Not all bad with the usage of public data

A lot of concern and discussions have gone trough on the last months about Facebook (and other social networks) privacy policies and the risk of all these data usage in the "wrong way". The only sure thing is that Facebook has in its hand (and that's why made it so valuable) what every marketer would dream of: Consumer behavior patterns and a lot of data....

But not all is wrong about companies knowing about our consuming patterns and different taste (at least in the past). It is nice when we receive a tailored catalog for a specific tool or automobile, or when American Express call us they notice an "out of pattern" purchase in some strange place. But of course there would be certain things that people would like to be kept under the table, for example viagra purchasers, or adult content shoppers, among others.

Facebook data collection has become very useful for marketers: just imagine a data bank of consumers behaviors filtered by age, gender, geography, habits (that's why the "Ilike" application has been so important and has grown rapidly over the last years), education and employment choices, events and other social classifications.

But it would be legal and ethic for Facebook selling this valuable data to marketers, companies,or even governments...???? is this practice would be comparable as incoming tailored mails or google adds tailored to our consumer behavior? is this action would be too much and crossing the line for Facebook???

Federico.

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Source:

Businessweek.com

Go ahead Facebook. Sell that Data

Online Community 1:1

Before entering in social media (specifically start-ups business), companies need to ensure some business fundamentals: sustainability and innovation plan, core business and markets, brand building strategies, good website design and quality service assurance (we don't want to be "attacked" by our customers if we know we have a lousy service) .

Social Networks are means to interact with customers, consumers, suppliers and anybody interested in your business, so each company emerged in the social networks have to design very careful the online community strategy: Goals (are we looking for brand news, customers comments, corporate news...?), resources as social media can become an important channel of communication (Staff, designers, PR, Legal, etc), channel (is the company willing to create a facebook profile, twitter, blogs..? what kind of segment and market do we want to reach?). As Twitter, Facebook and Likedin are the most important in terms of users, these social network sites are recommended for a company to be in a online community

According to Melonie Gallegos, Social Media Specialist at Geary Interactive, Resources is one of the seven things Brands need to focus when building a community or social network...you can see here the complete interview

Few companies are starting to talk about the importance of Community Managers as the leaders of a Company's Social Network or community. Companies who embrace the community challenge, need resources to deliver excellent results, we are talking about programmers, designers and all other staff people that keep the community's flow attractive and interesting...Don't be shy about your online growth forecast...!! you could be surprised...!!

Federico

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Sources:

Flyteblog.com

Talking Brands and their communities with Melanie Gallegos

Fastcompany.com

How Can Business Harness the Power of Social Media Markeging?

Is Facebook crossing the line..??

A controversial article about facebook being used as a mean to blaspheme Prophet Muhammad in Pakistan

It brings out an interesting debate about freedom of speech, respect for other cultures and religion as well as media censoring.

via The Economist.

Comments on Video: "Building an E-Commerce Web Site"

Link to the Video...

I think It's a good way to inform how to plan and develop your enterprise communication channel through the web, going from what kind of technology to be used as to content recommendation...It's like a business plan glidepath but for a website...

Great examples on sources for designing a web site and its pros and cons, the one that I liked the most is templatemonster.com, it shows a great variety for pretty much any kind of business that you would like to promote.

One fact that I kept thinking (Step 5. Implementation and Maintenance) was that annual maintenance cost are similar to development cost...I would say that this could be a problem for small-medium enterprises with limited budget in terms of having good annual maintenance over the years.

Seems really important to have the right design for a web site to get your business goals, and make sure that every visitors feels very comfortable on it, that's why some sites (google, yahoo, bing and others) have developed customization or ad-hoc design for every kind of visitors, for example google gadgets as part of their applications.

Also from a cost point of view, differences are very clear between: basic level website, standard level website, premium level website; but I have a question on this....what exactly does it mean basic or standard or premium level....could we have some examples?

In terms of the production of the video, I think it's a well done work. Design of slides are very powerful, slides time are well managed, screen video very informative and great music and voice over options.

Blog Comments doesn't count for Revenues

Are companies really measuring the return on resources allocated to maintain and update social networking sites for marketing purposes...??

Just imaging small-medium size companies trying to emerge in these tough times focusing besides its core business on posting "exciting" news (24/7) for their customers or consumers and, because of a segmented world that we live in, numerous social networks has to be tackled: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Blogging, Podcasting, YouTube, among others.

Expert blogger, Rich Brooks, comment on his post (Mar, 09, 2010. Social Networking: are you spread too thin?), a few assessment question and tips about if your business is well fitted for social networking.

I would say the common mistake for companies entering the social networking world to expand its newsletter platform, is understanding the real reason for developing such newsletter: do you just want just to be on facebook? (recognition), do you want to customize your existing relationship with your customers?, do you want to expand your customer base with referrals?, who is your audience? what are the "benefits" for being a subscriber?....these and other questions should be addressed before entering in the newsletter and online PR world.

Of course, the benefits of being visible in social networks are higher than the costs, if it's done the right way. According to e-marketer, Social Network demographic and usage, "By 2014, nearly two thirds of internet users, or 164.9 million people, will be regular users of social networks".

Finally, as the title of this article says Blog Comments doesn't count for Revenues, but social network campaigns well managed, count for Value and potential customers as well as revenues in the future. Companies need to deliver value in every tweet, facebook update or blogg comment. Online users can surely disconnect easily with social networks if they (consumers and customers) don't see the value on the information they are getting.

Even though Blog Comments doesn't count for revenues, valuable comments, ideas and great thoughts sure will catch attention from customers and potential subscription for your future ideas...

Federico L.

Sources:

The Secret Ingredient of Social Media Is...

http://www.fastcompany.com/1600378/the-secret-ingredient-of-social-media-is

Social Media Marketing: Are You Spread Too Thin?

http://www.fastcompany.com/1577319/social-media-marketing-are-you-spread-to-thin

The Big, Awkward Problem of YouTube Fees

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/big-awkward-problem-youtube-fees?nav=inform-rl

How Search Engines Work?

http://vimeo.com/11904502

The New Republic's $30 Paywall

The New Republic, the American political magazine, is banking on a new subscription plan: They are putting up a $30 paywall starting April 7.

Some content on TNR.com will be available for free, including blog posts, online-only columns and some features. But most long-form magazine articles will be kept behind a paywall.

TNR will offer three premium pay plans:
$29.97 for access to all online content.
$39.97 for a year's subscription to the print edition, digital and e-reader versions, plus online access.
$44.97 for TNR Society, which provides home delivery of the print edition, Web access, online archives, and insider newsletters, articles, and invitations to high-profile events.

The New Republic has a million unique visitors each month. Traffic increased by 30% and total ad revenue tripled during the first quarter, according to the magazine.
But the magazine plans on risking some of those ad dollars and traffic for bundled pricing plans.

Editor Frank Foer said in the release: "Our long-form journalism is the product of intensive reporting and extensive editing, an incredible investment of time and resources. When it appears in print, we put a price tag on it-and we're committed to doing the same online.