Facebook’s New Money Maker

Facebook is offering its promoted post feature to individual users. I was shocked and confused when I saw the pop-up below my post. This seems like an odd strategy for Facebook. It appears they are becoming more and more desperate to generate revenues for their frustrated shareholders. Businesses promoting post as a marketing effort is one thing, but only real social media junkies would even consider it paying a minimum of $7 to promote personal content on Facebook.

It’s stuff like this that make me wish more people were open to Google+. As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and “Like” us on Facebook.

Coca-Cola: Sticky Hand Toy

When it comes to social media and internet marketing, Coca-Cola might be the best in business. Coca-Cola does a great job of keeping their product fresh and current. Really great social media marketing is about creating something that can be shared. Coke has done something really cool with http://astretchyhand.com. If you go to the site you’ll see a little elastic rubbery hand that is meant to simulate a toy. It’s a waste of time, but it’s fun to play and see how the hand sticks to the edges of the browser window. This kind of internet marketing might not directly lead to sales, but its something people will share. As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and “Like” us on Facebook.

Marketing Research on Facebook Wall Posts

Facebook is super important for marketers– that much we know. There are several different schools of thought about what works best on Facebook. Buddy Media published a study examining what strategies work best on Facebook. The study can be accessed by clicking the image below. I read it, and I recommend it to anyone that is interesting in social media marketing strategies.

 

As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and “Like” us on Facebook.

6 Free Web Tools for Bloggers

This is an exciting time to be a blogger because of all the exciting things happening in our world. For many bloggers (myself included) it can be difficult to continual publish high-quality content. It’s important to have a number of free web tools at your disposal to be create and promote great content. I have found 6 tools that help me publish and promote my blog. My hope is that you can use these tools to your advantage. Comment below if you know of tools to add to this list.

Snipping Tool

The Snipping Tool is my all-time favorite blogging tool. If you use a PC with Microsoft software, then its technically not a web tool. It can be found under “Accessories” in the Program window. Snipping Tool allows you to take a screen shot of anything appearing on your screen. Snip a whole window, a rectangular section of the screen, or cut a freehand outline with your mouse. I find this extremely helpful to create images to share on my blog. If you write post about videos or TV ads, by pausing the video and using Snipping Tool, you can cut an image directly the part of the video you want to talk about.

QR Code Generator

QR Codes are a great way to promote your blog to mobile users. By using the QR Code Generator you can make a custom barcode that can be scanned with any smartphone. These QR Codes can contain a URL, contact information, a calendar event, and much more. You can great code for each blog post you publish so that your readers can access your content from anywhere. There are many QR Code generators out there. The one I linked to is free, does not require a username, and is easy to use. The QR Code on the right links to this blog’s home page.

Dropbox

Dropbox was made for people to be able to access file anywhere via cloud computing. I have found that Dropbox has terrific applications for bloggers. Say you wanted to share an Excel spreadsheet with your readers. By uploading the document to Dropbox and clicking “Get Link”, Dropbox generates a URL link to share document or folder. Anyone can click the link and access the files, even if they don’t have a Dropbox of their own. The best part is that unlike Google docs, if you upload a Microsoft file you do not lose your formatting when sharing a link. You will need to download the Dropbox software to get started, but after that it is a great blogging tool.

Photobucket

Photobucket is a great way to edit and share online photos. If you’re a regular blogger, you know that many of the image widgets and sidebar items at WordPress.com require image URLs.  If you have a personal photo or any photo that is not shared on the web, you may need to generate a URL for that image to be able to display it on you blog. Photobucket allows you to do just that. After making an account, each photo can be shared via a custom URL. Works great.

TweetDeck

If you promote your blog via social media, than TweetDeck is tool you need. TweetDeck is a free service that allows you to arrange multiple Twitter feeds and Facebook accounts into customizable columns. By doing you this you can cut the amount of time you spend promoting and focus on what matters. My favorite feature of TweetDeck is the scheduling. This features allows you to schedule tweets and Facebook posts in advance. This is great way to publish consistent content even when you don’t have time to sit in front of your computer. Scheduling allows you to retain reader interest between blog posts.

Google URL Shortener

Google URL Shortener takes long URLs and squeezes them into fewer characters. This is ideal for promoting you blog via tweet or email. I use Google URL shortener a lot. It’s great to use to shorten the URLs generated from Dropbox and Photobucket. In my opinion, the best feature of this tool is that Google tracks the number of clicks each link gets. This is a great way to see how responsive your readers are. Google has made this tool very simple and easy to use. I highly recommend it.

As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and “Like” us on Facebook.

Marketing Research on Twitter

Twitter is super important for marketers– that much we know. There are several different schools of thought about what works best on twitter. Buddy Media published a study examining what strategies work best on twitter. The study can be accessed by clicking the image below. I read it, and I recommend it to anyone that is interesting in social media marketing strategies.

As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and “Like” us on Facebook.

Importance of Facebook to Your Social Life

As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and “Like” us on Facebook.

Encouraging Social Media Interaction: PowerCoco & Coca-Cola

Social media is all about customer interaction. Some really great social media marketing strategy are built around encouraging customer interaction. I’ve seen two really great explains over the past week. One comes from a blog favorite PowerCoco. They posted on their Facebook page about a contest. The contest, entitled “Thirsty Thursdays”, encourages people to interact with their product as well as share it online. PowerCoco posted this at about 1:15pm EST. The company is based in New York City. This might not have been the best time of day to post something like this, but I love the idea

The second great use of social media interaction was Coca-Cola. They posted on their main Facebook page. As you can see, Coca-Cola is encouraging people to comment on their post. This is a good strategy because it can translate into online word-of mouth because Facebook shows your friends what you say. In a way Coca-Cola is giving their fans ownership of the brand. If you check out some of the responese they are pretty funny. Some of my favorites were: “‎$1.89 at the gas station probably”, “my annoying brother”, and  ”a case of pepsi.”

As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and find us on Facebook.

PowerCoco: Talking with the President (@PowerCoco_Steve)

Today I received two phone calls and one voicemail from Steve Vasquez, President of PowerCoco. I’m not gonna lie.. it made me feel kinda important. We talked about the history of the brand, specific product features, market strategy, and the beverage industry. If you haven’t been following my PowerCoco post below are links so you can catch up.

PowerCoco’s Marketing: Social Media and eCommerce

PowerCoco’s Social Media

PowerCoco & DORCO Social Media Update

Our conversation was very normal. Its clear that PowerCoco wants to remain authentic by connecting with people and creating a grassroots movement. Social media is still their method of choice. PowerCoco is active on Facebook and Twitter. Overall, Steve is a great guy and seemed very knowledgeable about the beverage business. He thanked my for being a “fan of the brand” and was quick to correct me and give credit to Tyler Beuerlein for founding the company. Tyler and Steve are business partners who both want to give people a better sports drink. That’s the message they keep sending out. It’s important that PowerCoco makes product information readily available. If possible they should look to differentiate their SEO strategy between potential customers seeking information and customers that are closer to purchasing product.

PowerCoco might have hit the market at just the right time. Many a PowerCoco’s health benefits are inline with current food and beverage industry trends. 60 Minutes recently aired a report called “Is sugar toxic?”. In the report, Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked about new research showing that beyond weight gain, sugar can lead to conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer. PowerCoco is also gluten free. Gluten free food is a growing segment in groceries stores across America. This might be less of an advantage considering Gatorade is also gluten free. Regardless, stressing the health benefits of PowerCoco is a major selling point.

Steve gave me an inside scoop on a promotion deal PowerCoco will soon launch in the New York area. He could tell me all the details, but he did tell me that PowerCoco is teaming up with a New York NBA-star with 3 million twitter followers. There are only two NBA teams in the New York area. The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. I did some checking on twitter and here’s what I’ve come up with.

Not sure who it’s going to be, but I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next. If you’re interested in purchasing PowerCoco and you’re located outside the New York area, checkout their Amazon Storefront.