Why Does Google Provide Free Products? Welcome to deansguide’s 5 Year Anniversary

Introduction

Special acknowledgment must be made to two very important people in my life. The first is my inspiration to begin blogging and the man that introduced me and inspired me in becoming a social media consultant: Patrick Kitano. Pat, my former business associate at Domus Consulting Group and close friend, is truly a thought leader in the social media space and one of the original first adopters of Twitter and Facebook.

The second hero in my rise into blogging and social media is my current business partner Susan Hanshaw, A former Vice President in a large direct marketing firm and marketing expert, it was Susan who helped me believe in my abilities and was instrumental in launching my public speaking career. She means the world to me.

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Dateline March 31, 2012

Today is my 5 year anniversary as a blogger. Although my instincts say write a post about my accomplishments and experiences as a blogger, my judgment says that’s too self serving. Instead, I will dedicate this short post, #718 to my thoughts on Google and why they have provided free products to the masses.

Google’s Premise

Long before consumers had privacy issues with Google, Google understood the “social graph” and how the information we provide to them, through all of their free product offerings, could impact their ability to deliver target specific advertising that works.

Today, Google understands that Google+ is the “glue” that binds together their product offerings. They have rewarded consumers and brands that have adopted Google+ with SEO benefits. Any free product that Google offers is done, first and foremost, to capture your personal information, your habits, your favorite things-people-places. Eventually all of this social graph intelligence will help them continue to build better advertising product offerings and in the future truly build a real-time search engine that prominently includes “social signals” and not just questionably link stuffed websites.

Conclusion: Citizen Journalist Power to the People!

Blogging is the lynchpin driving force behind Web 2.0. We  have finally gained control over our own information. We now are “citizen journalist” with the power that blogging has represented in the democratization of content, news, and personal information. We are in control and own our destiny like no other time in history. We have wrestled this control from the greedy, over confident, and monopolistic print and television media that had a stranglehold over us for over a century.

It’s a new day, a new era. Are you taking advantage of your rights? Join me in standing together forever for the rights and freedoms that every person enjoys to take control of their story and present it to the world.  .  . long live citizen journalism, blogging, Google, and the spirit of discovery!

Twitter Wine Industry Case Study: Drive Traffic To Your Tasting Room

The following Twitter case study was written by Innerarchitect.com CEO Susan Hanshaw. The research was compiled by deansguide and analyzed by both of us in an effort to recognize the true ROI for Twitter. Our study was based on a 12 week marketing campaign we executed in the Napa Valley for a prominent boutique winery. The goal: drive consumers to the winery tasting room Monday through Friday.

Our white paper will be published in the coming weeks. If you are interested in receiving a copy, and you work within the wine industry, leave me your comment with email address.

Inner Architect recently compiled findings from a 12-week project we completed a few weeks ago for a boutique Napa Valley winery. Using a CRM tool, we tracked all our efforts and measured the results. The rates in which we converted messages to visitors–unheard of in email or postal campaigns--speaks to the power of targeting, personalized messages, and most importantly, 1:1 marketing.

The Campaign

We were working with a small budget that afforded only an average of 7.5 hours of time per week. Our goal was to generate traffic to the tasting room during the week, Monday through Friday only. We recommended that we could be most effective with a special offer, so we ran with a complimentary tasting for 2 offer.

The Measured Results

A CRM approach to this project provided us with the ability to measure the results of our campaign. Anyone who says that you can’t measure the ROI of social media simply hasn’t thought out the measurement points and set up a disciplined system for tracking.

Our CRM reports tallied that we made 260 unique offers in the 12-week period. These 260 offers were not mass blasts into the general stream. They were targeted messages delivered via Twitter’s @mention feature to prospects we identified using Twitter search.

We sent 84 people to the tasting room, with an average of 3.4 people per visit. That’s a gross conversion rate of 32% generated from 25 users, or a net conversion rate of nearly 10%. Anyone who has experience measuring email or postal campaigns understands that these rates are untouchable in the “traditional” channels.

Key ROI Finding

By keeping track of our efforts, we were able to uncover a key indicator that a prospect will convert to a visitor. Comparing the response rates of the group that visited the tasting room to the non-visitor group enabled us to see that 84% of the visitors responded to our first tweet effort versus only 26% of the non-visitors.

What this possibly points to is an opportunity to increase ROI by investing time only in prospects who respond to our first tweet and shifting more time in searching for targeted propects.

Twitter as a Direct Marketing Solution

A white paper is now in the works to describe more fully how Twitter can be utilized as a direct marketing solution. If you are interested in receiving a copy, email us your request and we’ll send you a copy when it’s done.

How Important is Influence Within Social Media?

Influence is a hotly debated subject within Social Media circles. Many people believe that your influence, within social networks, is your most valuable commodity. Others believe that influence is often overrated and rarely measured with all relevant factors taken into consideration. Yet long before social media existed, influence was often considered critical in the sales process. Whether you believe in it or not you should consider Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence: Science and Practice”

Cialdini’s Six Principles of Influence

1. Reciprocation: If you take care of your customers, your customers will take care of you
2. Scarcity: It’s easier to tell something that people perceive as popular and in short supply
3. Authority: The customer will believe in you if you’re knowledgeable
4. Commitment: If your customer publicly commits to an order or request, he’s likely to go through with the sale
5. Liking: Ever bought something from someone you disliked? Every turned down someone you liked?
6. Consensus: It’s easier to close a sale if everyone around is also buying your product

Guy Kawasaki’s One Tip to Becoming The Effective E-Mailer

In my previous article “Pingdom’s 2010 Internet by the Numbers” one of the most amazing, yet easy to believe, statistics was the fact that 89.1% of all emails are spam. In many cases people send emails that are not spam but because of the subject line or length, their efforts are deleted because they appear to be spam.

Guy Kawasaki describes 13 tips to becoming the effective e-mailer in his book “Reality Check.” Although each tip is worthy of mention, one in particular is the platinum standard: Keep it Short.

Keep it Short

Instead of diluting Guy’s tip by paraphrasing or interpreting it, I am going to provide this tip verbatim:

“The ideal length for an e-mail is five sentences. The ideal content level is one idea. If you’re asking something reasonable of a reasonable recipient, simply explain who you are in one or two sentences and get to the ‘ask.’ If it’s not reasonable don’t ask at all. My theory is that people who tell their life-story suspect that their request is on shaky ground so they try to build up a case to soften up the recipient. Another very good reason to keep it short is that you never know where your e-mail will end up- anywhere from your minister to the attorney general.”

Conclusion

The most important ideas within this tip:

• The ideal length of an e-mail is five sentences
• The ideal content level is one idea
• If it’s not reasonable don’t ask

Do You Remember These Social Media Events?

Because it is fun and often revealing to look back into history, the following is a brief look at some interesting Social Media milestones. If you have other milestones not included in this lineup, via Mashable’s “The History of Social Media (InfoGraphic)”, give us a shout.  Here are some that stood out.

The First Email

How many people know this fact? We never thought it was this early in our evolution.

The Globe

Do you remember this social network? It was definitely a precursor of things to come in the Dot.Com meltdown.

Social Matrix: Is It Really This Big?

Conclusion

Friendster the grandfather of all social networks is still alive and well? It is interesting that few bloggers challenge the registered user statistics for all social networks. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, most likely mirrors blog attrition numbers yet nobody challenges them. Of the 190M+ registered users on Twitter, how many accounts are abandoned, run by bots, or the product of single users establishing multiple accounts? The same question for Facebook could reveal a much lower number of actual users. As we continue to see growth and adoption, what is the relevance of true registered user numbers in understanding the impact of each network? Only time will tell how far we have actually evolved.

10 Simple Ingredients to Utilizing Social Media

Understanding how to leverage social media is like learning to cook. No matter how sophisticated your skills become, the best way to “cook” is to stick to the simple ingredients. Keep it simple stupid aka KISS rule is the most effective advice I can give any of the late adopters just beginning to understand social media. What does it mean to stick to the simple ingredients?

10 Simple Ingredients to Utilizing Social Media

1. Plan: you must have a master plan for your Social Media efforts
2. Objective: identify your goals and business objectives in utilizing Social Media
3. Networks: identify which network(s) you will utilize.
4. Audience: where are your customers/prospects? Which social networks are they using?
5. Tools: identify which tool(s), third party applications, that will help you automate and save time in executing your plan
6. Measurement: how will you measure your Social Media efforts? Without measurement strategy, you will never know how effective you are or can become
7. Honesty: be true to your style, your company mantra, stay within your philosophies. Don’t be something you are not
8. Communication Mix: do not spam a network with hard sell messages. Ensure your communication mix is giving value 70% and serving your sales needs 30% of the time
9. Avatar: use pictures of people, or you, as often as possible when branding your social network profile
10. Commitment: if you are going to utilize a social network then you must be present, communicate, and engage consistently. This is not a part time endeavor!

Twitter Communication: Always Have The Last Word

Twitter is now acknowledged, by savvy marketers and companies, as a full fledged direct marketing channel. According to many reports, unlike traditional channels like television, radio, email, postal, direct mail, and the telephone, Twitter and it’s digital brethren will see an increase in marketing activity and money spent on marketing campaigns. In our work as marketing consultants, we utilize Twitter as a direct real-time communications tool to initiate one one one conversations with consumers and prospective consumers. The following strategy, and the reasons for it’s effectiveness, will help you connect more deeply with your customers and prospective consumers.

Twitter Communication: Always Have the Last Word

Anytime a customer or prospect tweets their appreciation, approval, or a recommendation for you or your business, you should always respond. This response can be a simple thank you but it must happen. The most important strategy is to make sure you have the last word in the string of communication.

6 Reasons Why it is Important to Have the Last Word

• Acknowledgment: by sending the last tweet you let people know that you received and understood their tweet
• Etiquette: by thanking people you show the Twitterverse you have manners and will properly recognize people for their effort
• Recognition: your tweet will provide  the recognition that your customer/prospects are important to you
• ReTweet: by retweeting a customer/prospect’s tweet you are sharing it with your audience of followers
• Hashtags: by using the hashtags your customer/prospects use in their tweet to you, you are providing recognition of their importance to you as your tweet cirulates within hashtag streams they believe are important to them
• Top of Mind: by thanking everyone and having the last word, you stay top of mind with your customer/prospects

Solutions: The Key to Connecting With People

When you are out at a networking event or meeting new people how do you answer the question: “What do you do?” If you are like most people you begin to dust off your elevator pitch in an attempt to dazzle and wow the questioner. Unfortunately your efforts to impress people with your “standard” elevator pitch is often the very reason why you do not connect. Eric Tsai’s “Creating the unforgettable elevator pitch” is a fantastic strategy that will improve your ability to connect and create business relationships.

Are you a Macro or Micro?

Most people when presenting their case for others to connect with them regurgitate two types of answers to the question: “What do you do?”

Micro: a micro pitch  describes a person’s daily tasks, the mechanics of their job or business

Macro: a macro pitch describes the industry a person works within

Using either the Micro or Macro pitch is a mistake because, in most cases, neither pitch provides solutions to the problem(s) the person asking you what you do really wants to hear.

How can you help people?

The way to connect with people when they ask the question “What do you do?” is to “focus in on how you help people- specifically, the problem(s) that you solve.” As Tasai states “The ugly truth is nobody really cares about what you do; it’s about how you do it.”

Conclusion

If you and your business provide solutions to the problems your targeted prospect is experiencing in their business, you should use your  pitch to describe those solution(s). By being succinct and direct with your answer, you will begin to connect and create a curiosity in your prospective networking partner.

Pingdom’s 2010 Internet by the Numbers

In what is an eye opening compilation of statistics, leading to some interesting questions, Royal Pingdom’s “Internet 2010 in Numbers” provides a look at the growth in:

• Email
• Websites
• Web servers
• Domain names
• Internet users
• Social Media
• Web browsers
• Videos
• Images

The most interesting insights involve email, internet users, and social media.

Email Growth 2010

• 107 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2010.
• 294 billion – Average number of email messages per day.
• 1.88 billion – The number of email users worldwide.
• 480 million – New email users since the year before.
• 89.1% – The share of emails that were spam.
• 262 billion – The number of spam emails per day (assuming 89% are spam).
• 2.9 billion – The number of email accounts worldwide.
• 25% – Share of email accounts that are corporate.

Internet Users Growth 2010

• 1.97 billion – Internet users worldwide (June 2010).
• 14% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
• 825.1 million – Internet users in Asia.
• 475.1 million – Internet users in Europe.
• 266.2 million – Internet users in North America.
• 204.7 million – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
• 110.9 million – Internet users in Africa.
• 63.2 million – Internet users in the Middle East.
• 21.3 million – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.

Social Media Growth 2010

• 152 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
• 25 billion – Number of sent tweets on Twitter in 2010
• 100 million – New accounts added on Twitter in 2010
• 175 million – People on Twitter as of September 2010
• 7.7 million – People following @ladygaga (Lady Gaga, Twitter’s most followed user).
• 600 million – People on Facebook at the end of 2010.
• 250 million – New people on Facebook in 2010.
• 30 billion – Pieces of content (links, notes, photos, etc.) shared on Facebook per month.
• 70% – Share of Facebook’s user base located outside the United States.
• 20 million – The number of Facebook apps installed each day.

Conclusion

Although most of these statistics point to the growing use of technology in today’s world, some of the numbers just stood out for their uniqueness or surprising quality. For us the following were intriquing:

• 294 Billion email message, on average, sent every day: unfathomable!
• 89.1% of emails are spam: it feel like more than 90%.
• 266.2 million internet users in North America: North America ranks third behind Asia and Europe.
• 152 million blogs: when I began blogging in 2007 WordPress used to show the number of blogs on the site. There were fewer than 100,000 at that time.
• 70% equals the share of Facebook’s user base located outside the United States: how viable is Facebook for American businesses targeting American consumers when considering this number and the number of abandoned accounts and duplicate accounts?

Handwritten Thank You Notes: The New Social

When is the last time your company decided to thank customers? Normally this occurs after a sale, holiday, or conference you both attended. Do you make a practice of planning your outreach “thank you” efforts? If you do plan this type of campaign throughout the year, do you measure the results of your efforts? Do you know if your customers were “wowed” by your thank you? Without a plan or a method to measure your strategy, how can you move your business forward?

How do you thank your customers, affiliates, and peers for their support in the age of social media? If you are like me you tweet your gratitude, post thanks via a wall post or message on Facebook, or contact them on their favorite social network. The result is a nice response in return. But how memorable are these outreaches when they are so common?

Go Postal: How Do You Do That?

Do you want to make a memorable impression on your customers? One that creates the “wow” factor? Sit down and write a thank you note and send it via old fashion “snail mail” Here are a few tips to remember:

• Card Stock: buy simple, clean notes made of quality (heavy) card stock
• Content: include a story or shared experience in your thank you note
• Handwriting: write legibly
• Business Card: place your business card inside the envelope

Social Can Be Offline

We mailed 40  Thank You cards to customers, affiliates, and industry peers in December. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and warm. We have received phone calls expressing gratitude and surprise, Twitter messages with pictures of our card, and face to face handshakes and hugs. Without a doubt going “old school” is, in today’s world, considered going the extra mile.