Archive for April 2010

The Demographics of Social Media

Posted by ed
Apr
30
2010

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Filed Under: Marketing Social Media

Social Media Demographics Infographic

Social Media Demographics Infographic

Overview

This is a fantastic infographic from Flowtown discovered while updating our research on social media optimization. Two things that caught my eye was the age  of Facebook users. 1/3 of Facebook users are 35-54 yrs old?? So I decided to check some facts.

The Data

The data was taken from DoubleClick’s Ad Planner (now owned by google).  Digging a little deeper I found the following statement about the demographic data:

“Ad Planner demographics are generated through demographic inference algorithms that combine third-party demographic data with Google sample data. The third-party demographic data is licensed from an industry-accepted consumer research panel operated according to industry best practices by a full-service research firm.”source

Seems thorough enough for me.

Double Click Ad Planner

Facebook Stats From Double Click Ad Planner

Then I visited Facebook’s ad tool. Check out the “estimated reach” (of an ad) to 15-34 yr olds and 35-54 yr olds. They show nearly double the  younger users.

Facebook Ad Tool Ages 13-24

Ages 15-34

Facebook Ad Tool Ages 35-54

Ages 35-54

Bottom Line

It’s always important to understand the context. This data set useful for knowing where to advertise to users, which can inform social media marketing, but doesn’t necessarily tell you where to connect with users on a social level. And, in my opinion, advertising and connecting are two different things that are growing farther and farther apart.

Other Resources

There a great blog by Brett Borow titled 10 Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook.

For more scholarly information about social media/networks, check out Danah Boyd, a social media researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Keeping Your Website Fresh

Posted by Jeb
Apr
20
2010

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Filed Under: Everything Else

How do you keep a website fresh? There is nothing worse than coming to a site and seeing that it hasn’t been updated in months or even years. Here’s some thoughts that I wrote in response to a client request on the subject and as a demonstration of one of my recommendations I am re-purposing my email as this blog.

It is important to have someone assigned to updating the site but it should also be a task that is shared by the whole team. The days of a “webmaster” holding the only key to a site are over. Everyone in an organization should have some kind of access to update different areas of the site. In my experience if someone doesn’t enjoy updating a website then it doesn’t get done very often or well.

A modern website is updated on a weekly or even daily basis as things change and evolve. The challenge is quality control. That is why I would advocate for someone in the organization to be the principal Quality Assurance person for the site. They would receive notifications of new content added by others and be able to “scrub” that content to be consistent with the rest of the site. Fight clutter.

Also, it helps to assign specific content tasks with deadlines- i.e. “Tom please submit 5 blog ideas by Friday and Mary please turn these into posts by next Wednesday”. Have monthly or even weekly meetings to discuss what content needs to be created. This would include a monthly newsletter I would hope. Then make assignments and use project management software (like Basecamp by 37 Signals) to have some accountability. Once the habits are created the site, as well as your social media and email outlets, will have a constant flow of quality content. This will improve traffic and hopefully lead to new opportunities for the organization.

Also, find ways to re-purpose content. If you have a message thread internally that might have relevance for a larger audience assign someone to turn that thread into a blog.

Which is how this blog got written!

Value Swaps

Posted by Jeb
Apr
19
2010

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Filed Under: Marketing

value swap


A value swap is what occurs when a visitor to your website gives you their information for something they consider valuable. It’s not a monetary transaction but can lay that foundation. An example of a value swap would be giving visitors a white paper or some valuable information after they fill out a form with their contact information.

It’s a fine line to walk between giving site visitors enough information to convince them of your expertise while not giving away the farm. A value swap can help create some balance. On our site we have an SEO Score Card that we give away for free in exchange for visitors taking the time to tell us about their website, search keywords they want to target and some other information. These score cards take about an hour to make but they also serve as a valuable sales tool for us. After delivering the score card we are in an excellent position to recommend Small Box services to fix any problems the score card revealed.

Our client Antique Helper gives free antique appraisals in exchange for contact information and this creates auction consignments. Someone wanting to know what their antique Tiffany vase is worth might also be interested in selling it via auction when they find out it’s worth $3000!

Does your website have a value swap? Why not? I would guess every business has some piece of information they can swap. Figure out what that is and start swapping!

Embracing Constraints- from Music to the Web

Posted by Jeb
Apr
12
2010

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Filed Under: Design Development SmallBox

Tape Machine Reel To Reel

Music is a common bond for most Small Box employees. Most of us play at least one instrument and if not have strong opinions about those who do. We have an internal project, MusicalFamilyTree.com, that keeps us connected to our music roots. At one point or another some of us thought, foolishly!, that we might go pro with music. Instead we have funneled that energy into designing, building and marketing websites. I’ve found there are a number of crossover lessons with these two seemingly disparate disciplines.

I grew up recording on cassette 4 Tracks with very limited equipment. A 4 track was just that- 4 audio tracks to fit all of your guitars, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards etc on to. But I learned how to maximize that constraint, make the best of it. I would record to three tracks, bounce down to one, record to two, bounce to one, etc until I had a wonderful wall of lo-fi sound that came pretty close to the thing I heard in my head.

As I got older I had access to real studios and better gear including 8, 16 and even 24 track machines. These things are as big as washing machines. But you were still limited to how many tracks you had and tape was expensive ($100-200 for 30 minutes). You also had to be careful about wearing out the tape during recording and mixing. Each take and mix mattered. This forces you to focus and make choices.

When computer recording came along it offered a world with few constraints- no real limit of tracks, no tape to wear out, etc. But that doesn’t mean the albums are actually better. It used to be a band would record an album, mix, master and press it all within 30-60 days. Now it is usually 1-2 years. This while we live in a world where you can record a song in the morning and have it posted in MP3 format to a website for anyone to hear by the evening. Think of all the albums that were never recorded since the band was spending years tweaking something that was already finished- hello Axl Rose and “Chinese Democracy”.

The limitlessness realm we are approaching with technology is fun and exciting but let’s remember the technology itself is not an end, it’s a tool. As we adopt new devices, interfaces and functionality we have to ask- Does this actually improve the experience? Is it adding or removing value?

To the Web.

Since the Web has so few limits it’s difficult to artificially impose constraints but I am beginning to see that we have no choice. In order to deliver a website/app for a client on time/budget requires discipline from both parties. This is especially challenging when your medium is perhaps the least disciplined in the history of mediums! Anything goes with the Web, for better or worse.

The easiest/laziest thing to do when faced with multiple choices is to not make a choice, leave every door open as long as possible letting in all kinds of distracting ideas. The Web is a world of a million ideas and making decisions hurt, at first you feel like you are stepping on ants for no good reason. It’s easy to start second guessing- “maybe the original logo was better”, “maybe we should have added a blog”, “maybe we should have gone with green?”, “maybe we need to add ‘FAQ’ to the main navigation”, etc. These kinds of decisions, often ones that can be changed later if really needed, can drag a project down. They hurt morale and momentum. They stop the next album from ever getting into production.

So the web is limitless but time and money is not. This is a good thing! Endless resources are the root of all waste. Limited resources create discipline. For a project to be successful all stakeholders must agree on and embrace the existing constraints. This doesn’t have to mean a defined scope of work as much as an understanding of budget, timeline and goals. Scope will change. It’s just a guess anyway until you dig into the project. But just like recording you only have so much tape, so much time and lots of tracks to lay down. So let’s embrace constraints, see them as needed chalk lines and get the job done on time and on budget!

Related reading: “Rework” by 37 Signals (this book and my time in Austin for SXSWi greatly influenced this post).