What a Free Sample Can Teach You About Your Customers

Recently, the beauty company Living Proof offered free samples via their Facebook page.

Such campaigns aren't exactly rocket science on Facebook -- many offer discounts and coupons all of the time -- but Living Proof used a remarkedly smart (yet simple) approach.

First, it targeted its demographic. Using both their page as well as Facebook's targeted ad system, they reached a highly specialized -- and coveted for their industry -- demographic: 88 percent of their ads views came from females 18-54.

The result? They handed out 15,000 free samples in just 48 hours.

But that's not the most important part of this campaign. Unlike most Facebook campaigns that offer free or discounted goods, they didn't require people to become a fan to receive the free sample.

Could Living Proof have gotten more fans if they had required it? Clearly. But, Living Proof was thinking long term: they sacrificed quantity for quality. Those who chose to join -- even though it wasn't required -- are more likely to become genuine fans, allowing the company to have a more accurate picture of its fan base.

And, even so they still gained a high number of fans, jumping from 1,000 to more than 7,000 during the promotion period. In the days afterward, they've continued to gain, now hovering above 9,000 fans. Even though the promotion is over, fan membership has been encouraged by the opportunity for more freebies, as well as useful tools -- a mini-questionnaire asking you about your hair type, with recommendations and the immediate availability to buy via the Facebook page.

The success of Living Proof's campaign will be a long term consumer intelligence boon to the company -- and the added PR certainly can't hurt either.

Need Help Planning an Event? Go Online

Whether you have a fundraising event, birthday party, or work meeting to plan, there are a number of great online resources to help make the process go as smoothly as possible. Here are just 5 to show you the wide spectrum of online event-planning tools out there, for events of all sizes.

Doodle.com This free resource allows you to schedule work meetings in just three easy steps. All the organizer has to do is create a meeting title and description, select several possible dates and times, and e-mail the other attendees. People just click on the meeting link to select the dates and times that work best for them, and the poll-based scheduling system allows the organizer to see the most convenient time and finalize the meeting.

Facebook and Twitter Events If you want to plan a party or fundraising event for your friends, Facebook and Twitter are great resources to use. Set up the event with all of the necessary details, invite your friends, and publish it to your livestream to help publicize it. Your invitees can then RSVP, see who else is attending, and share the event to their friends and contacts, too.

Wikis Trying to plan an event with multiple people in multiple locations can be a challenge, but thanks to wikis, it just got a whole lot easier. Wikis provide a mutual forum for all organizers to come together to plan and coordinate -- whenever someone is free to plan, he or she becomes champion of the event to get going.

Slideshare If you have an event that includes presentations, this is your go-to resource. Create an account for your event and upload PowerPoint, PDF, or OpenOffice presentations to one, easily accessible place.

Eventbrite.com This popular resource is ideal for long-term event planning and management. Users can customize their event page, promote their event, sell tickets and manage the attendee database all from their account.

Do you already use some of these tools to plan your events? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Using Videos to Build Your Business

With yesterday's announcement that YouTube is the social media innovation of the decade, it's only fitting that you should be using video for your business.

You need only look as far as YouTube to see the overwhelming popularity of videos right now. According to ComScore, YouTube gets a whopping 1 billion views per day and 41 million views each hour. In fact, experts are predicting an even bigger surge in video marketing in 2010, and it is not difficult to understand why -- videos have the power to emotionally engage people in a way that is just not possible with fixed text.

Studies have shown the effectiveness of videos in increasing customer interaction, boosting sales, promoting viral sharing, and expanding brand awareness. And the great news is that it is easier than ever before to create a marketing video. Services like Jivox, for instance, allow you to make videos using still photos. With Screenr, you can add voice recordings to a series of still images, screen shots, or slides. Already have a video? Edit your footage with programs like Pixorial or Jaycut.

Embedding videos on your company website is a great place to start, but you can also add them to your online ads or use them to help sell and show off your products.

No matter what you decide to do, just remember to be creative and keep it short -- any longer than two minutes and you’ve lost the attention of your audience.

Mashable Names YouTube Top Social Media Innovation of the Decade

It didn't arrive 'til halfway through the decade, but it's to the point that hours upon hours of video are uploaded each minute.

While other social media networks have waned (Friendster, MySpace), it just continues to grow.

You have 15 million users? It has videos with 150 million views.

How can you disagree with Mashable's pick for the decade?

You may be able to do more on Facebook, or spend more time on it, but YouTube creates a sensation like nothing else.

Consider that the most popular video of all time on YouTube is "Charlie Bit My Finger - Again."




It's a simple, under-a-minute video of a baby biting his brother, yet it's garnered 142 million views. We're also pretty convinced that things are only going to get bigger for YouTube, as its most popular video of 2009, Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream"  has more than 82 million views already -- 120 million views worldwide. 

What do you think of Mashable's pick?

Best Social Media Tools for Customer Feedback

Using social media is not just about getting your information out there -- it’s about monitoring your brand and helping it grow and develop. And whether you need feedback about your business or have ideas for a new marketing campaign, networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer users a number of options to connect with their customers for little to no cost.

Web site and blog surveys: A lot of companies post surveys on their Web sites, but thanks to new services on the Web, you no longer need programming knowledge to do it. A service like WuFoo, for instance, allows users to create a wide-variety of feedback forms, including those with open-ended questions, multiple-choice responses, and polls. After you create your survey, just embed the document on your Web site or blog by copying and pasting the code. Users get real-time updates on the results via their WuFoo account.

Facebook and Twitter polls: Posting a poll on Facebook or Twitter is a great way to keep your fans interested in your business. Involver is a Facebook application that allows users to create a poll for their fans that they can then share with their friends. So not only do you get the feedback you want, but you may just garner a few more fans, too. TwtPoll for Twitter users works in a similar way -- just create a question for your followers and a built-in option allows them to retweet the question to help you reach an even broader audience.

LinkedIn Answers: If you’re looking for a way to expand your professional relationships, LinkedIn Answers is a great way to do so. This product enables LinkedIn users to post a question for their connections to get their feedback and to answer other users’ questions, too.

These are just a few more reasons to hop on the social-media bandwagon -- and to get the most out of what these services have to offer. What did we leave off this list? Post your suggestions in the comments.

Google's Real-Time Search

As technology constantly advances, people expect quick access to news and information as it happens. And with social media networks like Facebook and Twitter growing in popularity, it seemed inevitable that search engines would move to real time.

Last week, Google snagged the top spot for real-time search when it integrated the feature into its search-results pages. Now when you enter a query, Google real-time search automatically updates its results with information happening across the Web -- news articles, Web pages, Yahoo Answers, and live tweets.

And that’s just the beginning. Google also announced that they’ve finalized partnerships with Facebook and MySpace to incorporate their data into real-time, too. This includes public pages on Facebook and any unrestricted stream data on MySpace.

Whether you’re a consumer or business, the bottom line is that the addition of real-time data to Google search holds a lot of perks. Not only does it give consumers access to the most up-to-date information out there, but it also gives any business that uses these social networks a new medium for reaching potential clients and for attracting more followers. The only real question seems to be: Why didn’t Google come up with this sooner?

New Google Tool to See What Your Customers Can See

Google's latest gadget to improve your website is Google Browser Size, an application that is a visualization of what your customers can see when viewing your web pages.

This may not sound like much, but it can be useful to determine if a valuable piece of your website (like a "buy" or "donate" button) is out of the line of sight for a large chunk of users. In fact, that's partly how this application was developed -- Google Earth wasn't getting the downloads that they hoped it would, until they realized many people had browser windows too small to see the actual button.

Browser Size is a neat application that's easy to use -- just go to http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ and then you can have it overlay any URL you type in.

Unfortunately, there are a few big flaws in this:
1) It only really works on websites with fixed margins, which many are not these days. If a website centers its content based on how wide your browser window is, it's not a fixed margin. This skews the results of Browser Size because your content changes when the Browser Size changes. Need an example? Try reading this blog on Browser Size, making your browser small, and then enlarging it to your entire screen. Different content will be within different percentages as a result.

2) It only works as big as your own browser screen. There's no way to adjust or resize the information, so even with a large, widescreen monitor, you still likely won't see all of the information presented.

It's a neat tool and worth a gander to try out your site to see if there are some glaring issues, but we think it's worth taking everything with a grain of salt.

Twitter Adding Features for Business

Twitter has been rolling in new features lately, and they're about to start testing one made specifically for business   -- contributors.

For corporate accounts run by a team of people, each tweet would have the specific author ("contributor") attached to it. Twitter plans to have the designation below the tweet, in that little line that says, "about 2 hours ago from web by xxxxx." The name would be an active link to that specific user's Twitter account.

Twitter feels this would help businesses foster a more personal interaction with a brand and get to know the people behind it.

It's an interesting move by Twitter, which has some interesting implications. First, they're acknowledging how much businesses use Twitter and how much value it can provide. It's another tool to help expand the business and its offerings to lure more users onto Twitter, but also potentially a play to take a bite out of services like CoTweet, which are meant for businesses, similar to what their latest features seem to be trying to do to other Twitter clients like TweetDeck.

In addition, it's a subtle move by Twitter to bring everything more personal. By choosing this feature over any other, they're making a bold statement about what they want Twitter to be -- personal. Even when used for business, they want to keep the individuals in the mix.

Either way, it's an interesting choice for it to be the next big roll-out by the Twitter team. At this point it's only in development, so it will be a while before you'll actually get to test this one out. But what do you think it means for business? Does it make you more interested in using Twitter in a business application?

Targeting the Senior Demographic? Try Social Media.

Social media is often thought of as a "young person's" tool. Businesses who want to be on the cutting edge with their younger demographic continually try out Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others, to lure in customers and build their brand.

But what if you're seeking seniors? Those over 65 years of age still make up just 10 percent of the Internet's audience. However, in the last five years, that number has increased more than 55%, according to a new report released by Nielsen. 

However, the really interesting tale is of the third and fourth most popular destination for those on the Internet. After searching on Google (#1) and using Windows Media Player (#2), seniors flock to Facebook (#3) and YouTube (#4), long before they shop on Amazon (#5) or check their Yahoo! e-mail (#6).

No matter what your demographic, if you're not using social media as a tool, you're missing out.

How to Build Your Community of Customers

Time and again we've talked about how good social media can be for attracting new customers. You can reach them on a personal, direct level that was near-impossible before.

Having trouble getting customers on board? Hook them with a lure -- give it away for free. Whether it's a discount code once they follow you on Twitter or a promotion only available to your fans on Facebook, giving away a little bit now can bring in customers and get you more money down the line.

Once you've got customers, however, you need to keep them. Make them feel like a valued customer by continuing to give them something. But, you argue, you're not a product-based business. We've heard it before, but there's always something to give. An electrician, for example, could offer an amount or percentage off his services -- or, helpful information and tips he's learned. For example, perhaps it's ways to keep your house and outlets safe as they get overloaded with all the holiday lights. Maybe it's the latest guidelines put out on safe wattages for homes. Maybe it's information regarding a recall of an electrical device that could start electrical fires. The possibilities are certainly there, and not only will you engage your customers, but you'll continue to build a trustworthy brand.

Even if you are a product-based business, vary your "offerings" to keep your community of customers interested. If you're selling shoes online, maybe it's free shipping at one point, a guide to finding the right fit of shoes at another, and a percentage off all orders at another. Give these friends, fans, and followers something that your other customers don't get -- they've taken the time to follow you, so reward them!

Google Passing Around the Wave Invites

When Google Wave first arrived in September, invites were scarce. Once October hit, S2EO staff secured an invite, but was still one of the few. And since then, S2EO has yet to launch an official review of Google Wave, because, as one person put it, "It's like being the first person to sign up for Facebook."

Imagine being on Facebook without any of your friends or contacts. It makes it kind of difficult -- and pointless -- to use. When we first encountered Google Wave, we had a similar feeling. Now, Google's looking to change all that.

Since first releasing invites, the top complaint against Google Wave has been that people would like more invitations. After all, what's a communication/collaboration tool with no one to communicate or collaborate with? Google has listened, and is opening up Google Wave to more than 1 million people.

Interested in an invitation? S2EO staff now have 24 invites. If you'd like one, leave a comment telling us what you'd use it for, and your e-mail address as [name] AT [e-mail provider] DOT com. We will never sell or share your e-mail address, but if you're uncomfortable leaving it, you can also e-mail us at s2eo [at] shakespearesquared [dot] com.

Google Tools Can Help Speed Up Your Website

You know those slow websites -- the ones that take forever to load. You hate them. You avoid them. But what if your site is one of them? Not only could you turn off potential customers, but it could affect your search engine optimization ranking, as we mentioned back in November.

Now, Google has a new tool that could help you. Google Site Performance, part of their Webmaster Tools, can analyze your site for load times and performance, and offer suggestions on how to improve.

This is a valuable set of knowledge for any business, but if Google does decide to use load time as part of their SEO metric algorithm, it could become something that can't be ignored.

Facebook Has More Members Than the United States Has People

More than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook. That's more than the entire 305 million people in the United States; in fact, it's more than America and Canada combined.

As such, Facebook will be making some changes to its network and privacy settings.

The real issue, however, is how companies can still choose to ignore Facebook as a business tool when it can connect you to your customers like never before, as we previously discussed here.

In addition, Facebook can be a real boon to your search engine optimization. Not only does Facebook often rank high in search terms in general, but if you know HTML and FBML (Facebook markup language) you can code your links to have real SEO power.

The power of Facebook merely continues to grow. If you're not in on it yet, why not?