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Engaging Consumers – Social Media Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs

Engaging Consumers – Social Media Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs

View more presentations from Andrea Vascellari.

This week I had the pleasure of being invited by Eric Schwartzman to present as a guest speaker at his Social Media Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs in Rome (Italy) during Social Media Week. I talked about how you can engage consumers (current and potential) in new ways using social media.

In my presentation I shared:

Two case studies + Take aways (Teymur Madjderey aka Icedsoul, and Exclusive Sicily)
Some Interesting books
Special tips for entrepreneurs on strategic use of Twitter, Facebook and Slideshare

Of course, a special thanks to Eric and a digital hug to all the interesting entrepreneurs that I met at the venue!

Andrea

Eric Schwartzman & Andrea Vascellari – Photo Credit: Leah D’Emilio

Communications Report for January 13th 2011 – AndreaVascellari.com

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Participation in Real-Time Social Media Increased 20% in 2010 – Blog writing declined by 4%, and forum participation decreased by 11%. Participation in real-time social networks and microblogs, however, both grew by 20%.
Momentfeed is Google Analytics for the Real World – With the proliferation of location based services, it would seem that there is a real opportunity to better understand how people go about their daily lives.
YouTube Reports 200m Mobile Daily Mobile Views, 2.0 App for Android – 75% of respondents say that mobile is their primary way of accessing YouTube.
HOW TO: Create a World-Class Online Community for Your Business – 9 steps businesses must take in order to make their online communities world-class.
Are We Too Obsessed With Facebook? [INFOGRAPHIC] – Some highlights about Facebook usage, 2010 trends, adoption numbers and a great deal more.
5 Predictions for Small Business in 2011 – Here are my five predictions about how small businesses will continue to adapt to changing technologies as we move into the new year.
Email, Social Media to See More Marketing Dollars in 2011 – Email and social media are the top tactics marketers worldwide expect to increase budgets on in 2011.
10 Online Tools for Better Attention & Focus – A handful of the best apps for fighting back against the constant distractions of our digital lives.
44% of Online Sharing Occurs Through Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC] – Impressively, 44% of shares occurred through Facebook in 2010, up 33% from last year. That number does not include shares done via Facebook’s “Like” button, which means the actual, universal percentage of shares through Facebook is likely higher.
5 ingredients of smart online commerce – Seth’s Blog – Few things they do that make them successful online.
Exploring the Twitterverse – With Twitter at the center of the stellar system, apps orbit at different rotations based on their design and functionality.
6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011 – Whether they choose to go big or small, the social web equips advertisers with significantly more consumer data points than ever before to improve the targeting and relevance of online advertising.
5 Predictions for Small Business in 2011 – Predictions about how small businesses will continue to adapt to changing technologies as we move into the new year.

Communications Report for December 6th 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Online Advertising Sucks – How often do you hear about a traditional mass media company shifting to a “digital first” strategy? Those companies may want to take a look at this…
How the Fortune 500 Use Social Media to Grow Sales and Revenue – The truth is, there are only five different ways the Fortune 500 use social media. Seriously — just five. And once you know what they are, you can figure out which ones would be most useful for your business.
College Students Admit To “Shocking” Text Messaging Habits in Class – According to data released from Nielsen this fall, that age group sends around 1,630 texts per month – roughly three texts per hour.
Research Examines What Motivates People to Comment Online – The study examined user activity specifically to try to gauge the influence of “emotional content” on users’ behavior. Using sentiment analysis, the researchers looked at content, separating “objective” and “subjective”, and then examined users’ responses
How 10 Year Olds Explain Cloud Computing – They explain cloud computing in a simple, clear way. They don’t see limits to the cloud. They see it as infinite, accessible anywhere, any time.
Intelligently silence Gmail conversations with “Smart Mute” – If you enable “Smart Mute” from the Labs tab in Gmail Settings, muted conversations will only appear in your inbox if a new message in the conversation is addressed to you and no one else, or a new email in the conversation adds you to the “To” or “Cc” line. Once you enable Smart Mute, mute behavior will change across all versions of Gmail: web, mobile, Android, etc.
Study: Two-Thirds of Marketers Integrate Social Media and Email Marketing – Just because social media may be a new addition to your marketing mix doesn’t mean email marketing should be eliminated. In fact, social media can help to enhance your email marketing efforts.
The State of Small Business Online Marketing Budgets [REPORT] – According to the survey, 54% of respondents indicated that their businesses currently have websites. Regarding website features, the vast majority (80%) of websites include general business information, while customer service (45%), lead generation (35%) and e-commerce (30%) features trail in at a distant second, third and fourth places. A mere 13% of businesses reported having a blog.
YouTube top search term in Japan for third year running – #trends A survey by Yahoo! Japan of the most used search terms in 2010 has shown that YouTube is still the most popular search term in Japan for the third year running.
How To: Build a private collaboration site on WordPress.com in 5 minutes – #productive & #smart
Introducing the PostRank Facebook Analytics App – This new Facebook analytics application, which will help publishers solve not one, but two problems at once…
Popularity does not equal influence on Twitter: Seeking influence – only one in 318 messages containing an internet address is “retweeted” the researchers found.
Social Media Case Study: Cold Stone Creamery – The payoff goes well beyond greater customer engagement; Cold Stone’s promotions add to the bottom line by moving people from their computers to physical stores.

Communications Report for December 6th 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Online Advertising Sucks – How often do you hear about a traditional mass media company shifting to a “digital first” strategy? Those companies may want to take a look at this…
How the Fortune 500 Use Social Media to Grow Sales and Revenue – The truth is, there are only five different ways the Fortune 500 use social media. Seriously — just five. And once you know what they are, you can figure out which ones would be most useful for your business.
College Students Admit To “Shocking” Text Messaging Habits in Class – According to data released from Nielsen this fall, that age group sends around 1,630 texts per month – roughly three texts per hour.
Research Examines What Motivates People to Comment Online – The study examined user activity specifically to try to gauge the influence of “emotional content” on users’ behavior. Using sentiment analysis, the researchers looked at content, separating “objective” and “subjective”, and then examined users’ responses
How 10 Year Olds Explain Cloud Computing – They explain cloud computing in a simple, clear way. They don’t see limits to the cloud. They see it as infinite, accessible anywhere, any time.
Intelligently silence Gmail conversations with “Smart Mute” – If you enable “Smart Mute” from the Labs tab in Gmail Settings, muted conversations will only appear in your inbox if a new message in the conversation is addressed to you and no one else, or a new email in the conversation adds you to the “To” or “Cc” line. Once you enable Smart Mute, mute behavior will change across all versions of Gmail: web, mobile, Android, etc.
Study: Two-Thirds of Marketers Integrate Social Media and Email Marketing – Just because social media may be a new addition to your marketing mix doesn’t mean email marketing should be eliminated. In fact, social media can help to enhance your email marketing efforts.
The State of Small Business Online Marketing Budgets [REPORT] – According to the survey, 54% of respondents indicated that their businesses currently have websites. Regarding website features, the vast majority (80%) of websites include general business information, while customer service (45%), lead generation (35%) and e-commerce (30%) features trail in at a distant second, third and fourth places. A mere 13% of businesses reported having a blog.
YouTube top search term in Japan for third year running – #trends A survey by Yahoo! Japan of the most used search terms in 2010 has shown that YouTube is still the most popular search term in Japan for the third year running.
How To: Build a private collaboration site on WordPress.com in 5 minutes – #productive & #smart
Introducing the PostRank Facebook Analytics App – This new Facebook analytics application, which will help publishers solve not one, but two problems at once…
Popularity does not equal influence on Twitter: Seeking influence – only one in 318 messages containing an internet address is “retweeted” the researchers found.
Social Media Case Study: Cold Stone Creamery – The payoff goes well beyond greater customer engagement; Cold Stone’s promotions add to the bottom line by moving people from their computers to physical stores.

[Communications Report] for November 10th 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Mobile Users Want Branded Apps that Are Useful, Not Just Marketing – The majority of respondents (57%) noted that apps should be well designed and 74% said that they want apps to be easy to use (leaving us to wonder if there are users out there who want apps that are badly designed and hard to use…). Even more importantly, though, 73% of those surveyed by Harris Interactive think that mobile apps should be easier to use than the brand’s website.
Get ready for TV voting apps, at least in the UK – Ofcom, the UK’s independent telecommunications regulator, has given the thumbs up to the development of mobile voting applications. Before this announcement, TV companies have traditionally set up specific text message short-codes or automated phone numbers that would automatically debit the cost of the vote from a users mobile tariff or land-line call plan.
17 tips for creating a great website tagline – Taglines may seem like a just a few words next to a logo, but they can really help define and differentiate your core brand message in seconds. A slogan can be the difference between grabbing a visitor’s attention or losing them to your competitor.
Adwords Is Dying and Google Knows It (and they are doing something about it) | Fast Company – The new key words will be geo and local.
Google’s Instant Preview May Just Shake Up Web Design Forever | Fast Company – Instant Preview will potentially allow Google to own more of our browsing experience. Instead of leaving Google in order to browse the web, you will be browsing the results, rather than the pages suggested in the search itself.
Qantas A380 incident: a lesson in social media and web PR – Emergency landing of a Qantas Airbus A380 at Changi Airport in Singapore was another example of how travel companies need to establish a solid social and web PR strategy.
How Real-Time Analytics Can Help Small Businesses Thrive – Small businesses can easily take advantage of these tools and benefit enormously from doing so.
YouTube Topics: A Better Way to Explore Web Video? – YouTube will begin testing a new feature Wednesday evening that gives users the ability to explore broad topics and search terms through suggested searches.
4 Creative Social Marketing Campaigns from Around the World – Social media marketing is a global phenomenon, but we don’t always get to see the innovative work that’s happening abroad.
Hasbro Plans 3D Goggles For Your iPhone – If you’ve ever wanted to view 3D content on your iPhone or iPod touch, Hasbro has you covered.
BBC News – Cameron hails ‘revolutionary’ Whitehall data website – David Cameron has launched a website where departments set out business plans and timetables to achieve them.
HOW TO: Become a YouTube Sensation – There are some easy tips…
History of Online Video – The last 5 years of online video history and the result is this awesome infographic.
3 Tips for Maximizing Engagement With Facebook Likes and Shares – “Like” and “Share” are some of the best tools around for driving referral traffic from social networks, opening new communication channels with customers and prospects, and building relationships with your best advocates.
Advertisers Demand Proof of Online Video’s Efficacy – Online video advertising is growing at a fast pace in the US. eMarketer forecasts a spending increase of 48.1% to over $1.5 billion this year, followed by a further boost of about 43% for the next two years.

[Communications Report] for July 29th 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Coca-Cola forced to pull Facebook promotion after porn references – The Coca-Cola company has pulled an internet promotion campaign, after parents accused it of targeting children by using references to a notorious pornographic movie.
Facebook introduces Questions – New Feature – Ask the Facebook community a question on any topic and get quality answers from people in the know.
HOW TO: Help Employees Talk About Your Brand Online – The question boils down to this: If a brand is supposed to give customers something to identify with and add meaning to their lives, shouldn’t helping employees express themselves as individuals help the brand as well?
Old Spice polishes its monocle smile all the way to a 107% sales increase. – According to Nielsen data provided by Old Spice, overall sales for Old Spice body-wash products are up 11 percent in the last 12 months; up 27 percent in the last six months; up 55 percent in the last three months; and in the last month, with two new TV spots and the online response videos, up a whopping 107 percent.
How Big Brands Take On Social Media – Nice video interview with Bruce Upbin and David Armano.
Convert Twitter lists to RSS feeds with one click – You can’t create more than 20 lists. There’s no function to combine lists, and managing list entries is only slightly less difficult than if you’d chiselled them into marble. Alex Kessinger created a simple web app called Twitter Lists 2 RSS. Copy the URL for any Twitter list, paste it into a field on the app, and with one click, you get an RSS feed.
Google Maps Gets a (Much-Needed) URL Shortener – The web addresses of Google Maps that you shared with your friends used to be unmanageably huge, but Google has just solved that problem with a new Labs feature that dramatically shortens Maps URLs.
Two Arrested In Venezuela For Tweeting Banking Rumors – According to Reuters, the authorities claim that the tweets were aimed at destabilizing the Venezuelan banking sector and that “a man was arrested in possession of a cellphone used to send the first illegal Tweet, and that detectives had also detained a woman and seized hard discs and computer equipment from her.”
Recorded Future – Temporal & Predictive Analytics Engine – Amazing research tool.
Prince: “The Internet Is Over” – Is Prince missing out on something by withdrawing himself from the web? Or could he be correct; is the Internet just a fad, after all?
Exclusive: Failwhale Over San Francisco! – LOL
Signs of Social Media | Friday Flickr Fix – This Flickr group is focused on how brands are promoting their social media presence. It includes consumer packaged goods flowing it into their packaging to signage and how it’s injected into the built environment by any brand with a physical location, including food, retail and banking.
The Future of Online Socializing – The social benefits of internet use will far outweigh the negatives over the next decade, according to experts.
Consumers engaged via social media are more likely to buy – An impressive 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of.
Twitter Users “More Likely To Get Job Interviews” – Apparently, Twitter users write better CVs and are more likely to be shortlisted for job interviews than the average jobhunter.

[Communications Report] for April 5th 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

The Collapse of Complex Business Models « Clay Shirky – Some video still has to be complex to be valuable, but the logic of the old media ecoystem, where video had to be complex simply to be video, is broken.
Report – Future of the Internet IV – In an online survey of 895 technology stakeholders’ and critics’ expectations of social, political and economic change by 2020.
Facebook Summarized In A Single Picture – The chart breaks down Facebook’s history as well as some of the most important facts and figures from the company. Included in the chart is information about the site’s user base as well as the impressive engagement levels that Facebook is able to maintain.
Study: Mobile internet traffic is set to grow 400% by 2015 – What does that mean? As smartphones become more commonplace, phone companies could start charging a lot more money to keep them up and running. But consumers may not go along willingly.

Twitter Starts Featuring Popular Tweets in Search Results – Twitter has turned on a new feature in search that lets user filter for what the microblogging service is calling “top results.” As opposed to strictly showing the most recent mentions of a given query, users now have an option to click a “top results” link that displays a few popular tweets on top of the page.
40 of the Most Useful Social Media and PR Blog Posts of Q1, 2010 (Jan – Mar) – Collection in the following categories: Tools, Social Networks, PR, Blogs / Blogging, Content, and General / Other.
3 New Studies Prove Social Media Marketing Growth – Marketers are taking note of many different social media opportunities and beginning to implement new social initiatives at a higher rate than ever before. Here are 3 new studies that show social media is still on the rise.
Americans Using TV and Internet Together 35% More Than A Year Ago | Nielsen Wire – In the last quarter of 2009, simultaneous use of the Internet while watching TV reached three and a half hours a month, up 35% from the previous quarter. Nearly 60% of TV viewers now use the Internet once a month while also watching TV.

[Communications Report] for March 4th 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Foursquare Sees Its Name in Lights in Vegas – An enormous digital display pulls checkin data via Fousquare’s API and displays the latest tips and to-dos, as well as the mall’s mayor, for all onlookers to see.
Special Report – Marketing to the Millennials – One of the most evident changes is social networking, which is embraced by 75 percent of the Millennials, compared with 50 percent of the Generation X members (ages 30 to 45) and just 30 percent of Baby Boomers (aged 46 to 64).
Getting the Most Out of Twitter, No Posting Necessary – A COMMON reason given by those who have yet to try Twitter: “I have nothing to say.”… well…
E-Commerce Sites Freshen Up to Grow Sales – Among those sites that will refresh their looks, better organization and updating of home, category and product pages are top priorities, followed by better search engine optimization.
The State of the Twittersphere 2010 – According to the report, Twitter’s user growth peaked at 13% in March 2009 falling to just 3.5% in October 2009. And while this is the most recent date for which HubSpot has access, it is revealing nonetheless.
Lady Gaga And The Death Of The Login – 9 out of 10 people creating special purpose web accounts are doing so using their social networking platforms.
How to Create a Successful Company Blog – Is it worth blogging, and if so, what they should blog about.
Facebook Drives 3X Traffic to Broadcast Than Google News – A key difference here might be that people are sharing news on Facebook that has an aspect of immediacy. When something big is happening in the world, some news is breaking, we might tend to look toward media outlets where we expect to find breaking news – broadcast media.
Study: 61% of small businesses accomplish identifying & attracting new customers via social media. – Social media usage increased to 24%, from 12% the year before.
Roadmap: Make your corporate websites relevant with social integration (via @jowyang) – Companies and orginizations are confused by the wide variety of choices that social networks offer to help them connect to their customers. Jeremiah created this menu to help them in understanding.
Social networking, phones grow as news sources – 26% of people are getting news through mobile devices.
10 Tips for Successful Twitter Fundraising – It takes more than posting multiple tweets a day to get the job done.
5 Simple Twitter Listening Tips Every Marketer Should Know – Good overview on the basic steps you need to get the best out of your Twitter searching and monitoring.
E-Book on building and sustaining brand communities – Radian6 – (direct PDF download).

[Report] for February 3rd 2010 – AndreaVascellari.com

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

Procter and Gamble embraces Facebook – When the world’s biggest marketing firm, Procter & Gamble, says it’s making a huge marketing move with a massive online presence, you really need to sit and up and pay close attention.
Major brands sceptical of social media – Just 22% of those surveyed said that social media forms a major part of their promotional strategies. Meanwhile, many marketers are confused about the role the channel should play in their company’s plans.
2010 Nonprofit Social Media Benchmarks Study – An analysis of growth and social engagement metrics for nonprofit organizations.
Context is King: How Videos Are Found And Consumed Online – An incredibly detailed post by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan.
Rethinking the Value of Social Media to Online Shopping – This research implies that the promise of Social Media for eRetailers should be carefully balanced by logistics and understanding of what customers actually want, otherwise mutual disappointment is sure to follow.
Active Business Blogs Draw 6.9 Times More Organic Search Traffic Than Non-Bloggers – Blogging, which is equivalent to content building, helps attract more site visitors. The rationale is similar: more blog articles mean more chances to create something that grabs readers’ attention and indirectly build up a company’s reputation.
Harvard on foursquare – Harvard is the first university to use foursquare to help students explore their campus and surrounding places of interest. “…this represents a smart use of FourSquare — which still has plenty of doubters — by an organization. I’m certain organizations of different natures will find a way to leverage the service to achieve their own business goals.”
Social Media Marketing: How Pepsi Got It Right – Social media marketing campaigns are proving to be goldmines rich with customer engagement and insight that companies wouldn’t likely have otherwise. Companies like PepsiCo are going to extensive lengths to foster this type of collaboration with fans, and the payoff has been big.
National Lady Gaga Day Draws 100,000+ on Facebook – How social networks can unleash community power. Still wondering if there’s any return on social media investment? Get your “social media embassies”, now.
Themeleon – Twitter Profile Designer – Nice tool to easily customize the way Twitter looks for you and how your profile looks to others.
Baby Boomers Get Connected with Social Media – Stats: 77% of millenials, 61% of gen X, 46% of Baby boomers maintain a social network profile.
Engagement on Social Networks Top Priority for Marketers – The “2010 Digital Marketing Outlook” report found that 81% of the brand executives surveyed expected an increase in digital projects in 2010, and one-half will be moving dollars from traditional to digital budgets. Further, more than three-quarters think the current economy will push more allocations to digital.
Ikea’s Easy to Assemble video series breaks new ground in branded entertainment – “Easy to Assemble is a wacky online video series created and written by Illeana Douglas and sponsored by Ikea. According to Advertising Age, Easy to Assemble has racked in 5.1 million views since first going online last year and the numbers are still growing. Ikea had the vision to give Douglas the creative freedom to place entertainment ahead of marketing”.
Digital Marketing: Facebook Ads Not So Annoying – It turns out users find ads on social networks no more annoying than any other ads on the web.
Google – Search is getting more social – Google is pushing the feature to beta status and turning it on for all signed-in English Googlers. Google Social Search is a standard search results page add-on that displays socially relevant content from people in your online social circle, as determined by your Google Profile.
Content Curation: Why Is The Content Curator The Key Emerging Online Editorial Role Of The Future? – What is content curation and why is it so important for the future of web content publishers…the next emerging disruptive role in the content creation and distribution chain.
20 Most Important Social Media Buzzwords for 2010 – The most appropriate buzzwords to describe our curious stampede to the social media and mobile future.