This post was originally published on The Next Web on August 24th

As social media continues to win respect and legitimacy in the hearts and minds of executives across the world and more companies than ever are looking to open up a Facebook page to take their brand “social” -a question that is repeatedly asked by brands is: What is the value of a fan? (or a “liker” in today’s terms).

This question is often asked by two very opposing camps. For those against social media, there is an inherent derogatory tone and a cynical smirk they like to use when they ask this question,  however when discussing old media outlets, they never raise this question.

Allow me to explain: When a prospective client wants an indication of the value of a commercial time slot on a given network, the network will generally provide him with viewership stats, meaning, on average, how many viewers of a prized demographic can the client expect to reach during their 30 seconds of air time. These statistics are gathered and measured against market demand, and translated into a monetary figure. Major Television events, like the U.S. Super Bowl, can reap more than 1 million dollars for a few seconds of airtime.

When you take that criteria and transfer it to Facebook, it’s quickly recognized that demographics and numbers are already a feature which the client gets automatically as soon as he begins his social media path . The demographics are super targeted as members have to opt-in to become “likers” and the numbers are plainly visible for all to see. Yet for some reason, because these “viewers” (to borrow a term from television) are not viewing the commercial (post) during an actual television program, their value is presumed by social media naysayers to be less significant. If anything, the interactive nature of Facebook fans should make them more valuable, not less so. For old advertising to assume that stats and demographics are not enough information to warrant a value estimate for social media, is a clear double standard and downright hypocrisy.

“That’s right!” champions of social media will chime in, “Facebook fans far outweigh the value of any television viewer”, and thus you see such value estimates floating around the blogosphere ranging from $3.60 to $136 for the average Facebook “fan”.

The first value is based on a calculation put forth by Vitrue which takes the number of fans and multiplies them by a presumed average of 2 Facebook posts per day. You then take the resulting number of impressions and divide it by an estimated CPM model, meaning Cost per Measure – or 1000 impressions. Vitrue performed their calculation based on a fan page of 1 Million members with a very conservative $5 CPM value to come up with $3.60/ fan. I decided to see how Blonde 2.0′s fans’ value would measure up. Taking our own fan base of 4,270 members X (2X30) = 256,200 impressions per month /1000 X $11 (the average CPM value according to ClickZ) = $23.24 X 12 months = $279 /4,270 = $0.065 representing Blonde 2.0’s average fan value per year based on this formula.

I can tell you, being intimately familiar with Blonde’s fan value, that this figure is not anywhere near the vicinity of being accurate. Our fans are our greatest ambassadors and much of our business is generated though their word of mouth. Now how do you measure WOM? Vitrue’s model falls short in accurately predicting fan value for many companies and this makes sense given that CPM models are generally used to price traditional media ads which represent only a monologue selling a specific product and are not customized to measuring the overall value of social media. Facebook “impressions” are a completely different kind of media where more often than not, the post should be as divorced as possible from trying to make a sale and are more about creating dialogue, brand awareness and positive social conversation which indirectly leads to higher sales.

Then there is the second value model based on a report compiled by Syncapse. They are the ones who came up with the $136.36 figure stated earlier. To get this figure, Syncapse canvassed 4,000 fans from 20 major brand pages on Facebook to find out why they were fans in the first place and how they would describe their purchasing behavior. They used the accumulated data to estimate the fore stated value. The problem with this study is that individuals are notorious for inaccurate self depictions. Compound that little snag with the fact that much of advertising and branding is subliminal in nature, leaving the brunt of its effects to go unnoticed by the viewer, and what you have in the end is a very tenuous figure at best.

So, if these figures do not represent the true value of a fan, what does? The problem with answering this question is that it assumes there is some sort of generic value that every “fan” has. The truth is, there are different types and qualities of fans. There are diehard fans who are dedicated to the brand and would do all they can to promote it and there are passive fans who basically just like to be updated on what your brand is up to – and everything else in between, making a generic figure next to impossible to conjure up at this point. Nontheless, it should be noted that all Facebook “likers” of your brand are more valuable than TV viewers or any other old media audience because they themselves opted to be your fans and part of your community whereas in other media channels they were “forced” to view your brand’s messaging because they fit the criteria of your target audience.

Another important point to emphasize is that the kind and quality of likers that your page attracts is, in large part, within your sphere of influence and control. Through expert social profile management, careful cultivation of budding fans, well timed campaigns and well placed media – likers can be converted from passive viewers to your most active cheerleaders in a few short months. The operative word here is “expert”. Many companies are hearing all this buzz about social media, and fall under the impression that the mere act of opening up a Facebook page will bring in adoring fans like Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams. The truth is, it is far more complicated than that, and takes acquired finesse that only develops with time, experience and expertise.

The value of a Facebook fan is more than just a number. It is equal to the same value you would place on someone who has agreed to become a part of your brand’s daily on-going activity for the long term and even promote it to his friends and family on occasion. The value of a Facebook fan is the same value you would place on someone who actually cared enough to show you he likes you or your actions. The value of a Facebook fan cannot be measured using the same measurement system as old traditional media. It calls for a new form of measurement which takes into account a whole new set parameters including the “liker’s” level of engagement with the brand, duration of being a “liker” and more. The value of a fan in my mind, well, is priceless.

on Sunday I gave a lecture at The Marker’s Customer Experience Conference. I spoke about: “The relationship between the brand and the consumer on social networks: From flirt to love.”

How should brands engage with consumers on social networks? You’ll see that the relationship between brands and consumers on social networks is very similar to the relationship between couples.  The presentation displays three examples of  brands that handle their social media efforts differently. HP, the third brand, clearly exemplifies how giving back to your community, being responsive and listening before selling is the best policy. Please note that the presentation is in Hebrew.

Starbucks has over 705,000 followers on twitter and over 5,428,000 fans on Facebook. I guess you could say that they’re doing something right on the Web. What is it about Starbucks’s social media strategy that makes it so successful?

Let’s analyze Starbucks social behavior across the Web:

1) Starbucks on twitter – Starbucks engages with customers on twitter, answer questions, retweets what people are saying about the brand and creates an open communication channel to speak with the public.

2) Starbucks on Facebook – Starbucks uploads content to their Facebook page such as: Videos, blog posts, photos. The company also invites people to events. Fans have a place to open discussions and comment as many of them do.

3) Starbucks on YouTube -Over 4800 people subscribe to Starbucks YouTube Channel. They upload videos of commercials as well as informational videos explaning the origins of the different coffee blends and some of their charity work videos. They also upload videos showing their history thus enabling people to relate more to the brand. This video showing the beginnings of Starbucks received over 11, 800 views:

Starbucks is also allowing people to embed its videos anywhere they like on the Web. Many companies don’t allow this because they’re afraid that their videos might be places on sites that they don’t want to be associated with. However, from Starbucks’ experience as well as the experience of other brands (such as Dell), this strategy has proven to only increase the positive exposure of brands that allow embedding and not the opposite.

4) My Starbucks Idea – Starbucks’ own version of a social network where customers are asked to share their ideas on anything related to Starbucks. The site gives users the ability to see what others are suggesting, vote on ideas and check out the results. This site is a brilliant and important aspect of Starbucks social media strategy. Users who are part of this network feel that they have some role in the decision making process of the company and it makes them feel a part of it.

5) Starbucks Blog entitled “Ideas in Action” – This blog is written by various Starbucks employees and talks about what Starbucks is doing with the ideas given by users on the My Starbucks Idea site. The blog keeps customers in the loop and in the know regarding what’s happening with their ideas and increases their sense of loyalty to the brand.

Overall Starbucks’s social media strategy integrates many different elements into the mix and combined together, these elements create a social media plan that works beautifully to create millions of fans for the brand and keep them involved in the brand’s doings. The brand has created a digital dialogue with its customers, enabling people to give their feedback and receive a response back from Starbucks addressing their concerns/comments. Starbucks is showing its customers and potential customers – “hey, we care about what YOU have to say.”

I am certain that if each one of these elements was done alone then the strategy would not have been as successful and complete as it is when done like this in integration with the rest of the elements on board. Many brands can learn a great deal from the way that Starbucks conquered the social web. It is really all a matter of priorities. Starbucks put communicating with their customers and potential customers as a top priority. Do you?

Many B2B companies ask me whether Social Media is right for them. This post is all about why social media and B2B go hand in hand. Social Media is all about conversational marketing and this is why it works so well with B2B strategy.

Social media is not about the masses. It is about reaching your target audience. Listening before selling and hearing before talking. Oftentimes businesses like to measure a social media campaign’s success by the number of followers its twitter account has or the number of fans their facebook page has, however, these measures are not necessarily the signs to a well-executed social media campaign.

Social media is all about the few rather than the many. The community you build up is ideally made up of the people who are most interested in your brand. If we apply the 80-20 rule here, we are speaking of the 20% who make up 80% of your business.

B2B strategy, just like B2C strategy is all about networking, conversing with the right people,  at the right time. The more in tune you are to things that are happening in your network, the more you increase your chances to be at the right place, at the right time.

According to eMarketer in 2010, these will be the results for online marketing spending:

As you can see, Website spending is forecast to rise 71% and social media spending will increase 60% in the next year.

It is apparent that companies are understanding that they need to: 1) Create a social presence within social networks and 2) Create a Website and/or blog that reflects an active online presence.

As to the reasons most B2B companies are using social networks, emarketer had the following results:

As you can see, companies turn to social networks to show their leadership in their field, to find new potential customers by communicating with the community, to receive customer feedback and give customer service. There’s no better tool these days than twitter to handle real-time customer service issues and many brands do this beautifully, including ComcastCares, Dell, and Starbucks. They also advertise and do market research via social networks.

What about the reasons that companies use social media?

The top reason B2B companies (just like B2C companies) use social media is to generate awareness about their brand. Second top reason is to engage with customers on an on-going daily basis. As you can see, the 3rd top reason that companies use social media is to engage with top influencers on the Web.

Monitoring online conversations and responding to feedback is an extremely important element of social media which only 14% of companies seem to understand.

B2B companies that are not utilizing the social tools they are given today, will find themselves at a major disadvantage to other B2B companies that are using LinkedIn, twitter and other such networks to extend their reach and create better communication between the brand and their customers and potential customers.

Next time you doubt whether social media is right for B2B companies, think about what B2B strategy is all about – it is about the relationships and partnerships you build with your colleagues and there’s no better way to do this today than through social media.

Image credit: StickyMessage

(Guest post by Dorine Sinigaglia)

Brands are using effective social media tools like Twitter more and more these days in creative ways to promote their brand name as a way to reach out to their consumers and attract new ones. Some brands really know how to promote their brand well – and this has been their saving force during the economic downfall over the last year. While thousands of businesses worldwide have closed down or filed bankruptcy as they watched their sales numbers plummet, many businesses actually saw an increase in sales this past year and they can thank their use of their social media network for that. If your company or brand still does not yet hold an active Twitter account – it’s time to wake up, smell the coffee and re-evaluate your strategy on ways to reach out to your consumers.

Take a close look at Starbucks‘ brand presence on Twitter (@Starbucks). The guy behind the Starbucks Twitter account runs the show like I’ve never seen it done before. According to Jennifer Van Grove from Mashable, Brad Nelson – a former Starbucks barista – is now the face behind the Starbucks Twitter account, replying to messages, promoting seasonal drinks found in local stores and helping coffee-addict-customers in every way find resolutions to their problems, questions & inquiries. Grove says it well: Brad is continuously “putting out fires left and right” – in her post 40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them. It’s really impressive to see! He turns frowns upside down as he offers solutions to customers’ complaints when seasonal drinks change over the course of time. Take a look at the below response to a customer’s disappointment when a seasonal drink she enjoyed stopped selling at her local Starbucks store (note: Brad’s response came 3 minutes after she wrote him!).

Brands on Twitter must not only engage with their consumers through conversations, but also bring them news and info not only about their brand or company but about related topics as well to hold their attention. When Brad writes customers back and replies to general inquiries about flavored frappucinos and holiday music playing in local stores, he is representing more than Starbucks’ product and service; he is representing the whole coffee industry and related information that is attached to this industry. With an average of 10 Tweets per day, Brad does more than simply promote Starbucks’ coffee brand; he engages with consumers and holds their interest to ensure they keep coming back to hear what interesting comments and updates he has to say about Starbucks.

Despite their announcement last January that they were shutting down 300 stores (and closed down another 600 in July), Starbucks remains an attractive workplace and is still ranked highly in Fortune Magazine‘s Top 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2009 – ranking in at #24 (was ranked #7 in 2008). Just last month, Adam Ostrow from Mashable wrote a post that mentioned The 50 Hottest Brands on Twitter Right Now – and Starbucks’ brand was definitely in that list of 50. Having joined Twitter at the end of November, 2006 — almost 3 years ago to date — Starbucks’ Twitter now has more than 515,000 followers. Starbucks’ Facebook presence is also amazing – with over 5 million fans to date, but since Facebook launched two years prior to Twitter in Feb. 2004 (Twitter launched in March 2006), Starbucks’ online presence got a jump start on Facebook. With an average of over 3,000 new followers daily, Starbucks’ Twitter account could reach to 1 million followers within 6 months.

In addition to their general Twitter account, Starbucks continues to find new & inventive ways of reaching out to its consumers – like using crowd sourcing, where companies let users speak their mind on their brand. Starbucks started a website called My Starbucks Idea – a website that engages with their consumers and encourages them to share their inventive ideas they have for the company and initiate discussions with other Starbucks consumers. They opened a Twitter account (@mystarbucksidea) 4 months ago and already have over 9,000 followers.

Finding new ways of earning customer’s loyalty and increasing consumer numbers is a challenging task to accomplish for any industry. Consumers don’t want to feel like services are after them solely for their money – even when they do enjoy the product. Starbucks’ Twitter presence has come up with an effective formula to do both – gain customer satisfaction and increase sales. Its online presence adds valued content for its veiwers while making sure the customer is always feeling satisfied with a solution to an inquiry. By taking a brief look at Starbucks’ Twitter presence, it is simple to see why people keep coming back for more lattes. Yes, their fond love for peppermint flavored coffee is a big factor; but overall, it’s the complete customer experience they receive – in the store and online.

Dorine Sinigaglia is the Account & Content Manager at Blonde 2.0

Dorine is a dedicated individual with experience in account management, sales and business development for large corporations. She gets to know all the ins and outs of each account she handles and gets up close and personal with everyone she works with.

Guest Post by Ahuvah

This blog post was inspired by an article I just read in Business Week titled “The Great Trust Offensive”.

As I personally delve deeper into the world of corporate branding, I find it very interesting to come across various insights and tactics to building a brand and maintaining the correct corporate image. Well established corporate brands like McDonalds, Ford and AmEx are all in the process of re-branding themselves and many are turning to social media to help them spread their message.

According to the tone in the article, gone are the days when corporations could depend solely on their history to invoke brand loyalty and credibility. The economy has been hit hard and customers are worried about the financial stability for brands that have been around for 40 or 50 years. Take Ford as an example. Ford no longer depends on its 150 year old image but is now “targeting consumers’ rational left brain, relentlessly pushing themes that inspire street cred : new technology, fuel economy, quality scores.” Customers are seeking out brands that are economically and socially responsible.

The days of standing behind the corporate image shouting at the consumer to “trust us” is long gone. According to the article, “consumers are telling companies in a thousand ways: “If you aren’t open with me, then I won’t trust you.” Consumers and corporations engaging online via social media tools open up direct lines for communication fostering a deeper level of trust from the consumer. If a consumer can talk to the “big bad corporation” directly and be heard, the consumer feels valued as an individual and will convey that feeling within their own communities.

The idea of combining celebrities, social media and corporate branding is even more fascinating to me. Corporations have always turned to so-called “trusted” celebrities to be their spokespeople but only expected them to be the face and voice of the brand in print, radio or on television and not in their personal lives. Now corporations are hiring celebrities to utilize their personal social media accounts to spread their messages and we must assume that some sort of engagement between the celebrity and their community will take place. Recently Ellen DeGeneres was hired by AmEx to promote their new brand image by utilizing her popular Twitter account.

It is interesting to see how now in order to create trusted brands, corporations are turning to social media now to spread the message, and more importantly hiring celebrities to promote brands via their personal online profiles. Obviously social media has the potential to reinforce brand awareness and corporate trust but it all depends on the consumer. Will the consumer trust the message being conveyed by a celebrity on a social media platform?

I think only time will tell.

(Flickr image courtesy of  insect54 )

In the years that I’ve been involved in social media, I have heard so many misconceptions and myths about social media that I am certain this article is long overdue. Here is a list of the top five misconceptions regarding social media:

1) Misconception #1: Social Media is only right for certain brands – Often time people ask me: ” Is social media only right for web services or for “cool” products? The answer is no. Social media is right for every brand as long as the brand is able to find its target audience within a certain platform and converse/interact with it in an effective manner. Of course it may be exciting to do a marketing campaign for Apple than for Charles Schwab but for either one of those brands a targeted social media campaign within social networks and the blogosphere can bring amazing results as far as: Brand awareness, Overall buzz around the brand, traffic, customer loyalty and ultimately revenue.
In fact often time it is the “duller” brands that experience the most growth out of social media campaigns because they experience a more substantial change in popularity between their starting point A and their ending point B than the “cooler” brands. Take for example Mint which is an online personal finance service and was just bought by Intuit for $170 Million. Not the most exciting of startups perhaps and yet Mint is a fine example of a company that did a great job in using social media to maximize the buzz around its brand, making its blog magazine-like with articles about tips for young parents and other interesting content. Mint made their content so interesting in fact that users/blog readers promote the brand on their own.

2) Misconception #2: Social Media is all about getting traffic and quickly – Social media marketing is a long term process that takes time. Once a brand enters any network such as Facebook or MySpace, it takes time to build that brand’s community. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a community on Facebook. If you want to do social media marketing right and not just spam the hell out of people, you must use conversational marketing to engage them. Conversational marketing is all about conversing with your community. Learning more about their likes and dislikes, listening before speaking and reacting based upon the customers’ feedback.
Whoever thinks that he will open a Facebook page and reach tens of thousands of site visitors on the first day, is dead wrong. Brands that use social media to promote themselves will see a steady growth in traffic to their sites over time as their brand names become more and more viral within the networks – due to the increase in number of fans, number of tweets, exposure in blogs, etc.
Sure there are different ways which will increase the rate of a brand’s virality on the Web. For example, creating strong social incentives for people on your site which will increase their urge to promote your brand is definitely a factor which will heighten the public’s awareness. You can read more about social incentives in this post I had written last year. However, don’t expect to get thousands of visitors to your site before you’ve been able to build 1) A strong loyal online community 2) A strong incentives system to increase brand awareness. Both these goals take time to achieve. From my experience, it usually takes about three months to start seeing effective results when using social media tools.

3) Misconception #3: “By using social media we will lose control of our Brand’s Image” – Executives (especially in big companies) often think that their employees will go wild and start telling every horror story imaginable regarding their brand because the company will open a Facebook page. So here’s the scoop: People will talk about your brand whether you like it or not. Opening a Facebook page is not going to change it and not opening a Facebook page is not going to make it go away. The question is: Do you want to be a part of that conversation or not? By having a presence in social networks and blogs, you as a brand show your customers and employees that you care about their feedback and that you are there to listen and satisfy their needs.
I’ll give you a real time example: My hosting company is Network Solutions. For a few days my blog wasn’t uploading and I started to get very pissed off. I tweeted “Network Solutions Sucks” and specifically addressed @Shashib – the guy who handles Network Solutions’ social media efforts. A few moments later I received a tweet back from Shashib. He wanted to hear what’s wrong and help me resolve the problem. He promised a Network Solutions agent would call me soon. Within a few moments I received a phone call from an agent who helped me fix the situation and upload my site. At that moment, Network Solutions won my customer loyalty forever (or until the next time they screw up ). Real time customer care is something that brands can utilize social media tools for (specifically twitter) like no other marketing tools they have had till now. We’ve already seen amazing examples of customer care from Zappos and Dell. Brands should not be afraid of engaging in honest and transparent conversations with their clients online but rather they should be very afraid of ignoring their customers’ complaints and pretending that everything’s fine when it’s not.

4) Misconception #4: Social Media Is Just a Fad – I often hear people who say that social networks are just a passing fad. This is what I have to say to them: Social media is an inevitable digital evolution of our desire as humans to communicate with one another. It is a desire that we always had and will always continue to have as long as we are human. I had written about this topic in the past. To say that social media is just a fad is to say that communication is just a fad. Here are a few stats that might help to change the mind of those who are still apprehensive:

1) 2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks and time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall internet rate, accounting for ~10% of all internet time.

2) Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity – ahead of personal email!

Care to change your mind?

5) Misconception #5: “I don’t need a professional to do social media for me” – Many executives think that they don’t need a professional to help them with their social media activities. They’ll just take a student who has a few hours a week and get him to sit on the social networks and play with their company’s branding. It’s inconceivable to me how on one hand companies can be so cautious regarding beginning to use social media and on the other hand they’ll give the work to a mere student who could ruin their branding in a few hours just to save a few bucks. In order to engage in social media campaigns that are effective and successful, companies should use social media expert services at least in the first few months just to understand the specific rules of each community. One must remember that Facebook, twitter, Mixx, Bebo are all communities with their own set of rules and it is crucial for brands to respect the community’s rules in order to survive. Just like a company wouldn’t take on its PR on its own without consulting with a PR expert first, a company should not delve into social media without consulting with a social media expert. After a few months of training, I believe brands can take the work upon themselves, but they must not forgo the training period as they could do more damage than good for their branding.

These are the top five misconceptions I’ve heard regarding social media although I’ve heard many more. I would be delighted if you guys shared in the comments section some of the misconceptions that you’ve heard.

Photo credit: Gary Hayes and Laurel Papworth

Guest Post written by Ahuvah Berger

Everywhere you turn you hear the words social media, user generated content, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc but the real question remains – what is the purpose of social media? How can companies leverage these tools to engage and monitor their brands online?

We have watched an evolution occur on the internet- from a period of time when there was a distinctive line between the content creators and the content consumers. Now almost everyone who uses the internet is considered a content creator and can harness the power of user generated content.

Content creators wield significant influence over their individual communities i.e. blog readers, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc. Each platform enables a community or sub community to emerge from the interaction between the publisher and the readers and readers can republish the relevant information on their own communities. Both positive and negative viral marketing takes place when individuals within communities add their personal perspective on a message and republish it within their communities.

Companies no longer have the luxury of publishing their content on the internet and ignoring the reaction and feedback from the content consumers. Internet users wield incredible viral power when sharing their opinion with their respective online communities. It is no longer sharing one message to the collective mass but the mass sharing individual messages to their masses.

Engaging the Masses

There is a huge shift now from the company deciding on its brand and the consumer market re-defining the brand message within their communities. Corporations need to expand their marketing and branding teams to include someone who is responsible for listening and engaging the masses using the tools of social media. Not all tools are applicable for every company but at the same time the company cannot stand on its soapbox screaming its message without letting the market respond.

Start with listening to what others are saying about your company. Listen and hear what your customers say about you – for if you do not listen, you cannot change the customer’s opinion. There are many different internet platforms enabling corporations to keep a finger on the pulse of their brand.

Gather feedback from the market – from the large web influencers to the smaller influencers, as both groups are part of the collective viral force. Once armed with market feedback corporations can then engage online with its fans and detractors.

Bottom line, corporations must pay attention to the power of the masses in order to tap into the viral aspect of the web and maintain better control over the brand’s online image.

The average site for a popular consumer product is:

A. Slick with a high level of ‘production values’.
B. Made in flash.
C. About as socially engaging as a log.

Skittles changes all that in one go by essentially giving up on having a site of its own.  If you go to skittles.com you see a realtime Twitter search for “skittles.”  All that is left from the old corporate branded experience is a small widget-like navigator in the right hand corner.

If you click “videos” it goes to Skittles’ Youtube page, if you click “images” it directs you to a Flickr search, “products” is the Skittles Wikipedia article and clicking “friends” will take you to the skittles fan page on Facebook. This breaks with the tradition of consumer products with boring mass sites that feel like generic dance clubs -I’m looking at you Pepsi. Skittles have decided that the best online experience is one created by its own customers.

Predictably the Twitterati went wild after discovering that any tweet mentioning “skittles” would make it the new Skittles front page and it was inundated with tweets like:

mobob: #skittles is doing a very nifty thing, but i’m still not going to eat them, they always tasted way too much like rocks.

shehulk123: All the skittles talk on twitter today makes me want to go out and taste the rainbow.

brianboyko: @poneal – so… skittles gets people to talk about skittles on twitter by showing people talking about skittles on twitter. I don’t get it.

mpk: @obra you are way out of date on today’s fast-moving Internet. That Skittlesthing is *so* six hours ago.

Many have said that Skittles is making a mistake opening itself up to the worst impulses of the Web. They should ask themselves if any other consumer product has managed to get this level of attention online, ever. Kudos to Skittles for leading the way!

Update:
So Skittles now defaults to the Wikipedia page for Skittles (yesterday it was their Facebook fan page). It seems to me that they are rotating through their different profiles, either as part of a strategy or just trying to see what achieves better customer interaction. To see the Twitter live search now click “chatter”. But the question remains; when will we see some Digg love?

Post written by guest author Megan O’Neill

As sites like Facebook, Twitter and Digg continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly apparent to everyone that investing in your social networks can be one of the best ways to promote yourself or your brand.

However, when you are new to the world of social media you may not have the slightest idea about how to get started. If you are still just testing the waters, these top ten tips can help you take the plunge into using social networks to successfully promote yourself or your brand. By the way, I’ll be referring to the term “Social Networks” here in the broader sense, including Social Bookmarking and video sites.

1. Choose Your Networks Wisely

If you spend any amount of time on the Internet then you are aware of the vast number of social networks there are to choose from. There’s Facebook, Bebo, hi5, MySpace, Ning, LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon and YouTube, just to name “a few.”

When you are beginning your social networking campaign you should decide which of these networks are the most relevant for your purposes. For instance, if you want to join a network for professional business contacts then you should join LinkedIn and Facebook rather than Bebo or MySpace (unless you’re a musician). On the other hand, if you want to promote a hip new clothing line to teens, then LinkedIn is the last place you’ll want to be.

In order to make an informed decision about which networks to join you will have to do a little research. Figure out what your goals are, who your target audience is and then read some articles and look around in different networks to see where you could best achieve those goals. Don’t sell yourself short on research time—choosing the right networks is one of the most important keys to social networking success.

2. Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thin

Once you have come up with your list of relevant social networks you need to decide which ones you are going to join. Be content with the knowledge that you cannot join ALL of the networks on the Web or you won’t have the time to use any of them to their full potential.

Choose a few social networks that fit your needs and that you feel comfortable with and focus your attention on them—build a profile, join groups, add and communicate with friends. Putting all of you effort into a few social networks is much more effective than wearing yourself out trying to achieve the bare minimum in a ton of social networks.

It is also important not to spread yourself too thin when you are joining groups in social networks. It is better to be an active and integral part of a few large groups than to be a member of 100 groups that you never even look at.

3. Give Character to your Profiles

Before you start adding friends it is important to fill out your profiles as fully as possible. Include your name, age and location. Write about your interests, your education, your job, why you are here, what kind of hobbies you have… the more information you can give the better.

It is also important to upload a nice picture of yourself. Your picture should be eye catching and professional, showing your face with a smile. Yes, in theory you could upload a picture of Heath Ledger as The Joker to your profile (I’ve seen a lot of this on Digg lately) but this isn’t very personal. Your online friends want to see what you look like and get to know your real details and interests.

4. Be Consistent

If you have profiles on several networks it is important to be consistent. Use the same photo and the same screen name on all of your profiles. If you are consistent between your profiles then friends will begin to recognize you immediately and add you to all of their networks, meaning that they will be exposed to your content through a variety of different channels. This is a good thing.

5. Birds of a Feather Flock Together

When you are adding friends to your social networks it is important to add friends that have the same interests as you or an interest in what you are trying to promote. If you add friends that share your interests then they will not only be more likely to accept your request and add you as a friend in return, they will also take an interest in the stories you share and what you have to say and will help you spread the word.

6. Put Your Heart in It

When you are building up your social networks, even if it is just for business or promotional purposes, it is important to be personable. Put a genuine effort into getting to know your contacts through messaging, sharing links, commenting on posts and pictures, and providing feedback. The more you talk with people the more familiar they will become with you. They will be more likely to check out your content and share it with their own friends.

When someone adds you as a friend, send them a welcome message thanking them for adding you and telling them a little bit about yourself; send birthday greetings when you see that it’s their birthday; leave comments about your friends’ statuses and posts.

It is also extremely important to follow through with your friends. If you say you’ll get back to someone then you should get back to them. You should be just as considerate of your online friends as you are of your real life friends.

7. Be Active Regularly

It is important to be active regularly on all of your accounts. Comment in groups and forums, update your profile and status and add new applications regularly. This will keep you on the radar in your friends’ feeds.

Each day, sign in to each of your accounts and respond to any messages or comments your friends have left you. It is important to respond to messages in a reasonable amount of time to let people know that you care. It is also important to keep in mind that social networks never sleep. There are no “Sundays” on social networks, so make sure to check your profiles regularly.

8. Submit Quality Content

When you bookmark stories and websites and post links to your social networks it is important to make sure that you are submitting quality content. Read through an entire story before you post it to make sure that it is something you really want to post under your name and that it’s worth the time of the friends you are sharing it with. The better the material that you submit, the more people will follow you and be interested in seeing what you will submit next.

9. Nobody Likes a Spammer

Don’t overload your friends with links, messages, comments and content. If you overload people they will either flag you as a spammer or remove you from their friends. Stick to sending relevant, quality content that your friends will get something out of.

10. Don’t Stress Yourself Out!

Social networking should be a positive experience.  After all, you are making new friends and socializing with people who share your interests.  Interacting with and getting to know these people should be fun experience, so don’t stress yourself out.

With these ten tips you have the guidelines for building strong and valuable social networking skills.  When you choose the right networks and start having fun with them while achieving your goals, the possibilities are endless.

Thanks to StefanKeijzer for the pic.

Megan O’Neill has worked with a number of Internet and media related companies both in the United States and in Israel in design, content and marketing positions. She currently works at Blonde 2.0 as a Social Media Marketing Assistant.