Lichi Chen

It has been a long while since I wrote a blog posting. But this is from a e-mail follow up to someone who I am working with. He brought up that he had recently heard that Facebook has over taken Google as the number 1 website.  Although I am not an industry expert, here my take on Facebook Vs. Google

Facebook has attracted a lot of media attention simply because it has its growth has outpaced anything we have encountered in the past. It has allowed people and friends to create their own space and persona on the internet, and allow other developers to build off it’s platform for the communities. Because of its very personal feel, that’s the brand image Facebook has taken on and will continue to revolve around. The type of information that people will seek/offer on Facebook will continue be different (although some similarities) with Google. It will be interesting to see how Facebook can expand it’s brand offerings, but I foresee them expanding to relevant fields where people can retain a digital persona. Examples maybe personal blogs, custom sideshows, personal web pages (see flavors.me) etc.

Google is different in the sense that Google’s core offering is it’s search engine, which bring relevant information to the web surfers. Over the years, Google has become more and more of a portal to the internet and offer tools to make the internet experiences better. It’s search engine, which acts as a gateway towards the internet pages. It’s Chrome web browser and Android operating system are the base to accessing the internet.

While both businesses are about retaining a large user and drive revenue through advertising. I don’t foresee Facebook taking over the role of Google. Google has continued to be innovative in their takeovers to expand their business. While Facebook has some issues (User experience, privacy) to overcome before it truly can dominate the personal domains. Let’s see how they can compare at the end of 2011 shall we.

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Lichi Chen

(In ascending order)

1. You saw this post on your Twitter feed or Facebook wall
2. It’s a list
3. It was recommended/liked/RT by one of your friends
4. It vaguely applicable to your life (somehow speaking to you)
5. The title sounds interesting
   
6. You are bored

In conclusion: we are a generation of content junkies that like to find information in one place

“Let the designers design, let the developers develop.”

Don’t be a client from hell!

We are a generation of content junkies!

Can # of RTs and followers translate into the level of reach and action as desired by businesses? The image captured here is from the Klout (klout.com) blog post “Top 10 Most Retweeted Twitter Users” and here are some interesting things you can take out of it. Other than the fact that the number 1 most re tweeted person goes to Justin Bieber which is no surprise to anyone,  4 out of 5 of these accounts is in a country outside of North American. This means that the level of engagement across the sea at Portugal is significantly higher than North America (may be content specific), although we are certainly catching up (as recent studies would say). Another interesting thing you can take away from this is fact that the type of accounts that gets most RT can be broken down into tween idols and quirky life micro-blogs. This means that while the tween crowd are actively digesting and RTing their favorite idlos, most people are interested in reading quick, fun  and quirky content that are applicable to everyone and occasionally thought provoking(nothing too new here). Lastly, it is very difficult to say the level of influence these people have, would there be a spike in corn sales if one of the tween idols tweeded that he loves corn? (might work with junk food) The core audience belonging to each of these accounts and the type of information these audience are willing to digest tend to be specific, businesses needs to study and find the right partner before jumping on board (again nothing new).

Final thought: Justin Bieber is probably not taking over the world any time soon with his army of tweens

Just my $0.02

1) Gloomy weather/Having to wake up

2) No hot water

3) Ran out of coffee/tea/milk/cereal

4) Rude drivers/Rude bus driver

5) Over 9000 emails at work

What ruins your morning?

Having been working with student organizations for the past few years, I can say running them is very similar to operating a small business - trying to achieve maximum results with very limited resources. Therefore efficiency in managing both financial and human capital is key to organizational growth and member engagement (monetization for businesses). You may already be using Twitter and Facebook, following is a list of online resources that my organizations currently employ that you can add on to them for additional benefits. they range from project management to social media metrics.

STOP! Before employing them, take a moment to reflect and think about the end goal you would like to achieve. Be it awareness, engagement or monetization, it is important to know your goals and resources you are willing to investment before jumping into tools.

Website

Flavors.me (http://flavors.me/)- With nearly every business jumping on the web and social web bandwagon, the first place they typically look to own in the digital space is a website. Without proper training, or  not having adequate time or budget, it is often difficult to own a digital landmark that will achieve the results you want (again, going back to goals). If you like simplicity (Hey, it’s the trend anyways), and being able to connect all your social media practices together, Flavour.me is for you. The basic version is free with a simple customizable homepage and  on page connections to services such as Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook etc. A paid version that allows for a contact page  and your own domain name, all coming together to cost you approximately 30 dollars a year. (20 dollars USD annual upgrade fee for Flavour.me and approximately 10  dollars CND for your web domain). The content you can populate this page will have to come from your social media practices, but this can save you a lot of time in the long wrong and offer a whole lot to engage your customers or members.

Project Management

Basecamp (http://basecamphq.com/signup) - at the basic $24 dollars/month for 15 projects or free for a single project, Basecamp is ideal for small businesses and Student organization to manage collaboration and work deadlines for all employees. Basecamp offers a message board to relevant and timely updates, a milestone calendar, a to do list, a write board to share ideas, and a file sharing system (paid accounts only). 37 Signals, the create of Basecamp also offers a wide variety of collaboration tools for businesses.

E-mail Marketing

Mailchimp (http://www.mailchimp.com/) - Perhaps one of the most amazing tools that I have came by for E-mail marketing. The free version allows  for 1000 email subscribers and 6000 emails to be sent out monthly, and payment plans based on monthly or per-per-use. Mailchimp is simply the chimp that everyone can love. Within the website, you can upload your existing member database, create e-mail templates and begin and track e-mail campaigns with few simple clicks, giving the user full control of their campaign. Best of all it offers simple A/B split campaign to let you customize your e-mail program for maximum effectiveness.

Web Metrics

Online Metrics can be broken down into Macro and Micro level, where Macro measures your status of your business goals across the web and Micro measuring the status of your business within one tool.

Macro

Google Analytics  (http://www.google.com/analytics/) - Google Analytics measures and tracks the progress of your website, displaying relevant and comparable data that you can tie into your Search Engine Marketing (SEM), E-mail marketing and display ad campaigns. Again it is important to know what it is you are trying to measure before jumping into it.

Social Mention (http://www.socialmention.com/) - If you are engaged in your digital marketing, social mention is a good way to see if your business is generating positive or negative buzz online. Employ this tool to not only measure your business but your competitors’ as well.  

Micro

Klout (http://klout.com/) - While Facebook does a good job letting you know how well your group is doing, Klout is able to measure your progress over Twitter and Facebook to let you know how influential you or your business can be. The free service produces a Klout score for your business and an easy to interpret classification to let you know if you on your way to your goal.

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Lichi Chen

Digital Marketing Fanboy

W: www.lichichen.ca

E: lichi@lichichen.com

T: @lichichen

Having been following the digital marketing industry for almost 2 and half years now, I looked back at all the learning and compiled a little presentation for my manager at work.

http://prezi.com/jysdssdqnnha/history-of-the-internet/

It’s a fun little thing that I just want to share and it covers:

1. What is Digital Marketing?
2. History of the internet and trends (the year for HTML 5 inception is changed to reflect the mobile trend)
3. Understanding the digital consumer
4. Digital marketing tools and analysis
5. Consumer Relations Management

Couple of things I learned/realized while making this presentation:

1. People behave online the same way as they do offline with some exceptions but over all community building is still the same (same anthropology roots)
2. People assume digital marketing is free  (while the tools might, there are a lot of costs associated with running a successful digital marketing campaign)
3. While Social Media is great, it is not for everyone. 

Let me know your thoughts!

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Lichi Chen

Digital Marketing Fanboy

T: @lichichen