The answer really depends on your fan base and what you really think your potential is.  As a general rule you can expect your social media fans to be about a third of your regular customers, maybe a little more if you have a younger tech savvy group and maybe a little less if it goes the other way but you should be able to get at least a solid third of your audience on your social media sites.  It might not happen right away and it might not happen on your first big fan exclusive giveaway.  I’ve worked on pages that didn’t see a jump for 3 months and suddenly took off.  One year into your social media run you should be on the track to get a third of your core audience on your sites and talking.

If you look at things after that first year and you think you’re a little behind you could try building more of a dialogue.  If you aren’t getting the response you like it might help to switch up the tone to keep things fresh.  Sometimes a simple change in tone can be enough to bring some people back in who haven’t been taking.  A year into things you should have a good natural report with your audience.   Don’t be afraid to relax a little and let things hang loose.  One of the advantages of social media is that you can really get to know your audience and show your place has personality.

Other reasons why, after a solid year, you might now be where you want to be is because you haven’t added enough to your website to make things worth clicking on.  It’s like a restaurant that’s been open for a year and is still under construction.  After a while it starts to look like they just don’t care and it makes you not want to go as much.  The same is true with a Facebook page.  If all you do is post links and comments your page will look half finished and you won’t get the response you are capable of.  Search engines like Google respond better when you post pictures and add custom tabs.  The more graphics you use the better.  At the very least it sends the message that you care about your social media and want new fans.  At the most it will give people a reason to talk more on and about your page giving you a big boost in fan count and interaction and give you a big SEO advantage.

One thing you can do once you’ve established yourself is try and get some information out of your fan base.  Don’t be afraid to use them for a focus group to learn more and ask them questions.  If nothing else the internet is full of people willing to give their opinion.  It can get you some good information and get people talking.

Ultimately while it’s true that social media can sometimes take a while to really take off and it could be some time before you see results, after about a year you should start seeing some sign of where you are going.  If you don’t think you are on your way to something usable it could be something as simple as a change in tone or stepping up with some pictures and an add on or two.  If you think it’s just a question of people not finding it just yet you could try a promotion in house that is tied to your social media.  Sometimes those people don’t stick but you will probably get a few of them.  Above all don’t give up.  The audience is there.  You just have to get their attention.

The Magic of Social Media

How Valuable Are Heavy Social Media Users, Anyway?

Restaurants Are Hungry for Your Business; Social Media is Their Platter

Like some other major companies that are faced with a tough starting period, Sirius is trying to get ahead by throwing money at their competition’s top acts. (DreamWorks did the same thing when it raided Disney’s talent and executive pool in the 90s and Microsoft has Nintendo’s top talent on the X-Box.)  The biggest name, and the one that has gotten Satellite radio the most press is Howard Stern.  This week they announced that Howard Stern, after a long public battle, has resigned with Sirius for $400 million over five years. (That’s about $2 Thousand dollars for every minute of air time.)

It looks like Sirius is putting all their stock in this guy.  The question is, can one man save an entire medium?  Howard’s got a very loyal and dedicated following that looks like it will follow him anywhere.  So clearly if they didn’t resign him they would have more than likely lost a good portion of their audience.  Stern, who has a habit of picking fights with his bosses on air, has proven that the “King of All Media” tag isn’t just bragging.  He’s created a media frenzy unlike anything satellite radio has experienced.   He did essentially the same thing Lebron James and Brett Farve did in the last year.  But while they were derided as egomaniacs and are still being talked about negatively months later Howard was cast as a hero.  If Sirius did it on purpose it would actually have been a very good move.  Maybe he’s worth the money just for that reason alone.

One mistake Sirius made was committing to almost no advertising way to early in their run.  If they had supplemented their subscription fee with a little ad revenue they could have more capitol to advertise, get talent and they could lower the number of ads later.  As it stands, other than spending $400 million they can’t seem to get their name in the paper which is absolutely a necessity if you are doing something that’s trying to reinvent a medium.   Taking some ad revenue as well as pay subscription also gives them a huge advantage over the FCC regulated airwaves.  You don’t have to adhere to the standards of decency.  I’m not saying every ad should be filthy.  But they could get some good buzz by running ads the normal stations can’t.

Another way Sirius can rethink their ad campaign and maybe garner some more press without dropping half a billion dollars is taking a page from MySpace (Not the Current MySpace that is slowly dying from neglect but the MySpace of a few years ago that was far and away the most visited site on the web.)  They need to promote their own content instead of the options they provide.  Clearly options aren’t bringing in the listeners they hoped for.  (Historically speaking the “we have options’ advertising has always been kinda weak in my estimation.  It’s not working in cell phones now and both McDonalds and Starbucks started out with successful campaigns based around having only a few simple choices) MySpace promoted themselves as the place to get the hippest and newest musical acts.  They made it seem like if you weren’t paying attention to them you were missing something.  In short, they made themselves vital something Sirius hasn’t been able to do.

Ultimately satellite radio has not been the threat to traditional radio that some predicted it would be.  If it is going to be it’s going to have to make room for commercials.  I think the lack of success for satellite radio actually bodes well for the strength of the traditional format.  It’s actually an underrated place to put your advertising dollars.

www.mediaspy.org/report/2010/12/14/radio-advertising-revenue-up-in-november/
www.kingofalltrades.com/2010/12/13/sirius-xm-radio-has-eventful-december-to-remember/
seekingalpha.com/article/241755-will-winter-hit-sirius-analysts

Netflix announced that there Digital Streaming site is actually now doing more business than the direct mail DVD division.  This is huge for the not just for them, and not just for the movie business, but for the future of the internet, television, and digital marketing.  Obviously the places taking the biggest hit are Blockbuster and other video rental places.  The studios are still putting their support behind the major retailer stores and rental places by placing this 30 day waiting period on Netflix.  Comcast’s new campaign is centered around the fact that they don’t have a 30 day waiting period showing that they are afraid that once internet becomes standard in all TVs (It comes with most new models from Sony, Toshiba, and most of them now.) sites like Netflix are going to take there movie rental business.  This thirty day waiting period the major film distributors put in place is just a stall and probably won’t last too much longer.

It also effects movie studios by making first run home and theater releases possible, once that silly 30 day period is taken out.  As I said last week the movie companies are pricing out families and that’s not a good thing.  If you are a father of 2 and your kids are itching to see Harry Potter and you could click a button at home and get the new Harry Potter for 35 dollars in your house you’re probably very happy considering that you’re spending more than that on snacks and tickets. (If you would do this feel free to leave comments.) Streaming video might just be the shot in the arm the movie companies need to rethink there aging business model.

Anyone who reads my articles knows that I’ve been preaching the idea that 24/7 connectivity and the idea that your TV, computer, and phone are going to be the same thing very soon.  This is the next step in that.  Since Netflix has proven that video streaming is viable as a monetized media it has started expanding into the smart phones and other devices.  You can now watch Netflix from any device you have.  This will lead to other companies running with the same model and don’t be surprised if the major television networks start monetizing even more with a pay per episode models.

As far as your advertising dollars go it’s only a matter of time before the major movie studios embrace streaming video.  The moment that happens there is no doubt they will start putting commercials on it the first chance they get.  Regional and national commercials will be a major part of there plans just like it is for the movie theaters now.  Companies like Screenvisions and Moviefax have made a killing off selling local advertising in movie theaters and I’d imagine they’re already trying to find a way to adapt their business model to streaming video.  Just like on the web sites now you could very well start seeing banner ads on your TV.  Some companies like G4 TV and the Home Shopping Channels have already experimented with this a little and it’s going to start coming up more frequently very soon.

Ultimately, it looks like Netflix has emerged as the Blockbuster for the net generation.  They’re solidly the number one place for streaming movies and old television shows and it’s only a matter of time before those other companies stop fighting them and start supporting them.  Remember that initially some people weren’t crazy about Blockbuster  either because they thought people would stop buying movies. Eventually though, it became apparent that  Blockbuster had a model that could be used to their advantage.  Once that happens, you can bet on plenty of big opportunities to get your brand to that audience.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/212637/when_comcast_bullies_netflix_the_internet_loses.html

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/12/02/netflix-is-ready-for-primetime-streaming/

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-netflix-subscribers-2010-12

Make it easy for people to learn about your product. Show them how it works. Don’t just tell them. Let them engage actively in the learning process and make it interesting. On the web especially, there are many ways to get people familiarized with the things you are offering them in more enjoyable ways than plain block text and a few static images. Resist including a lot explanatory copy when possible. Regardless of the amount of text needed to sell yourself, always make sure is high quality and relevant to the reader. Otherwise, as soon as it feels dull or pointless, they’ll be out of there and you’ve lost a conversion. Pretty graphics can be a step in the right direction, however they’re passive and therefore easy to gloss over.

People scan content on the web. But they’ll slow down and pay closer if there is content which actively engages them. Info-graphics, for example, begin to tell a story and give people more of a reason to begin participating. Video is another option, but make sure to offer people controls on the video player. If people have a certain amount of control over their experience it is less likely it will turn out poorly.

Product education doesn’t have to be visual necessarily, as long at it’s engaging. Some web sites include live chat with sales representatives. This involves just text, but it 100 times more dynamic than an old fashioned paragraph just sitting there for people to read. Personally I feel that offering more options for getting your message out rather than less is a good thing. The key word being ‘options.’ People like choice. The experience with your brand can go sour quickly as soon as you start forcing yourself on them.

These lessons should be common sense, but they bear repeating from time to time. All to often web pages are launched to show off a product or service and the user experience (UX) is absolutely terrible. Many times you get the feeling that Marketing, Sales, and Business teams had a heavy hand in the process and ‘design’ by committee was what resulted. This inevitably produces something that’s really good at satisfying internal company requirements and rarely pays attention to the details that make the message communicate effectively. Even if you don’t employ a UX Designer on your staff it is still critical to to remain user-centric when planning how to convert those people who become aware of your product into ones that believe in and chose to integrate it into their lives.

In 1996 Marvel Comics was closer to losing its shirt than Bruce Banner was right before turning into The Incredible Hulk.  They managed to limp through a bankruptcy and the entire comic book industry had a rebirth right after the new millennium do mainly to the rise of Borders and Barnes and Noble carrying graphic novels and some pretty big summer blockbusters.

However that bubble is bursting rapidly, sales of single issues are down steadily year to date from a 2005 industry high. Relatively speaking, piracy is hitting them as hard as it is in the music and movie industry.  Piracy figures have hit over a million downloads per issue while some of those very same issues struggle to reach 6 figure sales.  It looks like the industry has been stuck in a financial bubble for the last few decades that inflates over 5-6 years that may be doomed to burst. Leaving dozens of closed comic book stores and unemployed artists in its wake.  So the question is, in a world in the midst of a media revolution, what can they do to take advantage of things and stabilize their market?

The biggest drain on the comic industry at this moment is piracy, like I said pirated comics are beating sold editions at over 10 to one and that’s just the estimates they can count.  The good news is the bulk of that base is convertible to regular paying customers.  Right now they’re facing a crisis similar to what the record industry faced during the Napster days.  Record execs bemoaned Napster as the end of their industry.  But in the end, the bulk of the base using illegal file sharing is now on ITunes paying for music and the comic industry pirates have the same potential.  But the longer they stand by and let it happen the harder it will be to reach them.  The music industry acted quickly after suing their fans but that’s another issue. The major record labels put all their support behind one company and one monetizing force, ITunes.

The comic industry needs to do the same thing.  The 2 major companies, Marvel and DC, have launched there own IPad aps for digital comics with a few old issues and some day and date experiments.  Some aps like LongBox have gotten licenses from some smaller companies too but it really feels like they are still getting their feet wet.  What, the music industry knew and what Marvel and DC need to do is put all their support in one digital comics hub.

Ultimately consumers, even ones downloading illegally, take the path of least resistance.  If all the major record labels each had their own file sharing site or each movie studio offered there own streaming site instead of putting their support behind Netflix they’d be loosing a lot more money to piracy.  Right now you can download all your comics in the same place using illegal downloading but there isn’t a single place to get downloadable comics at a reasonable price point.  If the comic publishers offer everything in one convenient place it will go a long way in stopping piracy and converting those readers to paying customers and stabilizing there market.

The reasonable price point aspect is a key and is one of the reasons comics have such a fluxuating readership market.  I understand that the cost of production is growing and all but at 3.99 for 30 pages they’re pricing out kids and families.  For the price of 3 issues you can buy a DVD at Wal-Mart or a cheap video game.  There’s just no way they can stay competitive at that price point.

They’re in the same boat right now as the movie theaters, at a certain point as a niche market property you decide whether you’re going to try and bring in new blood or gouge your core audience.  The movie theaters have decided to do the latter and it’s costing them an entire generation of movie goers.  The major comic publishers are on the same slope because of there unrealistic price point and stories that play to an older and nostalgic audience instead of moving things forward.  They’re failing to take advantage of the large amount of people who are easily convertible to regular customers.

That’s the good news; they do have a huge base to convert to regular readers.  If you don’t think kids are reading more now then they ever have go take a look at borders and see which section is biggest. (Spoiler:  it’s young adult fiction) They have a large section of readers reading about the latest vampires wizards, zombies and everything else that’s just a stone’s through away from the stuff companies like Marvel, Dc and Top Cow are publishing.  They’ve got a huge amount of readers out there that are passing them by because there is product inaccessible to the average reader and playing to an aging and nostalgic audience who is going to buy there product regardless.  Ultimately, whichever way they get it it’s clear that new blood is key to stabilizing their fluxuating market.

Ultimately, what you can learn from this is that niche product market isn’t just about the audience you have but the potential customers that are out there.  Finding a way to convert new customers is key and it can come from some unexpected ways and being a smart consumer who keeps up on trends is the best way to stay afloat when trying to sell a niche product like comics.

thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/129741-the-qrealq-victims-of-online-piracy
comicsalliance.com/2010/11/17/state-of-comic-book-solicitations-nate-cosby/
comicsalliance.com/2010/10/07/marvel-and-dc-299-399/

If Apple learned a lesson from anyone it was McDonald’s. McDonald’s knew the value of filling a niche and building on that. If they’d come right out of the gate 60 years ago with coffee, ice cream, chicken, and hamburgers they’d be nowhere now. They understood the value of niche marketing and built up their audience by makings themselves the number 1 hamburger supplier in the country (and then…The World!)  Once they established that they branched out. Kentucky Fried Chicken established itself as the place to get a fried chicken dinner for the entire family long before they changed their name to KFC and tried to be your fast-food hook up.

When the IPod first showed up it was all about music, not podcasts, eBooks, or videos. They put everything into establishing that if you wanted the latest music and the latest music player you needed to have an IPod. They established that and then branched out to podcasts and such. They’re so integrated into the culture now that one of the first things I heard my 2 year old nephew ask for was his IPod. They didn’t become the biggest multimedia company in the country all at once.  hey did it by building a niche audience and expanding to different niche markets till they dominated them all and then they put it all together in the IPhone once they were ready.

When they released the IPad a lot of the critics were hard on it. They didn’t like the fact that it didn’t have a camera, couldn’t support Flash Sites and they referred to it as “A Big IPhone.”  What they didn’t know (and what Apple did) was that that’s exactly what their audience wanted. They were introducing new technology and if they included all the bells and whistles they could fit on it they couldn’t market it to the niche audience that wanted to just surf the net in the easiest and most portable way possible. If they had said all that and that it was a camera and a video game system and a portable DVD player and everything else they might keep the super tech savvy but they’d lose everyone else.

The bottom line is of course Apple could have loaded everything into the IPad at the word go they just knew it was better business in the long run not to because they’ve studied their own history. Two businesses that are in the process of expanding are Potbelly sandwich and Five Guys Burgers. It’s not a coincidence that both companies are using the same business model of offering a basic menu and promoting it that way. McDonalds and Apple have become the blueprints for most other companies who want to expand on a national level.  When I talk about being a smart consumer I mean looking at things like the history of a company and where it’s going in the next few years and noticing patterns like that.

iPods: Branding and identity defined

iPad owners more likely to sever TV ties, says survey

The brand new Milk / All American Games / High School Sports National Cheer Contest is live! Teams from high schools all over the country can upload videos of their best routines and win a trip to San Antonio, TX and work the sidelines of next year’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl! The game will be televised on NBC, on January 8th, 2011 so don’t miss it. We’d like to thank everyone who made this contest hum just in time for cheer squads all around the country to participate! Thanks, TM, CS, CW, RN, SM, GV, TT, SR, TB and FG at All American Games.

Anyone who has read my other articles knows I am a big follower of Geekweek.com’s Jeff Katz. “I’ve done more networking through my X-Box than anything else recently,” Katz said.  He’s not the only one who has seen the value of using Video Game systems for networking purposes.  Of all the video game systems out there Microsoft is making the X-Box into a hub for you to keep in touch with your friends and co-workers. The ESPN deal that launches later this year allows you to share content and talk about the latest games and news through the game system. You’d be amazed at what holding a Madden 11 tournament for your clients and co-workers can do for business. X-Box makes it easy.

Playstation hasn’t exactly caught up the idea of networking through your video game system but they’re still miles ahead of the Wii.  Nintendo’s system was on the cutting edge of the new generation until internet streaming and telecommunications came to video games.  While Sony focused on Blu-Ray compatibility and flaunted their deals with YouTube and Netflix, Microsoft was building their machine into something that skips over that entire transitory media. If you don’t believe Blu-Ray is a transitory media go take a look at what’s left of Best Buy and Wal-Mart’s movie selections.

I’ve used my video game system to network on more than one occasion. I’ve talked business with people all over the country using a game of UFC Fighters. It’s odd when you first hear someone say, “Can you meet me in a game of halo.” But once you get in there and talk to people as you’re shooting away at aliens, it’s amazing at how much you get to know someone. I do advertising for a non-profit charity, and one recent project involved getting people to post their gamer tags (names they use when they do online gaming.) It’s a great way to get your followers connected and then hopefully they come to your message board to talk about the next game or post to others about when they can join.  It’s great for fan interaction on your website. I even know someone who sold a novel to someone they met in an online gaming session. LinkedIn has groups that regularly post gamers tags in an effort to get like-minded individuals together.

Pushing forward, it looks like video games are going to grow more and more as a networking tool. Playstation, Microsoft, and Nintendo are pushing the online gaming aspect. You can use it to get your Facebook followers together doing an activity or use it to interact and get to know your co-workers or others in your industry. After all, you never know who’s a gamer until you ask.

Kinect-Blitz-May-Aid-Windows-Phone-7
Does_Going_Transmedia_Help_Game_Properties
MS Pours $500 Million Into Kinect Marketing

Fall is in the air and department stores are already scrambling to get their Christmas displays up. It’s time to start holiday shopping and that means stores are looking for new ways to get their customer’s Christmas dollars. Hopefully you’ve been cultivating your Facebook and Twitter presence all year so that now it can really pay off. The average retail store makes 40% of their yearly sales between October and December and more and more people are looking at stores and products on social media sites. There are a few steps you can take to make sure you get a piece of that action.

There’s a good reason why the major retail stores have started unloading their Christmas displays earlier in the last few years. They know that an early start means they have more time to get followers. Getting the word out about your upcoming deals early gives you time to let the word of mouth grow and that’s the goal of having a social media presence in the first place. If you give it a solid month and a half (Which would be starting right about now) that means that when the times comes for the big holiday sales you have people already waiting for you. It’s like having a head start in a marathon.

Another great way to use Facebook is to post products and product reviews. A former Creative Director of mine said “If you have a well known brand on your side, talk it up. If you have a quality product on your side, talk it up. And if neither are on your side just use a cute animal in your advertising.”  With Facebook you can talk about what name brands you have and show off your products that have gotten great reviews. You can even post those along with an inventory counter to show people how many widgets and whats-its you have left. In a season where people are looking for the best deals and the hot, hip, products giving them information is the best way to create new and loyal followers.

So you’ve gotten started early and developed a pretty good buzz about your big Black Friday Sale. You have a line of customers camped out at 5:00 A.M waiting to get a good price on the newest gizmo and gadget. You have your most dedicated customer base standing in front of your store. This is a perfect opportunity to get out the video camera for a few minutes and make a YouTube video. Get some reactions from people waiting outside. Video tape a little of the madness and post it as an example of exactly what people are missing. A little Peer Pressure is fine. Link it to your Facebook so people who didn’t come out can see what they missed. This is a great way to create urgency in your sales.

Creating the urgency is part of retail 101. If you can get people feeling your sale is a can’t miss event you are solid gold. In addition to a YouTube video, a great way to tell your customers what they’re missing (and hopefully get a few of them to run over) is to live blog your sale on Twitter. Live Blogging is just a fancy word for tweeting about an event currently in progress every few minutes. Dan White and the UFC have used it to bolster their online presence and it could work great for someone who wants to get the word out about a great sale while it’s happening. Tell people what they’re missing and they might drop everything and come on by and they’ll definitely pay attention next time. Also see last week’s article on Flash Sales for more things to do with your Twitter this season.

Ultimately even the major retailers are seeing the value in using social media during the holiday season. Old Navy and their mannequin mascots are tweeting sales up to the minute ( twitter.com/Oldnavy and twitter.com/SUPERMODELQUIN respectively)  It really just takes a few minutes a day and the sky’s the limit on what you can do this season.

Kmart’s CMO is Dreaming of a Social Media Christmas
Facebook and Twitter to Dominate Christmas Marketing Campaigns

Microsoft and Xbox have been towing the streaming video line since the release of the 360.  While Sony was bragging about their Playstation’s Blue Ray compatibility Microsoft was looking ahead to when people would stream everything from movies and TV shows to Sports.  There deal with ESPN where they get live streaming sporting events and news updates and let people chat while watching TV goes into effect later this year and will be a good test to see if people support live streaming as an alternative to cable.  Microsoft is definitely betting that this will balloon big in the coming years as they’ve already made deals with HULU, Netflix, and YouTube.  If history has shown anything it’s that Microsoft is a good company to bet on when it comes to new technology.

Another company that is banking on people choosing live streaming over cable is Google.  Google is taking the plunge in a big way.  Rumor has it they are working on creating the first TV built specifically for web streaming later this year.  They are offering more than just web applications for surfing certain parts of certain sites.  They want you to actively search the net and find entertainment content right on your TV.  The question is, are people ready?  Google thinks so and they’re banking on the fact that people want to make this change now.  They need to be careful or they might push to hard and find that people aren’t ready for the drastic change.  Is this a case of too much too soon?  Or are they making a giant leap forward that’s going to make them the new leader of television providers, leaving Comcast is the dust?

Even if Google’s new streaming service doesn’t catch on right away their are sure to be lasting repercussions for the television business.  HBO is one of the major television players that has lost a lot of its audience in the last year.  A system were they can be used as an app or be part of a pay per episode program would benefit them along with all the other struggling networks who are looking for a way to recapture viewers  and change their business model in the wake of DVRs and live streaming.

Over the summer I heard a lot from friends that got rid of their cable TV and just used the internet and Playstation Aps.  I decided to give it a try.  I used Hulu when I wanted to catch up on my scripted shows.  I used Netflix when I wanted to watch a movie and a web browser when I wanted news and sports.  It took a few days to really figure out how to navigate and like anything on the internet, sometimes things just don’t work.  (As I tell my parents when they complain about their internet connection, when you’re sending that much information through the air you’re bound to get some trouble)  Clearly there are some bugs to be worked out before this becomes a widespread trend.  The one thing I found myself missing the most was channel surfing.  I spend most of my TV watching time flipping through channels watching snippets of a few different shows.  There really is no way to recreate that via the internet and it makes it harder for new shows to be discovered.

What does this mean for your advertising dollars?  If it turns out like Microsoft, AOL, and Google think it will, then within 5 years everything will be connected to the internet and cable TV will be a thing of the past.  The good news from this is that all the advertisers worried about DVR and Tivo won’t have to worry much longer.  Internet streaming already has advertisements at the beginning, middle and end of shows as well as on the homepages so TV advertising isn’t nearly as much of a dying medium as once thought.

bleacherreport.com/articles/477514-espn-on-xbox-live-one-mans-adventure-into-the-future
www.cultofmac.com/appletv-vs-google-tv-an-in-depth-comparison/61858
www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/201010068141/time-warner-ceo-google-tv-an-ally.html
crosscut.com/2010/10/06/technology/20189/Rise-up,-couch-potatoes!-Apple,-Google,-and-others-launch-a-TV-war/
www.bnet.com/blog/business-decision/cutting-out-cable/360