This post is on where I want your inputs, I want you to tell me the importance of your content strategy. Whether it’s through email marketing, Twitter, or Facebook, let me know.

Here’s why:

From what I’ve seen especially on Twitter and Facebook is that much of the content seems sporadic, but yet relevant. The topics, articles and discussions that follow usually are random banter and don’t seem to be the focused kind of conversation that a business or publisher should be striving for. So my question is, what is it that you do? Do you stick to a certain category expecting feedback or just pushing out content for the benefit of others?

Please use the comments and tell me about your content strategy.

There are plenty of 2011 social media predictions coming out this time of year, but I, unlike many, only have one prediction and it’s for us Millennials. This prediction may not be anything special or exciting but I feel like it holds some form of truth and an honest reality that social media marketers may not be taking into account.

Millennials will start to use Social Media beyond our personal networking. Yeah, not exactly *shocking* news. But, let me dig into this a bit more.

Right now, the stats for Twitter in the millennial age range are quite different than the baby-boomers or Gen-X. In a study back in 2009, 99% of 18-24 year olds had a social media profile, and I doubt that has changed in the past year. Not long ago either, Read Write Web showed that Gen-Y was moving away from Facebook and towards Twitter. My point though, is that “we millennials” have a strong affiliation with Social Networks and Media because of its ability to let us interact with our friends. Now, finally though, Gen-Y is seeing the benefits of these platforms for our personal branding and professional networking.

As these networks keep aging, the same people who used them for a small personal benefit, are seeing the larger picture. We were focused too long on Twitter’s original message, which was, “What are you doing?” We got caught up in this message and didn’t see the benefit of Twitter, until it was able to populate into something that millennials could use for a personal benefit.

On the other hand, though, we want our networks to be our networks. Places for our friends, photos, etc. without the constant interruption of the “professional network”. Take this article TechCrunch wrote about Facebook taking over our Social Space. And to me it makes sense. We’ll use what we want for our benefit, but the more you push us, the more we will try to push back. We keep being shown all these new “opportunities” with social media, but someone always just wants to make a buck off of it. What happened to doing something just for the benefit of others…?

In the end, get ready to start seeing more college-aged or recent grads, using more social media more productively and definitely more targeted.

Thoughts? Comments? Leave them below, I’d love to know what you think!

Image Credit - Eustaquio Santimano

This morning I got this ad on my Recommended Pages on Facebook  –

Now, I haven’t really complained about Facebook recommendations before, because hey sometimes they’re actually relevant and have led me to find new interesting pages or new articles it can depend.

In all honesty though, take a look at the related page – FarmVille Sheep - WTF? There are over 2,000,000 (yes, 2 Million) who Like this page. I get if you like the game or whatever, but the sheep themselves…people need to find new hobbies.

More relevant though are:

1. How are Bing & Farmville Sheep even comparable to be recommended with eachother?
2. I have hidden all Farmville related things from my news feed.
3. I have never played Farmville.

So why dear Facebook, are you giving me ads related to things I have obviously indicated negatively towards?

Does this happen to you? Tell me your most ridiculous recommended page or friend via Facebook!

Como muchos universitarios españoles saben, Tuenti es el rey de los redes sociales (menos en Barcelona donde el numero de búsquedas para Facebook es mayor).  Recientemente el grupo tecnológico de Telefonica anunció que iba a comprar el red social de Tuenti a un valor de €80 Millones ($103 Milliones).

Si fuese el caso de que esta compra, el cuestión es si realizarán cambios al nivel de que Tuenti se viese mas como el red que todos conocemos, Facebook.

Yo, como universitario se que con los recientes cambios, la habilidad de hacer comentarios a los estatus de los demás, hubo una movida dentro de Tuenti para ver si, en fin, se revertiría los cambios. Como no hace falta decir, esos cambios nunca se revirtieron.

El problema que muchos usuarios de Tuenti tienen, es que ellos saben que Facebook existe y no lo quieren. La habilidad de usar Tuenti simplemente para el uso de un red social y no como una plataforma de juegos, publicidad, y los otros “vicios” que tiene Facebook, es lo que prefieren los usuarios de Tuenti.

Como un estudiante de medias sociales, la compra por Telefonica, influiría que en fin, Tuenti se pudiese convertir en el red social que los usuarios no quieren.

Aunque la venta sería una ganancia para las dos partidas, el hecho cuenta en que el cambio de Tuenti no sea extremo.

Actualmente, Tuenti llevaba el mercado español en la palma de la mano, hasta principios de 2010. Usando Google Trends, se puede ver que a mitades de Enero 2010 el numbero de búsquedas dentro de España para los dos grupos sociales estaba a favor de Tuenti. De hecho, a partir de el primer trimestre (en España) el numero de búsquedas para Tuenti ha sido relativamente más estable en comparación con años anteriores.

El debate corriente es si esta compra es verdadero. Yo solo digo, la venta no es lo que importa, es mantener los clientes e incrementar el numero de usuarios si Tuenti quiere ganar la carrera en contra de Facebook, y no será posible si Tuenti cambia el formato en que trabajan. No es Facebook, no lo debe de ser, y no debería intentar a serlo, así perderá todo su clientela universitaria (la gran mayoría).

Comentarios? Tu que crees de Tuenti?

I was forwarded today by my friend Sarah a former App. State entrepreneur, who started Tugendeent, a consultant for start-ups, to vote for her in the Pepsi Refresh Project. Should she win she has the opportunity to win $25K. I really want to support her, vote and pass on the message. The true problem lies within the way the project and the voting is held.

As you go into vote you’re confronted with not only one annoyance, but two. Firstly, which I understand more, is registering to vote. I get this because you need to keep track of who votes how many times and other restrictions like that. The second, is the opportunity to connect with Facebook. “Great!” you might say. For me, I hate this popup.

More specifically, I despise the “Publish content to your Wall” note. I would love for this to connect with my Facebook, but I cannot opt for it to not publish content to my wall. If there is one I want Facebook to change from this, is the ability to control what goes on the wall, right from the time you choose to connect with a website. I don’t want to have to go into my preferences later to adjust this or remove it. We’re in the “Now Network”, and we need the ability to control these aspects right off the bat.

Have I missed something in the way to control this? Or am I doing it wrong? How do you feel? Leave a comment.

Today I came across a phenomenal website, Like Button, and I noticed something interesting. People are caring more and more about things that truly, in the short run, don’t matter. This is a problem. Call me un-American, anti-patriotic, focally wrong, whatever you choose, but these are my opinions.

1. People don’t really “Like” International News
2. Celebrities matter more
3. YouTube, TechCrunch, Break.com, Hulu and other sites get way more “Likes”

Now, this irks me in a way. Social media has the opportunity to reach out and massively spread topics like a wildfire through a dry brush desert. We have seen Twitter do amazing things during the Iranian elections by spreading the word and bringing focus and aid to a war-torn country.

Recently, with the ability to control what is seen online by basis of analytical results and dynamic programming we focus more on what the people want more so than the news they need to know. Not too long ago a controversial image appeared comparing the home page of CNN to the home page of Al Jazeera.

If we’d rather follow around Tiger Wood’s johnson than the acts of our own military, quite simply, we’re f—ed. At 0513 EDT my trending Twitter topics were these:

• #nowPlaying
• #PleaseTellMeWhy
• Justin Beiber
• #IHopeMyNext
• Iron Man 2
• #sometimesitsbetter
• Dear Haters
• #ihatequotes
• #HappyBirthdayDAE
• IPL

Not a single trending topic is news related, or anywhere important to society in the long run.

We have the opportunity here to do something good with the tons of resources we have available, but unfortunately we aren’t. We stick around and care about the “next big thing” or the new social tool to expand our image online. Being an arrogant self-imaging schmuck means nothing when you compare yourself to a country who can’t even have proper leadership.

I only ask you to think about what you Tweet or Like on Facebook. The availability to change what people see and the way we interpret our news is in our hands, the millions of users in each social network is controlled by us, the user cloud. So take a look around, think, and act accordingly.

Comments or concerns? Leave a comment I’d love to discuss!

Image by Zarko Drincic

Have you felt like slowly Facebook is taking over the online world?
According to a recent post by Mashable, Facebook now commands over 41% of all social media traffic. That’s an impressive statistic considering over 19 Million Registered users on Twitter (including “non-active” accounts – Source: Mashable).  But now with Facebook’s number of accounts growing just as wildly as the Twitter boom, the amount of demographic and analytical data available on Facebook is unprecedented.

With the recent release of AT&T’s Buzz.com and their integration only being with Facebook’s Connect, it takes on a different role than just a Check-In type service, like TriOut/FourSquare/BrightKite/Gowalla etc. While the comments on Mashable’s post about Buzz.com are all negative as of 7AM EDT I feel like those who have commented it don’t understand what it truly means when you look at it from Facebook’s marketing point of view.

As Buzz connects with Facebook you share the Restaurants/Businesses/Bars that you favorite or ask questions about. This allows for Facebook to monitor exactly what you like and are curious to try and hone it down. Later, Facebook uses this to supply you with the correct ads and services for you to later find. So this in its turn is a win-win for Facebook and the advertising business in the ad. Slowly taking over the role of Big Brother, Facebook is able to keep an eye on what we seek on the internet and how we use it. Later turning this into ad-revenue for them, and business revenue for the advertiser.

That’s the benefit of Buzz. While it would be great if it integrated with other check-in clients Buzz offers the ability to give a more Yellow Pages and Yelp type service. It’s a service based on crowd sourcing reviews, it’s more Yelp than anything. The biggest problem is being that they’re late into the game. Competing with the other services, as optimistic as I can be, I do not think AT&T’s Buzz will make it.

What do you think of Buzz? Useful, waste of time?

Image by LogicalZero

Probably one of my favorite parts of this film! But you may be asking, “ok…what does Top Gun have to do with Social Media, or Branding?” Fine, it doesn’t really have anything to do with it except for the fact they’re “Communicating”.

Communication is the one thing that without it, you will crumble. Communication in your enterprise may not exactly be your top forte, or your main focus. But as a marketing or sales department, it should be. The ability for a company to maintain a constant interaction with it’s clients or associates is an aspect that cannot be surpassed by many other departments.

US Airways & the Harvard Business Review had a case study of  Dessert Gallery.  In it they used a Survey and Facebook, to alter their customers behavior (read the Case Study for more details).  On the off hand I look at this from a different perspective.

What did communication have to do with their success?

Probably more than you might lead to believe. The fact that their upkeep within the Facebook page and in their surveys shows more interaction than before they began this campaign. An ability to start, build, and maintain a constant stream of communication and interaction not only on Facebook, is a difficult task. The time and effort that is needed is one that not everyone can hold on to.

Don’t Focus on Yourself, focus on everyone else who is in your Twitter or Facebook stream. Look at your competition, how are they interacting? Are there questions being unanswered about a product or service you prove?

Answer them, be a presence. Be something people want to be a part of!

The buzz about the buzz is buzzing (cheezy I know but I had to). This week I had the luxury of seeing two great releases applied to me. As many of you know those two releases are 1) Facebook’s new layout, and 2) Google’s Buzz.

Facebook

I’m not going to say that I dislike the new layout because the truth is I do like it. The layout is simpler, just as easy to follow, and it doesn’t change things around so much that the users will have some new kind of heart attack causing groups of hundreds of thousands to whine and moan about it.

Pros

• Just as simple, easy to follow, it has good flow.
• Everything you need is within the first left column or on the top bar.
• The search bar becomes more prominent, easier to find, and still just as great to use.
• More focus on the real-time news feed, and the option to control it better

Cons

• It’s a little bit too blue. I don’t know if I’m colorblind or what, but the three icons next to the Facebook icon, are hard as hell for me to see. I will definitely not use them as much.
• Message inbox isn’t as noticeable. I like using the inbox, private messages are helpful. But now accessing the inbox is a little bit tougher by creating a non-top bar icon and moving it to the mix of the left column.
• It’s a hair slower, my connection here in my dorm sometimes isn’t tip-top, so when it slows down and comes to a crawl, it’s noticeable.

I have my opinions, about it but all-in-all it’s a new layout. I don’t think that it will cause too much controversy.

Google Buzz

I’m normally a late adopter finding about things behind the curve and even more so becoming accustomed to using them.  But before I give my opinion, read this, it’s a funny bashing of Google Buzz (no I’m not 100% against it).

The new Buzz feature isn’t new. As Microsoft and Yahoo have recently been doing by belittling the new tool explaining that they have had the feature for over a year now, this is nothing new, but the dominant market of social-medialites has normally been associated with Google. The shear fact that this expectation arrives out of Google immediately offers it up to a larger and more target market. Buzz will just stick more with the people who want it.

Now I don’t like that Buzz provides me a number (like unread emails) from people I don’t follow, such as commenters from people I do follow. It’s annoying and when I read my friend’s posts, I will then look at the comments, I don’t want to see 587 Buzzes when I actually only have 20. It’s annoying, I don’t want that. Oh, and make the settings a little more prominent while it’s still new.

I like on the other hand, that there is not as much of a character limit, like Twitter. This will lead to better search linking especially if it turns into real-time search results. It’s easy to use, just like Twitter and FriendFeed it’s simple to figure out and won’t take long for people to use Buzz almost in a way to connect their other social media sites. Google’s Friend Connect also incorporates well into this!

Overall good things, I like new changes.

What do you make of all the new releases?

Image by ayche_em_ayche

Simple point, your Social Media Marketing and Advertisement should be bi-lingual.

I try not to brag, but being able to speak three languages helps. Lets put the simple point into some numbers here real quick.

From Facebook Statisitcs – “About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.”

In Spain the top 5 Social Networks are -

1. Tuenti
2. Facebook
3. Fotolog
4. Hi5
5. Metroflog

with MySpace placing 7th. Source – TechCrunchies

In Portuguese speaking countries, Orkut, places #1.

All right, now the numbers are over with. To prove my point, if you use any of these networks, you should be marketing in more than one language! But you may ask, what does this have to do with something like Twitter?

Over at UMBC Embiquity you will find this map.

Sure, the US has it’s fair share. However with increasing numbers of Hispanics and Europeans immigrating to the United States why are we not reaching out to them as much as we should in a language that they understand and a langauage that facilitates them.

What I see is a whole new window of opportunity, that I have yet to see explored. The possibilities of reaching out to the media outlets in multiple languages through networks that are already vast in huge networks.

On my Facebook Profile I am a member of the Mexico network, yet I never see an advertisement for a Mexican company, or even an American company reaching out to the Spanish speaking population so that they can take advantages of the same services you advertise in English.

All I am saying is why not? It opens up a new realm of clientele that would be willing to pay the same money for the same services it’s just a different language.