social media Archives - Page 2 of 2

Are Forums better than Social Media?

All the hype and rage you hear from marketers nowadays is all about social media this and social media that. However, could it be that social media doesn't provide much useful information?

I ran across an interesting article on Social Media Explorer the other day which should make some marketers and companies rethink their social media strategies. The report examined where the conversations about banks and the banking industry takes place online. The winner? Forums.

In the report they found that 90% of information about banks being discussed online is found on online forums. Social networks accounted for 1% of the real conversations about banking. While Jason Falls, the writer, would obviously like you to purchase his report on the banking industry, keep in mind that he runs a site about social media. If they were smart they would have thrown out the report and declared social media is the best place to market for banks! 🙂

The article really got me thinking about where I go to find useful information online. If I wanted to know more about web hosting, I go to a hosting discussion forum. I would not turn to my followers on Twitter or Facebook since they probably don't know the answer and couldn't help me out. Most of the time when I need technical help or I am trying to learn something new with software I do the same thing.

Posting cat memes and pictures while fun… come one, that's not useful to anyone. Of course we all know that Singing Dogs are quite useful for the internet. (These are my dogs by the way.) To a certain extent social media is really more ideal for being entertained and engaged. Something marketers are keen to capitalize on.

For a second I would think about where you get useful information when doing a Google search. Do you always find what you need on blogs? Probably not. Does Facebook's search engine (Bing) even work well? No. Can you find technical help on Twitter? Some places sure, but for the most part I doubt you can get technical questions answered in 140 characters or less all the time.

The current bank I have my money with I did research before opening an account with them. Googling I found a bunch of threads, from genuine people (I hope), recommending their services and after reading these positive reviews on forums I decided to bank with them. I have been using this bank's services for almost 2 years and couldn't be happier. Their service and products are better than the local credit union's I was using and they have excellent customer support.

However, in all my research I didn't see anyone from the bank post on these forums or see bank reps taking part in any conversations. Jason Falls hits the nail on the head when explaining why most marketers don't incorporate a forum into their overall marketing strategy.

marketers are petrified of them [forums]. Why? Because marketers typically aren’t welcome there. Most forum administrators are quick to thwart link droppers and promotional banner wavers. You can’t blame them. The users come there for … wait for it … conversations.

This is an excellent point! I will get a lot of angry emails for saying this, but the reality is that marketers can't have real and meaningful conversations. Participating in a forum means you need to really respond to what people say and not feed them what you want them to hear.

A common complaint I've heard about forum marketing is that it can be a lot of work with minimal results. While it all depends on the niche, and what forums are available in the niche, again you need to provide real value and not just be trying to sell your products or get backlinks for you site. Let's be fair, marketing on social media networks isn't easy and takes time, work, and a lot of money.

Having recently attended BlogPaws, a pet blogging conference, there was no discussion about forums, forum strategies, or how to get a community started. The majority of the discussions regarding social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

Before going to the conference though I turned to the BlogPaws Newbie discussion group to get useful information regarding the conference for new attendees. I got a lot out of the discussion group where I learned great tips and advice about attending BlogPaws I wouldn't have gotten unless I was part of the Newbie group. If I had gone to the Twitter or Facebook pages I really wouldn't have gotten many answers to my questions or gained as much insight into BlogPaws before attending.

Since forums have been around since the dawn of the web I guess they really don't have the coolness and ‘new kid on the block' appeal of social networks. I also rarely hear anyone say they want to start a forum since blogging or building a website product or service is what most people want to get into.

If Social Media Explorer's report is accurate, a lot of marketers should consider what having a good forum presence can offer them and their brand. Forums are not going anywhere and will be around until the internet dies I bet. So if the conversations for your audience is on forums, you either should get a forum strategy or start one.

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!

[Image Source – Social Media Explorer]

The Best Way to Get Twitter Followers, be Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, the famed Billionaire investor, recently decided to join Twitter. While the 82-year old legendary investor may not be as social media savy as some, he has had no trouble in getting a massive Twitter following very quickly.

Buffett sent out this Tweet to announce his entry to the online social media platform on May 2nd.

Warren is in the house.
— Warren Buffett (@WarrenBuffett) May 2, 2013

Within 10 minutes of him sending this first Tweet out he had already gained 10,000+ Twitter followers. As it stands currently as I write this post @WarrenBuffet has 396,666 Twitter followers and that number keeps growing quickly. Since it is a verified Twitter account people don't need to worry they are following an impersonator or fake account. I wouldn't be surprised if he surpassed 400,000 Twitter followers by the end of the day.

Buffett may prove to be one of the most popular people on Twitter as he is known for coming up with good quips and short quotes about investing, life, and everything. This is what people like to see on Twitter and how to excel since you only have 140 character or less to express yourself. People most likely are not looking for Buffett's quotes about life but any tidbits of info he can provide about investing.

Warren Buffett is known as “The Oracle from Omaha” due to his extremely shrewd investing skills and decisions. Currently Buffett is the 4th richest man in the world and is CEO of his company, Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett's company owns or has stakes in many well-known institutions and large companies such as Geico, See Candies, Fruit of the Loom, Benjamin Moore, and more. The company's stock price finished the trading day at a $164,990 per share – BRK-A – and currently is valued at 271 billion dollars.

It is still unclear though whether Warren Buffett will actually be Tweeting himself or if he will assign a staff member or social media manager to run the account for him. I am guessing he will be Tweeting himself since he isn't a person who is afraid to say what he thinks, at least for the most part. Currently Buffet doesn't follow anyone, but why would he need to? It's not like Buffett needs to worry about what other people are saying on Twitter and work to gain followers.

So next time you are wondering what the best way is to gain Twitter followers is, it's pretty simple. Just be Warren Buffett! 🙂

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!

9 Tips for Running a SUCCESSFUL Kickstarter Campaign

Everyone it seems is trying to raise money on Kickstarter nowadays. It doesn't matter how wacky or crazy your idea is or well-connected you are, everyone is doing Kickstarter.

You probably have dreamed about running a successful Kickstarter campaign and getting tons of money to fund your next venture or project. While it is quite easy to setup a Kickstarter campaign, it is very difficult to actually run a successful Kickstarter campaign. These tips should help new or experienced entrepreneurs crowdfund their next project.

1. Start marketing BEFORE you launch

This is a simple, easy, and a key tactic to running a successful Kickstarter campaign and a lot of people do not do it. If you can give your campaign momentum before it even starts, the chances of you getting funded are much higher. Send your friends and family an email and just say, “Hey, I am launching this Kickstarter project and it would be really cool if you contributed when it launched.” Obviously add some heartfelt messages and say what the project is and be genuine about it. This way you already have a good idea of how well you are going to be funded before you put up the Kickstarter page. You need momentum since most people won't donate to Kickstarter projects if there doesn't seem to be any chance of the project reaching the funding goal.

2. Use SOCIAL MEDIA as much as possible

If you are active on social networks use tip #1 and market the Kickstarter project before, during, and after the Kickstarter project goes live. Social Media can be a great way to find people within your niche or field that might be interested in funding your project. If you are not active on social networks, find someone who is and can help you. If you know someone with a lot of (legit) followers, ask them to promote your Kickstarter project. Don't waste time on a social networks you don't like or don't want to use though. If you like Facebook, use Facbook. If you have better results with Pinterest, use Pinterest.

3. Find People to WRITE about your Kickstarter project

Again I would use tip #1 and try to see if you can find a blogger in your niche that would be interested in the Kickstarter campaign before it launches. (Good places to check are Examiner.com and Dmoz.org if you don't know of any bloggers.) Getting articles written about your campaign makes it seem serious and give you more exposure. Chances are if a few people write about you, other writers and bloggers will pick-up the story as well. Additionally this helps get traffic to your Kickstarter page which can be difficult when you consider how many projects and campaigns are on the site and go up everyday.

4. Make it CLEAR why you need money, and what you will use it for

People need to understand what you are doing and why they should give you their hard earned money. Successful Kickstarter campaigns describe what they need money for in detail and clearly. If you just put up a paragraph and think that's enough, it isn't! If you are not the best with words, that's fine. Find someone who can help you truly describe why you need money and awesome things you are going to do with it. The most important thing when writing the description is to sound genuine and real.

5. Use keywords for SEO impact

Since Kickstarter has high authority and Pagerank (7), using the proper keywords can really help give your page a boost in visitors. Having a well-written description that is SEO friendly will make Google love it, which is important. You can use the Google Keyword Tool to find what words you should and should not include in your description. (When using the Google Keyword Tool remember to select “Exact” since it defaults to “Broad” searches which won't be as helpful.) Also remember to put a link to your website (if you have one) in the description. That will help your website's traffic and link juice. Also chances are people are going to check your website before contributing.

UPDATE: Google has shutdown the Google Keyword Tool and moved to a new more comprehensive tool, the Google Keyword Planner.

6. Use beautiful PICTURES, a lot

Using beautiful and eye-catching pictures will help keep people on your Kickstarter page. If they are on the page longer, they are more likely to contribute money. Remember that the cover image for the Kickstarter project is important to draw people to the page as well. It should be distinctive and stand out from the crowd. If you don't take good pictures find someone who is good with cameras help you.

7. VIDEOS sell, so use Vimeo

Videos are a great way to tell the world your story of why you need money. For instance, a lot of indie film projects put-up trailers so you can get an idea of what the movie will be like. If you are going to put up a video, make sure to use Vimeo and not Youtbe. It makes me crazy when I am watching a Youtube video and it freezes! (This happens even on fast internet connections since Youtube's bandwidth and servers seems to get overloaded during certain times of the day.) That should definitely not happen on your Kickstarter page since people are impatient. Vimeo has better video quality and rarely freezes. That's why lots of startups use Vimeo nowadays instead of Youtube. Remember you are not focusing on Youtube views, you need to focus on quality and getting people to give you money. Vimeo even has a nice Video School so you can learn about good techniques for making videos. By the way, don't feel like you need expensive cameras or equipment. My Sony HD Handycam, which cost $500, shoots in full 1080 high definition and is great for making short internet videos.

8. GIVEAWAY stuff or something

Successful Kickstarter campaigns giveaway stuff or something. For instance if you are a band and need money to rent a studio, then mailing the album once it is completed to someone who contributed $50 is a logical thing to do. If you don't have stuff to giveaway, you could just post the person's name on a Donor List or something like that. You don't need to offer the world but offering something is important. People are much more likely to contribute to a Kickstarter project if they feel they got their money's worth.

9. DON'T use Kickstarter!

What? How does that make sense? While Kickstarter is quite popular and has a ton of traffic, that is double-edged sword. Your Kickstarter campaign could get a lot of traffic but more likely it will get drowned out by the all the other campaigns vying for people's attention. It is estimated that only 32% of Kickstarter projects get funded. You might want to try IndieGoGo which is another popular crowdfunding platform and came before Kickstarter. The nice thing about IndieGoGo is it has flexible funding option, which means if you don't reach your funding goal, you still get some money. IndieGoGo is also catered more toward non-profits. Crowdrise, GiveForward, etc are good options if you are a non-profit. There are also other crowdfunding alternatives which cater to specific needs or groups. These might be a better fit depending on your project and fundraising goals.

Successful Kickstarter Campaign

I hope these tips help make a successful Kickstarter campaign or IndieGoGo, Crowdrise, etc for whatever you want to raise funds for. If you have any tips that you would like to add, please let me know and leave a comment below.

Know someone who wants to crowdfund their next project or big idea? Please share this article with them before they start it so they have a successfully funded project.

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!

Dealing with Blogger Burnout

Recently I have been having what is known as “Blogger Burnout.” This is essentially the feeling of not being able to write or blog. The problem is not finding subjects to write about. I have plenty to write about and a lot of great ideas for articles and content. The issue is the actual enjoyment and willingness to write and convey my thoughts has become increasingly difficult over the past couple weeks.

It's hard for me to pinpoint and zero in on why blogger burnout is hitting me hard now. Part of it is that a friend of mine is also experiencing blogger burnout and is taking a break from writing altogether. While I was not happy to hear that, since he is a good writer with good style, I really understood and respected that decision.

I was analyzing what was making me feel down about the writing and blogger field. This made me look back at some of my articles I worked hard on in the past. Looking at some of my articles I thought to myself, “Wow, this is a great material… but nobody read it!” This might sound like kind of an A*&hole thing to think, but here are my 3 strongest and best written articles I did on my auto blog;

These were articles I worked long and hard on and I didn't write them to be SEO optimized or for massive traffic. I assumed the merit of the good writing would prevail… but that wasn't the case. While some got decent traffic and hits for a little bit most of these are not popular pillar posts.

That really gets me! I have written a lot of articles in the past just for the sake of traffic or to insight discussion to get a lot of hits. I mean I am not proud of it, but that is something everyone does.

The other issue is I have been writing and blogging online for quite awhile. While I think I have made great improvements in my writing abilities, I don't feel like I am at a point that I should be in my writing career. It's kind of depressing looking back and feeling like you wasted time trying to build sites and blogs but it just didn't workout or you went for positions or jobs which you didn't get.

I was going to write a list of ways to conquer blogger burnout. You know, because everyone loves list and that's great for SEO. Instead of me writing a list of ways you can avoid the ‘burn', which may or may not be helpful to you, I would love to hear other writers and bloggers experiences with being a blogger burnout victim.

How did and what did you do to overcome your blogger burnout? Did something inspire you? Did you take a break from blogging, writing and social media for awhile? Did you just decide to quit? Leave a comment and maybe you can help another writer or blogger find their passion again.

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!

Book Review: Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen

Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen is a book that I didn't expect to find myself reading recently. I found Likeable Social Media at my local library when I was browsing through the aisles. Why would a 20-something be at a library though? I mean libraries have books with this thing called paper (no, not e-books). Well, it is a bit of a story.

The internet at my house was out since a BG&E (Baltimore Gas and Electric) crew drilled through a phone and internet line on our street. Apparently this caused a few blocks around my house to not have internet access for about 2 weeks. However, we were not affected by the prolonged outage. (Sorry to any of my neighbors reading!) Verizon had to come switch out about 1,200 feet of lines under our street though. Therefore was a -2 day period were they had to cut the internet at our house. What is a person going to do when they don't have internet? Go to the library to use the Wi-Fi.

So, that is how I ended up at the library. While there using the Wi-Fi I figured I would at least browse through the aisles and to discover this old thing called a book. That is when I noticed “Likeable Social Media” I took it off the bookshelf to examine it and saw the author's name “Dave Kerpen? Never heard of that guy!” One quote and name on the back bookjacket did catch my eye though “Scott Monty” who manages Ford's social media channels. I started thumbing through the book and thought it was at least worth a checkout. Hey, it's the library.

Having talked and interacted with ‘social media gurus' before my hopes were not high. I have found they offer a lot of empty promises and BS advice. Usually it turns out they know as much about social media as I do. Would Dave Kerpen be one of these people?

The answer is No, Likeable Social Media turned out to have some useful nuggets of information which I think should help me in the future.

For instance, Kerpen mentions nanotargeting, which is targeting a single person or very small group of people. He demonstrates this ability sending his wife, Carrie, personalized Facebook ads. I had heard about people running Facebook ads to target very specific groups but not 1 individual person.

Other parts of the book mention good ways to communicate and engage with Facebook audiences. Each chapter has Action Items to encourage you to act on what you have just read.

Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen is worth a read for someone struggling with wrapping their head around social media, but the big questions… will it help you gain followers? Probably not!

While the book provides useful advice I people just trying to build audiences will not find Likeable Social Media has quite as much information to suite them. The book is mainly written for small-medium sized business owners that have little knowledge or familiarity with social media. Most of the Action Items are really for businesses. The Appendix is primer on how to use social networks, which is fine for someone who doesn't know but I don't think that it the majority of people that follow Kerpen.

I am still struggling with gaining followers for my Singing Dogs implementing Kerpen's methods. Checkout the Singing Dog Facebook page and @DogsSing Twitter feed.

I will say I got more value out of the book than reading a blog about social media. Most of these sites tend to regurgitate the same information which is not helpful. (This includes Kerpen's own social media blog.)

However, 60-70% of the book was repeated fluff and ideas as well. The ghostwriter probably needed to meet a certain word minimum so the book wouldn't be too thin on a bookshelf. The next book could be just a short e-book around 40-50 pages in my opinion.

There was this passage in the book which I found interesting;

Soon after we started our company back in 2007, we wanted to write a blog to share expertise and our product point of view and to create and share valuable content about social media and online marketing. Much to the dismay of our small staff, I insisted that the blog was titled “Buzz Markeitng Daily.” People argued internally, “If you write ‘daily in the the title of the blog, you're suggesting we'll have new content daily. What if we can't keep up?”

We're not a newspaper, we're a marketing firm,” one person argued. Three years later, the title has changed to “Likeable Content Daily,” but we've been able to keep to the promise of a new article each weekday. More important, the blog has become one of the thousand most widely read and shared blogs on social media marketing in the world and is consistent source of new business prospects.

Later in the book he argues that some companies probably don't even need a website with Facebook. Mmm… well I don't really agree with that and I guess Kerpen, well the ghostwriter, fails to realize that blog is a website. Why would claim someone doesn't need a website when you generate your own content daily and have a popular blog? Maybe the editor was sleeping or did Kerpen just not read what the ghostwrite wrote? I imagine the Likeable Content Daily blog brings in more clients via SEO (search engine optimization) than it does via it's social media following.

Another argument he makes is that a “Like” is more powerful than a “Link.” While I think there is validity to that statement he fails to mention that a Facebook Like actually gives you a Link. Everytime someone “Likes” a page a link is created on a personal Facebook page showing all the pages that person likes. Believe me the “Link” is still important.

To be honest I got more from a Yoel Cohen video course I bought off the Warrior Forum. I used the techniques from the video course and implemented them immediately for my new auto site, CarNewsCafe. (Yoel even gave me a 1-hour coaching session too.) We now have 144 followers on the CarNewsCafe Facebook page and have only been up for less than 2 months. Checkout the screenshot;

I hope we could get a lot more followers… so if you love cars please join the CarNewsCafe community! 🙂

At least Kerpen admits in his book, “I wish I could tell you that after you read this book you'll have all of the tools to instantly turn on the social media revenue engine and watch the money pour in. I can't, of course.” This might not be what I or other wants to hear but that statement is true, which I respect.

At least I learned a few things from reading Likeable Social Media. What are they?

I still need to find someone to give me legit social media advice.
Don't trust social media gurus!
I don't like Facebook and probably never will.
The library is pretty cool place.

Did you read Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen? If you did leave your thoughts below, whether they are good or bad. I'd love to hear other's opinions on this social media book.

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!

Note: I have included affiliate links in this review. Nobody can buy or alter my opinion on this blog as this is an honest and fair review.