Facebook Surpasses Google Search as Most Visited Web Site

Facebook's new lead over Google search points to the undeniable influence of social networking. Here are some tips for VARs who are looking to leverage this powerful new tool for B2B marketing.

According to online trends and analysis web site HitWise, Facebook surpassed Google Search as the most visited site on the web last week. Google Search accounted for 7.03 percent of US Internet visits last week, compared to 7.07 percent for Facebook.

What does that mean for VARs? It means that there’s no ignoring it—social media is not going away, and resellers need to figure out how to maximize and market through the medium to lure new customers and maintain the relationships they have.  

To decipher the complex landscape of social media, businesses are flocking to Facebook, and setting up Twitter accounts, but, without much of an idea what and how social media should be used to drive business. A new whitepaper from email marketing firm ExactTarget attempts to shed some light on how businesses can establish and execute a revenue-generating social media strategy.

Jeff Rohrs, vice president of marketing for ExactTarget provides four essential tips to successful social media marketing for companies who want to "get serious about social media."

1. Talk about the Passion
Rohrs says businesses need to identify the “passionate voices within the organization,” to help spread the word and share their intense beliefs in a businesses’ products and services through the social media medium. Rohr says the optimal passionate voices are not always found in-house, and businesses should look externally, if in doubt.

Social Media “experts” are not that hard to find—unless, they are good. Boutique agencies with on-staff social media “experts” are popping up everywhere, but beware of people who claim to know because the Folks Who Know say there is a steep learning curve to marketing effectively through the social media medium. The good news? There are some honest and true consultants who really get it and can positively impact the bottom line. Do the necessary research and homework before contracting.

2. Empower Speech
Rohrs says once a business identifies the people with the passion, legal teams and C-Suites need to let the information flow freely. He encourages businesses to consult with their legal departments or outside counsel to draft a social media policy that encourages responsible participation that has an impact within the social media medium, but without constricting the flow of information which can sabotage the entire strategy.

3. Social Media Task Force
Bringing together passionate voices and managers from all over the organization will help merge perspectives and keep a finger on the pulse of the success of a business’s social media. Rohrs suggests forming cross-functional social media team that meet regularly to develop, measure and continuously evaluate how the company should engage through existing and new social channels.

4. Tapping the Right Tech Tools
New technologies are being created daily to help monitor and measure social media use.  Rohrs indicates effective social media should be integrated into an overall online marketing strategy that taps tech tools and techniques like email marketing and tweeting solutions that engage customers and prospects across multiple mediums, but stops short of over-communication, or as Rohrs says, “killing consumers with kindness

The Impact of Social Media Marketing

In today's fast moving digital environments, it seems that the management in many companies still do not believe in the power of the Internet and in particular the changes in marketing and customer relations that have happened as a result of web 2.0 and the advent of social media Marketing. "Social media Marketing is emerging as one of the most important, if not the most important source of information for the consumer." With over 120,000 blogs written daily and thousands of online forums where customers are openly discussing their satisfaction and dissatisfaction with products and services, we still see company management hiding their heads in the sand and not engaging in conversations with their customers.

New Media Technology

New media technology is the way that we can expect to interact with visual imagery, audible stimulation and even feeling-based sensitive feedback.

 
Learning how the markets and content creators can best harness these new technologies is key to making the experience that new media technology can provide.

 
New technology in media has greatly improved the way that consumers can take in the information that they seek. Journalists have specifically taken advantage of this new movement and have learned to harness the power of delivery that it can have.

 
Multimedia reporting is a new form of combining visual imagery and audio to produce what is considered new media. Newspaper photojournalist have been a major part of these advancements and many of the websites that the newspapers host have new media reports available for subscribers and the general public.


All in all, new media technology makes the delivery of critical information much easier and more effective then we could accomplish with more tradition technologies.

History of PR

The precursors to public relations can be found in the publicists who specialized in promoting circuses, theatrical performances, and other public spectacles. Many PR practitioners have also been recruited from the ranks of journalism and have used their understanding of the news media to ensure that their clients receive favorable media coverage.

The First World War also helped stimulate the development of public relations as a profession. Many of the first PR professionals, including Ivy Lee, Edward Bernays, and Carl Byoir, got their start with the Committee for Public Information (also known as the Creel Committee), which organized publicity on behalf of U.S. objectives during World War I. Some historians regard Ivy Lee as the first real practitioner of public relations, but Edward Bernays is generally regarded today as the profession's founder.

Ivy Lee, who has been credited with developing the modern news release (also called a "press release"), espoused a philosophy consistent with what has sometimes been called the "two-way street" approach to public relations, in which PR consists of helping clients listen as well as communicate messages to their publics. In the words of the PRSA, "Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other." In practice, however, Lee often engaged in one-way propagandizing on behalf of clients despised by the public, including robber baron John D. Rockefeller. His career ended in scandal, when the US Congress held hearings to investigate his work on behalf of Nazi Germany in the years immediately preceding World War II.
Bernays was the profession's first theorist. A nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays drew many of his ideas from Freud's theories about the irrational, unconscious motives that shape human behavior. Bernays authored several books, including Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Propaganda (1928), and The Engineering of Consent (1947). Bernays saw public relations as an "applied social science" that uses insights from psychology, sociology, and other disciplines to scientifically manage and manipulate the thinking and behavior of an irrational and "herdlike" public. "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society," he wrote in Propaganda. "Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."

One of Bernays' early clients was the tobacco industry. In 1929, he orchestrated a legendary publicity stunt aimed at persuading women to take up cigarette smoking, which was then considered unfeminine and inappropriate for women with any social standing. To counter this image, Bernays arranged for New York City debutantes to march in that year's Easter Day Parade, defiantly smoking cigarettes as a statement of rebellion against the norms of a male-dominated society. Photographs of what Bernays dubbed the "Torches of Liberty Brigade" were sent to newspapers, convincing many women to equate smoking with women's rights. Some women went so far as to demand membership in all-male smoking clubs, a highly controversial act at the time.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SKILLS

Public relations is all about cocktail parties, fashion shows and lunching with ‘the press’, right?

Wrong!  Yes there is a social element to job,  but don’t underestimate the talents and skills required to be successful as a public relations professional.  First of all there are the hard skills that are fundamental.

First among these is the ability to write.

You must also:

• be a skilled researcher
• have excellent computer skills including Internet applications
• understand technical requirements and production processes, (print, broadcast and online).
• have an excellent knowledge of publishing industry and the media

Other priority hard skills include:

• photography/videography
• sound engineering/audio production
• website design/development skills
• graphic design/illustration

Softer skills are also crucial for a successful career in public relations.  These include:

• the ability to work under deadline pressure
• presentation skills
• interpersonal communication/people skills
• innate creativity
• stamina (long hours are the norm)
• organisational skills
• ability to work in a team

PR is not all parties and gala lunches; that’s for sure. But it’s a rewarding career that delivers great job satisfaction.  No two days are ever alike and you get to go places and meet people that you’d never thought you would.  Early in your career the pay can be quite low compared to other professions, but as your skills and experience develop the sky is the limit for earning potential.