The History of Facebook

We all know about the social media giant and the majority of us have Facebook accounts, but how did Mark Zuckerberg's baby come to be. One night after heavy drinking at Harvard, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg was dumped by a girlfriend and decided to create his own version of "hot or not". He hacked into Harvard's computer network and copied the house's private dormitory ID images. He called this site Facesmash, and it had 450 visitors and 22,000 photo views in less than 4 hours. Zuckerberg knew that his idea was ingenious, stating, "the initial site mirrored people's physical community--with their real identities--represented the key ideas for what later became Facebook." Zuckerberg was charged by the administration at Harvard for breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy, and faced expulsion, but the charges were ultimately dropped against Zuckerberg from the Harvard constituents. After being involved in another hacking episode with an Art Course in which he illegally downloaded over 500 pictures onto a site, individually commenting on each picture......"the Professor had no other choice but to give him me an A and he said it was the best final project grade he had ever given", Zuckerberg said in a TechCrunch interview. Zuckerberg decided that pictures and individuals identity would ultimately provide the necessary social means to connect, reconnect, and network with whom they so choose.

So, in February of 2004, thefacebook was launched from Harvard and it started with about 250-300 close friends and by nights end there was over 1500 members. Three seniors from Harvard accused Zuckerberg of stealing information from their HarvardConnection social connection site. He almost responded arrogantly to their claims, "I think its kind of silly that it has taken them over two years to launch their site, I launched mine in less than a week." He later did settle with the three seniors from Harvard, terms from the settlement have not been disclosed.

Membership was initially limited to just Harvard students, but within a few months Zuckerberg decided to open his site to a few more Universities (Stanford, Columbia, Yale, and Boston area schools). By June, thefacebook.com bought the domain name facebook.com for $200,000 and they moved the organizations headquarters to Palto Alto, California. Facebook then took on the next logical progression, inviting all universities and high schools to join. Membership began to rise incredibly fast and venture capitalists were lining up at the door to approach Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg maintains to this day that Facebook has zero intent to ever go public and will remain a privately held organization. To that point, he also stated that "I don't think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search did.....in three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model will be, but that is not our primary focus today." It would be really interesting to know what their primary focus was in 2008 and see if it is coming to fruition as fast as all of their other organizational goals. My guess was/is that their primary goal was to be considered the online social media marketing giant that they are today, and how they can turn that concept into a cash cow.

Today, Facebook houses over 500 million users from all over the globe. Their international headquarters is located in Dublin, Ireland and they have seven research and developmental sites in the United States, most notably Palto, Alto---as previously mentioned the site of their original headquarters. They recently purchased two online entities, Malaysian contact-importing start up Octazen Solutions and photo-sharing service provider Divvyshot to bolster their already stellar pic and contact divisions. Organizational powerhouses Microsoft and Google have expressed interest in acquiring Facebook from Zuckerberg, but he maintains his stance that he is not interested in selling Facebook. Today, most financial experts value Facebook in the neighborhood of 11.5 -13.5 billion dollars. As the story goes, Zuckerberg can thank a heavy night of drinking and being dumped by his girlfriend for his vision and development of what is Facebook today. If it were just that easy.........

Viral Marketing....Contagious, yet PROFITABLE!!!!

After discussing the online viral marketing efforts behind the Bros-Icing-Bros phenomena, I wanted to take a deeper dive into the online genre that is viral marketing and see if Youtube somehow produces profits or monetizes an entity. Fleischner defines viral marketing as the phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message about a specified product, service, or company. So--how can a viral video produce profits for an industry, organization, individual, or service?

Well, YouTube makes no bones about it how important the "views" are to their website, in fact if you search "viral marketing" on their page, a contest for $10,000 pops up as the number one video--is that out of coincidence, I think not. When the Minnesota Wedding Dancing Party Video posterized the Internet (still does) in all the various social media forms: twitter, facebook, youtube, and the like....people fail to realize who are the big winners during this worldwide buzz. During this viral phenomena, Chris Brown was possibly in the deepest of all lows for his career as he was sentenced to 180 hours of community service and five years of probation for domestic assault. Seemingly in utter turmoil during and after the incident by pleading guilty to battery charges, the rapper's sales exploded through the help of the video.

Some of the numbers....staggering
-Browns sales of his "Elusive" album increased over 160%, virtually overnight.
-After the video was released, Brown's "Forever" escalated to top of the charts of downloaded singles on I-tunes.
-His number of downloads on I-tunes pre video were 3,000 (7/17) and post video 50,000+ (7/26)
-The video has produced over 50 million views in just over one year (June 20th, 2009).

----So, if 1/2 of 1% of the audience purchases, downloads, or buys anything relating to "Forever" by Chris Brown since he is also credited for the songwriting efforts, that will deliver a conversion of over 250,000 individuals. Simply choosing his video for the song instead of say Usher, Micheal Jackson, or heaven forbid Vanilla Ice.

Then, if you have the opportunity, go to www.jkweddingdance.com and you will find it staggering that they have actually raised over $34,000 in "donations" to the Sheila Wellstone Institute, an individual who was an organizer, advocate, and national champion in an effort to curb domestic violence in the surrounding community. Quite a unique twist considering the music choice to their big viral video. What they should have done was ask Chris Brown to donate some of the proceeds from his sales to this cause, since they inadvertently filled his pockets with bucket loads of money.

In fact, another big winner from the wedding dance video was NBC. The video was so big that it was actually ridiculed and mocked on the season finale of the office. The office posted the largest single season finale of any prime time sitcom since the finale of Friends almost six years ago. Not as if the video produced the ratings, but they used the video for all of their commercials designated towards the finale of the Office. Meaning that the popularity behind the "Wedding Dance" video may transform some individuals who may otherwise not watch the show to somehow tune in, I guess there marketing effort worked.

Almost 51 million views later and still ticking, Chris Brown will "Forever" we laughing all the way to the bank and thanking the JK Wedding Dance Party, "Forever".

How To Manage Online Criticism

Hubspot Marketing Blog produced a great article in reaction to someone writing negatively about whichever business practice they choose to savage. They addressed four specific criteria that will help better manage the negative criticism directed or pointed at their (customers) frustration. One position that Roberts and Porter indicated was that the customer service line was an opportunity for turning a negative situation into a positive, possibly even retaining a customer who may not otherwise have stayed with a company or business entity. I also remember hearing a statistic that for every one negative comment about an organization or business, it takes seven positive comments to level the playing field regarding consumer confidence.

---Drumroll........here is Hubspots 4 keys to managing online criticism---

1. Try not to be hurt--sometimes people just like to vent their frustrations or are genuinely having a very bad day...take web based criticism with a grain of salt, and always consider the source to reduce unwarranted stress.

2. Differentiate complaints from venting--think about their statement from the customer's perspective, do they have a reason to be frustrated? Constant complaints have the underlying principle that something is wrong, but minimal complaints could just be the source of an individual who is always unhappy with their service, products, or resources. Again, think about the legitimate frustrations as manageable means to overturn their experiences, if possible.

3. If you are wrong, apologize--DO NOT BELITTLE YOUR CUSTOMERS, in other words a bad apology might be worse than no apology at all.....If their was an error on your end, or delivered an invalid message, address the issue and admit the negligence on your behalf. No one is perfect and the majority of your followers will understand that if you are honest with your own assessment as well as those at your organization.

4. Seize the opportunity--take the time to make sure your followers understand that you are doing everything in your power to address the situation (whatever it may be) and you take their criticism and feedback seriously. Act like you care and learn from your mistakes, if you do this, you will have the upper hand on many of your competition.......in other words, engage in appropriate customer service measures to make this a competitive advantage against other businesses in your sector.

It is really interesting to be reading about this article, as we currently just dealt with a frustrated customer who was writing defaming reviews about my manager. We could have addressed the situation differently, but we will have to see if there are any lasting effects of the comments......We could have learned from number four in my particular case.

Mom, Get Off Facebook!!!!

How do kids react when their parents decide to go social, or connect to networking sites like Facebook or Twitter? Surveys compiled by MyYearbook and "social media teen influencer survey" were distributed to eMarketer and the results were quite staggering. Research indicates that almost 90% of youthful Americans are subscribed and actively participate on social networking sites, so where the growth will need to come from is the users in the adult market. So how do kids react when parents, adults, or family members are invading their "turf"? Research indicates that under 20 demographic are annoyed or actually hate it when their parents join Facebook or Twitter.

I am surprised by the backlash from this age group as to all the privacy protection controls that individuals can place on their specific site, or at least restrict the viewing privileges of those be-friended. The next graph will indicate the restrictions set by children to their parents on sites like Facebook.

But, if you are in the same camp as Justin Serrano, Senior Vice President of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, he states that "in a Facebook era, the online arena serves as a new channel for parents to keep tabs on what and how their children are doing, and its notable that a sizable percentage of teens today seem comfortable with the dynamic. The parent-teen online relationship is still relatively uncharted territory. What we're seeing is that parents are increasing expressing interest in being able to monitor their kids' progressions online, and teens are adjusting to this in different ways."

If anyone reads this blog and they have 10-18 year old children, please express your concerns with this new phenomena.....are there struggles with your children? Does their seem to be a backlash from them for you to get off Facebook? Did they even accept your friendship, etc? I am not in this camp with Landon only being 20 months; I would enjoy hearing your trials with the social network site after reading this article though.

Retrieved June 18th, 2010 at http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx.?R=1007759

Bud House Cup, You Lose=You're Out!!!!

Just as the success of shows like MTV's Jersey Shore and the Real World are tearing up the cable network ratings, Budweiser is hoping to indulge in the same success with their version, the "Bud United" series. How will the campaign work? Cameras will follow one fan from each country represented in the World Cup, totalling 32 participants. There will big screen televisions and opportuntities for these individuals to show their countries spirit before, during, and after the game. What is the catch? When their countries team loses, they must exit the Budweiser United Cup home. Video content will be posted daily on youtube and updated posts for the participants will be delivered to Facebook and Twitter simultaneously. Television advertisements will also be based from the findings in the house during the escapade that is the World Cup. I'm sure with plenty of Budweiser available and with many twenty something's participating, their will be plenty of opportunities to watch funny, depressing, humiliating, or uplifting (if your team wins) videos. What is the real reason for this...."Budweiser is doing everything we can to unite beer drinkers during the tournament, and this is a great way for us to connect with people around the world across multiple layers," said Andrew Sneyd. Budweiser's global advertising director. They figure that this is a great way for Budweiser to go global when otherwise difficult, especially to promote to such a large scale audience.

I'm not going to lie, I wish I was in that house and I'm not even a soccer fan. I am really looking forward to watching the updates on Youtube, especially as the tournament trims the field from 32 to 16 to 8 and so on.

Great idea Budweiser, way to cash in on the global opportunity that presented itself through sport, remarkable marketing minds.

Four Do's of Facebook Marketing......

Kip Bodnar, marketing extraordinaire from Hubspot says that there are four tools to accentuate your marketing efforts via Facebook. Facebook, the social media giant with over 500 million members has intensified the marketing restrictions on the site. Therefore, these tricks of the trade if you will, will exemplify content and engagement opportunities impactful on customer acquisition.

#1 Wildfire—how this works, the marketer builds the contest using the wildfire app, then the contest is accessible via their Facebook fan page. It is relatively inexpensive, $5.00 per campaign and $.99 for each day the campaign runs. This allows for marketers to run a contest on Facebook when they otherwise couldn’t because of the strict guidelines for contests on their platform.

#2 Liveworld’s Facebook Forum 2.0—Have you ever seen something on a friend, company, fanpage, or group pages that had a negative comment or poorly articulated personal opinion toward their service or product? Facebook Forum 2.0 is a tool from Liveworld that quickly and efficiently moderates the Facebook comments posted by their upset, elated, frustrated, overjoyed, rambunctious, or ecstatic fans. This endeavor makes it easier for companies to manage their facebook communities. Pricing is not public information.

#3 Network Blogs—this is the Facebook blog directory and is an easy way to connect your corporate blog to your Facebook page. This free application is a great way of being noticed, especially in the Networked Blogs directory. An example of the service would be that my marketing blog would immediately be updated on my Facebook page the minute I hit “Publish Post” and LJW_Marketing_Machine would also be found in the directory.

#4 Facebook Social Plugins—can you believe that the little “thumbs up” or “like” button can mean that much, well to marketers they do!!! Two of the most powerful social plugins are the like button and the recommendations plugin. These free widgets are aimed at driving more content to a particular Facebook page. This is almost like the interactivity on the Spam or Hormel website…..a way to facilitate engagement otherwise impeded.

Facebook isn’t the perfect fit for every organization, but it can lead to exposure that is necessary for exposure, growth, recall, retention, and awareness. The final goal of these different and unique programs is the hopes of amping up the brand equity or positively exploiting a service provided.

Retrieved June 8th, 2010: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6073/4-Tools-for-Better-Facebook-Marketing.aspx?source=Blog_Email_[4+Tools+for+Better+F]#ixzz0qPb6eCE2

Spamming the Internet

When first mentioning the word SPAM, all I can think of is my Grandparents and the horrible casseroles they used to make with SPAM. Since viewing the user-friendly website and reading all about the history of SPAM, there is so much more to SPAM than just whats in the can. The SPAM site allows users to exchange recipes, visit the online SPAM shop, participate in fun and games, search through the variety and uses of SPAM products, print coupons, and research the interesting and intriging SPAM histroy and facts. Why would marketers want their online visitors to participate in games and recipe exchange? As Porter explained in Chapter 10, online interactivity empowers the visitor to feel in control and gives them the ability to "choose your experience" via the website. I imagine recognition, awareness, and recall are also some of the factors behind the ingenious marketing intuitive thought at www.spam.com. Will I become a fan of SPAM on Facebook or join the SPAM site, probably not, but their site opened my eyes to otherwise preconceived notions about their product. Porter would be proud of the role determined by the Hormel Corporation of their SPAM product line website and it's usabilty. SPAM, a word that I used to only associate with junk mail, now serving up it's six billionth can, wow!!! I will have to give it a try sometime, just not as the blue ribbon recipes advise, with eggs or macaroni.

98.9, State Farm Insurance Storm

State Farm Insurance received a 98.9 on their Hubspot grade, which is a grade that they should be proud of and determined to maintain, or possibly even improve. The first of my three recommendations is the need to create a blog for all agents to post topics, insights, insurance updates, and daily or weekly objectives. The ability for consumers to follow these blogs as well will share the human side of the agent with the client, a form of rapport and possible retention. Agents should be careful what they post online regardless, but if a statefarm.com blog is published, agents and team members must take special precaution of their verbiage. Blogs are one of the key determinants in the Hubspot grader and because each State Farm Insurance location is independantly owned and operated, that is why this grade is undefined. The second recommendation would be to “dummy” down the site a little bit. The site is graded at the college undergraduate reading level. The main demographic that is lacking from State Farm Insurance is the 16-25 age group. Geico and Progressive have found success in this market with attractive commercials and key figures. State Farm should design a section of the site primarily just for this age group. An interactive informational section on texting, driving, discounts, and insurance purposes would be outstanding. This group does not even know or understand what their liability limits mean or how they are deciphered. Finally, the last recommendation that I would have for the web designer would be to add an interactive home photo of the coverages extended from homeowners insurance. The education behind the insurance provided will give a better summary to those who are paying a thousand plus dollars a year for this coverage and truly have no idea of what they are paying for. One room could have a laptop computer, big screen television and refrigerator, thus allowing the web visitor to click on these items to show separate perils or incidents in which coverage may extend. For example, by a visitor clicking on the big screen television in the home, a pop-up would appear explaining lightening, tornado, flood, theft all would be applicable for replacement. This would help educate their clientele and extend their guided and undeniable mission of impeccable customer service.

"The Jimi Hendrix Seamless Customer Experience"

The goal and vision of CRM is to provide a satisfying experience through all the distribution channels and technological entities desired by the customer when they choose, how they choose, where they choose. Fulfilling all these requirements will be determined by the customer, which will be generated by an excellent customer service experience. Customers do not want delay, errors, incorrect answers, or to be transferred from one agent to another. Again, we want our information through the means that we desire and we want it yesterday!!! The "seamless customer experience" respresents an opportunity for organizations to provide a value that is unprecedented by their competition.

I personally believe that there is a pheneonmal untapped market for providing this type of experience in the digital media or cable service provider industry. There has been a handful of times where I have waited fifteen plus minutes to speak to an individual who only can transfer me to the next representative to only transfer me to another division, which is incorrect as well. In the automotive industry, they call this passing the buck. Why do they get away with this type of customer service? Because I have the ability to choose from a variety of companies, either Comcast, Dishnetwork, or DirecTV....THATS WHY!!!

Some of the ways that they could reach out to provide a seamless customer experience are email, chat, embedded modules, push delivery, VoIP, and co-browsing. I will admit that I can't fault comcast for making an effort to be accessible via their retail stores, albeit few and far from it. What I can fault them for, is the process of operation at these stores. Accessbility-yes, providing a seamless customer experience-absolutely not. I can compare waiting in line at one of their stores to pulling a ticket at Bylerly's in the midst of Thanksgiving or Christmas=absolutely brutal!!! Holding virtually an oligopoly of the market has enabled the providers to treat us as such, because where else are we going to go? Well, entrepenuers out there, think about it......create value, then create the service....please, please, I am willing to pay for it TODAY!!!

Porter, Internet Marketing-Integrating Online and Offline Strategies, Chapter 8, pp. 212-218

What really is the Role of Web Sites

Organizational entities have transitioned from cleverly organizing a website to carefully crafting objectives, usability, and measuring for effectiveness. In marketing, organizations can benefit from website use by providing useful information or a channel for generating sales. If you have the time to view a very effective site that truly dictates the transition of the marketing genius via the Internet, visit Hormel.com. Here, you will have the ability to slowly maneuver your way through the kitchen to find all the different Hormel products and recipes that go with all their products. It is fun, informational, interactive, customer friendly, all while meeting a variety of marketing objectives derived from the Hormel Corporation.

Porter deciphers what some of the key objectives are that justify the existence of an enterprise website....
-to provide cost savings, especially in promotion and customer service
-to increase sales revenue
-to increase visibility of the enterprise
-to advertise products and service
-to aid in brand development
-to provide customer service
-to generate sales leads
-to retain customers
-to build an online community

If an organization is struggling to generate visibility and/or sales, these steps may help to build the relevance online that they may be so desperately seeking.
1. Establish clear marketing and communications objectives
2. Identify the target market
3. Monitor site planning and development
4. Meticulously monitor technical quality and visitor usability
5. Update pictures and interactive media frequently
6. Treat this "tool" as you would any other marketing program or campaign.

Gone are the times of "everyone must have one" and the concept of an "electronic brochure", but rather keen in on the advantage generated from the reach and interactivity of their respective website. Also, focus on profiting from cost-savings and revenue enhancement opportunities.