Sure, I’m on Facebook every day. Whether I am checking to see if an old friend’s baby was born yet, telling everyone I know about the most brilliant/creative thing (in all of history!) that my toddler just did, or looking for my free bagel coupon from Einstein Bros., my day is not quite complete without a quick glance at Facebook on my iPhone, or on the good ol’ trusty computer. Almost every mother I know would say the same. Or would they?

Click here to read her full article in iMedia Connection.

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Sadly, you’ll have to wait for Facebook to release their study to get your stats. Let me just say it’s fascinating and I really appreciated the content. How’s that for licking the red right off your sucker?! Ha! Sorry… It’s just too fun to tease you all.

So while I was there I caught the original purpose of the study. Why would a company like Facebook need to do research about moms on Facebook we all wondered? Doesn’t FB have some gigantic database resembling a NASA command center? Can’t they just run a report?

Turns out, they can’t. There is no report. What this got me thinking about is what Facebook even requires you to input about yourself so they can get their data. So I spent a few minutes trying to remember back SO LONG AGO to when I did setup my FB account. Get this! I couldn’t remember. I’ve been a Facebook member for so long I literally don’t remember what they required me to put in there. Therefore I created an account for my alter-ego, to remain nameless.

So far, they’ve got my alter-ego’s “name” “email” “gender” and “birthday”. Not too bad, just tell them my basic demographic, which if you have a cell phone, catalog subscription, TV subscription or grocery store loyalty card you would have shared that with them.

Facebook: Fill Out Your Profile Info

Please notice the SKIP button. I used this feature through the entire process and still only provided the minimum of information. Now, I my alter-ego has a FB account to monitor and control the minds of others interact, complain, advertise etc to all sorts of people.

You may be asking right now “Parksy-pants? What is the point of this exercise?”

You’re in luck, because I’m finally getting to my point. My POINT, since you’ve been so patient is this:

When the mass of users on the web are starting to get a concerned that advertisers are using web browsing history, demographic data, (information that will only make their experience more relevant BTW) do they stop to think about all the information that they offer up freely? While I may have been able to go all the way through this process without so much as a real fact other than a working email address, most people don’t do that. They put in every piece of detail to make the experience as rich as possible. They want things that are relevant, they want people they know to be their friend on Facebook. I don’t usually get too upset about the general consumer and their lack of understanding of what “we do” with the internet. But I do find that if people paid a bit more attention, they actually have more control over things than they thought.

So behavioral targeting, re-targeting media, relevant ads on gmail… all of it – it’s to help and yet this side hasn’t been shared. I think it’s an important reminder to us all, that the next time you run a retargeting campaign the consumer might not want to see an offer for 20% off because you are being intrusive.

Yeah, you know what – I’ll eat all the bacon the Ritz Carlton can throw me if that’s the answer consumers give you.

This is cause for concern. As the nation’s needs soar and charitable donations plunge, how do nonprofits draw more attention to their needs during this “quiet crisis?” I know that nonprofits’ organizational health is directly correlated to the health of the economy and decreased unemployment, and I also know that what I’m about to propose will likely be a drop in the empty pool of aid these organizations desperately need. Nevertheless, I see some unique opportunities with social marketing for nonprofits to capitalize on. If the nonprofits can appeal to users’ desire for personal uniqueness online and learn from retailers, they can find new ways to reach volunteers and contributors through sources like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Take, for example, Facebook’s Causes and Fan pages as a way to get started:

1. Clarify your voice and your positions: The way you present your organization in social media needs to reflect your brand identity, but also the contributors and volunteers you are trying to attract. You have a brief opportunity at the top of your page to clearly (and stridently) proclaim your positions. Don’t muddy the waters with too much information. Narrow down your major position to 3-4 points, and then use the “description” field to elaborate more. Here is an example from the Stop Human Trafficking organization.
2. Utilize Facebook’s Causes page to the fullest extent: In the Causes template, you can customize your look and feel, share announcements with your members and enable a donations feature on the site. Many nonprofits also set up a fan page to make it easy for members to “become fans” and share this information with friends. Keep in mind, however, thta users can’t make donations from a fan page.
3. Create customization and friendly competition: Social media users typically like to share their causes and concerns with their group of online friends. Make that as simple as possible by using the welcome message when a new member joins to ask them to invite friends to join, share with them dollar-matching programs you have set up or even offer “flair” buttons for your members to place on their personal page. Also, utilize the Hall of Fame function to highlight your top recruiters, donors and fundraisers in the Facebook sphere. This recognition in a social forum goes a long way.
4. Encourage users to download the Causes Bar: By installing the Causes bar, every search a user makes donates a penny to the cause of their choice – including yours. This is currently available for the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.
5. Update often: Utilize the media board and announcement board functions to post not just your own organization’s news but also news that your members may be interested in. Each of these updates displays to your members and the “share” button allows your members to exponentially increase the visibility of your posts – viral marketing at its best. You can also upload petitions and pledge drive information to keep your page fresh.
6. Most importantly, continually integrate your channels: At the simplest level, this means placing the Facebook “Join” button on your website. You can also do more:

• Tag your PSA spots with a mention to join your cause online at Facebook/Twitter/etc.
• As long as you are taking donations in both places, update your search copy to mention your Facebook page.
• The UN Refugee Agency is using display ads on Facebook to drive people to join their cause and then utilizing their cause page to encourage cell phone text-to-donate.
• The Nature Conservancy and their sponsor Audi have found multiple ways to continually integrate, including an Audi program that matched dollar-for-member the first 25,000 members of the Facebook cause.

Will Facebook, Twitter or YouTube be the change the nonprofits wish to see in the world? Probably not on their own, but if for-profit marketers are learning during lean times, so can their non-profit counterparts. Now is the time to put the fear of change and the comfort of the old ways aside and test new media methods. For non-profit organizations, now is also the time to let your passionate volunteers, contributors and fans spread the word, attach your cause to their online identity and, most importantly, raise awareness and even funds on your behalf.

Luxury retailers are hesitant to get involved in the social space because it is a platform for 2-way communication with consumers—the type of marketing luxury brands typically shy away from. Social media is a playground for spreading unfiltered and opinionated information by uneducated consumers across the web, and this lack of control is the top turn-off for luxury marketers. And really, can you blame them? Luxury retailers are hyper-protective of their brands, almost to the point of remaining distant from average consumers, towering over regular joes via lofty billboards and high-society events. You might think this is elitist, but elitism is part of why they’re luxury brands. However, a few high-end retailers are participating in social media and initiating a conversation with consumers using social media sites. For example, in May 2009 Louis Vuitton released a limited edition bag available exclusively to their Twitter followers. Hooray for incremental sales, but more importantly, this gave a new platform for Louis Vuitton to engage in the conversation with consumers.

Another reason luxury retailers are not participating in the social space is because of the myth that the luxury demographic does not spend time on social sites. A recent study by eMarketer says that affluent internet users will grow from 43.7MM in 2006 to 57.1MM in 2011, while in February, Facebook identified its fastest-growing segment as women over 55, up 175% since November 2008. Luxury customers are online and participating in social media, but there is another crucial demographic influencing and participating in social media: future luxury customers. 52% of Facebook users are between the ages of 18 – 25 years old, and they will determine the future of luxury brands within the next 30 years. Luxury retailers should be communicating with the next generation, those who aspire to luxury brands as soon as they can afford them, say when they’ve graduated college and landed there first real job. And when the money does come, consumers will purchase from the brands they have built a relationship with since their teens and early twenties.

Lastly, if luxury brands do not participate in social media it likely means there is an uncontrolled brand presence being directed through unofficial groups, posts and images. Luxury brands are supposed to have all the characteristics that mass market retailers do not: customer service, unrivaled quality and an exclusive price point. If luxury brands’ products, employees and reputations are solid shouldn’t it be trumpeted from Facebook’s News Feed?

On Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 12:01am EST, Facebook launched custom usernames and vanity URLs. That means that you could log into Facebook, head over here and grab a username, which would in turn give your account a custom URL. For example, maybe your account URL is http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Smith/1795806534. That URL is a little tough to remember. And if you are a person who likes to give out or market your profile URL, that URL is downright inconvenient. That is why Facebook launched its custom username program. If Bob Smith goes to facebook.com/username, he can choose a much more concise URL, such as facebook.com/bobsmith or facebook.com/bsmith.

On June 13th, social mediaphiles worldwide waited patiently for the exact moment the Facebook username program launched. Mashable reported that Facebook users created 200,000 custom usernames in the first 3 minutes of the program. It’s on a first come, first serve basis, so you’ve got to act fast. Most common names are already gone. Much like the land rush for dot com domains, this was very much a land rush for usernames. But there is also another side to this story, and it’s all about branding.

You may not know this, but Facebook Profiles and Facebook Pages are very different. People tend to have Profiles. Brands tend to have Pages. Profiles have friends. Pages have fans. If your brand (Brand X) has a Facebook Page, it makes perfect sense to claim the URL facebook.com/brandx. That URL is very easy to market. It’s great for branding, paid search ads, SEO, etc… It sounds glorious, doesn’t it? But do not get too excited yet.

It turns out that Facebook set up eligibility requirements for custom usernames for Facebook Pages. Initially, the requirements were:

• Page must have been active as of June 9, 2009 at 3:00pm EST
• Page must have had 1,000 fans as of May 31, 2009

These requirements were set up to deter would-be username squatters. And it worked pretty well, too. However, I did see a ton of brands scrambling to reach the 1,000 fans mark. On a side note, I saw a couple of posts on Craiglist, asking if any savvy social marketer out there could drive 1,000 targeted fans for a Facebook Page. Gotta love Craigslist, right? Furthermore, if you met those 2 requirements, your username had to be at least 5 characters, and you could not sign up for generic keywords such as pizza, flowers or magazines. Again, this was a way to deter username squatters.

Here’s the part where you can get excited. On June 28th, Facebook reduced the requirements for custom usernames for Facebook Pages. As of last Sunday, the new requirements are:

• Page could have been created anytime
• Page must have at least 100 fans

100 fans? That’s very doable. Even if you are a small brand, you can manage this. Simply go to the Facebook sign up page and choose the type of Page you want to create. Then invite your employees, colleagues, friends and family members to be fans of your brand’s Facebook Page. Once you get to 100 fans, go here and choose your custom username.Facebook just made it very easy to promote your brand. Now go do it!

The following data points help show how social media can augment email and how email can help build your social file.

• Use a call to action in your email to build your social file.
  • Visit us on Facebook – become a fan.
  • Follow us on Twitter

  Doing this can help build your fan base/reputation allowing you to influence your customers using a medium that is cost-effective. This will help boost brand awareness/morale, influencing customers to purchase at a time they aren’t necessarily looking to buy.

• Cross Pollinate to build your email file.
  • Leverage social media through sweepstakes and promotional offers.

  This is a great way to build your subscriber base, further increasing your new-to-file rates. Not only is this a low-cost way to acquire more names, but also helps build brand recognition.

• Align your messaging
  • Social media provides additional channels for communication.

  Use facebook/twitter to distribute your message (announce sales, in store events). This enables your fans/followers to respond and dialogue with your brand. You may receive additional feedback on products/offers that resonate well with your audience, helping to mold your promotional calendar, or product scope.

• Social media is a bridge for cross channel communication.
  • Email has always been extremely segmented.

  Through incorporating a social media component, you reach your fans and your brand/message goes viral…ultimately bridging the email segmentation gap.

In other words, while the two can exist separately, you’re much better off when they team up—it’s easy to cut through inbox clutter when you have a unified message across multiple channels, because people pay more attention.

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Google Trends data - Somali Pirates

Not surprisingly, Facebook has gone on the account with pirate talk, recently deciding to update their language platform with version 2 of English (Pirate).

To get on board, go to the bottom of the Facebook page and under the language settings choose “English (Pirate )” from the drop down menu. Facebook English (Pirate) changes everything on your profile – being poked becomes “Arrr! Ye have been skewered by…,” login becomes “set sail,” your mail inbox becomes “Bottle o’ Messages ,” your friends become your “crewmates,” and sponsored advertisements are slapped with titles like “Hawkins” or “Gold diggin’ swine.”

If you want to have fun, I highly recommend switching your language setting so English (Pirate) and give Facebook a try. Make sure you join the “Yarrrr! Pirate English should be the default language on Facebook” and “Pirate English Is the Way Forward.” It should give you enough practice before September 19th, international talk like a pirate day.

Fairwinds!

Talk Like a Pirate Day - September 19

If you define SEO as “doing anything ethical to acquire free traffic,” then Twitter is for you. Here’s why: you get to link back to your official site. Twitter provides several great opportunities for your brand. Here are some of my observations regarding Twitter and SEO:

• Another top result in the SERPs
  If you can build a strong following for your Twitter profile, it will likely rank in the top results for your brand name, potentially moving one of your competitors down in the rankings. This is especially helpful for brands that have to fight with affiliates, distributors and re-sellers for top rankings.
• Increase free traffic to any and every current promo and/or deal
  You know how your company has an email list of 50,000 people? And every month that email blast goes out and your company makes a ton of money in a span of 1-3 days from the deals in that email blast? Just as that email blast drives free traffic and revenue, Twitter can be used for the same purpose. Currently, there are a lot of big name brands building respectable Twitter followings, and they are seeing the benefits when they use Twitter to promote a 24-hour-only special deal. Again, it’s free traffic from people you know enjoy your brand.
• Don’t count on any link juice
  In 2008, Twitter implemented nofollow tags for every link on a profile page. Twitter was becoming a search engine spammer playground. People were creating accounts in massive numbers, and you would see links for viagra, online poker, weight loss, etc.. Spammers were leaving Twitter spam comments on profiles. To provide a disincentive for this, Twitter implemented a nofollow tag on all links. While we agree that it is still a good sign to have an increasing number of links on the internet, the nofollow tag ultimately kills any hopes of using Twitter to increase rankings for competitive search terms and phrases. Sorry folks.
• Reputation Management
  Remember how I said that your Twitter account will likely rank in the top SERP results for your brand name? Twitter is also a great tool for reputation management. It’s an indirect way of keeping other potentially negative websites out of the top SERP rankings for searches on your brand name. On a related note, Twitter can also be a great way to quickly communicate with users who have complaints about your site, your products, or your brand. Publicly resolving a complaint on Twitter has the potential to make your brand more appealing to customers, and it could also lead to more followers. That’s even more traffic!

Twitter is another social marketing tool that is getting buzzed and bashed all over the internet. No matter what people are saying about it, it just might be a great tool in your overall SEO strategy. I’ll let you decide.

Fifty years ago, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin created the observance of Earth Day as an environmental protest. In the last decade, the day has become synonymous with one-off press stunts by companies who have a complete disregard for the planet they are inhabiting the rest of the year.

Now, mind you, I recycle religiously, buy organic and even make my son’s baby food to avoid the pesticides contained in the commercial brands and to reduce our reliance on one-use containers. I buy locally, I have not let the water run as I brushed my teeth for years, and I even cut back on meat on my own table, as it is the least fuel-efficient food we consume. I am by no means perfect or even carbon neutral, but I make a real effort to preserve the earth for my son’s generation even when it is not handy to carry a re-usable water bottle with me or to make cleaning supplies from eco- and child-friendly ingredients.

That is to also say that I am probably more cynical than most about companies who jump on the Earth Day bandwagon, without a transparent and genuine desire to positively affect the world we live in. So, when I took a look recently at the efforts of our own clients surrounding Earth Day, I honestly expected to find a mirror image of the inauthentic efforts of the retail and travel industries at large. What I found instead gave me a great sense of pride for the marketers we work with and the eco-conscious brands they represent.

What struck me was that so many of our clients came up with creative ideas for Earth Day specifically, while also committing to larger, ongoing projects and corporate changes that will make a real difference to planet earth. For example:

• I will start with Origins, not just because of their core value of eco-friendliness, but because I have a recent obsession with their Ginger Body Scrub. This year, to celebrate Earth Day, they have done something I think is such a simple, yet great idea. They allow you to bring in empty cosmetic jars, bottles or tubes into any Origins store in order to recycle them. They also give the recycling consumer free samples to encourage this behavior. Additionally, they are planting a tree for every purchase of A Perfect World™ Antioxidant moisturizer. And for a child who grew up hearing John Denver sing, “Plant a tree for your tomorrow,” I will never question the authenticity of this action.
• Then there is Aveda, a company that has been making products with certified organic ingredients since 1994. They are celebrating Earth Month with a goal of donating $3 million to global and local clean water projects. This month, when a customer buys the Light the Way™ Candle, 100% of the proceeds go to support Global Greengrants Fund’s water-related projects. Furthermore, they are using their website to teach consumers about water conservation and have begun the Aveda Walk For Water, a 6k walk to raise awareness and funds for local clean water organizations.

And it is not just our beauty and cosmetic clients who are finding creative and honest ways to create environmental change.

• Motel 6 broke ground late last year on their “Phoenix” prototype property in Texas, their “greenest motel ever.” The property is scheduled to open during the second half of 2009 and features flooring made of 80% pre-consumer recycled material as well as solar panels for water heating. The national chain also recently became designated as a member of Florida’s Green Lodging Program, due to their leadership with water conservation measures, linen reuse programs and energy efficiency.
• Novotel now has 30 Green Globe certified hotels on 5 continents that guarantee to reduce pollutants, and control water and energy consumption. The hotels are audited every 6 to 12 months to ensure eco-friendly performance is maintained.

What struck me about each of these clients’ environmentally-friendly efforts is that they are not just arbitrary or solely manufactured around the Earth Day celebration. They have found ongoing and authentic ways to connect with the millions of consumers who no longer consider living green as a “fringe” behavior, but a part of their daily, healthy lifestyle.

Are they selling more products as a result of their efforts? Without a doubt. Does that make the change they are creating… the water they are conserving… the waste they are reducing any less admirable? Not in the mind of this quirky tree-hugger.

P.S. If you are interested in finding out how to make small changes in your own life that do the planet right… check out www.idealbite.com. I get bite-sized, daily doses of eco-friendly ideas for both the “general consumer” and for parents specifically delivered in my inbox each day. Think Daily Candy for the environmentally friendly.