It seems almost silly to be looking at how brands are behaving on social media these days. Shouldn’t this be old hat by now?

Sadly, it’s not. A mere 20 percent of 200 businesses questioned by Forrester Consulting in a Dell-commissioned survey said social media efforts were at the core of their marketing efforts. Frighteningly, 27 percent called their social media efforts “experimentation.”

Some of that may be due to the fact that 42 percent of the company representatives surveyed said budget was the greatest internal challenge to their efforts.

Could that be because so many companies run around saying how social media is free? How it doesn’t cost anything? How they spent nothing on marketing, yet got amazing results.

I was at a meetup in New York City recently where the fitness app owner went on and on about how he spent no money on marketing, yet went viral and got amazing results, blah blah blah.

During the Q&A, I asked how much he spent on social media and social media marketing and asked him if it was kind of disingenuous to say they spent no money on marketing, when they obviously spent money on social media. Got a blank stare. Then the explanation, “Oh, I just meant that we didn’t spend any money on traditional marketing.”

That’s not what he said, though.

I’m not going to mention the company, because he’s not even close to being the only one who pretends that social media is without cost.

Can you spend less? Is it possible to go viral and get tons of free publicity on top of what you spent? Is it possible to cut back on ad dollars, go totally social and have better results? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Does that make social media and social media marketing free?

NO.

To do it right, you need to spend money and time making sure you’re targeting the right people in the right way. You need to spend time listening. You need to interact.

Marketing is different. Marketing is community now, not just saying, “Hey, our brand is great, buy us!”

Take a look at this infographic from GetSatisfaction, which nicely details the Dell/Forrester report. Very curious to hear from both marketers and brands about how you’re shaping your social media efforts and how you use it.

Just don’t tell me it’s free, OK?

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Created By: MBA Online

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I lost all my phone contacts recently, which of course was a pity, but it led to an interesting discovery about privacy. Here’s my story.

I wanted to restore my smart phone to its original state – it started to work pretty slow after some time. The thing is that I simply forgot to copy my contact list backup. Shame on me.

But no use crying over spilled milk. I started installing some apps, configuring etc. and after a while I noticed that I have a few hundred contacts! How’s that? Android simply imported all my Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn etc. contacts, merged them, and displayed on the contact list.

Since I didn’t want such a mess in my phone, I found and option that said something like Display only contacts with a phone number and… I still had tons of contacts displayed!

Ok, I admit it was less, but still quite a lot. As it turns out, lots of people enter their private or/and work phone numbers, their home addresses and other personal data. I always had doubts entering such data and saw no particular reason to do that. My friends simply have my phone number, and even if they don’t know my exact address (though they usually know how to get to my place ) – there’s no problem asking me anytime. So why would I leave such information on my social media profiles? “Because there’s a field to be filled” or “because I can” are not real reasons.

Now what you probably want to say is that there are privacy settings, right? I can allow such personal information to be displayed only for specific people or groups and no one else will see it. That’s true, but I think it’s rather saying “don’t worry too much” than solving the problem. First of all, we do hear about a bug or inconsistency from time to time – people simply find ways to outsmart those systems. I’m not sure whether one day someone won’t say “Hey, I know how to get someones data from Facebook, even if they don’t allow it. All you have to do is…”

Of course you may think I’m paranoid, the same way I think I’m reasonable not to put some of my information at risk if I simply don’t have to. But there’s actually one more thing about publishing such information. Privacy settings may even work great, people may actually configure all this and keep their addresses top secret. Still, it doesn’t always do the trick.

What I observe (and what worries me) is that it’s pretty easy to make people accept friend requests. “Hey, let’s connect on Facebook!”, “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” and so on – I’m not any kind of a popular person in the web, yet even I get such messages all the time. And people actually respond “sure, why not – that’s what social media are for”.

It’s very nice to make friends, chat, exchange thoughts etc. But it cannot be only “yeah, let’s do it!”, without any thinking whatsoever. Kevin Mitnick (and I’m sure you know the guy) claimed that he used mostly social engineering to get passwords. And this means people simply told him or allowed to easily get such information (for example, they were letting him into the office, where they had yellow notes with their passwords on monitors!).

What I’m saying is that privacy protection systems can be even designed and implemented well, but we are the weakest link. It difficult for most of us to find the right balance between socializing and being reasonable on the Internet. So far, so good – let’s just hope there’s no critical point to be reached here…

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We won’t be posting until the 19th. Go away. Here’s why: Stop SOPA.

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SEO is one of the most effective methods for increasing visibility and  boosting traffic online. And with Google the being undisputed king of  the online search game, its ranking system is the one most publishers and marketers aim to please with their SEO efforts. However, many have found that keeping up with the company’s ever changing algorithm can be a full time job in and of itself.

If you’re among those who feel this way, brace yourself because the advent of the Google +1 button could lead to one of the biggest changes yet.

The +1 Button’s Potential Impact on Search Rankings

Since rolling out the +1 button in the spring of 2011, it was apparent  that Google had big plans for the feature that instantly drew comparisons to the Facebook Like button. What became clear was the search giant’s ambitions of using it as a measure of good content and ordering rankings in the results pages. According to a recent article published by technology news site Wired, it has now been confirmed that Google will indeed use the +1 button as a tool that helps it organize rankings and weed out search engine spam, a problem the company and its competitors have been fighting for some time.

In order to get an idea of where the Google +1 button stands in terms of importance, one must first understand how it works. Remember, this feature is quite similar to what Facebook has going on with its Like button, so the best way to describe it is a convenient method for giving a piece of content your stamp of approval, an endorsement if you will. Slowly but surely, the +1 button has been making its rounds throughout the web. In fact, you may have noticed it more often in the search results and on web pages alongside buttons from Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.

The Wired story featured quotes from a Google spokesperson, who states that the company will not only be studying +1 button clicks in regard to influencing rankings and the order of results, but also as a measure of overall quality. Judging from the spokesperson’s comments and what has already been speculated for months now, it is starting to look like webmasters may need to tally up a certain number of clicks if they want to enjoy a comfortable spot in the rankings. From this perspective, the +1 button could become one of the many crucial factors that help determine PageRank, which would make it extremely important for obvious reasons.

Another Step in the Evolution of Search

To be clear, Google is not doing away with its PageRank system. Instead, it appears to be using the +1 button to improve that system and the quality of the results it delivers to the searcher. Above all, it looks like another step in the evolution that has seen search become more personal and relevant right before our very eyes.

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To any of our readers who are into social gaming, please do not take this as an insult. It’s definitely not intended that way.

I’m not a social gamer. It’s not that I don’t like games – I do. It’s not that I don’t like social media – I do (obviously). At this point, I haven’t found a true social game that appeals to me. It will come, but I am somewhat still put off by them simply based upon the endless invites I once got (thank you Facebook and Twitter for fixing this) and the bias has yet to completely wear off. With that said, I am still definitely interested in learning more about who the social gamers are as there is a tremendous future in the industry.

The demographics of the social gamer are not as predictable as one might think. One part that truly surprised me was the skipping of ages – 30-39 year old people and 50-59 year old people are more likely to be a social gamer than 40-49 year old people. That’s not the only surprising part.

This infographic by Flowtown breaks it down nicely for us. Click to enlarge.

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For decades, Silicon Valley has been synonymous with innovation. It is difficult to dispute this claim given that it’s the home to technology and Internet giants such as Apple, Google, and Facebook. While it hasn’t lost its staying power, other hotspots for entrepreneurship and technology have emerged over the past ten years, in particular, New York’s “Silicon Alley”.

Although cities like Chicago, Austin, and even our own Research Triangle have produced a number of web-based businesses in recent years, New York’s startup scene is growing exponentially. The amount of capital and seed funding continues to rise as well as the success of local companies like foursquare, Gilt Groupe, and Tumblr. The city’s ecosystem also has the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who recently appointed Rachel Sterne as the city’s Chief Digital Officer along with Steve Rosenbaum, the city’s first Entrepreneur at Large.

There’s no shortage of debates in the blogosphere as to whether one coast has the advantage over the other. Regardless of what side you’re on, many would agree that there’s no better time to be an entrepreneur. Organizations and incubators like the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), Startup America, Y-Combinator and Tech Stars are providing an unprecedented level of resources and support. In a recent TIME article, the YEC’s Scott Gerber even posited 2012 as “The Year of the Entrepreneur”.

Interested in seeing the growth that has been present on both coasts over the last 5 years? Interact with the graphic below to explore some noteworthy companies in both Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley, quotes from stakeholders, as well as the rise in Seed Funding from 2009-2011.

Via MBA@UNC: Online MBA

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