Facebook recently ran a month-long study that investigated more than 1,200 posts from 23 brands. Based on the data, Sean Bruich, head of Facebook’s Measurement Research, advises brands to remain relevant (i.e., don’t stray). After all, people are seeing what you’re posting because they’re interested in your brand.

As it turns out, the most valuable interaction you can get on Facebook is a share. A share is the most valuable because it results in your company’s post being shared (inserted) in your fan’s timeline. That’s when the viral effect has a fighting chance, because all of that fan’s friends will potentially see your post and, in turn, share it with their friends… all over the world!

Facebook's Global Data Traffic - December 2010

But what can you do to coach more SHARES?

Turns out there are two activities that positively affect how likely your company’s post will be shared: post more photos and video. Yup, that’s it. Easy to say, but hard (and potentially expensive) to do.

Also, asking questions of your fans increases commenting, but not liking and sharing. Buddy Media did a study to try and get more insights on Facebook’s News Feed algorithm (named EdgeRank). They discovered that using questions helps encourage more comments. But questions beginning with “why” were interpreted as being too intrusive and therefore did not help. instead, Buddy Media suggests using questions that begin with “where” “when” “would” and “should.”

Facebook Demographics

* Source: AdAge – May 2012

In Summary

I often refer to the proverbial “16-legged table” of marketing. Facebook is one of those legs, albeit an important one. So it deserves attention. But social media and other digital marketing tactics are ultimately dependent on quality content.

Conversions & KPIs – What’s the Difference?

We hear the term conversion and we hear the term KPI (Key Performance Indicator). So what’s the difference?

• A KPI can be most any kind of desired action. Not to confuse things here, but you may also opt to define a solid KPI as a conversion. But KPIs tend to be “mini conversions” – moving the prospect closer to becoming a customer.
• A conversion is when you ring the bell and call it all a success. Your prospect has completed the KPIs you’ve defined and they can be counted. This may be the actual purchase of your product, or it may simply be one step closer (i.e., they’ve requested a quote).

Conversions on your Web site

Web site conversions should tie back to the purpose of your Web site. For example, if your Web site is an E-Commerce site where people can actually buy product, one conversion should definitely be a paying customer – they reach the thank you page after placing an order.

If your Web site features an overview of your products and services, conversion may be defined as a visitor who visits a specific product page, visits your “contact us” page, or requests additional information. You can even set up a separate phone number for your Web site and track calls based on whether people call the phone number on your site. By the way, call tracking can get quite sophisticated. You can even dynamically insert phone numbers in ads to track the performance of search marketing and certain display advertising campaigns.

KPIs & Conversions on social networks

If you’ve jumped into the social media game you can define KPIs and conversions there as well. One conversion may be that a visitor clicks through to your Web site. A KPI may be that they “liked” your company on Facebook, or pinned something that you posted to Pinterest.

Conversions at an offline event

Just because an event is offline doesn’t mean you can’t weave in KPIs and conversions. You can use QR codes at your booth, entice people to sign up for you email marketing list, give product demos, collect business cards, schedule follow-up meetings, and more. All of these can be measured.

It’s my blog, so I can go on a tangent for a minute… Companies still spend an inordinate amount of budget participating in industry conferences and trade shows. The airfares, booth fees, exhibit materials, collateral printing, FedEx charges, and team dinners (cocktails) are costly. In fact, most conference budgets will take eat up an enormous chunk of sales/marketing budgets. It’s not unheard of that the budget for one conference can eclipse an an entire year’s digital marketing budget. We need to do the math and honestly gauge whether our conference exhibit investments are worthwhile. If revenue can be directly traced to the conference, great. If not, perhaps we need to re-evaluate.

Deciding on conversions

I know of a mid-sized company (not in the software or tech industry) that last year spent $60,000 and who knows how much employee time and effort having a third-party developer build an iPad app. Guess what? They’re having a very challenging time getting their customers to download the app, let alone actually use it.

And here’s some insult to injury – you can’t sell or upsell anything in an iOS app unless you agree to give Apple a 30% share of the revenue. And don’t even think about being sneaky. Whose lawyers do you think are better?

Should You Build A Mobile App?

If you’ve got a little tickle and think your company should have a mobile app, do a thorough SWOT analysis. In addition to the SWOT there are some fundamental questions that need to be addressed prior to investing in a mobile software project:

1. How will the app support your revenue goals?
2. What is your core business objective associated with the app?
3. Who will be using your app? What operating systems do they use?
4. How will you achieve these goals and measure success that’s mapped to your business requirements?

Sanity Check & The Take-Away

This post isn’t supposed to be a mobile app how-to. Rather, it’s a sanity check. Do you really need to build that mobile app? If not, re-invest the budget in proven marketing activities and take a portion of the budget to develop an overall mobile marketing strategy that complements your existing plan and begin testing mobile marketing tactics that require less time and budget than an app.

Parking Locator is the vendor that provides SFO with the bright yellow dispenser that hangs by the elevator. You can grab a ticket that helps to remind you where you parked. You mark or tear in the section that you parked. It’s low tech and it works. They also have an SMS reminder (texting a keyword to a shortcode) that works great. I used that, too, to see what the experience was like.

• Parking Locator
• Advertising on Back

 

Flipping over the ticket I see that Parking Locator also has an iPhone app. That’s great, but if you look at the smartphone operating system marketshare most people don’t have iPhones. As of February, and according to comScore, 47% of smartphone users are using Android-powered smartphones and 30% are using iOS (iPhones).

I’m all for low-tech offline approaches, so I like that the Parking Locator ticket suggests you simply put a tear indicating on which level you parked. That’s what I did, along with texting the keyword to the shortcode.

But here’s where the QR code opportunity comes in. I would be totally willing to scan a QR code on the back of the Parking Locator reminder. If they’re currently using the space to advertise their own app I would put the QR code there and take the smartphone (iPhone) user exactly where they need to go to download the app.

QR codes work well for pulling offline experiences back online, helping to close that loop. While the Parking Locator experience could use a QR code there are plenty of other offline experiences that could test one as well.

The reason I’m so hot about QR codes is because they’re one of the easiest, least expensive, easy-to-implement, and obvious calls to action for pulling smartphone users back online. And we all know that smartphone usage is exploding. Some analysts are even forecasting the death the desktop computer:

Still, QR codes aren’t near as popular as the geeks would have liked them to be. Perhaps they’ll grow in popularity, but right now they’re still underutilized and widely misused.

The Orange Julius QR Code Experience

First, I need to extol my lust for original flavor Orange Julius. I just can’t get enough. They’re so frothy and orangey and icy. Yes, I realize it’s artificial orange flavoring. But it’s right up there with the sensational taste of Tang. So please don’t think I’m bashing Orange Julius… just their mobile campaign.

The Orange Julius QR code is right on the side of the cup. You’re sitting there in the mall enjoying your Orange Julius. You’ve got your smartphone with you. It’s an ideal moment to scan a QR code and see what they’re offering. Maybe it’s a coupon for another Orange Julius!

Nope. It’s a call to action to join the OJ Quench Club. Here’s where the campaign falls apart.

1. When you scan the QR code it’s a URL. You click on it and it takes you to the (non mobile) Orange Julius Web site home page. Umm, what am I supposed to do?
2. It’s next-to-impossible to read the home page in a mobile browser. I look for the OJ Quench Club and don’t see it. Oh well.
3. I throw away the cup and shrug my shoulders.

• Orange Julius Example
• See's Example

 

The See’s Candy QR Code Experience

I’m walking out of the See’s Candy Store and see a QR code on an in-store display for a chance to win a $200 See’s gift card. Mmm, what would $200 worth of chocolate look like? I scan the QR code and it takes me to an email sign-up page.

• It’s hard to read because, again, this is not a mobile landing page. Ugh! The form is a little brown box in the upper left-hand corner of my screen. Yikes!
• I feel a little baited and switched because now I have to sign up for their email newsletter to get a chance to win.

Let’s Learn From OJ & See’s

Mobile campaigns don’t have to be headache-inducing. It’s relatively easy to test the waters and execute on a targeted campaign with a clear call to action. It’s also a time to get creative and test, test, test.

 Do you have any QR code experiences to share?

Shared office space is nothing new. There are numerous approaches to work space and so-called incubators are an interesting and relatively new sort of office space for early-stage companies that want nurturing along with basic office necessities.

Incubators are special because they feature support from people who’ve “been there, done that,” along with staplers, printers, and high speed Internet access. Most incubators are supported by seasoned advisers, collaborative co-incubator colleagues, and even venture capitalists (VCs). But all incubators are designed to support and help develop fledgling start-ups. That’s quite different from simple fend-for-yourself shared office space.

Good incubators provide desks, Internet access, conference rooms with big white boards, strong coffee, and people who can loan you brains and money.

Close proximity to and support from the right people can be magic. And that’s the raison d’être of incubators. It’s a win-win environment.

In 1992 I was working as an intern at a Bay Area marketing and PR firm that had an office space company as a client. The client’s idea was that disparate mobile knowledge workers were going to be a big part of the future workforce. They were convinced that large enterprises could save money by renting numerous full-service micro office spaces and save on investing in large real estate leases and purchases. Large, centralized enterprise offices were going to be vacant half of the time because their workers were “working from the field.” Workers would benefit because they might be able to go to a closer local shared office space instead of commuting to a central location. Distilled, the idea was much like a FedEx Office model. Nothing really different except there’d be more desk space. Anyway, the company never took off as far as I know.

I live and work near San Francisco. San Francisco is a hotbed for start-ups and therefore incubators. I’ve visited a few incubators, like RocketSpace, which is kind of a hybrid. While they’re mostly a shared office space they also feature value-add activities, like a bustling event schedule and inspiring speakers. In addition, they host what they term “cross-pollination” activities. Last summer a friend of mine from Barcelona participated in a business idea program called Imagine that uses RocketSpace as their hub in San Francisco.

Other San Francisco incubators, like RockHealth, are more industry-focused. RockHealth is for medical start-ups. Another incubator, La Cocina, is for entrepreneurial chefs. And there are many more.

But incubators aren’t restricted to just San Francisco. Virtually every U.S. metropolitan area now has incubators. Jumpstart Foundry is a Nashville-based incubator that caters to tech-oriented start-ups in the Southeast. Each incubator will have its own ecosystem. Like almost every enterprise, people are at the heart of an incubator.

This video is from Jumpstart, but I think it’s a representative collage of entrepreneurs and how a real incubator adds value to start-ups:

A colleague of mine moved to Nashville a few years ago and started supporting Jumpstart Foundry as one of their experienced coaches. He suggests that some ambitious startups should consider spending a summer in Nashville. Here’s what he had to say:

Do you have any experience with incubators? What’s your opinion?

Continuing with the metaphor… the most important part is building the table and deciding on how many legs it needs. Let’s say the table represents your overall digital marketing campaign. Adding more legs is relatively easy once you get started. But, just like a table, there’s probably an optimum number of legs. If you’ve got a large table you can add more legs. But putting too many legs on a small table is awkward.

What does your table look like? How many legs do you have on it? How do you keep it balanced?

While it’s tempting to look to one digital marketing tactic as a “silver bullet” the truth is there are multiple facets to a successful campaign. Thankfully, digital marketing can be measured and constant testing is a great way to discover how to balance to the multiple-legged table. If something works, keep doing it. If it’s not working, move on. Ultimately it will be a mix of digital marketing that works. And testing new tactics will keep it fresh. Getting the table to balance may take a number of smaller adjustments, not one big change.

I always encourage my clients to make sure their tactics are aligned with strategy. And both the strategy and the tactics must be aligned with business goals. So it goes with any of the “table legs.” Adding more legs can get out of hand and make it more difficult to balance. Each leg of the metaphorical digital marketing table should have purpose.

Communications are now truly global. And so are digital advertising and marketing campaigns.

The ease of reaching a truly global audience is here. There’s no doubt about it. And it’s inexpensive. But the real cost is in ensuring your messaging is spot on. Digital marketing and advertising campaigns need to be relevant, or they’ll die on the vine.

• Does your advertising campaign resonate with all cultures, or does it require localization?
• Speaking of culture, does your campaign need to be translated?
• Sometimes images speak louder than words. Is there a way to replace some of your copy with strong images that communicate more effectively? This is another culturally sensitive area, but some images can be universally effective.
• What about day parting? If you’ve got a global campaign you may be able to save money on your pay per click campaign by running it only during the most relevant times of the day in different regions.

Do you have a product that could just as easily be sold globally? If so, you’re in luck. We’re living in a global digital economy.

If you like this infographic, check out Nielsen’s Online + Mobile. They’re another source of eye-popping data about online and mobile trends.

But I think big data has big implications for small and growing companies as well.

Small and mid-sized organizations can also benefit from big data insights. Small companies can generate their own big data. Most companies are generating some sort of industry niche data. Collecting it, and making the data available are the next steps.

Given the growing importance of sharing quality fresh content, I think it’s important for all of us to investigate what type of data we’re generating, what it means, and how we can appropriately share it with our prospects and clients.

• The McKinsey big data report cites retail as an industry sector that can realize substantial savings by leveraging big data. Retail is an industry where big data can be used both internally and is also something that can be shared and acted on internally.
• Any company that processes a high number of transactions, or monitors changes in niche data is capable of generating its own rich sets of big data. If the data reveals a window into a niche industry trend, or an insight that your company can offer, it’s potentially valuable and could be part of building lucrative business partnerships and attract new types of customers who see value in your insights.

In the past, we used to rely on market research companies to deliver data and insights. While companies may still need this type of third-party support, I think many of us are now in a position to leverage increasingly larger sets of data, and wrap our own qualitative insights around them.

Nerdy But Neat

More and more sources of data become available each day. And many data sources are available via an API (application programming interface). In turn, this data can be used in a separate program, manipulated automatically, and displayed on the web and smartphones.

For example, Google makes their charts API publicly available for free. This allows you to display a graphical representation of live data on your Web site. You store your data in one place (you could use a free Google Docs spread sheet), or you grab data from somewhere else, then point the Google Charts API at it. Voila, you’ve got a cool-looking chart that automatically gets drawn on your Web site.

The Google Charts API is quite easy-to-use, fun, and potentially very interesting to your clients and prospects. Along with a little wrapper of what it means, you’re starting to provide data-backed insights for your clients. Do it on a password-protected portion of your Web site for clients. Provide a scaled-down “free” version of it on the public-facing portion of your Web site.

Conclusion

Whether it’s information about their FedEx order, aggregated data about their industry segment, or just the most popular-selling items, you can use a combination of big data and readily-available APIs to create extra value for your clients. Big data is a big trend wave that small business can ride as well.