I learned how to drive 36 million pageviews to web properties through social media platforms by employing three levels of adoption. The Social Trinity is the foundation of a social media policy that allows you to use communication tools on digital networks for the purpose of building your own community. Once you gain an understanding of the true value of each contact feature on a digital network, you can adapt the use of social platforms, formulate your social media strategy, and communicate with your target communities and to make them part of your own community.

The Social Trinity

1. Identify all points of exposure for your digital assets.
2. Identify all points of private contact.
3. Study popular sections and past successful campaigns launched on the digital network.

For instance on Twitter, a point of exposure can be an @reply, hashtag, comment on a wall, link to external website over which you have control. Points have exposure leave your footprint on an action performed on a social network. When you @reply a person your conversation exchange is viewed by everybody who follows you and that person and people who find your conversation through a search engine query. Naturally, the more you @reply people the more you are exposed to their followings. Similarly, on Digg when you vote for content, you leave a link pointing back to your profile; thus the the more you Digg the more exposure you receive to your digital asset on Digg – your profile.

Points of private contact will allow you to work out collaborative arrangements with other users of the platform. Peripherally, you should also learn how the culture on the digital network shapes the way private means of contact are used. I know of many people with large followings that typically ignore direct messages; an alternative way of contact would be to follow the link in a Twitter user’s profile to load up a person’s blog or other website that may have an email or other point of contact to which a person may pay more attention. Some people more frequently use the Facebook private messaging system.

Some platforms have popular sections such as the Digg front page and Twitter trending topics. You could study these popular submissions and adapt your submissions to cater to the community members’ interests. When popular entries are hard to find, google terms such as ‘twitter case study’ or ‘[social network]‘ + ‘case study’ or ‘[popular tactic]‘ like ‘contests, sweepstakes, viral campaigns.’ Once you learn of popular and successful campaigns you can try a similar campaign adapted to cater to your target community; you use your points of exposure and points of private contact to communicate with other people on the platform required to execute your campaign.

Neal Rodriguez discusses social media marketing tactics he has executed to meet his and his clients’ business objectives on nealrodriguez.com. Subscribe to Neal’s feed to stay abreast of his updates.

The portion of the interview below titled “Comcast CEO: Twitter Changed the Culture of Our Company” is a brief overview by Brian Roberts about Twitter.

Is it really making a difference for them? I would say, “Yes”.

(via Fora)

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Learn more about Social Media.

Several people have been contacting me over the past couple of weeks asking what I thought Twitter’s revenue model would be. It is, in theory, coming out later this month, so what is it going to be and will it work?

The answer to the first part of the question, “what is it going to be,” is beyond me, and I don’t care. I’ve speculated, discussed, and speculated some more for over a year now about how Twitter will make money, and while there really aren’t a ton of possibilities, it’s still futile to speculate.

The answer to the second part of the question, “will it work,” is easy for me to answer.

Yes.

How can I be so sure? You can say that some of it is dumb, blind faith. They’ve kept us in the dark for so long and despite the speculation have passed up on prime occasions to roll it out (SXSW would have been perfect, of course). Therefore, it MUST be so great that they don’t need the fanfare of “the right moments” to get it out on the road.

The other, more important aspect of my trust that it will work is geared around the money. They have received so much more than a purposeless site with no clear revenue direction (at least to the public) should receive that we almost have to assume they either have a tremendous plan ready to roll out based upon certain triggers (likely associated with traffic, spam, security, etc) in place or there are just a lot of rich people out there willing to blow their money to have a piece of something worthless.

I tend to believe in the former.

I could be wrong. We all are from time to time. Still, it would be one of the most disappointing things to me if their long-awaited money-making-model is anything short of “duh, of course.” Then again, Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson all those years ago and I wasn’t prepared for that either.

Here’s the interview @biz did this morning.

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Read more Twitter News on Soshable.

This is a guest post by Nate Bagley.

One of the biggest problems currently facing many major Social Media sites (aside from trolls) is monetization. They thrive on VC and Angel funding while trying to find a way to be cash flow positive without turning off scores of users with intrusive ads. The most obvious example of this is the Twitters.

Twitter has yet to turn a profit, because they are avoiding “selling out” by diluting the value of their amazing service with a bombardment of ads or making their service subscription based. The simplicity of the site, however, doesn’t allow for many other monetization opportunities.

Unfortunately the data generated by Twitter isn’t valuable enough to be sold. Twitter Search allows companies to obtain a real-time sampling of the sentiment surrounding their brand. They get a taste as to what people are saying, but the information is rarely measurable or actionable. Data that can’t be measured is virtually useless.

The value of Facebook, on the other hand, is not only the sheer number of pre-pubescent digital farmers, mobsters and vampires using the site, but the amount of data they make freely accessible to advertisers. Facebook’s Ad Platform allows advertisers to target incredibly specific demographics, narrowing them down by age, location, gender, political affiliation, religion, relationships status and even entertainment preferences. They have taken hypertargeting to a whole new level, and have done so without infecting their website with an overabundance of crappy ads.

Location based sites like Foursquare and Gowalla are pushing the envelope of innovation and breaking new ground yet again. If they play their cards right, they can avoid the awkward financial walk of shame experienced by Twitter by offering an incredibly unique data set to their clients.

Foursquare is already pouncing on this opportunity by offering an analytics service to clients. Foursquare’s analytics platform includes information regarding where customers are coming from, peak hours of business, and the gender and frequency of returning customers.

In my opinion, Foursquare’s vision will have an industry-changing impact when they take their analytics service to the next level by implementing a survey feedback tool. Customer feedback surveys allow businesses to get detailed, real time information regarding quality and speed of service, cleanliness, friendliness of staff, etc.

Rewarding customers with a popsicle or a Dr. Pepper for helping improve the systems and service of their favorite establishments with real-time, relevant data helps build relationships, form a community and is essentially the future of social media. (You’d be surprised what some of us would do for a free Dr. Pepper.)

The Customer Feedback Managment Industry is a very fragmented, multi-billion dollar market. These location based sites are the future of the industry, and most people don’t have the foresight to see it. Before you know it, Social Media is going to dramatically shift hundreds of industries once again, and those who aren’t prepared are going to get left behind.

The fact of the matter is that Social Media is still in its youth. We are still learning how to measure its influence and impact. As the Social Media world evolves, and companies like Foursquare develop tools that provide real value, Social Media will become mainstream and essential to a business’ long term success.

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Nate Bagley is a Communications Major at Utah Valley University, and will be graduating April 2010. He has over 3 years of experience in SEO, PPC and Social Media marketing.

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Read more social media strategy on this social media blog.

It has been widely reported that Twitter will soon be unveiling a monetization solution.

Speculation has been rampant with several blogs making predictions on what they think the solution will consist of.

Twitter certainly has many ways to go about revenue generation. At the end of 2009 – Twitter inked deals with Google and Bing to syndicate their Tweets to those respective engines. It was reported that Twitter was paid a bounty for this data. And, more recently, Yahoo inked a deal to publish Tweets on their network of websites. While these deals can bake in a revenue stream for Twitter – it most certainly isn’t the end goal.

According to Alexa, Twitter is the 12th most visited site on the internet. This traffic comes primarily from three different functions. The first, would be users that go to Twitter to post status updates. The second, would be from users that go to Twitter to read updates from the people that they are following. The third, is people that go to Twitter to use the search engine – as a way to see what people are saying right now about a certain subject.

Twitter won’t be looking to generate revenue off of the first group, because those are people whom are trying to communicate on Twitter. The second group, could easily be monetized, as an ad unit could show up within a users friends timeline. This would be a challenging solution because it is difficult to target an ad to a user whom is simply reading updates from all of the people they are following. Plus, a continued problem on Twitter is that there is a lot of noise posted by followers, so if ads were also added into the friends timeline, less people would go there to read what their followers are saying. So, the Twitter search traffic is the most likely place Twitter will go for monetization.

The renaissance of the web happened around 2002 due to the success of search advertising. Companies such as Overture, which was later acquired by Yahoo, had proven to web advertisers that search traffic converts. This was the business model that Google would deploy to monetize their ever popular search engine. So, with distribution in place on sites such as Google and Yahoo – and advertisers moving more and more online marketing dollars into the search marketplace – a successful web business economy was produced.

I think Twitter will go down a similar path. People who perform a search at Twitter can easily be targeted, and this is traffic that advertisers will want. Plus, by displaying ads in its search results, Twitter won’t disrupt its core functionality of Tweeting and reading Tweets from followers. Getting advertisers won’t be difficult, but it could take time, so Twitter could potentially publish another search engines advertisers (such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing) at the get go as a way to start generating income from day one. Then, over time, Twitter could sign up its own advertisers directly to publish into their search results. Another option would be for Twitter to go the Facebook route and only display ads from advertisers that signed up directly on Twitter from day one. Either way, down the line, Twitter could figure out a way to distribute their advertisers into users friends timelines potentially in an adsense like unit down the side of the page. But, at the get go, Twitter has the traffic on its search engine, which they can easily target ads too, and that’s where I think the ads will show up.

For added revenue, it has also been speculated that Twitter will offer up its advertisers to applications using its API, and it would then share the revenue with the application. So, applications that interact with Twitter, such as Sency or Seesmic; would have the option to promote Twitter advertisers for a cut of the profits.

Twitter hasn’t focused on making money as of yet. They have been concerned with their platform, site traffic, and third party developers. However, when you are the 12th most visited site on the web, and when a large portion of your traffic is search traffic – you are going to easily be able to generate revenue. It is also important to note, that real time web traffic won’t be as value able to advertisers as traditional search traffic – because it is less commercial in nature. So, while revenue will easily be generated by Twitter, I don’t foresee the revenue made per visit being on par with what the traditional search engines have been able to produce.

For entrepreneurs, one of the best features of Twitter is it’s API. Twitter allows developers to tap into its stream of 1 billion monthly tweets to create new applications and websites. This Twitter API has spawned several unique applications and projects that have benefited internet users in a variety of ways. This API has also spawned several real time search engines, such as Sency, which tap into sources such as Twitter to offer real time results for internet users.

A result of this API is that Twitter’s real time data is syndicated across the web. So, even if you are a not a user of Twitter, you can get real time information from multiple places. So people whom have never signed up for a social networking site – can still see what is being said right now on the real time web. However, Facebook is very different.

When you visit Facebook.com – you can’t easily search other users status updates. And, since Facebook doesn’t give out its data via an API – other websites can’t leverage Facebook’s real time data to offer something for internet users. There are tons of Facebook apps, but those are there to benefit existing Facebook users. Since the Facebook API isn’t available to outside developers – if you aren’t a user of Facebook – you probably aren’t going to be able to learn much about what is going on at Facebook.

Facebook wants its users data to be shared with users’ friends, not the world. Web developers would jump at the opportunity to “run” with the Facebook stream of data to build exciting new websites and to improve existing websites. However, without an API – this hasn’t happened yet.

Twitter wants developers to run with external applications because if those applications grow, Twitter will be the glue that holds those applications together. This, in effect, ensures Twitter’s future. For example, there are hundreds of websites which Twitter has no ownership in, but which take advantage of Twitter’s free API. If those sites grow and receive 100 million visitors per month – that will benefit Twitter because it makes “Tweeting” even more important because now your Tweets will get distributed not only on Twitter, but also on the sites all over the web which are powered by Twitter. By empowering web developers, Twitter has an army of entrepreneurs out there baking in the Twitter feed to their properties. So, the question is – will Facebook ever play this game?

In October of 2009, Facebook announced Open Graph API which was a move in this direction. This API, which is net yet available, will allow other websites to develop a Facebook like page, powered by Facebook technology, without the page having to be on Facebook.com. This would empower websites to have the tools offered to Facebook users live on an external website controlled by an outside webmaster. While this will be something new for webmasters to tap into– it most certainly won’t offer anything close to what Twitter currently offers.

Over time, developers hope they will have more access from Facebook, and slowly, some more tools and functions may become available. At the same time, developers are being empowered by Twitter to run with great new products. Twitter is clearly leading the charge to fuel continued innovation for everyone to have access to throughout the mainstream web.

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(image: LoneWolfLibrarian)

Read more on this social media blog.

Facebook and Twitter are the two power houses of the Social Media Industry. Social Media has become a new medium within the Media family, its siblings being Radio, Television and Newspapers.

What Makes Up Social Media?

So, what makes up Social Media? Metaphorically, Social Media is the body that holds the various limbs that enables the Industry to grow, and allows you to reach outside of the box and communicate with the world. The “limbs” I am referring to are what we call Social Networks.

Social Networks are made up of sites that you are probably already familiar with, such as; YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Reddit, and many others that are not listed here, two of those being, Twitter and Facebook. Each social network enables a person to share content, whether it is photos, videos, music, news or conversation. A social network permits you to engage with other people via the Internet. So what is the heart of social media? You are. You are the very reason social media is alive, it is you who pumps the information out into the social networks and in return, it is you that keeps social media breathing.

What Is the Difference Between Twitter and Facebook?

Twitter was originally created for texting purposes via a cell phone which is where the 140 characters come into play, for texting on a cell phone; you are only allotted 160 characters. Twitter included your username and therefore left you with 140 characters to express whatever happens to be on your mind. Twitter is in real-time, meaning that you will receive information as soon as someone you’re following tweets.

Facebook is more complex. It was originally created for internal use at a University, but as its popularity ignited, Facebook as we know it today, was born. Facebook is not only a place you can socially engage through status updates that are longer than 140 characters, but it also offers socially inclined games, profiles and pages that initiate sharing in whatever form of media you choose.

Both social networks offer a different format to express oneself, although Twitter is more commonly known for sharing news links and is becoming a predominant resource for breaking news, people still make connections and utilize it to talk about the events of their day or to promote their business in a fast and for many, more convenient way. Which is why I compare it to a drive-thru, it is quick, easy and you always leave full.

Facebook is more like a sit down restaurant, a place where you get lost in its menu of choices, from applications, status updates, photos, games, videos, pages and many other tempting interactions. Therefore you need to sit down and dig in.

Whether you crave Twitter more or salivate over Facebook, we seem to be starved for these two social networks and for those who use them, you may tend to agree that you can’t help but eat them up everyday.

If you are new to Social Media and unsure which social networks to begin with, I would suggest sampling both Twitter and Facebook, for in their own ways, they will satisfy your social appetite.

Erin Ryan has a passion for Social Media and is currently working within the industry as a Social Media Specialist. Contact Erin on Twitter @4u2wear2

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Read more on this social media blog.

If you haven’t heard, Twitter hit 50 million tweets per day.

If you haven’t heard about it, you’re not paying attention to the social media blogosphere, because EVERYONE is talking about it, at least the big players. Below, you’ll see that there was definitely a headline of choice in declaring the news.

JUST IN CASE you didn’t hear, Twitter is averaging over 50 million tweets per day, something that is relatively unexpected considering recent negativity regarding the lack of growth of the network.

If this is any indication, Twitter is still the golden child and reports of its demise are greatly overstated.

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Read more about social media on this social media blog.

The debate has been raging for ages (at least in Internet time).

Facebook was once the “contender” against MySpace. That didn’t last too long, but soon Twitter emerged as a pseudo-social-network-competitor-thingy to Facebook and the competition heated up again.

Whether or not that competition is valid is arguable since:

1. Twitter incorporates the communication and sharing aspect of social networking but is in many ways easier defined as a microblogging news aggregation site, sort of.
2. Facebook has nearly 10 times more users, hundreds more features, and thousands more apps.
3. Twitter has a clear business model, but only a dozen people in the universe know exactly what that is, while Facebook has dozens of business models, but nobody in the universe knows exactly what they are.

Still, these and many other glaring differences do not take away from the human need to compare the two and argue about them since they are the biggest “buzz” in social media right now (sorry Google).

Here, you will find several pieces of content that take the argument in one direction or another. Some bring up MySpace, LinkedIn, or other social networks. Rather than rehash them, I’ll give them to you to decide what goes where. Why rehash when we have the power of “link and regurgitate”? After all, that’s the way of the Internet today.

Facebook vs Twitter Infographic

(via Flickr)

Articles that (attempt to) Answer the Question of “Twitter vs Facebook”

• Web Strategy Matrix: Google Buzz vs Facebook vs MySpace vs Twitter (Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang)
• Moving Pixels: Facebook vs Twitter (Pop Matters)
• Facebook vs. Twitter Clickthroughs: More Bang For Your Buck (htmlist)
• Twitter Versus Facebook, A Comparison Of The Top Users (AllFacebook)
• Sharing on Facebook vs. Sharing on Twitter (Digital Inspiration)
• Buzz vs. Facebook vs. Twitter and Us (The Relationship Economy)
• Fight: Facebook vs Google vs Twitter (iTWire)
• Web Faceoff: Twitter vs. Facebook (Mashable)
• Twitter vs. Facebook Analysis: What Users Want (Internet News)
• Twitter vs. Facebook – Battle of the Social Goliaths (Inventor Spot)
• Twitter versus Facebook: Should you Choose One? (Twitip)
• Facebook vs. Twitter: How will you stream your world? (CNet)
• Twitter vs. Facebook: Who Will Win in Real-time Search? (Mashable)
• Tools of choice: Twitter vs. Facebook (Social Media Today)
• The Coming Facebook-Twitter Collision (Business Week)

Twitter vs Facebook Cartoon

(via Hubspot)

Facebook vs Twitter on the iPhone

Another Facebook vs Twitter Infographic

(via TheNextWeb)

It doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, it’s all a matter of preference. Most Twitter users use Facebook. Most very active Facebook users are on Twitter now or will be sometime this year. Whatever it takes to enjoy, share, learn, and engage, that’s what is important. Who will win in the end?

Us.

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Read more about Twitter and Facebook on this Social Media Blog.

6 months ago, Twitter changed its homepage so that there was a greater focus on their search engine.

At any time, anyone can go to Twitter and search through all of the updates from Twitter users. So, while initially your Tweets were scene by your Twitter followers, now people that don’t follow you and even people not using Twitter can view your Tweets when they utilize the Twitter search engine.

Twitter’s search results are also being syndicated to several web properties. In December of 09, Google implemented Twitter results onto the first page of their results pages. For select keywords, you’ll notice the Latest Results box scrolling which is powered by Twitter results along with other real time results. In addition to Google, Bing has announced a plan to bake in Twitter results into their search listings.

While Bing and Twitter are the most widely used websites to implement Twitter updates – a slew of real time search engines have launched in an effort to bring the real time web to internet users. Many of these real time search engines, such as Sency, use Twitter updates as the primary source of their results. Furthermore, many content sites have utilized tools and widgets to implement real time results onto their web properties. For instance, if you are on your favorite Yankees blog – you may see what people are saying right now about the Yankees scrolling down the left or right hand side of the webpage.

With Twitter offering its API of Tweets for free to small web publishers and entrepreneurs – we can expect to continue to see Twitter results syndicated across the web. One great thing about real time results is that they are fresh – a search today will reveal different results than a search next week. So, web publishers will benefit from implementing real time content as it will keep their sites current and make their sites stickier.

As more and more marketers realize the depth of this syndication, spam on Twitter is expected to increase. Twitter will block an account from its syndication, and when this happen, while your posts will go to your followers – they won’t go to Twitter.com and sites using the Twitter API. Furthermore, filtering technologies which Google seems to have implemented will try to prevent non-relevant Tweets from non-quality Twitter users from showing up. However, it seems the case that a majority of Tweets done today are syndicated to additional sources. If you do a search at Twitter for your user name, and you see your results showing up – that is a good indication that your updates are being syndicated across the web.

In closing, when you send out that Tweet today about what you are up too – don’t assume only your Twitter followers will see it. Because major search engines such as Google and Bing may display your results – and also – your favorite blog may end up displaying them as well.

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Read more about Twitter on this, one of many Social Media Blogs.