{Facebook} + {Eventbrite} = Publish Your Event on Facebook

[pic via here::special thanx]

Eventbrite is a wonderful online event site that allows event planners to, among other things, create, schedule and publish their planned events at a cost that leaves a (giant) smile on their faces.  There are lots of other valuable tasks that this service offers, one of which is, the ability to publish your events directly from the Eventbrite site onto your Facebook Fan page.  No cutting/pasting needed!  You have, in the past, been able to publish your Eventbrite events to your Facebook wall...which means that eventually your event information will scroll right off of the page. 

Do you have an upcoming event that you want to let your Facebook community know about?  Create, schedule and publish it on Facebook, with a few (very few) points and clicks of your mouse.  What? You're familiar with this affordable service?  Check it out.  I love it!

What social media communities do you use to publicize your events?  Have your efforts on this/these site(s) been successful?  Are you already using Eventbrite to create, schedule and publish your events?

Lets Talk....

Where's My Audience?

After finishing this recent post, one of my colleagues in the Event industry,  sent me an E-mail that consisted of two things: a great compliment on the article and a very thought provoking question that resulted from this same post.  It seems that her efforts in actively participated in social media communities had been quite successful in netting her an audience of other like-minded business owners.  Although understanding the importance of  the B2B relationship, her question was:  "Where do I find my consumer audience"? 

My first response to this was an introspective - "... hummm.  What a great question!  And, what a even greater blog post this will make!"  The reality of it is that the answer to this question maked for great fodder for many blog posts.  I will attempt to give a shortened version - touching on just a few tactics...

The process and strategy for finding your audience on social media sites is much like the research that goes into target marketing.  To effectively locate (and market) to your audience, you must put in the time/research required to be able to succinctly discribe 'who your customer is'.  The ability to successfully locate your audience in the world of social media, goes far beyond understanding the usual demographic and geographic description.  It is imperative that you understand what psychographic and generographic characteristics motivate your audience.  That is to say, what is their communication style ?,  what devices do they utilize to access their platforms of choice? and what sites warrant the attention?  In general, what are their interests?

 

You can start your search in a number of ways.  You may want to start your search by asking trusted industry colleagues, who share your target audience, the above questions.  By soliciting the assistance of a colleague who does not share your same geographical territory should decrease the competitive factor.

A second source of locating your audience can be found in your industry publications.  Industry publications are invaluable resources for ascertaining, not only general information about your audience, but also, providing statistical profiles of  factors that influence their buying motivation, convey their concerns and interests, how they spend their time, what issues they are facing, with whom do they associate and what their aspirations are. 

Once you have created a general outline of your audience, you can more easily select the social media channels to target. 

What tools and/or strategies have you successfully used to locate your audience?  Let's talk about what has worked for you?

Facebook Can Get You Fired...

A 2009 survey conducted by The American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute, twenty-seven percent (27%) of companies have policies that directly address what their employees can post on their personal social networking page.  like to think that what they do on their own time is their own business, but that's not always the case.  According to the survey, two percent of companies have discharged employees based on the content of their social networking pages.  Businesses that boast having a social media/networking policy should be certain to apprise employees of the policy, its content and consequences.  That way they can't cry 'foul play!'

What are thoughts?
Does your company have a social networking policy?
I this too much 'Big Brother' for you?

Let's Talk...

Facebook Couple

[via here::special thanks]

Facebook can Help My NonProfit

As established in this post, the success of, both, nonprofits and social media marketing is rooted in an active community, and is consumer driven-production is very low.  Too often businesses equate effective use of social media marketing as setting up a Facebook page and other social media platforms and using them to 'talk' to each other.  Just as your other marketing plans utilize the basic marketing methodology-- business objective, audience, strategy, metric for measurement and the use of tactical methods.
Let's look at the use of some of these basic elements as they relate to the social media platform Facebook.

One of the beauties that Nonprofits have for using Facebook as a marketing tool is their unwavering support of willing, interested and actively involved community.  Nonprofits have solid contact information on which to build and have the capability to create, both, content and experiences that your audience finds talk worthy.  Being able to rely upon this audience to take an active interest and participation is the secret for Facebook success.

Establish your objective for your presence on Facebook.  Are you using it as an outreach to members (via use of  Facebook Group feature)?  Trying to reach the audience who are not yet Facebook users (use Facebook Business Pages - these pages can be viewed by those without a Facebook account)?  Facebook Groups are also useful in organizing community members; as well as, facilitating internal conversations.

Be certain to implement a measurement of goal success.  Are you looking to grow your group, increase conversations among community members and/or increase traffic to another site?  Be certain to have clearcut, measureable goals.

Refrain from the tempting practice of using Facebook as a direct response mechanism.  Facebook, like other social media platforms, should not be used as forums for direct advertising.  General rule of thumb with marketing to those who 'FAN' you on Facebook is that any marketing message sent to them should be sent through the Facebook inbox.  Contact with Facebook 'Fans' via email or other such avenues should be used when your organization has established a trust with that Fan.  At that point the Fan will usually request to be contacted by some other means (ie, phone, email, direct mail).

With society's shrinking attention span, be sure that your Facebook content is relevant, timely and 'digestible'.

One of the many reasons that Facebook is so useful is, it 'alerts' your community when you have made 'status' changes.  Take advantage of this feature.  Publicize new members (aka Fans) and relationships (ie, groups that your organization is actively following).  Post photos relevant to any campaigns that you may be airing.  Create a 'RSVP' page for your organizations events.  Useful information will be shared, not only with those in your 'community' but also with any/every one that you have authorized to view your Facebook page.

As you become increasingly familiar and comfortable with using Facebook for your Nonprofit, be certain that all of the group pages, fan pages and applications are interlinked.  Prominent navigation back to your main Facebook page reassures that your organization's brand message remains front and center of your audience.

How do you use Facebook for your business/organization?  What Facebook strategies have been successful for your business?  Let's talk about it...

Who Invited the FTC into My Bed?

{photo via here::special thanx}

You've heard about them. You know...Them...The rumours floating around on how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has become bedfellows with those of us in the blogosphere (like it or not).  What rumor, and when they get in bed with me?  Here's the scoop.  After twenty-nine years, last October 2009, the FTC has effected several new guidelines that will forever guide all of us 'professional' and/or serious bloggers.  The guidelines concerns "...the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers.who receive advertising testimonials, endorsements and/or sponsorships".   And...rumor has it that there is some astronomical fine attached for those who are noncompliant...
Whoa!  What was that!

Here is the simple 'keeping it real' version:

Those *lovely* client testimonials that are posted on our blog/web sites, must be a reflection of what a client will  'typically' experience with your product or service.  No more use of the infamous fine printed disclaimer of, "results not typical"

"Material connections" (ie, payment for or receipt of free products/services) between, you - the blogger any product/person/service that is endorsed (on your blog), but, not expected by the 'listening' consumer - must be disclosed.  The guideline reads, "...the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement.  Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections  they share with the seller of the product or service".

Fortunate to have some celebrity ties?  Well, listen up.  Because this is what the guidelines have to say about the use of celebrity testimonials/endorsements.  The "...celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media". 

Richard Cleland - Assistant Director of Advertising Practices at the FTC, clarified FTC’s expectations for disclosure, as it relates to bloggers as - “the FTC’s main criteria is the degree of relationship between the advertiser and the blogger. . .If there’s an expectation that you’re going to write a positive review, then there should be a disclosure.”  Further, he had this to say about receiving sample products versus being paid for a review:

“That’s going to depend on the circumstances. If we’re talking about getting one free product or something sent to you and you happen to write about it on your blog, that’s not the type of relationship that has to be disclosed. But if you’re part of a network and you’re consistently receiving products to test and blog about, then that raises the implication that these gifts are quid pro quo and that’s why you’re writing the positive reviews.”

You might be asking yourself, does this new guideline effect my Facebook and Twitter presence?

What About Twitter and Facebook?

The guidelines hold true for bloggers who receive paid endorsements (read: tweets) and/or Facebook 'Fans' of products/services and then share those fan pages or/and tweets with friends.  Safe rule of thumb - whenever their is some type of payment or/and compensation (actual and/or in-kind), the 'guideline' flag should go up.  Here is how the guideline may be applied to use on Facebook:

“[A] celebrity or other prominent figure with loads of friends on Facebook receives free hotel stays from Hotel Chain X in exchange for running Hotel Chain X ads on his or her blog. If that person then signs up as a Facebook fan of Hotel Chain X–which, remember, could mean that the person’s name can show up for his or her Facebook friends alongside Hotel Chain X display ads on the social network–he or she could be held liable by the FTC.” (info via here:: special thanx)

As for Twitter, the expectation is that, somewhere in that 140 character limit, you must include your disclosure statement.  In other words, "if you can't make the disclosure, you can't make the ad"

How is the FTC going to keep track of ALL of the Blogs in the blogosphere?
Great question!  When the guidelines were first made public, through a series of interviews, Cleland offerred clarification of the guidelines; as well as, an explanation of how the guidelines are to be applied and monitored.  In one such interview, Cleland stated that the education, of the individuals/companies that is effected by these guidelines, of what is expected of them as it relates to the new guidelines is primary and key.  He indicated that "the FTC would be 'looking primarily at the advertisers to determine how the relationship exist'".   In an interview with CNN,  “Richard Cleland . . . admits there will be no new team to monitor all the blogs, and that enforcing these guidelines would be a ‘game of whack-a-mole’ given the numbers involved... The new guidelines are viewed as more of an educational tool than any kind of requirement, and geared at advertisers more than bloggers. If numerous complaints are filed regarding a blog, the FTC is likely to investigate that the advertiser has properly advised the blogger of these guidelines.”
Further,  Cleland goes on to say, “…in the bigger picture, we think that we have a reason to believe that if bloggers understand the circumstances under which a disclosure should be made, that they’ll be able to make the disclosure. Right now we’re trying to focus on education.”


Do you have to go back to previous posts and add a disclosure for gifts/payments received prior to this new guideline?  One suggestion offerred by Lisa Stone, founder of Blogher.com, is that "...you update your “About" page with your blog policy about payments and review your blog for the current year and disclose any gifts or payments. For previous years, I think you can disclose on your “About” page the date on which you began your disclosure practices. We are not your lawyer, but as a a general practice we recommend that bloggers disclose any kind of payment at the top of every post written because of a payment of cash, goods, or services.”

So what does this new 'partnership' offer as a penalty for noncompliance? 

Can You Spare $11,000 Dollars?

What's to the (rumor?) of the $11,000 per violation for noncompliance?  Trusted news sources were reported  that bloggers who don’t disclose payment will be fined $11,000 per violation.  The updated FTC regulations don’t mention an $11,000 fine at all. None of the original articles with erroneous information had been updated to reflect the lack of this exhorbitant fee. 
To the credit of the majority of bloggers - we are doing the right thing already.  That being said, the level of vigilance lies in the hands of each blogger to remain within the bounds of the regulation guidelines.  The rest is relatively simple.  Write your own disclosure policy/statement and post it clearly on your blog. Need help in writing that disclosure.  This site will assist you in generating one.

Has the new FTC regulation effected the way that you maintain your blog?  How so?  Have you included a disclosure statement in your blog?  Let talk about it...