Browse by Tags

In case anyone was still wondering about Facebook's financial strength, last week's filing with the SEC in advance of the company's IPO revealed some staggering figures. Here, from Statista , is a look at the company's revenue and net income over the last five years: The SEC filing also reveals some of Facebook's plans for future growth . And China is a big part of the future of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg discussed Facebook's China goals with Charlie Rose back in November. Here is an excerpt from that interview: Watch the full interview here .

Lisa Arthur is concerned that corporations are slacking off when it comes to using social media tools for reaching out to customers. At Forbes , Arthur--Chief Marketing Officer for Aprimo --shares some findings from a recent UMASS-Dartmouth survey of businesses that show very little increase in the use of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs by Fortune 500 companies. For starters, keep in mind that UMass-Dartmouth has conducted longitudinal studies on four major sectors of the US economy –the Fortune 500, Inc. 500, charities, and higher education –for the past four years. In every one of those years, the F500 has lagged behind the others in adoption of social media. (For example, last year, 71 percent of the Inc. 500 was on Facebook, as was a whopping 98 percent of the higher ed institutions and 97 percent of the charities studied. Compare that to the 56 percent of F500 companies that had Facebook pages in 2010.) Perhaps corporate silos are getting in the way? “Ownership” of social media can get sticky, and teams bogged down by border wars and artificial boundaries may find it difficult to innovate. Retrenchment could also be a factor, I suppose. And, I know that integrating social media and proving ROI remain significant challenges for many–although marketing automation technology continues to mature towards sophisticated and elegant solutions. While I recognize these obstacles, I still must admit that I’m disappointed in these survey results. Why? Because now is not the time for complacency. It’s not the time for companies to lose focus. Empowered consumers are here, and they’re here to stay. We’re just beginning to tap into the potential of strategies like intelligent 1:1 marketing, and that means marketers must continue to find ways to engage with their customers and prospects online in more personalized ways. To be clear, the survey does not show use of social media going down. Rather, firms of all sizes adopted these tools more and more over the last few years. The real question is whether those companies that have not adopted social media have actively chosen not to because they have concluded their use does not provide the right return on investment. Read Are Corporations Giving Up on Social Media? here .

A lot of marketers and brand managers are trying to figure out how Google+ fits into their social media outreach strategies, as consumers try to figure out whether they need to migrate from Facebook to Google + . We confess, we haven't quite figured the whole Google+ thing out ourselves, but we found this video from Epipheo Studios helpful. It is very bullish on Google+, but still quite a good explainer: We also recommend Epipheo's video on How the Internet is Changing Advertising . It is a couple of years old now, but still largely relevant.

Tammy Kahn Fennell , CEO of the British social media monitoring company MarketMeSuite , says social media is like fishing. And if there is one thing that is important to remember in fishing, it's that you better have something on your hook or you are just going to be sitting there all day, well, fishing . Writing at the HubSpot blog, Fennell shares five ways for businesses to bait the hook online: 1. Geo-Target 2. Ask Questions 3. Be Useful 4. Don't Automate Engagement 5. Settle Into the Strategy Read Fennell's descriptions for these five approaches here .

Is it better to have more people paying attention to your work or fewer people who are more loyal? Musicians, companies, and brands of all sorts are forced to confront this question when it comes to social media outreach. eMarketer notes that an increase in overall audience--or followers--on Facebook appears to bring with it a decrease in followers' engagement: So does this mean that brands need to try to connect with fewer people? Of course not. But it does point to the need for a coherent strategy that is flexible and expandable enough to allow for continues engagement as the audience grows. From eMarketer: There are many posting strategies brands can pursue to boost engagement on pages as the number of fans increases, however. Research from Buddy Media found that tweaking the length, timing and wording of posts could raise engagement. In addition, the research from Visibli points to how brands should space out their posts. Half of all “likes” happen within 1 hour and 20 minutes of posting, and 70% happen within 4 hours. “Likes” taper off over time, until about 95% are received within 22 hours. Read Can Brands Maintain Engagement on Facebook? here .

With reports that Facebook and Baidu have reached a deal to start a Facebook-like social networking site in China (the deal is still pending), Eric Jackson points to some important lessons in how Mark Zuckerberg has been doing business in China. Jackso, who writes the Tech and China blog for Forbes , says Groupon 's Andrew Mason, among others, could learn a lot from Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg understood that getting into the China market had to be a top priority for Facebook, so he made it a top priority for himself. And Jackson says these are the four main takeaways from how Zuckerberg approached the market: 1) Know what is important and what isn't important. 2) Don't delegate what's important. 3) Don't kid yourself that you're funny when you're not. and 4) Show a little respect towards others. Read 4 Things Groupon's Andrew Mason Needs to Learn from Mark Zuckerberg here .

A lot of us are trying to figure out how much attention we should be paying to Twitter--the company, our own feeds, the feeds of those we follow. The big questions have to do with Twitter's impact. Is it reaching people in a meaningful way? Is it an effective marketing tool? And just how many people can you reach with it? When Pear Analytics came out with its study of Twitter users , we felt that this chart explained a lot about what we were seeing in our own Twitter experience: But the ease of use, the speed with which we could learn about events, and the access to more thinkers, writers, even companies keeps us thinking that Twitter has great utility. So we're on the lookout for the best analysis of how many users Twitter has compiled. According to the company, there are 175 million Twitter accounts. But that is accounts, not users. Nicholas Carlson of Business Insider recently tried to get an estimate on the number of active users. After recruiting a friend who understands Twitter's API, Carlson made some interesting findings: At Facebook, a company source tells us, they believe that a user is not going to end up sticking around unless they make friends with 10 people. So let's say an "active" Twitter user is someone who follows at least 10 other accounts. How many such "active" Twitter users are there? Our source's API data shows that there are 56 million accounts on Twitter following 8 or more accounts. There are only 38 million following 16, and just 12 million following 64. Your author, by the way, follows 700 people. There are only 1.5 million accounts on Twitter following 512 or more accounts. Read How Many Users Does Twitter REALLY Have? here .

As Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media , Lisa Barone works with companies on their online content management. She is a big believer in the idea that managing your brand today is largely about managing your online content. And judging from her latest advice piece at Small Business Trends , Barone doesn't want to hear any excuses. She writes, "If content creation is an area that still makes you a little uneasy, it’s time to tackle it." And she sets out to debunk four myths of content management, and some tips on overcoming those myths. Myth number 3 is "They’re not publishers:" Are you using any combination of a website, a blog, social media or a wiki to market to your customers and build your business? Then congratulations – you’re a publisher. With that responsibility means now you have to start thinking like a publisher. It’s not enough to run your blog or your content marketing like it’s a hobby – you need to put an editorial calendar in place and plan out what you’re going to say, when and why you’re going to say it. Even if you don’t have a website and you’re running your business from your Facebook page (which you shouldn’t do, BTW), you’re responsible for generating your unique brand message, inspiring fans and sometimes gathering user-generated content. Once you accept that, you being to look at content not as simply something you publish, but as a way of attracting and retaining more clients. Read about the other 3 myths here .