Archive for the ‘social media’ Category

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Small Box Austin – Now Open for Business

Posted by pj on May 9th, 2010

Small Box is pleased to announce that our new office in Austin Texas is now open for business. Since 2006 Small Box has been providing custom web solutions for businesses and non profit organizations in Indianapolis.

Now Small Box is taking the same great design and technology to a new level. Austin Texas is different from anywhere else. There is a big focus on Social Networking. There are many entrepreneurs and business startups looking for venture capital.

Our goal is to be a one stop shop for anyone looking to have a great looking site on the first page of the search engines. Call PJ Christie at 512-850-4819.

Follow our special Twitter feed @smallboxaustin for local insights including SXSW.

Posted in austin, content management systems, internet marketing, search engine optimization, seo, smallbox, social media, web design, web development | No Comments »

The Demographics of Social Media

Posted by ed on April 30th, 2010
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.

Posted in marketing, online communities, smo, social media, social networks | No Comments »

Report from SXSWi- Days 1&2

Posted by jeb on March 13th, 2010

PJ and I are down in Austin for the annual SXSW Interactive conference. I’m taking a break from the insanity to charge up my phone, post this blog and get cleaned up before heading out again.

This place is nuts. I’ve never seen some many people walking around looking at their phones. Mostly iPhones. That seems to be the overwhelming flavor of choice. Apple in general is the default for this group. I’m just as guilty as the rest. So I’ve had to run back for quick re-charges a few times in the 30 odd hours I’ve been here so far.

Only 30 hours, hard to believe, and I’ve been asleep for about 6 of those. I was warned to rest up before coming. I could have done better.

Some random highlights:

Seeing Jason Fried of 37 Signals speak and sorta read from his new book “Rework” which I read on the flight done.

Hang out with my buddy Burr Settles who is presenting here on his FAWM.org project. He is also working at Carnegie Mellon on a fascinating project involving scrapping the web for contextual/localized content. They have a Google Grant to help with funding. Smart dude.

Meeting a woman who was sent by the Chickasaw Nation to learn about how they can use Social Media to connect their people.

Going to an awesome throwdown/party at The Boiling Pot put on by our friends at Kristian Andersen Associates (thanks Kristian!)

Attending numerous panels/speakers/workshops that built/expanded/challenged/educated me in many ways I could never cover now but did via my Twitter posts.  (I was disappointed that all the CMS talk at events is around Drupal with no attention to proprietary or even Microsoft solutions.)

To follow my travels and thoughts please follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/jebbanner

more soon!

Posted in social media, technology, twitter | 1 Comment »

Fanvertising or To Fanvertise

Posted by jeb on March 4th, 2010

I was hanging out on Musicalfamilytree.com, a Small Box project focused on archiving Indiana music and conversations about it, and one of the members, Kevin D. McCollough, used a term I hadn’t heard before- “Fanvertise”. He asked if it was ok to “fanvertise” on the site and then linked to something he liked. Sure, I said, and hey, that’s a really cool word! I did some searching and it appears that it has been used a few times but not much. Right now if you Google fanvertise the post from Musical Family Tree shows up near the top of page one and the comment was just left yesterday. That means it’s not in widespread use in my experience.

So I wrote up a quick definition of Fanvertise and posted it to my Twitter account. Here it is as well:

Fanvertise- when a person or “fan” promotes third party goods or services without direct compensation.

I would consider it a sub-category of Viral Marketing but mostly I just like the word better. Viral has a nasty, sickish sound to it, right? Fanvertise sounds fun and captures what people are really doing.

So how do you get Fanvertising? It is obviously much more desirable than traditional advertising since it’s free and the other is, uh, not. It’s also cheaper than traditional PR since PR agencies can be pricey too. Both advertising and PR are often needed and are usually effective if executed correctly but they don’t have nearly the ROI of real and mostly free (not counting your time) Fanvertising.

I see Fanvertising as a 3 step process:

Fanvertising Step #1. Be awesome at what you do, you cannot suck. You have to have the happiest customers on earth or at least in your industry. In being the best you will give your customers the emotional foundation for singing your praises via every channel at their disposal.

Customer service should be treated as a marketing expense not an afterthought. Happy customers will bring you more customers. This is true in the B2B and B2C worlds.

Instead of focusing on selling your product or service, focus on making your current customers happy. They will then do the selling for you. This is the core of Fanvertising. Don’t think about new customers until you have taken care of your current ones.

Fanvertising Step #2. Be an enabler. Give them the tools to tell their stories, not your story. Your story doesn’t matter that much on its own. It only has really impact when combined with a customer’s story- “I’ve spent years looking for a good carpet cleaning service and now I’ve found it in XYZ Company, check out their website, Facebook page, etc- here. Highly recommended!”. If you don’t have easy ways for your fans to Fanvertise your company then they will most likely move on and not get around to it. Make it super easy.

Fanvertising Step #3. Say “thank you”. Don’t ignore feedback, good or bad, acknowledge it, engage in a conversation if it’s bad, spread it around if it’s good. Remember what the Bible says- “Let others praise you”, just don’t forget to say “thanks!”.

In the brave new world of Social Media there are so many opportunities for Fanvertising. Make sure you are following these three steps and Fanvertising will start growing your business.

Posted in internet marketing, marketing, social media, twitter | 2 Comments »

The Power Of Facebook

Posted by jeb on January 11th, 2010


People talk a lot about the power of social media. Mostly it’s just talk, no real examples. Here’s one.

The Small Box offices are above Qdoba here in lovely Broad Ripple, Indianapolis. If you step out on our “deck” (aka the roof access we have at Small Box) you have a 25% of chance of being blasted by smoke from their grills. Ah….nothing like chicken grease in the morning!

Up to recently you were also likely to hear their questionable music mix softly blasting through the floorboards of our main room where I happen to sit with 3-4 other team members every weekday.

Everyday…the same songs by Tom Petty…3 Doors Down…Coldplay…The Fray….ugh. It was the bane of our existence. We mockingly sang along in falsettos and I even got a mix CD of Qdoba music for Christmas from Karl Hosttetler (very funny Karl).

(Crazy thing is we continued to routinely order from Qdoba. Hey, it’s good stuff! One visit would be to grab a burrito, another to complain about the noise. Maybe a good thing we can see them make our food!)

Keep in mind that Small Box happens to be run by a bunch of music nerds. People that pride themselves on thinking they know a thing or two about music and will probably tell you as much over drinks if you are ever so “lucky”. So this wasn’t just a pet peeve but a serious issue (at least in our snobby minds).

So, we tried to get them to turn down, repeatedly. We went down and talked to them, had the landlord call the owner, called them almost daily “I really do love Tom Petty but I just can’t hear American Girl another time…please turn it down!”. They said it was corporate policy, no dice, had to be this loud.

We even thought about moving and we really love the space. We love being in the middle of Broad Ripple. But the music was driving us crazy. People were working from home to avoid it. Something had to break.

Then it happened.

Jerry Hellmann, one of the guys that was enduring the daily onslaught of Celine Dion, posted a comment on Qdoba’s Central Indiana Facebook Page. Here’s what he posted:

“Qdoba! I have the absolute BEST Christmas gift you could give to your customers!! Please, PLEASE turn down or change that terrible VH1 classic, 10 song muzak playlist that is rumbling my floor! I work above your Broad Ripple office and I’m considering seeing a psychiatrist because of this. A man can only take so mu…ch of hootie’s “i only want to be with you” and the painfully horrible “Rockabye”…..last but not least……the office favorite…..Annie Lennox’s “no more i love you’s”. Please Qdoba, have mercy on us all. Turn down that horrible sound….our ears won’t stop bleeding. NO JOKE – Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” just started playing. GOD HELP US!!!!!!!!!!!“
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/QDOBA-Central-Indiana/189858001092?v=wall&ref=mf

The next day we had a representative from the Qdoba corporate office at our door. She was there to drop off a gift certificate for Jerry who was out at the time. PJ and I had her sit down and listen to the music wafting through the floors. We begged her, please! fix it!

…and they did. We can no longer here Qdoba’s finely tuned, demographically targeted music mix. We can actually sit quietly and think. They have put in new speakers that no longer broadcast into our room. We have been saved!

Thank you Jerry!
Thank you Facebook!
and yes, thank you Qdoba!

Posted in Everything Else, indianapolis, social media | 10 Comments »

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