On a previous post, I discussed the importance of diversifying your social media marketing channels due to the attacks on the social network Twitter.

As these attacks were taking place, marketers rushed to other channels such as Facebook and FriendFeed.  This, in turn, brought heavy stressed upon the infrastructure of these two servers making their responses to traffic requests quite sluggish, as well.

Over the past few days, we’ve witnessed some of Facebook’s own growing pains. 

If you think back to your first car (and if it was like mine), it might not have been your dream car or even the coolest car on the block, but at least it got you from point A to point B.  In comparison to riding your bicycle or riding the bus to school, however, your car was the best.

Your first car may not have have been a Mercedes or BMW, but, plain and simple, it worked.

Unfortunately, many companies have the same philosophy when engaging in Internet Marketing, “It may not be the best, but it works.”  Or, “I don’t care what it looks like as long as its something.” 

Personally, I have been instilled with the belief, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”  The Social Media community follows this belief, as well.  The community can immediately determine the quality of the brand or product by its deliverance through Social Media channels.

Also, please don’t confuse quality with “high dollar”.  Not all quality has to be expensive – and in most cases concerning Social Media, it’s very inexpensive.  Most of what I, personally, do for myself costs next-to-nothing and 80% of my revenue is generated from Social Media.

Concerning quality, I’m referring to clear, concise deliverance; orderly, fresh presentation; and, of course, remember the audience you are targeting. Flat, basic landing pages may be great for older demographics, but the Social Media community is, for the most part, familiar with technology – its okay to use Flash, video and other Web 2.0 medias in your Internet marketing collateral.  Interestingly enough, the older demographics (55+) are now Facebook’s fastest growing demographic compared to only 4 months ago (which was 45+).  Familiarity with Web 2.0 collateral is rapidly expanding to the retirees.

One final note…

Your type of quality may not be considered Social Media quality.  In other words, what you may find exceptional, could be completely bland to a member of the Social Media community.  If you don’t know how to reach the Social Media crowd, hire someone who does. Furthermore, remember to take their advice.  After all, that is why you hired them.

Just because your company may have incorporated Social Media into it’s marketing strategy – it may have even gone as far as creating a Social Media team – doesn’t mean your management has adapted to Social Media trends or adopted its philosophies in the marketplace.

If you've ever sat in my seminars, you found very quickly that I love statistics.  As rapid as the Social Media horizon changes, so is the rate at which these statistics change.

Socialnomics, this past week, released some staggering statistics on the current impact of Social Media. Erik Qualman has done a fine job of compiling the data and its presentation.  I think you'd agree with me how amazing some of these statistics are. A few of these include:

1. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
2. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
3. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia

Also, a few interesting facts concerning education:

1. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
2. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
3. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen

Erik has posted the list of statistics along with their sources on his blog, just below the video.

Twitter was completely unavailable this morning for approximately 2 hours.  The microblogging platform that allows its users to post status and news updates in 140 characters or less was the victim of a DDoS attack. 

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an instance in which the perpetrator consistently floods the victim with multiple, bogus requests and, in turn, overloads the server preventing it from answering good requests.  Apparently the load balancing system also failed.

In turn, many of Twitter's users turned to Facebook for distribution and sharing information.  Facebook, as a result, became sluggish this morning, as well.

There are two lessons we can learn from this morning's events:

1. While we are quickly approaching, social media is not fully ready to be the primary news source.  While it can assist in sharing information quickly across a broad audience, there are a few "kinks" that still need to resolved.
2. Have a backup.  Many of these social media platforms are developed and operated by individuals and small startups that simply do not have the capital to prevent downtime.  Instead of relying on one social media channel, incorporate multiple networks as you develop your marketing strategy.

As of the writing of this post, Twitter's "Replies" and "Direct Messages" feeds are still down.

The tried and true, traditional 80/20 rule has accurately described almost every aspect of our lives – business and personal. We have come to rely on its consistency when calculating our predictions. And, for most areas, we can continue to trust it. But, in regards to Social Media, the 80/20 rule needs to be adjusted to ensure the success of your business in today’s market.

A few weeks ago, I walk into a meeting expecting to put a bid in on a web development job.  Little did I know that I was actually walking into an interview.

I was meeting with Cliff Oxford of Entrepreneur Advisors who offered me a job on the spot as their VP of Internet Technologies.  I accepted.

Since then, my time has been consumed with laying a foundation for their web presence.  This has left little time to blog.

Now, I've constructed this site to feed the niche market of business professionals and their businesses with information on Social Media and best-practices.

And, now, have a month or so, I'm able to contribute once again to the blog.

Stay tuned.  Much more to come.

To quote @AxelS: "Sales is like Sex - cold calls barely work, online is good to connect, but socializing is the way to go..." Well, that's one way to put it. Social networks push traditional marketing strategies to the back burner.  Marketing practices that worked 20 years ago, were great 20 years ago, but are not as efficient today. Phone calls, letters (and today, e-mails) will only take the client relationship so far. Being social increases sales, closes deals and gets the job done. Here's a video to remind you of that fact.

Background: Marshall University loses their entire team and major boosters in a plane wreck.  A new coach is called in to, perhaps, get a team together. The problem was, at the time, the NCAA didn't allow freshmen to start in football.

This is a repost of the article found here that discusses a report on the Global Online Media Landscape by The Nielsen Company Online. The report suggests that involvement with the Internet among users is deepening in part due to a shift toward video content and the rise of social media.

Highlights of the report suggests:

• The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339% since 2003
• Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000% over the same period
• In the last year, unique viewers of online video grew 10%, the number of streams grew 41%, the streams per user grew 27% and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71%
• There are 87% more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883% more time devoted to those sites.
• In the last year, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73%
• In February, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time.

Could it be that e-mail is becoming a thing of the past? Other research suggests that social media has now surpassed RSS in quickly syndicating information among users. Since 2003, Internet users' interests have shifted dramatically.  Video and social networking sites have become the fastest growing categories in 2009.

The full report can be found here.

As a disclaimer, while I, myself, engage heavily in social media marketing, I must confess that there are social marketers out there who are better than I - all they do is social marketing.  My expertise is search engine optimization in which I've had tremendous success for my clients.  I'm constantly attempting to show my clients the benefits of social media marketing and how it can improve search engine optimization for elevating organic page ranking.  The following is an attempt to show a few points why social marketing is beneficial for SEO.

7. Peer Grading
Through utilizing social bookmarking platforms such as Digg, Mixx, De.licio.us or Reddit by posting your web site's content, you give others the opportunity to grade the quality of your site.  Low approval status may be a good indication that you should tweak your web site's layout or copy.

6. Peer Contribution
Peer contribution is truly one of the biggest benefits of social media by allowing visitors to connect with you and add their own "2 cents" to your content through mediums such as blogs and forums. Blogs and forums facilitate exponential growth to your content with each contribution, thus increasing your site's potential relevance. (I say "potential" because not every contribution is quality.)

5. References
The better the quality of your web site's content, the more people will reference your site on other sites.  Visitors will also reference your site's URL through mediums like Facebook and Twitter. All of this will create backlinks to your web site.  Many of these backlinks have greater page ranking and when they link to your site, your site's organics naturally increase.

4. Traffic Sources
Perhaps similar to references of reason 5, but utilizing the same social bookmarking platforms mentioned in reason 8.  Both of these not only provide quality backlinks, but increase opportunities for incoming traffic.  Also, most corporate web sites will be indexed by search engines once a month.  However, many social bookmarking sites are indexed every 30 minutes.  Its a great way to get your new content out there fast.  Futhermore, if you utilize tools like Google Analytics that track visitor metrics, the more unique visits you receive (along with a few other factors) the more your page will seem relevant to search engines.  And all search engines try to deliver the most relvant results (look at reason 2 for more information).

3. Brand Visibility
Increase your brand's popularity and familiarity by increasing its visibility.  Using social media can rapidly grow your brand's reach.

2. Page Relevance
I always tell an SEO client to "think on the other side of the table."  In other words, think about what your potential visitor would be searching for.  This might not always be the "terms of the trade." As you engage in social media, you'll see what jargon visitors and clients are using to describe your products and services.  In many cases you're not going to want to use your terminology, because the only time you may appear at the top of organics is when your competitors are searching for those same terms. The terms that visitors and clients are using might be good keywords for you to use to target them and other clients in your search engine optimization.

1. Relate-ability
Implementing all of the previous reasons create one thing - an inviting environment that: 1) helps you relate better with your clients; and 2) helps your clients relate better with each other.  One reason why users love social media is the fact that, well, it's social.  People like being able to connect and relate through the brands they're using.  Research shows that brands no longer makes the person, but, rather, the person makes the brand.  In other words, your clients define who you are.