If you’re a marketer, and you’re not familiar with EdgeRank, you should be. This is the algorithm Facebook uses to determine which content to show your fans. But that’s just the tip of the sword.

Raidious works with lots of enterprise-level global and national brands, managing social media for hundreds of thousands of fans and hundreds of thousands of interactions every month. Raidious has been in the social media optimization game for awhile now. Over the last year, we have been doing more homework on EdgeRank to help our existing clients do things like triple their Facebook fan base, add 20,000 fans in a 48 hour period, and drive 60% increases in online sales worth over a million and a half dollars – all attributable directly to social media (and that was just one client). We are pretty excited about what we have learned, and thought it would be valuable information to share with other marketers, who may be wondering why their numbers on Facebook have gone down recently, or why they are not seeing the growth they want. The answer is EdgeRank, Facebook’s content assassin. That’s right:

Facebook is trying to assassinate your content.

Only you can protect it – but you must learn the exquisite art of EdgeRank, grasshopper.

Learn how to become an EdgeRank Ninja, with Raidious and Awareness Networks, at our upcoming Webinar. If the word “algorithm” scares you, don’t worry. This will not be a deep dive into Calculus 401. I’ll give an easy to understand overview of the algorithm, with as little heavy math as possible (although there will be a little bit). I can also guarantee the appearance of at least one cute picture of a kitten, and Animal from the Muppets. Also, lots of ninja pictures, and a behind the scenes look at the end result of ongoing EdgeRank optimization, and some guidance on how you, too, can start leveraging EdgeRank for your brand.

I would love to see you there, and please bring a friend. It will be fun, and you can impress your boss afterwards with your crazy EdgeRank ninja skills. Hiii-YA!

Related articles

• Understanding How Algorithms Impact Content (raidious.com)
• EdgeRank and Graph Rank Defined (insidefacebook.com)
• The End of the Echo Chamber (slate.com)

Social Media Analytics is an ever-evolving practice. Here is a quick presentation on how Raidious handles analytics on a cross platform basis for socialized media (one point we make here – social media is a misnomer, it’s all social). It’s all about understanding how to grow and engage an audience with content, regardless of the platform – social or otherwise.

If your company is asking questions like . . . how do we measure the impact of social media? What is the ROI? What metrics should I be paying attention to in which platforms?

We have some answers for you. Please contact us any time, and we’ll be happy to have one of our strategists do an analysis of your current efforts.

Email marketing is changing fast.

At a jam-packed webinar last week, Raidious partnered with our friends at Delivra to shed some light on some of the top email marketing trends we have been seeing with our clients. If you were not able to attend the webinar, no worries – we recorded it so you can watch it at your leisure. Just click on the image below to see the webinar, or grab the slides!

Here are some of the trends we covered:

• Multiplatform
• Outside Outlook
• Email Anywhere
• Mobile Expansion
• Versioned Design
• Subject Line Trends
• Audience First
• Hub & Spoke Infrastructure
• Measuring Content
• Measuring Engagement
• Measuring Conversion
• Measuring Amplification
• Real Time Relevancy
• Multiplatform Correlations
• Email Content Strategy

For more detail on these email trends (or just to relive the magic), here is the full recording:

Lots of great questions from the audience are captured in the webinar, but not on the slide deck.

We had a fantastic time with all of the folks from Delivra, and got to see their awesome new office space. Megan Glover from Delivra and PJ Gindling from Raidious did a ton of work to get this prepared. Thanks to you both!

Also, thanks to Neil Berman, CEO Delivra, who was awesome to work with. Most importantly, thanks to everyone who attended or signed up! If you have more questions about Email Marketing or Content Strategy, please feel free to reach out and we’ll be happy to help!

Related articles

• Spotlight: Email Marketing with Delivra (marketingtechblog.com)
• Welcome Email Marketing Blog Sponsor Delivra! (marketingtechblog.com)
• Same Email Marketing Pains…10 Years Later. (marketingtechblog.com)
• Use Mobile to Acquire Email Subscribers (marketingtechblog.com)

Let’s face it… you are likely over capacity.

The online landscape has changed and so has the way we all do business today. If you are a marketer, you’re probably getting requests from the executive level DEMANDING that you get your multi-channel strategy together ASAP. To them, this is a reasonable request. But to you, the already stretched thin marketing director with a 3-4 person team, this request has just put a major kink in the marketing strategy you finalized a month ago! How do you scale your team to meet the demand?

The problem with the request is the misunderstanding of what it takes to run a multi-channel campaign. In the eyes of the “boss” it is as simple as setting up a few tools, slapping a logo on it, and letting the masses fill your pages with comments about how they love your brand….but you as a marketer know better. Oh, and by the way, there is no more budget. It’s ok though, because Facebook and Twitter are free… right?

If only it were that simple.

The questions going through your head are most likely

• Who is going to do all of this work?
• When we are at capacity, how will we scale?
• Where am I going to get all of this content?
• When will we find time to tackle this?
• What will our strategy look like?
• What will we write about?

If you are in this spot and feeling completely overwhelmed by this monstrous stack of tasks that have unknowingly been placed on your desk, you are not alone. But don’t fret, there are options. This scenario is the exact reason Raidious exists. In short, we can do all of this work for you.

We are structured and staffed to alleviate the capacity problem for your brand. Today there are many companies out there that can help you identify your strategy but few who will actually do the work for you. It sounds great in theory but it doesn’t solve the problem. You need doers. You need humans. We all know that the only resource for content is PEOPLE. But not just any people. You need professionals who understand how to write content. But it doesn’t stop there. You need people who can write content for the web, in the voice of your brand, in real time, in a way that marries your brand to your consumer, to the world. These people are not interns, junior level marketers, or friends of a friend who is good at Facebook.

It’s not rocket science. It is the simple truth. Employ the right people or partners to just “do the work” and you will look like a rock star to that executive team by growing your audience and bottom line. No sweat, no worries, just proper management…it is just that simple.

Congratulations to our President & CEO, Taulbee Jackson for not only his nomination to Indy’s Best and Brightest, but also for making it to the final round! Indy’s Best and Brightest is an annual event honoring 100 outstanding professionals in the Indianapolis area. All proceeds form the event benefit Junior Achievement of Central Indiana

From IndysBestandBrightest.com:

Indy’s Best and Brightest honors 100 of Central Indiana’s outstanding young professionals, age 40 and under, who are making their mark in and around Indianapolis. This event was created by Junior Achievement to recognize the up and coming talent and the next generation of leaders in our community.

Taulbee has been nominated in the Media, Entertainment, & Sports category, and it’s awesome to see his name next to some of the excellent talent from central Indiana including Smallbox’s Jeb Banner, The Indianapolis Colts’ Chris Polian, and Indiana Pacers head coach Frank Vogel. Ten winners will be selected by committee and honored on October 12th at the Robert Irsay Pavilion.

Taulbee started Raidious nearly two years ago, and has successfully built our company from a small office in Plainfield into a scalable force that build audiences for our clients. His knowledge of information architecture, social media, web content planning, search engine optimization, web analytics, brand strategy, and newsroom style production has been paramount to our rapid success. His leadership continues to keep us on the bleeding edge of interactive marketing.

Obviously all of us at Raidious are extremely proud of the last two years, and could not have done it without the leadership Taulbee brings to our company and clients each day. If you are interested in learning more about how Raidious can help build your audience, please reach out!

About Raidious

Raidious is purpose-built for integrated digital marketing management. We’re a content company, staffed with digital strategists and content producers. We make, manage, monitor, moderate and measure the content that makes digital marketing work.

All our services are implemented in a way that is completely integrated with your offline plans, your agencies, and other internal and external partners, and maximizes the efficiency and effectiveness of both your online and offline marketing efforts.

How We Work

Make + Manage + Monitor + Moderate + Measure

Raidious is not an ad agency, or a PR firm, or a web development shop. We don’t have programmers, developers, designers, creative directors, or media buyers on staff. We are staffed with digital marketing strategists and content producers — writers, editors, producers, and journalists with expertise in digital media.

Operationally, we function like a broadcast news organization, not like a marketing services firm. If you took CNN’s multi-platform approach to broadcast news and embedded their reporters within your brand, that’s us. Only, instead of reporting the news, we’re using your platforms to report about your brand in an integrated way that supports, activates and extends your online and offline marketing efforts.

HubSpot and Watershed Publishing recently released their Marketing Data Box, a “quarterly collection of practical marketing tools ready for professional use.”

The free collection of 65 charts from information wizards MarketingCharts collects current data from The Neilsen Company, Harris Interactive, Pew Research, Kantar Media, Compete, comScore, Experian Hitwise and Mediaguide. It aims to provide marketers, social media and SEO experts, and just about anyone else with all the ammunition they need for presentations, blog posts and general insight into online trends across a multitude of platforms and channels.

The collection can be downloaded in either PDF or PowerPoint format (or both), and is the latest in the slew of reports, whitepapers, and other resources HubSpot has made available at no charge.

This treasure trove of information is cleanly presented and well organized, making it easy to find the answer to almost any question business professionals may have about the current marketing climate. It focuses heavily on digital, but also includes other relevant statistics from retail/consumer goods and lifestyle/community. It could easily be retitled “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Marketing But Were Afraid to Ask.” Or perhaps “Everything You’d Better Be Thinking About In Marketing.”

Not only is this package an invaluable research tool for market intelligence, as content producers it’s also a great resource for idea generation. If all the topics explored don’t spark a wildfire of ideas, there’s a problem between keyboard and chair.

I find myself in the position of giving more and more lectures and speeches at conferences and other gatherings. I also teach a college course in web marketing. In both settings, these free-to-use charts are proving to be a tremendous resource for backing up my points with real data.

Download this package immediately, and prepare to have your mind expanded.

Forrester Research recently released a report that anyone who’s ever lived with a teenager would call blindingly obvious. Among 4,681 Americans aged 12-17, the general sentiment was brands should leave them alone unless they have a problem.

For most teenagers, I imagine being “friends” with a brand is the equivalent of your mom coming downstairs during your party. Of course your parents are always present, since you still live in their home. But when you’re together with your friends, it’s more fun to act is if your folks weren’t upstairs straining to hear everything that’s going on.

Statistically speaking, it may be near-impossible to incentivize young people to interact with your brand. If Forrester’s research is accurate, just 6% of Facebook users aged 12-17 want to be friends with brand, and almost half think brand shouldn’t be on social media, period.

These numbers aren’t surprising: would you have wanted to engage in a public conversation with Head & Shoulders when you were 14? Or have Stridex calling you out on your feed when you complain about a zit? Uncool.

Of course brands want to reach young people, those with the disposable income from their parents. Generation Y or Z or whatever the MMM is calling it these days generally has significant decision-making and therefore purchasing power. So what’s the course of action?

Active Listening and Patience

According to the Forrester report, 28% of those surveyed said they expect brands to listen to what they say via social media and get back with them. In other words, they want their complains heard and addressed, but would otherwise rather be left alone. Brands would therefore be well advised to engage in active listening, being reactive rather than proactive, with this touchy age group. Push too hard and invade their personal space, and they’re likely to turn on you. Stay quiet but aware and offer help when it’s requested.

This approach takes patience. Teenagers’ buying habits are not yet set, but this doesn’t mean they’re not acutely aware of brands and choices. By taking a hands-off tack, responding when called upon for assistance, you’re still reinforcing your brand albeit at a slower pace. Young people are still forming their identities and opinions, and often change their minds seemingly with the blowing of the wind. Consider the long-term rather than the immediate sale when targeting messaging at younger people.

Just as teenagers grow into adults and come back to their parents saying, “Mom, dad, you were right,” they also become valued customers. By concentrating on communicating with people via the channels and means they like and are comfortable with, you can foment the lasting relationships your brand is looking for.

From the beginning of Raidious, B.J. McKay and the Advisa team have been there to help us understand our company and ourselves. Their Predictive Index analysis is a truly magical exercise that yields crucial insights into individual personalities, work styles, and the potential in all of us to do great things.

Our initial success with the program led us to make the Predictive Index a key component of our hiring process. It has enabled us to create and tailor each job to exactly what the company needs, and fill that role with the person best suited for that job.

So thanks and best holiday wishes to B.J. and the Advisa team for helping us discover who we are and what Raidious can really be.

B.J. also has a fantastic blog on self confidence and productivity, as well as organizational alignment and improving sales skills, ”B.J. McKay’s Guide to Human Potential,” that you should make time to read.

Also, if you are a CEO who gets things done by managing people, then you probably would benefit from an hour with BJ. Just call him, you will not be disappointed.

While I’m at total humanist at heart, I am an online marketer by trade. I know (and tell everyone I can) that truly effective digital marketing is about bringing your brand’s content to people utilizing the channels they use and like.

With that in mind, comScore recently released data on the U.S. exposed reach of advertising on various social networking sites, and the numbers speak for themselves. Looking at data from September, 2010, ads on Facebook.com reached 62.4% of the U.S. online population. Demonstrating its continuing decline, MySpace.com paced a distant second at 24.3%.

Courtesy comScore Data Mine

The simple fact is that the combination of ad reach and the potential for consistent customer advocacy makes Facebook one of the most–if not the most–powerful social marketing channel for reaching customers on the internet. If your company is ignoring this valuable resource for reputation management and return on investment, you do so at your own risk.

]]> http://raidious.com/marketers-ignore-facebook-at-their-own-peril/feed/ 0 http://raidious.com/a-valuable-webinar-about-webinars/ http://raidious.com/a-valuable-webinar-about-webinars/#comments Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:09:10 +0000 Matt Chandler http://raidious.com/?p=2981

Okay, so the concept is a little meta, but Thomson Reuters hosted a webinar called “How to Use Content-Based Webinars to Generate Leads and ROI,” which I attended last Friday afternoon.

Guest speakers were Cameron Brown, President and Founder of King Fish Media, and Lisa Tanen-La Fontaine, Director of Marketing Management for Prudential Retirement.

First of all, it was interesting to see a live webinar with such high production values. Thomson Reuters carries all their video events from a real studio located in Times Square. This was my first time participating in one of their programs, so I was a bit taken aback at the quality.

But on to the important part: as always, content ruled the day.

The single biggest bombshell for most folks was probably the statistics from research conducted by King Fish Media. In their 2009 study on marketing, media and measurement, 74% of companies surveyed stated that based on their current experience, creating their own original content and media is the most effective means for generating marketing return on investment (ROI).

That bears repeating:

74% of companies said that creating their own original content and media is the most effective means for generating marketing ROI.

Now look at the pretty picture:

Courtesy King Fish Media

Now look at what you’re doing. The companies in the survey are shifting their overall marketing priority to a self-published model, and have demonstrated that model is making them money. Do they know something you don’t? Are they doing something you’re not?

The whole notion is based on the concept of owned media. Paid media (advertising) and earned media (articles written from press releases) still exist and can be used effectively, but owned media–self-generated content–provides the greatest opportunity to invite people in rather than speak at them. This level of interaction is de rigeur in today’s media climate, and people expect credible content and interaction rather than one big sales pitch.

Owned media also provides the greatest flexibility in media consumption.

By owning your content, you can repurpose and redistribute it across as many channels as you see fit. You can update it as conditions change and new information becomes available. In other words, unlike ephemeral press coverage or a fixed media buy, owned media can last forever.

Another salient point from the discussion was customer awareness of the “empty ask:” when companies ask for their opinions, feedback or questions, people are generally savvy enough to recognize when the company is patronizing them, not actually wanting to hear the answer or follow up. The solution here is to ask and mean it; commit to following up.

Finally, the speakers emphasized the importance of making it as easy as possible for the user or customer to take action. No matter what media or channel you’re using, always make a call to action available and obvious so that you move from education or information dissemination to action. Whether the action is the sale or a request for more information, you’ve transitioned the user from a passive observer to a customer. They are now on your list; they’re a warm lead that’s worth money.

I highly suggest checking out the Thomson Reuters Best Practice webinar series. They’re free and highly informative and useful.