Fortune 100 Are Loving On Social Media

According to a new study out by Burson-Marsteller, the Fortune 100 are all over the social media scene.  More and more, companies are creating social media positions or departments as part of their efforts to keep up with consumers or clients.

79% of the Fortune 100 are present and listening, using at least of one of the main social platforms to communicate with their customers.

20% of Companies are using all four of the main social technologies (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Blogs)

82% of the Fortune 100 update and engage with customers on their Twitter account per week.

Fortune 100 Companies on average post 3.6 wall posts to their Facenbook page per week

50% of the Fortune 100 have a YouTube account and upload 10 videos on average a month

This is no surprise. 
 
Fortune 100 companies should be on the social media sites.  Theyhave the luxury of having large contact lists to use to start their programs. They are high profile enough to have searchers come to them. This is a great way for them to learn not only what people are thinking about their brand but also about their entire industry.
 
But what I thought was interesting, when you look at the companies in the Fortune 100, is how many are business to business rather than consumer companies.  Many of them have very specific target audiences.  I wonder how many of their tweets and updates are being read by those clients and how many are more going out to the public.  Either way, they are using social media to boost their visability and interact with the public.

Quit Facebook Day

As most of you don't know.  Yesterday was "quit Facebook day."

The social media campaign protesting the site's new privacy policy did manage to get 30,000 of Facebook's 500 million followers to drop their pages. It was a drop in the bucket, but overall the bucket still got full.  Last week, Facebook modified their policy.  Facebook also publicly denounced rumors that it would sell information to advertisers.

As the Brittish Paper, the Telegraph, reported:

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook, last week rolled out a new simplified "privacy dashboard" to make it easier for people to lock down their personal information with a single click. He said that any setting applied to Facebook accounts would also be applied retrospectively, and that any new features or elements added to the Facebook site would automatically default to that privacy setting.

The changes were prompted in part by growing criticism from Facebook users who were concerned that some personal details were being shared with other users and third parties without their explicit knowledge or consent. The anonymous organisers of the Quit Facebook protest group said in a note on their website that although Facebook gave users a choice about how to manage their data, they weren't "fair choices" and Facebook made it "damn difficult for the average user to understand or manage this".

Maybe their protest would have been more successful if they were better and using Facebook.

Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization can be considered the new SEO. In fact, Local SEO can almost entirely rely on SMO to provide fast (usually 1-2 days) geo specific organic results on Google. These techniques give Atlanta Roofing Contractors, Atlanta Plumbers and Atlanta Attorneys the ability to reduce the overall cost of marketing by at least 30%. There are generally three main components to SMO and each is listed out below.

Correct Website Platform
Digg, StumbleUpon, Propeller and Twitter love content coming from blogs! Use some type of blogging platform that has enough flexibility to look like a website. You can also use a service like Squidoo to accomplish the same desired effect.

Target Your Keywords
Be sure to use a keyword tool or your current website analytics to determine which keywords mean the most to your business online. Don’t waste time chasing after keywords that aren’t leading to sales.

Social Sites to Use
Once you’ve posted an article to your site using Digg and Propeller to publish it gets the ball rolling. Next we will use Social Bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Delicious bookmark your social news snippet. Usually bookmarking your snippet on 3-4 of these sites will be sufficient.

Exposed On Facebook

Facebook's privacy policy once promised, "No personal information that you submit to Facebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings."  Not any longer.


You can no longer keep private certain information on your profile. "Your current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests" will now be transformed into "connections," meaning that they will be shared publicly. If you don't want these parts of your profile to be made public, your only option is to delete them.

If you're under 18, you're information can still be shielded.  All others will be open to the marketers that Facebook is obviously wooing with these changes.  Also if you want to test your page for privacy, you can go to http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/.  It may not be a big deal to share your interest in pottery or your job, but you should know about it.
 
 

Is Jesus On Facebook

I knew if God could hear our silent prayers he could read my Facebook updates.  These pictures prove that at least his followers are watching. 

Then, I looked up Jesus on Facebook.  As you can imagine there was quite a bit to choose from.  The Jesus Daily fan page, the Jesus Bobblehead fan page, plenty from the hispanic comunity and those looking for salvation through social media all grabbed my attention.

Hey, the church was the first to use advertising, via their agency Michaelangelo, Raphael and DaVinci.  Now, they can continue to spread the word through different means.  I wonder if Michaelangelo has a facebook page?

LL Cool T, ladies love the Twitter

Who is on social media? Twitter, Facebook, Google's various apps, Foursquare, and more all have mobile applications. And according to Nielsen, women seem to use their phones to participate in social media more than men.

Fifty-five percent of women use social networks while mobile, compared to 45 percent of men. Additionally, Nielsen noted that most people think of social networking as a kid thing, but the 35-54 age group was the most likely to post updates from their phones, at 36 percent. (The next largest group was 25-34, at 34 percent.)

It makes sense. All the numbers make sense but with the ipad and new sales of smart phones growing it will be interesting to see how these numbers change. The numbers will grow. Perhaps us guys will catch up.

The Ohio State flash mob

Social media is also social.  This was a brilliant viral video that worked.  I'm from an Ohio State family, so the video was sent to me by at least three alumni.  Plus, I've seen it on four other people's facebook updates.



So far the video has about 360,000 views. That's about six times the student body. I know if I went to school there, I'd want to see what will happen next at the union. Well done Ohio State. Go Buckeyes.