of Tabs was unintentional.

The key to understanding what is going on here is to recognize that Facebook has made Tab applications very accessible to users through ads. As reported on “Inside Facebook”

“Advertisers can still run Facebook campaigns that drive to third-party tab applications . . . This type of ad can be used to drive traffic to promotions or commerce features within tab applications.”

Facebook is very deliberately, and carefully, redesigning the user experience to encourage marketers to pay for connecting a brand and its fans.

So, in response to the question above – are Tab applications dead? – I think the answer is probably “No.” But, applications have been monetized – by Facebook.

 

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Posted in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media Management, Social Media Monitoring

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TANSTAAFL and other Facebook EdgeRank tales

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Jon Victor| Leave a comment
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The acronym for “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch . . .” rings true for a reason. Because there ain’t.

What about the idea that companies would have the opportunity to engage their consumers directly, and at no cost?

Consider: Facebook provides brands the opportunity to post to a fan page. That post is presented directly to fans in their News Feed. A direct marketer’s dream. Almost sounds like a free lunch.

But . . .

Facebook employs a well-discussed, and still mysterious, technology called EdgeRank. Find a good description by “Inside Facebook” here. The key part is:

EdgeRank is the algorithm that determines what items populate your News Feed. With all the friends people have and pages they like, most users would be overwhelmed to see all of the activity generated by these connections. Facebook, therefore, assigns a value to every possible story that could end up in the feed. This value is based on affinity, weight and time.

I added the emphasis on the only inputs into EdgeRank: Affinity; Weight; and Time.

Affinity is an attempt to quantify the importance of the content to each individual fan; weight recognizes that some types of content are more engaging (presumably rich links or photos are more attractive than text) and should be ranked higher; and time is . . . time.

So, it seems that Facebook will tend to deliver brand content . . .

  • To enthusiastic fans, even if the content appears a bit dull and some time has elapsed;
  • To all fans if the content is exciting and new;

but, once content is posted, every minute that goes by works against a brand’s effort to accommodate EdgeRank’s filter.

Even more troubling, we need to face up to the fact that not all fans are rabid brand ambassadors. And, not all content posted makes hearts race. So, time works against us even more.

Can we fight back? Yes. But, TANSTAAFL!

We believe Facebook’s Sponsored Stories are a great answer. And, while not free, these ads can be little dynamos! Think of Sponsored Stories as your best weapon against the time bomb ticking away inside EdgeRank.

 

- Jon Victor, CEO Engage121

 

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Posted in Community Manager Tips, Facebook, Marketing, Social Media Marketing

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Client Letter Emailed February 9, 2012: Engage121 v2.1

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Jon Victor| 2 Comments
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I am delighted to announce the launch of Engage121 version 2.1, including:

  • Facebook Ads,
  • Integration of our new partners SocialFlow and Traackr, and
  • A new dashboard and enhanced permissions to help your workflow.

That means, as of today, Engage121 will:

Integrate paid placement. As social media continues to expand – exponentially! – your message risks getting lost in the noise. We believe that – for some messaging, some of the time – the solution is to pay for your message to persist. So, today we integrate Facebook Ads to allow you to turn each post published through Engage121 “Speak” into an on-target ad that gives your message hang time! Once you enable your account for Facebook Ads (your Account Manager will help), you will be prompted to target and promote your Facebook posts (these “ads” are displayed on right side of Facebook). Engage121 handles the entire process and we will simply invoice you for the cost of your Facebook promotions – but, of course, you control the budget. And, we’ll be adding new options – in Facebook and through other platforms – soon.

Open to new ideas and opportunities. We are as amazed as you are by the continuing innovation, creativity and technical sophistication that forward-thinking people have focused on social media. We work long and hard for you, but we cannot possibly keep pace with of all the great ideas out there. So, today we begin a process of integrating into Engage121 other companies’ products and features that we think you will find helpful. Of course, there will be an additional charge for many of these applications, but they will all be optional – you choose which, if any, you want to use. The benefit to you, of course, is that you will increasingly find the most useful and technologically advanced features all together inside your Engage121 account. We start today with:

  • SocialFlow. WHEN is the best time to post? SocialFlow “times” the distribution of your posts by comparing your content to the prevailing conversation. Your post is optimized to obtain the most reactions, such as retweets, comments and shares. When enabled, SocialFlow is fully integrated with Engage121 “Speak.” Currently, SocialFlow is limited to Twitter; Facebook is coming soon. Again, please ask your Account Manager about the SocialFlow new user promotion available now.
  • Traackr. WHO should you engage? One answer, of course, is that you should engage your “influencers.” But that begs the question – which influencers impact each part of your business? Traackr provides you targeted lists of influencers and then Engage121 integrates each list directly into a dedicated “Listen” page. Again, please ask your Account Manager about the Traackr new user promotion available now.

Focus on your workflow. Was it just a couple of years ago that all we had to worry about was following more than one Twitter account? Interest in social media has now spread throughout our organizations, from top to bottom and everyone in between. We need to ensure that Engage121 meets your needs – even as your needs get more complex:

  • Dashboard Upgrade. Our new dashboard offers easy access to charts and analytics, as well as convenient navigation to frequently-used features.
  • Agency and Multi-brand Dashboard. We have added new connection options to keep you in touch with your team, and more.
  • Permission Management. Need even more multi-tiered permission options to control access and content management? Now you have them.

Also, you might be interested in my recent post on the IBM report that is keeping CMOs awake at night. You guessed it; social media!

Your Account Manager will be calling soon to answer any questions.

And, please don’t hesitate to share any of your thoughts and suggestions directly with me,

Jon Victor, CEO

P.S. COMING SOON!  A new and enhanced Engage121 “Evaluate” that improves your analytics and reporting. I’ve seen the changes and my reaction is “Wow!” I expect yours will be, too.

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Posted in Announcements, Engage121, Engage121 Product Features, Facebook, Social Media Management, Social Media Marketing, Software updates, Twitter

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The question still remains for Top Executives: What should we do about Social Media?

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Jon Victor| 1 Comment
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When we first developed our social media management application in 2009, our product development team benefitted from the insights of well over one hundred companies that were clients of our grassroots communication service. These clients included national real estate companies, automobile companies and a broad cross-section of the franchise industry. All wereasking us the same question: “What should we do about social media?” We heard that question so often that we decided to invest a substantial sum and many hours of hard work on the development of Engage121.

A few years have now passed. Engage121 has launched – and so have hundreds of other companies and products also focused on helping companies manage their social media presence.

Every once in a while, we get an objective glimpse of whether we – as a company and an industry – are meeting the needs of our clients.

In both cases, our work is far from done.

At the suggestion of a client, I recently read IBM’s October 2011 survey of Chief Marketing Officers, “From Stretched to Strengthened.” I recommend the survey to all marketers – but, I especially recommend the survey to social media professionals who consider the survey a report card on whether we are meeting the needs and expectations of CMOs, arguably our most important constituency.

A quick summary: “CMOs see four challenges as pervasive, universal game-changers: the data explosion, social media, proliferation of channels and devices and shifting consumer demographics.” Note “pervasive” and “game changers” – those are noteworthy choices of words. And, how do CMOs feel about all this?Among many of the statistics reported, 68% of CMOs feel unprepared to manage social media, and 65% express concern about managing the growth of channels and devices.

In my mind, CMOs are expressing one big concern, and that’s “what should we do about social media?” CMOs are expressing the same concern today that I heard several years ago – notwithstanding the proliferation of new products, more data, sophisticated analytics and the explosion of digital media professionals offering help.

Our business objective – as Engage121 and as the “social media management services” industry – is to provide the data, analytics and functionality that marketers require to survive and thrive.

We have more work to do.

– Jon Victor, CEO Engage121

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Posted in Engage121, Social Media Marketing

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Engage121 – 2011 Mashable ‘Digital Company of the Year’ Finalist

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Jon Victor| Leave a comment
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Wow.  We are thrilled.  Engage121 made it to the short list as a finalist for Digital Company of the Year for the 2011 Mashable Awards .  This is our second year of being part of the Mashable Awards.  Last year we were nominated as a finalist for 5 Superior Social Media Management Tools.

Mashable describes Digital Company of the Year as:

This category honors the reader’s choice for the top traditional (non-digital) company that has excelled in the digital space in 2011.

Thanks to all who voted for us. Voting for the finalists will continue until December 15th so please continue to show your support by voting daily here  

We appreciate it.

 

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Posted in Announcements, Engage121, What's new - Marketing

Good advice

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Jon Victor| Leave a comment
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What should our clients do on Thursday evenings? Buddy Media has the answer.

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Posted in Facebook, Social Media Platforms, Uncategorized

Follow the money . . . again

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Jon Victor| 1 Comment
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As mentioned in my last blog post, following the money provides interesting insights. So, I followed $15 million and was interested to learn that Constant Contact, a significant competitor in email marketing, has just acquired start-up Bantam Live. http://tcrn.ch/dILu3s 
 
I really don’t have a strong opinion on the merits of email marketing. There is plenty of data around suggesting that email remains somewhat effective. But, I do know this -
 
Pushing content to consumers is increasingly a futile effort. Few of us run home and check the mailbox for specials or offers the way we did years ago. And spam filters have become ever more capable of protecting our Inbox.
 
Social media, however, requires marketers to pull (not push) information. So all consumer contact is effectively opt-in, and therefore has a much greater likelihood of influencing consumer behavior.
 
At least, that seems to be a bet that Constant Contact is willing to make.

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Posted in Social Media Investing