Have you considered what might happen if a website was entered into the Employee of the Month contest?

We aren’t expecting to see a picture of a URL hanging at the entrance of buildings any time soon, and we’re not downplaying the value of hard working employees. We will, however, make a case that a website could be one of your most valuable employees.

A good website is available to answer questions, field requests, and generally be of assistance 365 days a year. Even if we ignore sick days, vacation time and National holidays, it would take three full-time employees to provide the same coverage as a website. Even at minimum wage and not including benefits, this is a $45,000 value per year.

Additional Responsibilities

Even a relatively simple non-ecommerce website is routinely ready to undertake these additional responsibilities:

• Be the First to Meet Most Potential Customers
• Establish Credibility by Presenting a Clear Value Proposition
• Engage People and Provide Timely Customer Service to their Requests
• Reinforce Brand Identity by Making Direct Presentations
• Qualify Leads, Build Trust and Help Close Sales
• Assist Human Resources and Recruiting

Plus a website will perform all these duties simultaneously and without error.

Undervalued Employee?

What would you expect to pay if you were looking to hire a person who could perform these responsibilities? Given the above requirements, you’re not likely to find one person who could handle the work load an effective website will carry with ease.

At the same time, especially within medium to small sized businesses, budgets for websites are routinely less than the cost to hire even one minimum wage employee. This surely is a limiting factor on those companies’ bottom lines.

Successful businesses — both those with and without bricks and mortar — need to understand the inherent leveraged value of a website. They also are well advised to benchmark against their known competitors and carefully monitor how potential and existing clients interact with this amazing employee.

Breaking through the limited budget barrier for a website is essential.

Thinking in terms of a website-to-employee comparison can be a helpful exercise for people who are struggling with the idea of investing in an improved website.

So the next time you walk past the Employee of the Month plaque, remember your website and the leveraged value it represents. Not to mention that it rarely complains and almost never eats your favorite doughnut in the break room!

The post Is Your Website Your MVP? appeared first on 435 Digital.

Your choice. Assuming you picked the second, here are 10 types of tweets that will help you be a Twitter superstar in no time.

Boring
Snore. Tweets that give Twitter a bad name such as “I am eating a sandwich.” This type of tweet is uninteresting and doesn’t encourage interaction. Twitter started this trend by asking the world a boring question: “What’s happening.” They should have started with “What has your attention?” That could be the difference between tweeting “I’m eating a sandwich” and “I need your help to find the best burger in Chicago.” Which of those tweets interests you more?

Introductory
Introduce a Twitter user to either another user or a group of people. Example include: “I’d like everyone to meet @soandso, who is new to our team here at the Tribune” and “Hey, @Suchandsuch please meet @soandso, who is also an avid golfer.” Introductory tweets are a great way to build community quickly on Twitter.

Spammer
Trust me. You don’t want to be viewed this way. Spammer tweets aren’t necessarily tweets that come from an automatic spambot feed. Sometimes, spammy tweets can come from a user who only seems to shill for his or her own projects or products. An often cited formula for avoiding being a spammy twitter user is to follow the Rule of Thirds: Talk about your own products a third of the time. Share other links and ideas in your niche for another third. In the final third, reply to people, answer questions and ask questions of your followers.

Quote
Consist of an attributed quote and that’s all. Example: “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on – Robert Frost.” This type of tweet is common, but should be used very sparingly because it generally does not encourage interaction with others.

Retweet
Retweets (or “RTs”) are simply re-sharing the content sent from another user. These can be done by hitting the “retweet” button to share the original tweet and automatically source the tweet (“RT @scottkleinberg Today…”). The retweet can also be accomplished by sharing a link obtained from another user, recreating a version of the tweet, and including “MT (modified tweet) or via @username” in the tweet.

Marketing
Let’s talk about these. In and of themselves, they are harmless, straightforward communication about a product, deal or brand. For example: a hardware store twitter account could tweet “This week only: all BrandX paint and rollers 50% off” and that would be an example of a marketing tweet. The problem arises with marketing tweets when that is all or the majority of tweets posted by a given account. This isn’t likely to be a problem if the tweeter follows the aforementioned Rule of Thirds. Sticking with the hardware store example: this account could also share how-to guides and tips, relevant industry news, and address customers service and/or advice questions. Everyone buying paint wants to know how to get it out of the carpet.

Giveaway or Benefactor
Tweets giving “insidery” info on deals, freebies, contests and other giveaways. Most giveaway tweets are designed to go viral by being widely retweeted to share the information.

Link
Tweets sharing links to compelling or entertaining articles, images or blog posts. Such links can be original content from the user, or outside content he or she wishes to share with followers. Be sure to mix link tweets with other types of tweets for maximum impact.

Question and Answer
User asks a question of his or her followers and this hopefully results in answers. Question tweets can range from rhetorical questions (which can be entertaining, but generally aren’t extremely useful because they do not encourage interaction) to polling followers about product and purchase recommendations (Buying a new dishwasher. Any recommendations?)

Customer service
Can be either from the customer raising an issue with a service or product, or from a company acknowledging a widespread customer issue, or working to satisfy an individual customer’s issue.

Watch “30 Second Social,” the web video series hosted by Scott Kleinberg and Amy Guth, for more tips and tricks about Twitter and other forms of social media.

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Scratch no longer.

Google Wallet and American Express/Foursquare have taken the lead and are showing retailers what it looks like to link automatic discounts with real life items.

Google Wallet, announced May 26, is a partnership between Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint. Basically it’s an app that will make your phone your wallet, Google says. The downside on Google Wallet is that you have to be a Citi and Sprint customer, but Google says you can  prepay with other credit cards if you want to play. Google says:

Because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will do more than a regular wallet ever could. You’ll be able to store your credit cards, offers, loyalty cards and gift cards, but without the bulk. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. Someday, even things like boarding passes, tickets, ID and keys could be stored in Google Wallet.

Add in the excitement over Google+, and Google scores significant persuasion points.

At first blush, the American Express Foursquare partnership seems more accessible. American Express has long been offering discount to members of its Open Network.  Now U.S. holders of  U.S. American Express OPEN cards who synch their cards with FourSquare will see special discounts when they check in with FourSquare at participating retailers and businesses.

This sounds persuasive  since I and many of my friends have acquired the Four Square habit. It’s a partnership that will drive revenue for both companies. But Amex has some listening to do among its long-time customers who are feeling slighted, like Jeff Jarvis, who announced today that he is kicking his Amex habit.

Retailers who have just gotten online and started using social media must be suffering  vertigo from the rapidity of change in the online world. Apps mov the action from the Internet to the “cloud.”  But recent research from Forrester Research, Inc., shows that search engine marketing, SEO, continues to be the hands-down favorite,  with 90% of retailers operating online citing it as the most effective source for acquiring customers in 2010.

Forrester’s report — The State of Retailing Online 2011— also found:

• Some retailers are having greater success acquiring new customers through social networks.
• Retailers are planning on increasing their spending on social networks in the future.
• Social activity excels at delivering qualitative feedback for retailers; the primary ROI is in listening.
• Web marketing spending at this point in the mobile world is not significant but retailers say they expect to increase their mobile spending.

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“How do you define Social Media or the social web?” asked Steve Neil Kaplan, Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance.

“We define it as the people’s network,” said Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer of Vivaki, which oversees such firms as Razorfish. “To a great extent, we define the Internet as a connection engine where people connect to transact, share, express and discover. We believe that people have always wanted to connect and create and now technology allows them to connect and create without the technology getting in the way.”

[Social media is] led from the slime and not from the heavens,” Tobaccowala said later in a statement that sounded slightly rude. In explanation, he said that means the trend has not been dictated or marketed by the likes of a Microsoft or IBM.

“The reality of it is people are analog. Organizations are analog. It takes time for organizations to change. If you don’t have a sense of urgency now, you won’t ever catch up — ever,” Tobaccowala said.  “It is consumer led and not business led. It is rapid iteration, amazing that it continuously improves. Business is almost forced to react. “

The interactive nature of social media is what sets it apart from any marketing that has come before, said Jean-Pierre Dubé, Sigmund E. Edelstone Professor of Marketing.

“From a marketing perspective, there’s two keys for [social media] marketing —  interactivity  —  the opportunity to interact with customers, to not simply deliver messages to them but to get something back.  And in some of the most successful applications  we’ve seen so far [there is also the ability] to co-create. You are jointly creating the media that’s going to be feeding back into your brand and what your brand will represent.”

Dubé also suggested that instead of looking at metrics, business should understand that social media is different, that it is a conversation. “It’s more than sending a message. It’s a dialogue,” Dubé said. ”We should ask instead, ‘What are we trying to do with this dialogue?’ Sometimes a dialogue is about avoiding a cost.”

It’s the power of the platform that fuels social media, said Eric Lefkofsky, co-founder and chairman of Groupon, currently president of Blue Media LLC, a Chicago-based private equity and consulting firm, and founder of several successful digital companies..

“An easy way to think about this is to understand that there are these tremendous platforms that were built:  Facebook being one; Twitter being another… Business today can monetize those platforms in a highly connected social context. Those companies that take advantage of that are monetizing the social web and that comes together as social media. “

“Everybody wants to be playing in that space,” Lefkofsky said, “Facebook’s Zuckerberg would say everything’s social. … It has no beginning and no end.”

Perhaps because of the 140 character nature of his business, Brent Hill, director for the central region of Twitter, broke social media down into two parts.

“I like to separate the two words —  the social side and the media side,” he said. “Not everything designed to be social — social being easy to share, easy to connect, easy to follow — has a media component to it.  Not everything has a media side — meaning videos, photos.”

To be in social media is to be coveted, said Matthew Gentzkow, Professor of Economics with a specific focus on media.

“The definition has been expanding over time [to include] sites where people build explicit social networks and interact. Other than that it has become something that everyone wants to be. It moved quickly to be a term that gets applied very widely.”

Closing up a great conversation about return on investment, which I will be fleshing out in a later post, Kaplan said social media ROI is just like regular ROI: “We know half of what works. We just don’t know which half.”

Obviously I can’t  do justice to the discussion here. Tune in to view the full panel,  The Economics of Social Media, at the website for the Booth School at the University of Chicago.

The post Chicago Booth panel talks social media appeared first on 435 Digital.

500 million Facebook users are building their social identities and connecting with others. 145 million Twitter users are sharing thoughts, links and information.

3 million people are “checking in” on Foursquare and 200 million clicked links direct people to YouTube every day. If all of your (potential) customers are there, shouldn’t you be?

What are people looking for?
People don’t just search these social networking sites for people; they also look for you—the organizations, products and brands. Why? They are looking for coupons, exclusive discounts or chances to win, but they are also interested in what other people are saying and what you are saying back.

Why do you want to start the conversation?
Using these communication vehicles, you can build relationships with these friends, fans and followers and potentially make them your newest customers. What’s great about giving them something fun and exciting to talk about is that they will do just that—talk about it with their friends and networks, and that’s what we want.

How do you know if you caused a social effect?
We all want results, numbers and measurements of traffic. Well, by using these platforms, you can get as specific as you want, providing offers and prizes for “fanning” a page, “re-tweeting” a phrase, checking in at a store location and more. From here it becomes as simple as monitoring the buzz. We call this ROE, return on engagement.

Another way to share digitally
Ways in which your consumers are using digital to simplify, advance and connect are multiplying every day—especially since mobile is becoming the primary way people communicate and share via social media. Mobile applications have become the new way to “pimp-your-phone” so to speak. One example of this is SWAGG, a new brand savvy mobile application, which allows you to eliminate all the plastic (gift cards) from your wallet and create personal digital gifts to send to your friends. Talk about fresh, fun and easy. You might even agree with them when they say, “Your wallet is full. Of crap.”

Let’s give them something to talk about. Let’s also talk about it with them.

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A couple of years ago, the answer would have been “it depends.”

When Facebook first introduced fan Pages back in 2007, they left much to be desired in terms of functionality and giving organizations the ability to truly engage with Facebook users. (For example, in the very early stages of Facebook Pages, administrators could not send “blast” style messages to fans in-boxes, a feature available in Facebook groups). Pages seemed to serve the role of a promotional platform, rather than an engagement tool.

Profile, Group or Page? The Definitions
In the past year or so, the developers at Facebook have made strides in adapting the functionality of profiles, groups and pages to serve user needs:

Profiles continue to be best for individuals who are looking to personally connect with others.
Groups are ideal for bottom-up social networks around common interests (fan clubs, volunteers, etc.)
Pages have now evolved into a powerful tool for organizations and companies who want to connect with supporters, but who also have very specific marketing goals that require further insight on users.

Facebook Insights: Learn More About Your Fans
The key tool that makes Facebook fan pages so valuable to companies doing social media marketing is Facebook Insights, which provides page administrators with information on user demographics and activity on Facebook. If you’re a marketing data geek, this is juicy stuff: the average age, gender, and location of your users. Additional information includes page views, photo views, and “interactions” such as comments and “likes.”

If the ROI question is big in your company, and you are looking to glean hard numbers from Facebook’s ability to connect with users, there is no better tool to use than Facebook Insights. And if you’re a marketer that regularly reports progress on your Facebook traffic and interaction to your company (and if not, you should!) Facebook makes this report-ready data available in a downloadable .csv or a Microsoft Excel (.xml) file. In my experience I’ve found this data extremely useful in reporting company progress with social media marketing efforts to higher-ups, through weekly updates on Facebook activity and fan counts.

Facebook developers continue to evolve and improve the effectiveness of Facebook Insights, and I am confident that as more organizations use this tool to aid in their social media marketing goals, we’ll see more improvements in the future. Recently, Facebook Insights added pageview information by individual post – a godsend for anyone with a content-rich Facebook page and want to assess the popularity and impact of posts by content, something administrators could only speculate about before.

Don’t Forget Goals!
A final word about reporting and Facebook Insights. As with all web metrics, Facebook Insights are only as valuable as the marketing goals and objectives you apply them to, so I urge you to really look at your overall marketing goals and strategy and see how these juicy stats can lend insight. If you haven’t established measurable goals for your social media marketing efforts, there’s no better time to start!

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