What’s the average facebook fan worth? According to a study conducted by Virtue, about $3.60. According to Virtue’s research a Facebook Page with 1 million fans is worth a minimum of $3.6 million in earned media annually.

Pulling from 45 million fans, sampling data across varying pages, virtue was able to determine a wall post impression to Fan ratio of approximately 1:1. In other words a page with 1 million fans can create 1 million impressions with a single post…Holy Moses smell the roses! Now post twice a day for a month and your creating 60 million impressions…wholly small country Batman! Any one who has put a PPC campaign together can appreciate this mind bending numbers.

To get to the $3.60 facebook fan valuation, Virtue assumed a $5.00 CPM, which gives a page with 1 million fans a value of $360,000.

So are you leveraging your social media assets to the fullest? This simple valuation puts the importance of a Facebook Fan acquisition strategy center stage. So grow that fan base, with Facebook Ads, kick ass apps and exclusive offers.

If you’re have questions about maximizing you Social Media ROI please give us a call, shoot us a message or throw up a quick smoke signal (the orignal twitter).

BD1i

Social Media Not a ‘Marketing Play’ for Starbucks – mediabistro.com: AgencySpy http://bit.ly/dnyfDM

• I've had my kindle for less than an hour and the dang @amazon website is down. My kindle shopping spree has been put on hold. #
• reading the conference of the birds on my new kindle…nothing like a little mysticism via e-reader #
• full day of getting @trideluxuryhome social media campaign set up…the things we do for love #

• Sending out emails while nick reads the fabulous mr fox, ya gotta love summer break. http://twitpic.com/20sur8 #
• RT @cathytoll: RT @chrisbrogan Never convince people something's what they want. Talk to them about their needs & help them fulfill needs. #
• the previous tweet was via mr. @samchaltain. it's one of the principles we strive to live by at bedouin interactive #
• Just completed my new twitter bg…I knew all of that Adobe training would come in handy some day #

• building the new The Telluride Experience (@trideluxuryhome) blog…gods bless @wordpress #

To all my fellow Mac users I gots somethign to share with ya. On Monday my favorite iphone Twitter client, Tweetie, released it’s desktop client. As the the creator of Tweetie, atebits, tagline states this is some “suspiciously simple software.” Wonderfully intuitive and exceptionally powerful, gives you to the tools to pan for all the gold the Twitterverse has to offer. 

I encourage you all to check out the ad-supported version of the app, and if you dig it the mostest, spend the $19.95 and get the advert-free version.

On April 14th, WorldBlu released the “The WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces 2009 ” 40 organizations,

including Seventh Generation, NixonMcInnes, and BzzAgent, made the list this year. The list contains an eclectic list of companies from a multitude of countries and various industries that all have moved away from the standard control and command model and taken up a democratic management structure.

Having had the opportunity to work with Traci Fenton and meet several of the leaders whose companies make up the list I can honestly say  this list is an amazing demonstration of the power of innovation.  The companies on this list have chosen to build there organizations around the principles of transparency and accountability, fully engaging their employees and creating a work environment where people are actually treated as…what for it…people!

I encourage you to check out the The WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™ 2009, and spend a little time perusing the site to learn about this fantastic movement.

So I started reading the Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers conversation, and something Mr. Campbell said struck a tone with me, “What we are learning in our schools is not the wisdom of life…we’re getting information.” The same day Bedouin Mom sent me an interesting video, which stated the “Top Ten in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004.” The video, from BuenCaminos, goes on to conclude “we are training our students for jobs that don’t yet exist…using technologies that have yet to be invented…in order to solve problems that we don’t even know exist yet.”

If our schools are in the business of downloading information into the domes of the next generation without training them to think creatively are they going to be prepared to answers the questions we have yet to ask?

Who are you? Existentially it is a question that we ask our selves from the time cognitive thought starts kicking around our dome. Growing up as a small Bedouin in the plains of Iowa, I asked my grandfather this question and his answer was simultaneously confusing and stimulating; “We are an amalgamation of who we believe ourselves to be and the person people perceive as.” Sitting there in my sweet eighties shorts and cowboy boots, I thoughtfully nodded and wondered what the heck an “amalgamation” was.

What does this have to do with social media? Everything. Bedouin Interactive was founded with the purpose of helping companies harness the power of social media to, ‘bridge the gap between expectation and experience.” What does that mean? It goes back to Grandpappa Bedouins’ definition of self; our expectations of our clients experience often fails to jib with their actual experience.

Traditional marketing has relied on mountains of cash and the bullhorn of advertising to tell constituents who they should perceive them to be. Companies define themselves as “the Choice of a New Generation“,  ”the Fresh Maker“, the “Noid“, but the truth is they are defined by us and those definitions vary wildly. I define Pepsi as Not Coke, Mentos as the weird ass commercial company, and Domino’s as the cardboard pizza with sickening tomato sauce that my roommate orders after a night of drinking. The crux of the matter; our experiences inform our expectations and our expectations define our perceptions and those perceptions instruct our experiences.

Steering clear of Early Moder philosophy, let’s take a look at a real world example from the branding whiz kids over at GSD&M|IdeaCity. IdeaCity’s stated  purpose is “…to do whatever it takes to build our client’s business so they can fulfill their purpose.” Roy Spence, one of the founders of GSD&M, argues “Anybody who’s running a business has to seek out the higher calling of that business, its purpose.” “Purpose is about the difference you’re trying to make–in the marketplace, in the world. If everybody is selling the same thing, what’s the tie-breaker? It’s purpose.” Working with Southwest Airlines, GSD&M recognized in providing affordable air travel, the bargain carrier was giving people the power to travel about the country on their own terms. In the words of Ashley Andy of GSD&M, “Southwest was about freedom.

When defining what may feel undefinable you need to look beyond the use of catchphrases and do your best to honestly evaluate how your product or service impacts the lives of your users, clients, industry, society, etc. in other words it is about merging your perception of who you are with the rest experiential impact you have on the world around you. Here’s where he world of social media comes into play.

Southwest Airlines defined their purpose as providing freedom of movement, but can social media help Southwest understand how the actual consumer experience? Conversations, my friend, conversations. “Nuts About Southwest”, the official blog of Southwest, allows the Princely Pauper of the Sky to engage their audience in an exchange of ideas around their product and get actual feed back about how their customers feel about their product. Recently Southwest began service to Minneapolis/Saint Paul and in their blog posts about the move Southwest received a wide array of reactions. In the post ‘When Luv Come to Town’, Ebony Clark shared, “…most of all I am glad that I will not be subjected to long layovers, poor customer service and late flights that I had to endure during my other trips to MN.” While in Southwest Airlines begins service to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Patty chides the airline for chanting “…obnoxiously during a reception held by the Armed Forces Services Center at the Lindbergh Terminal at MSP on Monday.”  If you read the LUV post and then juxtapose that against Patty’s comment you see two very perceptions of the same event. In maintaing the Nuts blog Southwest is able to say, “Hey guys and gals here’s why we be the bees knees” and the consumer to say “Hey corporate dude here’s why I agree and/or disagree with your previous statement.” Its that back an’ forth that allows us to go beyond our preconceived notions and  deliver the best possible consumer experience.

In the end what we are is an amalgamation of what the consumer perceives us to be and who we perceive ourselves to be. In striving to bridge the gap between expectation and experience, providing an accurate representation of who you and fulfilling the needs of the world around you, you must first clearly establish what your purpose is.

Doom and Gloom. Gloom and Doom. Any way you cut it the Newspaper industry is in some dire straits. You’ve got calls from the muckity-mucks to change the roles of people, Journalists to Super-bloggers, massive layoffs and as I’ve said before an industry that seems to lack in creative thinking when it comes to enhancing their core product.. Well recently two papers have taken steps to monetize their products in 21st century manor and another has begun to embrace user engagement like never before. Maybe the wheels of innovation are beginning to churn and while things are certainly going to get worse before they get better it is possible that we are seeing the shape of things to come.

Recently the WahingtonPost.com has begun embedding Evri‘s content networking tool at the foot of it’s online articles. Evri is an online content to networking tool that allows readers to dig deeper into articles they have just read, exploring connections with other contextually relevant articles, blogs, images, videos, etc across the webisphere. Essentially Evriâ™s technology  is designed to enable content publishers to better engage their readers, allowing them to discover compelling content. The key here is creating a better user experience. The News Industry has the unique position of access and resources that most of those out there in the world wide web just can’t compete with so they need to find ways to enhance their core product and deliver a user experience that truly enhances their understanding of the world around them.

“How can we monetize what have right now?” a common question for sure, but lets be honest when your product offers a less than stellar user experience, you aren’t going to have any eyeballs to monetize. One answer the the news industry geniuses have bandied about is the whole pay-per-drink idea. Essentially a reader would have to pay a nominal fee, think $.99 to view an article. I mean this model has done gangbusters for the recording industry. Just look at your ipod and I’m sure the ratio of purchased to pirated music downloads leans heavily towards the purchased side of things…oh, wait, no. While itunes has had some success they’re dowload numbers are far outpaced by torrent and P2P downloads.

A little over a month ago the NY Times announced its Article Search API and just today the UK’s Guardian gave a pip-pip cheerio to the  pay-per-view model, launching its Open Platform. With two content-sharing services, Open Platform’s content API and the Data Store which will contain datasets, maintained  by Guardian editors, web developers will be able to create applications and services that pull from Guardian’s content. In return for unfettered access to the Guardian’s content, sites like The Cass Sculpture Foundation, Stamen and OpenStreetMap will carry Guardian advertisements. According to the Gaurdian’s article on the new venture the company is positioning its Open Platform as a commercial venture, requiring partners to carry its advertising as part of its terms and conditions’. In truth it seems as though the UK Newspaper is attempting create a new revenue stream in the form its very own ad network.

When we talk about the evolution of the news industry i think a lot of people envision a radicle shift but if I remember anything from 10th grade biology is that evolution takes a really long time and is built on incremental movements. The Fox News and CNNs are far cry from the days when it was declared ‘Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press’ but we must never forget what resides at the core of  the Fourth Estate; To provide society with pertinent information about the world around them so they can make informed decisions about their place within society. What the industry needs to focus on is enhancing their core product, creating new depths and transparencies in reporting and increase user engagement, otherwise the irrelevancy they fear may come to pass.

B.L. Ochman’s concluding satement from, Debunking Six Social Media Myths, maybe a bit harsh and over stated but than again I normally would say the first social media myth: there’s  something  to debunk. Social media, a term that’s only been actively  bandied  about for the past year or so,  is a constantly evolving medium so to try an’ canonize  definitions  of what it is and isn’t is the height of a  bragadocious  bloggery. That being said Ochman makes some really great points.

So what are the myths?

1. Social media is cheap, if not free
2. Anyone can do it
3. You can make a big splash in a short time
4. You can do it all in house
5. If you do something great people will find it
6. You can’t measure social media results

Now I’m not going to recap Ochman’s blog, beyond listing the above points, as I encourage everyone to go to Businessweek and read the post. When I read the above points I couldn’t  help but  reminisce about all the clients I’ve  had, which embodied at least one of the myths. During my  initial  conversations with potential clients, I always ask ‘How do you define social media’.  60 percent of the time, the say blogging, facebook and myspace, every time.   I believe this fixation on the wrenches in the social media toolbox, stems from the failure of ‘social media’ gurus go beyond the sheen of the latest shiny object, i.e. Twitter, and delve into what makes social media the logical progression in the evolution of corporate  communication(that’ some sweet assonance…how you like me know eighth grade english)

As a consultant it is our responsibility to educate our clients on  fluidity of  communication,  social media creates.    We need to show our clients the power of social media is rooted in philosophies which leverage  the latest technologies, to place them in a position to capitalize on the opportunity to create the next  generation  of  customer/client communication platforms which in turn will allow them to deliver  superior  products, services and consumer experiences. The power of social media goes beyond marketing, it goes beyond getting Elfed  and increasing page views. In integrating social media tools and  philosophies  into a holistic business strategy companies can put themselves in a position to rise above the din of their competition and create a product that truly enriches the lives of the people using it.

And breathe…I’ve been holding that microrant in for awhile. The truth is we are just beginning to understand the true power of social media and the internet. A decade ago we thought a misplaced 1 was going to bring down the world and a decade before that Al Gore had yet to invent the internet. I’ve only been  professionally  involved with this whole social media thing for 5 years and in that time the the landscape has evolved in extraordinary ways and I’m willing to bet that in 5 more years, when Web 5.0 has been tradmarked by O’Reilly, we will have a whole new set of myths to debunk.

In a recent survey by internet marketing company, HubSpot, it was revealed blogs rank as the most useful of all the wrenches in the social media tool box. 75% of those surveyed said blogging was useful, critical and/or important to their business.

In this report respondents spent an average of 10% of their lead generation budget on blogging/social media which resulted in 8% of their leads. Now this is more impressive than the percentages would lead one to believe. Here’s why, corporate blogging audiences think you’re a liar.

Forrester VP, Josh Bernoff revealed in a post on the Groundswell blog, and commented here, only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them.  For the same reason we don’t a used car salesman when he hocks the latest features on the 1989 Chevy Caprice, we have a tendency to look skeptically on the CEO of Phlomax when he blogs on the wonderment of their wonder drug.

Often times corporations use their blogging platforms as a pulpit to sell splendiferousness and fail to actually engage their audience in conversation. In failing to seize the opportunity to humanize their company and engage their audience corporations turn their blog into an advertising channel. By a show of hands who trusts advertisements…anyone? Bueller?

As the professional world continues to embrace blogging, especially Small Businesses which generate almost 15% of  leads from this medium, it is important to develop a rock solid blogging strategy. Why do you want to blog (hint: because everybody else is, is not an acceptable answer)? What are you blogging about (hint: blogging only about your product = used car salesman)? Who is the best person to represent the company in the blogosphere (hint: it is NOT  Bobby the Intern)?

Remember the best blogs are built around a shared point of interest, so look at your company, product,  partners, consumers, etc. and strive to develop a blogging strategy that touches upon all of those influences that impact your company and your audience.

Traci Fenton of WorldBlu, Inc. is a great example of a CEO leveraging social media to engage her audience. Right now Traci is at TED Palm Springs provindg a live feed of her impressions of the conference and the speakers. Take her comments on speaker and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates

• 30% of students in US never graduate from high school, 50% of minority students don’t – via Bill Gates #TED about 1 hour ago from web
• Bill Gates – Past performance, not years teaching or MA education makes great teachers, we must study that to improve education in US #TED about 1 hour ago from web

Many who follow TED know, it’s not just about the speakers, but the community of people who attend the event. It’s a special brand of individual that is willing to dedicate the time and put forth the financial commitment to attend an event purely dedicated to the promulgation of ideas. Traci does a good job of tweeting the vibe of the TED PS audience as well:

• An indication of how cool people are here at TED@PalmSprings – I am sitting next to the guy who did the music for this year’s Super Bowl.about 2 hours ago from web

Too often Twitterers, myself included, unintentionally spam their followers with tweets that really aren’t about informing them or engaging them in a conversation but act as some cathartic release. There is nothing wrong with tweeting your daily goings ons, I’m sure someone cares where you ate for lunch, but when using Twitter for professional purposes it’s best to stick to topic, and strive to use twitter to create conversations with your followers.

p.s. check out Traci’s interview with Yahoo HotJobs.

I’ve been actively involved in the world of social media since 2003 as an entrepreneur and consultant, and it seems to me we often lose sight of what social media is really about, human interaction. Blogs, Wikis, Tweets, Mashups, Widgets, Rich Internet Applications, so on and so on, are awesome. I mean I flex my nerdosity  every time  I see a kick hieny  web app as much as the next Sleek-Geek, but it’s like getting super jazzed about a new shovel…a really awesome and shiny shovel, but a shovel none the less.

Like any tool they allow you to create something beyond their intrinsic value. Facebook and MySpace allow you to reconnect, and maintain those connections, with long-lost friends. Blogging allows give you the opportunity to engage in conversations outside of geographical and timagraphical boundaries. Twitter, the web app de jour,  can keep all on your friends and family up to date on real time decisions about the conflict between having Chipotle or Panchero’s for dinner. Like any tool, social media applications need to be used with a comprehensive strategy built around user engagement that takes into account the audience you’re trying to reach and the conversation that you are hoping to have.

Just something I’ve been working on…

Social Media

As the United States of America ushered in a new era of leadership, and as an aging generation saw the labors of their youth come to fruition, a generation on the ascent tweeted, facebooked, streamed, and dugg every second of it. 

During President Obama’s inauguration Twitter saw 5x the normal tweets-per-second and about 4x the average tweets-per-minute (graph). Facebook enjoyed an average of over 4,000 status updates per hour Tuesday morning, peaking at 8,500 updates every minute during President Obama’s inaugural speech. The President’s speech set a new record for simultaneous streaming-video with 7.7 million video streams, according to content delivery network Akamai Technologies, which provides the NYTimes.com, Ustream, Viacom, WSJ.com, and other leading networks with support for live streaming.

The truth is all of these technologies are still in the early stages of their life-cycle, andas they continue to mature  we will find new and innovative ways to leverage them, ushering in a new age of citizen participation in government and a sense of togetherness that hasn’t been felt in generations.

I am grateful Bedouin|Interactive has the opportunity to be apart of this great transformation I and am inspired to have a leader like President Barack Obama.