Facebook and Twitter activity during each show provides a glimpse into the age and demographic of their viewers but the social media sites also provide a little more insight into what they viewers are thinking and feeling during the show.  Thanks to Twitter’s hashtag (# symbol placed in front of a word), the networks can pickup on what’s trending in the social space such as #ColtonDixon or #AdamLevinsHairStyle.  This can pinpoint exactly which positives and negatives the viewer’s are talking about during each show and lead to more productive and effective managerial decisions in order to increase viewership from season to season.

Something to think about:  So far, based on social media’s information, these networks have been able to almost consistently predict who is going to get voted off in the upcoming week? Does this take the fun out of watching the shows? Or does this make it more enticing for people to watch in order to see if social media activity is right again?

Also, does this still fall into the realm of Facebook and other social media being able to access too much of our information? Or is this a step into effective use of the information that social media provides? If so, what other ways can social media’s information be used to better our society and culture as a whole? Tell us your thoughts!

Tupac’s 3D animation and performance definitely dropped a lot of jaws and had social media sites buzzing.  Like anything else that creates a buzz, it is bound to get duplicated in one form or another. So what’s the next trend? Is it more performances by deceased entertainers such as Notorious B.I.G. or Elvis?  What about having world famous bands go back on tour with the help of holograms to replace a once passed band member such as John Lennon and George Harrison to complete the original lineup of The Beatles?  Or the famous Apple demonstrations by the late Steve Jobs? None of these options would be a surprise as it would create an opportunity for record companies, venues, and producers to make money but we feel that it wont take long for advertisers to add similiar technology to their tool box.

Hologram technology opens up a lot of creative avenues for companies to venture down. One example would be Flybar, an extreme pogo stick manufacturer.  Flybar’s products allow users to perform tricks such as flips and twists that could not otherwise be achieved using a standard pogo stick.  A holographic performance of what could be achieved on a Flybar is a major selling point for its product. Granted, holograms are expensive to produce, but by using a hologram in place of a live person removes a lot of the risks involved with live performance such as injury, malfunction, or user error – especially in a high volume traffic area such as Times Square or theme parks.

Now we pose a few questions – How do YOU think this technology will be used in marketing? How would YOU use it to market your business and/or yourself? And how soon do you think it will take for this technology to be duplicated?

As in business, staying focused is key.  Keep your content within the realm of your target audience’s interests.  Taking up space with irrelevant information won’t keep your visitors engaged, it will only send them astray.  Relating current news and world events to what your company’s mission is a good way to keep your emails interesting, updated, and not just the “same old stuff”.

#2: Weekends are now workdays

Offices are becoming more mobile than ever with the convenience of smart phones and tablets. HubSpot studied over nine million email messages,  in the Science of Email Marketing, and discovered that click-through-rates were roughly 4% higher on weekends. Meanwhile, “opt-outs” ranged highest on Tuesdays..Just an FYI

#3: Sharks do their hunting at sunrise, so should you

Start waking up early to send those emails because HubSpot’s research uncovered that that’s what most people are actually doing. Click-Through-Rate peaked at 6am.  And when aren’t people clicking through emails you ask — at roughly 4pm.  Early bird apparently does get the worm

#4: Link everything

“Always be linking” should be the email marketer’s mantra. “HubSpot’s research shows that, in general, click-through-rate rises steadily with the number of links in the email. Even messages with 19 links performed better than those with one to eight links.” Also, ‘opt-out’ rates actually decrease as the amount of links increase. But make sure all links go to the same page! You don’t want to distract your viewers with other call-to-actions.

#5: Less is more. Be very concise

Get to the point. “Marketing research lab MarketingExperiments studied the results of an oil field services provider’s campaign to promote an expanded product offering via email and landing page.” They noticed a 17 percent increase in click-throughs by slimming the body of the email from 170 to 95 words.

#6: Keep in contact, but quality > frequency

HubSpot’s data showed that emailing more people can increase the amount of click-throughs. Social media scientist Dan Zarrella reports, “That does not mean just blindly sending more email, what it means is that people who have lots of useful content for their emails – enough to send something relevant every day – [will] get higher click through rates.”

#7: Tell, don’t ask

Call your readers to action! Simple sales technique: People take more action when being told to do something as opposed to being asked.  Not only that, readers are slammed with emails daily and have limited time to view yours. Therefore, call them to action quickly. The more time that they spend scrolling, looking for your message and letting their mind wander, the less likely you are to get a click.

#8: Make sure that your email list is relevant

Emailing outside target audience will produce only minimal results.  If you’re in the home remodeling industry and you’re email lists consist of renters or apartment dwellers, then you’re missing an opportunity as well as wasting time.  Get creative, spend time on research and compile categorized databases of relevant email contacts. Yes it takes time and isn’t easy, but it’ll be worth it.  Or worst case, that’s where your local Marketing and PR agency comes into play!

Using a “#” before a phrase will automatically pool your tweet with all of the other tweets in using the same hashtag.  This allows people to search through a topic on Twitter by either clicking on the hashtag itself, or by using the search function and typing in the specific hashtag.  Either method will bring up a list of tweets containing that specific hashtag.  For example, inserting the hashtag, #goodblog within your tweet will bring up a list of every tweet containing that hashtag.  Thus, you will probably find a list of people sharing their favorite blogs or articles.

They can be very helpful for your business when used effectively.  First, we recommend that your tweets not be ‘protected’ and your account be visible to the public in order for people who may not yet be following you to browse and see what your business is about. The next step is composing tweets and using hashtags to gain some visibility. If you are an online retailer and you are offering a sale or promotion of some type, using hastags such as #onlinesale, #giveaway, #promotion or #freebies will then allow your tweets to be searched by online shoppers who may be specifically looking for online bargains.  Another option is using a hashtag within your industry to categorize yourself.  A catering company using the hashtag #professionalcaterer will make your tweets searchable for anyone who may be looking for a caterer.

The idea of twitter and any other social media site is not only to inform, but to get potential customers to take action and/or at least visit your website. Hastags are very helpful in doing just that!

It depends on a few things actually. First, what type of industry are you in? If its something like homemade furniture or other types of homemade crafts then once a week may be sufficient. If your blog though, is about sports, business, news, media or pop culture then you may want to think about typing away on a daily basis to keep your followers up to date (or even up to the minute at times) with emerging news.  A perfect example is many of the different Tech blogs out there that cover Apple’s big announcements.  Bloggers will literally sit at the conferences with laptops open keeping the followers informed with what the late Steve Jobs was talking about at that moment. Now is this necessary for your blog, well that’s up to you to think about.

Okay, so what if you aren’t a techie with a tens of thousands of followers? Our next criteria to look at would be how relevant is your information?  The best blogs keep their followers coming back because they offer useful, interesting, and often insightful information. Blogs usually do not have a text limit, so utilize that freedom to go a little more in depth on a topic that will give your readers something to think about.  This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t blog ever ten minutes about a basic opinion, (but be careful, that’s what Facebook and Twitter are for) nor should you feel the need to write a novel. The focus should be on producing good content. You’re blogs should have relative information as well as insightful thoughts. Therefore, long articles may bore your readers. If you have a lot to say then we recommend organizing your thoughts and breaking them up into multiple blogs. This way, you can leave your audience with a cliff hanger as well as offering multiple insightful blog entries.

Now for a concrete answer.  We at Red2Black say that blogging should be done at a minimum of once a week, but we recommend closer to 2-3 times per week. You may have a simple blog but if you cannot produce well thought out web content relative to your niche, then you may want to think about broadening the focus of your blog. An important thing to remember is that every time you blog, you are releasing web content which in essence is increasing your web presence.  The more you blog the more information you have out there for Google to find, but keep it interesting!

67% Of Tweets Aren't Being Seen

New Research says that only 1/3 of tweets are actually being read by your followers.  The study reported that people merely skim over 67% of the tweets that they see on a daily basis. The reasons? Subjects said that they either tweet and don’t read tweets, they don’t find the person who is tweeting interesting or that they simply don’t care what that person says. So how do you make sure your tweets make the cut? Follow these basic Do’s and Don’ts to entertain your followers:

DONT’s: Keep The Whining To A Minimum - venting is okay to get a conversation started, but don’t search for sympathy because people have their own problems to worry about. No Personal Details – for the most part, tweeting about what you had for breakfast isn’t worth someone’s time.  Check Your Ego – sharing positive information is always good but don’t go over board, no one likes constant bragging.  No Old News – by nature people enjoy drama and fresh stories but your tweets will get lost in the shuffle if you’re talking about yesterday’s headlines.

DO’s: What’s In It For Your Followers? - people are always looking for ways to benefit themselves, so give them something that makes their day. Tell the world about a huge sale or about your fool-proof gambling strategy, it’s a win-win for everyone.  Share Your Educated Opinion -do your research (so you don’t end up putting your foot in your mouth) and express your thoughts on touchy topics such as sports, politics, or pop culture..you’re bound to get a reply or a re-tweet. Share a Link - people go on Twitter for 2 reasons; they’re nosy or they’re bored.  So share a link that will pass someones time such as an article, video, picture or new game.  Ask Questions - People love to think that their opinion means something so give them the green-light to express it!  Again, whether its politics, sports, news or just needing a helping hand on which car to buy.  Be sure to give your followers an opportunity to throw in their two-cents, it’s another win-win for both parties. Finally, Change It Up – being predictable gets old after a while. Again, people scroll through tweets because they’re bored, so don’t make their electronic social life as repetitive as their daily grind.

Utilize all of the techniques on the DO list while staying away from the Don’ts will keep your followers refreshing the page for more!

This makes a lot of sense actually.  Think about it- how many Facebook pages do you “like”, or are a “fan” of,  but do not actively participate in? Our guess is that it is probably a lot! Sure, its cool to see your favorite brand of shoes, clothes or even alcohol and click that “like” button to let everyone know that you recognize and connect yourself with that brand but it doesn’t do a whole lot for the brand’s bottom line.  Don’t get us wrong, big brands must take advantage of the reach and exposure that Facebook can bring but they cannot rely on Facebook to necessarily bring customer activity.

Small companies on the other hand benefit more from a Facebook page.  Its free (or potentially very inexpensive if you decide to place Facebook ads) to regularly send your message to your fans. Also, chances are if you gained a Facebook fan, he or she “liked” you because of a positive experience with your product/service and actively made an effort to find you on Facebook and is more likely to purchase again.

3 "people" flying over Manhattan

Even 20th Century Fox relied on its simple creative skills to promote an up-coming movie, “Chronicle”.  The movie is about 3 kids who develop super powers and the stunt involved 3 remote controlled air crafts dragging kite-like material in the shapes of human bodies.  This is modern day proof that with a little creativity and ingenuity, national media coverage can be achieved without breaking the law or your budget.  We give a “thumbs up” to 20th Century Fox.

If you are anything like me, then you’ve longed for the day when your life could be summarized by this very wise saying, “Do what you love to do and you’ll never work another day in your life.”   Fulfilling a passion or a dream certainly requires effort and dedication, but if you’re career feels more like fun and less like work, then you are experiencing true freedom.

Before you quit your current 9 to 5, you need to identify your passion. Here are a few steps to help you along the way.

Interests vs. Passion. Make sure that you differentiate between a passion and a mere hobby. A passion is something that you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life. In most cases, it is an activity or skill that you naturally find yourself doing. It will energize you and take you a long time before you become burnt out by it. When you rest or take a break, you are usually excited by the thought of starting up again.

Daydreaming vs. Brainstorming. There’s nothing wrong with daydreaming. In fact, your daydreams usually hold the clues to finding your true passion. If you stop at daydreaming, your passion will remain just that- a daydream. Try to brainstorm. Write down ideas in which you can live out your passion in a way to bring about profit.

Pats on the Back vs. Genuine support- When you tell people about your passion there will be those who doubt that you can turn your passion into a thriving business. Ignore them. Seek out family and friends who will support you. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will agree with all your ideas, but they will be committed to doing what’s necessary to help you succeed. Don’t settle for just pats on the back or people who will tell you what you want to hear. Seek out genuine people who will give you constructive criticisms.

Hobby vs. Business. When you decide that you are going to turn your passion into a real business, treat it as such. If you wish to be successful, this will no longer be a hobby. Remain professional in everything you do pertaining to your new business. If you work from home, set up a dedicated workspace and dress as if you were going into work outside of the home. Stick to a consistent work schedule as best as you can. Set boundaries with family and friends during your work hours.

Obsession vs. Passion.  Since you will be putting a lot effort into this new business, it will be very easy to become obsessed. Be sure to take mini vacations and frequent breaks to refresh. If your family or friends consistently voice that you are ignoring them, chances are you are becoming obsessed. Be sure to monitor your health and stress levels. Remember, nothing is worth your health, family, and your quality of life.

Don’t Click E-Mail Links Promising Great Deals
During this time of the year many scams offer deals that seem too good
to be true. Only open e-mails from people you know and trust. Avoid
forwards at all cost.

Shop at Sites You Know and Trust
Well known sites that provide online purchasing options are your best
bet. Use these sites to find the best deals and rest assured that you
won’t be left high and dry on a bad deal!

Make Sure That Your Purchase is Secure
Check your web browser to ensure that the URL for the page begins with
“https://”. You will also notice a lock in the lower right corner of
the browser window.

Make sure that you have anti-virus and protection installed on your PC
to prevent malicious virus from affecting your system. Also, only use
a modern web browser such as the latest versions of Safari, Mozilla,
Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer.

Keep these important tips in mind when shopping through this holiday season and throughout the year. Happy shopping and happy holidays!