With numbers quoted as high as 50 million registered users on Facebook, and 100 million users on MySpace, it’s difficult to ignore social networking. But lots of people are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what this means for their business (or personal goals). Facebook has really grown up this last year, and there is a lot people can do to promote themselves and their interests.

1. Open a Facebook Page for Business. The options support small business, local business, individuals (artists, consultants), and products/brands, and so on. The business page allows you to focus and have an agenda while developing friends in a more natural tone (but of course, not unprofessional). Post on the page regularly and respond to friend’s posts quickly to keep the conversation going.

2. Use Facebook Beacon. This feature allows your friends’ comments (or other actions) on your site to link back to their Facebook page news feed with a link back to your site. The value of Facebook is that if you have 100 friends, and those friends have 100 friends, and those friends have 100 friends, your subject showing up on their news feeds can really spread your ideas.

3. Use Video. You can easily install and use the video application (free) on Facebook. That way you can post video to your page or in email. Video is engaging, and it can also be more personal giving others insight into you and your business.

4. Start a Facebook Group. Look for an idea or even a problem people who are interested in your business would relate to. Pick a very specific subject so people have a reason to join over another group that might sound similar.

5. Poll Your Friends to Get to Know Them Better. Facebook also offers a polling function. You can make this a regular part of your activities on your page and let everyone see the results. Or you can run short polls every few months to learn more about your audience and what they’re up to.

6. Create Your Own App. You can use Facebook Platform to create your own application. The goal is to attract more people and get them to interact with your product or your ideas.

Grow your connections. Ask people to join whether or not they are already on Facebook. Promote your Facebook page or group on your blog, business cards, email signature and anywhere else you can think.

There’s more, but I’ll save that for another blog. Doing all of this would be a great start! Show me more »

Web 2.0 isn’t just a set of technologies. It is a way of thinking, working, and behaving. It’s time to evaluate how audiences view your company and how you can update and enhance your interactions.

1. Provide a social space on your corporate Web site where your audience can interact. It can include profiles, comments, and voting on product features. Don’t censor negative comments. They offer the best opportunity to reveal the true nature of your company by the next steps you take over issues raised. This builds trust among your audience.

2. Monitor a variety of “neighborhoods” on the Web including blogs, social networking sites, user comment sites such as BazaarVoice, and price comparison sites to see what is being said about your company. Respond to negative comments with a plan of action not a position of defense.

3. Start a wiki that establishes an environment of collaboration with your customers and prospects and allows them to impact the product or service they purchase. By using Socialtext, Wetpaint, or one of the many other wiki hosting sites, this can be done quickly, easily, and cost-effectively.

4. Produce a widget which anyone can download and run on their blog or desktop which reminds them of your product or services through discounts, informative articles, or daily tips. If you have a little fun with the widget more people with use it and spread the word.

5. If you want to ensure your image remains authentic and clean, be the first to inform the public of bad news through your blog, wiki, or YouTube video. Don’t wait for pissed off customers to start demanding information so that bloggers start digging up the dirt. Get your dirty laundry out and offer a plan to resolve the issue. This builds trust and trust is more important than great products.

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This is too good not to share: Clean Ads.

It’s sort of like reverse graffiti. Environmentally responsible (as long as you like the message)…and will be dirtied away in time.
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The trend towards traditional advertising growth may soon come to an end. The major consumer marketers who spend the big bucks on TV, print, and outdoor advertising and sponsorships are figuring out that their money is better spent creating relationships.

Nike, Coca-Cola, P&G, Anheuser Busch, Disney, and others are setting up their own social sites, virtual reality sites, WebTV and events, and they’re spending few dollars on traditional ads.

According to this New York Times article, “Nike executives say that much of the company’s future advertising spending will take the form of services for consumers, like workout advice, online communities and local sports competitions.”

But there’s more to it. Nike has really hit on something with Nike+ — a small sensor that tracks running information and posts it to your iPod or the Nike+ website. This little product (which apparently Nike doesn’t profit or make much a profit from) offers a service that keeps customers coming back to Nike over and over and over again. And of course that’s its purpose.

The reality is that TV ads are losing their ability to create trends or define what’s cool. There’s too much conversation and interaction on the Web and across blogs and social sites — and this is where the next great thing is being marketed.

What are your customers passionate about and how can you tap into that passion, and keep them coming back? Show me more »

This week BusinessWeek redesigned their print publication with a much cleaner, crisper look, and a clear focus on their core business coverage (they dumped lifestyle). The print publication has gotten back to its core competencies (just business), and its persuasive value (short to the point articles) that makes it stand out. (Good choice).

Older products tend to get over developed. (I’ve been reading BusinessWeek in print for almost 20 years.) They can lose their purpose. As a product’s scope is broadened, it has more crossover with other products expanding the competition (and giving customers more reasons to choose some other company’s more focused product).

Whether you’re vying for customers or ad revenue, focus on your core audience and core differentiator is critical. For BusinessWeek, the impact of a substantial print ad revenue decline (according to a WSJ article), combined with the move readers have made to the Web, has driven them to make the hard choices.

BusinessWeek has developed its website far beyond its print content, incorporating fresh content and a broader appeal with reader comments, columnist blogs, and other Web 2.0 features. They now have to remake the print publication (focusing on the road warrior and over 40 set who still like some things in print) to realize the most ad revenue.

When going after ever bigger audiences and broader revenue streams, it is easy for your product to lose its way, essentially, get beyond its intended use. Focus is harder. It takes discipline — a willingness to say no, and to let your competitors go wild while you stay focused. If you think there’s market potential for new features, figure out if it makes more sense to put them in new product.

Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you just have to figure out why you were here in the first place. Show me more »

It takes your calls, alerts you to meetings, receives coupons and instant discounts. It surfs the Web, tells you where you are and where you’re going. It holds a treasure trove of photos, sings your favorite songs, and goes with you on jogs and hikes. It takes pictures of your kids on their birthday or breaking news events.

The mobile phone is the portal to almost every human being. 1 Billion are sold each year. Over 1 billion are camera enabled.

One day (hopefully) soon, it will be capable of location smart messages, point and receive information, and automatic ordering/account debiting. (All of this is currently available in Japan and some of it in parts of Europe.)

What is your mobile marketing plan? Show me more »

Google’s new Gadget Ads use widgets to create display ads that can run on profile pages in Facebook or MySpace, or on a blog or desktop. The widget ads can incorporate links, video, or images. What makes widgets interesting is their portability. Think the YouTube video player. You can play a YouTube video anywhere, including within a blog post, and the video always carries the YouTube brand. On the Web, content is highly portable so widgets make a great extension to any marketing plan.

I haven’t used Gadget Ads so I can’t comment on how flexible they are. I think the value in using widgets as ads is in NOT using them like traditional display ads. They need to be more dynamic. Widgets can provide for two-way communications meaning users can respond to surveys, enter contests, or answer riddles. Users could also be allowed to customize the content they receive through the widget.

Widgets are certainly one of the best opportunities today to break into the world of social networking with ads. But I think, the possibilities for widgets will make them interesting to anyone with a blog or website, too. Show me more »

The crew at Wikinomics.com and the Wikinomics community have written the Open PR chapter of the Wikinomics Playbook. Open PR is a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it? Public relations is designed to hide a company’s warts and accentuate the positive — that’s called spin. Show me more »

It’s no surprise that people search online before they make an electronics purchase, but the interesting part is that people who search first also spend more. Online search is more influential in the purchasing decision than a salesperson. In other words, an educated consumer purchases more according to an article on Marketing Charts. Show me more »

Pier 1 Imports is shutting down its ecommerce Web site and Estee Lauder is shutting down Gloss.com, also an ecommerce site. In the era of online interactivity, branding and business interactions, these companies are bucking the trend. Could they know something we don’t? Show me more »