CEO Tweets

Twitter addiction has now reached a new level. Over the weekend Kimora Lee Simmons, the CEO of Baby Phat clothing company, tweeted her entire child birth from start to finish. Talk about sharing!

At 10:10 pm on May 29th, Simmons tweeted: "It's time !! No turning back! At hospital in labor right now!! Love & Light, KLS"

Two hours later the tweet was: "Having contractions now! Ooo- wee! It's like WHOA! Love & Light, KLS."

Finally, at 7 pm the next night Simmons tweeted "it's a boy!"

Just in case you needed even more information about her birth, Simmons also tweeted her hospital photo, shown above.

Ever the marketer, just a couple of days before Simmons gave birth, the Baby Phat Twitter site had this handy tweet: "Be the first to know when Kimora's Baby Phat Maternity Tee is available at babyphat.com, for more information ..." Child birth is now a marketing event.

So, YES! When it comes to tweeter, a CEO interacting with the company’s audience adds credibility and increases interest in the company. Look at @Zappos. The Zappos Twitter handle is updated and maintained by CEO Tony Hsieh. @Zappos currently has over 1.7 million followers. He posts updates about Zappos, articles the followers might be interested in, and responds to customer service questions.

While I was working on a social media plan for a new vehicle model during the past summer, I added “CEO tweets “ into my proposal as an important recommendation and emphasized it when I did the presentation to the CEO. The CEO laughed at the very beginning when “ CEO Tweets” showed up on the screen…However, after I explained my plan and showed several successful examples, the CEO became extremely interested.

Although CEO tweets is not uncommon nowadays, it is still a growing phenomenon. In July 2009, a survey of the Fortune’s top 100 CEO’s by UberCEO.com found that zero CEO’s maintain a public blog, 29% have a personal facebook page,13 are on Linkedin and only two have twitter accounts. So, there is no consensus on whether social media is a friend or frenemy yet, but I would recommend give it a try. Most likely that people won’t believe it really is the CEO who is updating the facebook page or maintaining the tweeter handle everyday, but no evidence shows that people will get upset when they see an image of a CEO on facebook or tweeter, on the contrary, they are more likely to feel excited…So, there really is no harm to try!

Fortune 100 CEOs Are Social Media Slackers

Source:

http://www.justaguything.com/baby-phat-ceo tweets-while-giving-birth

http://tuesdaytoday.com/2010/01/ceos-and-social-media/

Facebook Fan Page vs Group?

This week, I have a topic that seems pretty simple: which do you prefer? Facebook group or Facebook fan page?

I bet most of you haven’t really thought about this question before, at least I never really paid much attention to the difference of these two although I see them and use them almost everyday on Facebook. I just clicked whatever buttons available on the web page and then became a fan or join a group. However, for a company who is doing SEO on Facebook , things are different and choice might matter. So, I spent a few hours to try these similar functions again just to get some clear insights.

There is a article online concluded that the first and foremost the 2 major differences include:

1. Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed (important for reputaion management, for example);

2. Unlike pages, groups allow to send out “bulk invite” (you can easily invite all your friends to join the group while with pages you will be forced to drop some invites manually). Groups are thus better for viral marketing, meaning that any group member can also send bulk invites to the friends of his.

As a result, the authore concluded that pages are generally better for a long-term relationship with your fans, readers or customers while groups are generally better for hosting a (quick) active discussion and attracting quick attention. I kind of agree with the conclusion, but I have several additional insights.

(Source:http://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-group-vs-facebook-fan-page-whats-better/7761/)

Based on my own experience, I have to admit that the fan page works better since it attracts more people while both of the two options are designed for the same purpose. Although there is a bazillion people on Facebook that join many groups and fan pages just like me, I find that most just join the group but there is little contribution. I think the only good thing is that they will see your latest information in the news feed but that’s about it because people nowadays don't really take their time to interact within a group although they are members while it is more likely for people to spread information on a fan page.

Of course, it can’t be so easy to make a 100% correct decision on which one is better. I would say the best choice is to go with both first and later on see what’ the analysis of effective say.

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DIY SEO

Before taking MKT 595, I have tried to do SEO myself for my personal website because I don’t really have any budget to pay someone else to help my website get ranked high on google. Now I’m even more confident in SEO DIY after week 4. The week 4 class materials provided me sufficient knowledge of doing SEO. Some are even so technical. But surprisingly, those coding stuff didn’t bore me that much as I thought they would be.

However then, a question suddenly jumped into my head: Should I really do it myself? May be it is a silly question...But when I really searched online, I found this great article that answered my “silly question” on every level: "Choosing a Professional SEO or Doing It Yourself?"

(http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/seo-customer-guide-11.asp)

So, yes, there are pros and cons for both “Doing it Yourself” and “Choosing a Professional SEO”. It is good to know all of them, but you should pay special attention to the following cons of DIY if you have decided to save the money.

§ Do it wrong and you could kill your site's search engine listings.

§ It takes a lot of time to learn how to perform SEO/SEM properly, to be able to predict changes in the search market and act accordingly, to develop and put into action new strategies etc.

§ You're at a disadvantage with SEO professionals because while they're becoming better and more experienced at what they do, you'll be starting from ground up and struggling to master the basics. These professionals could very well be those who market the websites of your competitors.

§ SEO is a constant process. You cannot do SEO for a week and then take a 2 months' break. You don't put your traditional marketing strategy on hold, do you? If you're expecting ROI from your online presence, then SEO has to be a constant factor in your strategy.

§ You will conduct SEO at your own risk. There are methods which can get your site banned if you employ tactics that search engines consider to be unethical. Be extremely careful not to get your site in trouble.

These three marked in red are exactly what I found hard or did wrong when I tried to DIY SEO. It is true that we are getting professional knowledge from the course itself, but that doesn't mean we are already experts. There are new strategies, new tools and new problems coming out all the time. There is no end of this learning process for everyone.

21 Rules of Engagement in Social Media

Nowadays, every brand is competing for attention from consumers. The process of connecting with those consumers can make you stand out. However, every company must know that it is not just visibility that they are looking for. They have to make sort of connection with their customers and get them engaged with our social media platform on a daily base. There are so many great things to do in social media to make a brand be well liked and remembered. For example, clarify and communicate objectives and social media activation plans prior to each event; streamline process to allow for more timely (and effective) content approval and uploads; consider supporting some events virtually, encouraging fans to create the “buzz”...

One good thing I want to particularly point out is that some of the best brands on social media, especially Twitter, are the brands that are attuned to what their audience likes and are interested in. For example, Timberland is known for their outdoor apparel from boots to jackets. However, their Twitter feed shows them asking people about how they are “eco-friendly” or “going green.” These are ideas and interests of the Timberland audience.

So...never ever update your Facebook page or Twitter just like posting a dumb and boring news about your products! Seriously, this is the most unacceptable mistake to me in social media. I believe there must be tons of audience who feel the same way and they are losing interests. So, if no engagement, then social media is nothing at all.

Here is an article (it is actually comes out of a chapter of a book named " Engage") that I happened to read online and liked a lot: http://www.briansolis.com/2010/06/21-rules-of-engagement-in-social-media/ I wanna share it with everyone here in my blog. It is a little bit long, but trust me, it definitely worth reading through the whole list!

Create your "brand voice"!

As of now, most companies have a Facebook fan page, Twitter handle, Flickr account, and YouTube channel. The continued support and utilization of these outlets should continue through the marketing and advertising plans. The use of these outlets,however, needs to be monitored and updated more regularly. More importantly, they need to be used effectively.

Before I finally got close with social media this summer by working on some social media projects for FIAT, I didn’t really pay much attention to the so called “brand voice”. One of the biggest indicators of success, especially on Twitter, is the brand’s voice. How are you perceived to the audience? However, I realized not every company see the importance of creating a “brand voice” and failure to do so will lead to ineffectiveness of social media. Some companies are sending out tweets and updates as a corporation, not as a personable brand.

Here is a good article that I want to share with everyone: http://mashable.com/2009/03/09/twitter-brand-voice/

Basically, it pointed out 8 approaches that can help a company to create brand voice.

1. DO see it as a branding exercise.

2. DON’T imitate the voice of the community.

3. DO let it all hang out.

4. DON’T just use Twitter as an RSS feed.

5. DO define your communication channel.

6. DON’T just talk about products & services.

7. DO have a casting call for your Brand Voice.

8. DO have a voice on Twitter, but first have a listen.

Having a brand voice also means engaging in the same voice. A brand voice can be clearly seen by @OldSpice, @TheMermaidNYC, and @ExpressLisaG.

Online Shopaholic

Well, I have a confession to make today.

First, let me count how much i have spent online yesterday...300 bucks only on skin care products! Honestly, i am shocked by this number! The last order even got declined by the credit card company because there were 2 other orders earlier and they thought my payment activity was abnormal...I have to say I’m over crazy for these deals, coupons, or sales...

I'm turning into an online shopaholic! Someone help me please!

I open this blog for Internet marketing course and why I choose this course? A big reason is that I'm a big fan of shopping online. I have this wonder to know how these companies play tricks to get my money. They are everywhere! Emails, google , facebook, forums… I feel struggling everyday to check my email box because I know lots of deals are waiting there for me and I barely resist them.

My ideal career plan is to be a professional in marketing and I guess in a world like this, Internet is the tool that I can't work without in future. Now, I already can't live without it. Yesterday, my Internet got down for a few hours and I was dying there waiting for its recovery. I do everything online, or more precisely, I can say I live online? I have to make myself familiar with Internet marketing because I believe it will be the most powerful tool in marketing world finally!

BTW, here is a link i wanna share with anyone who also like online shopping: Dealsea.com. Don't blame me if you become a shopholic, too:P