How American Express Grows Its Massive Social Media Presence

Credit card company American Express seemed to come out of nowhere in the past year, offering one social media program after another.

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ — it’s got them all covered, and even better, it stands for what its consumers want across all of the social platforms it’s on.

While American Express has seemed to pump a lot of life into its social strategy as of late, it has actually been on the scene since 2009, helping cardholders solve problems one tweet and wall post at a time.

[Read More] How American Express Grows Its Massive Social Media Presence.

How social media can help grow your business

Not only are there more social media options out there, though, but there are also more people than ever who are regularly using social media and even relying on it for decision making.

Creating a personalized experience

One thing that most people are looking for these days is personalization. After all, our Facebook profiles personalize advertisements based on what we say and do on Facebook, and Google is going to start doing the same thing with Google Plus. The modern consumer doesn’t expect generic interactions with same-old-same-old companies, but wants a customized, unique experience that makes them feel they can really connect with a business on many different levels.

With social media, you can create a more personalized experience for your customers. This, it seems, will be even truer when Google Plus allows business accounts to be created on its new platform, since you can divide your G+ contacts into different circles of people. This will allow you to highly target specific types of customers in a way you aren’t yet able to do through social media!

Getting better feedback

One of the best ways for a business to grow is through feedback, but getting feedback from customers in person can be tough. With social media, you can find the good, the bad, and the ugly about your business with just a little searching. According to TOA Technologies, 1,000,000 people view tweets about customer service each week, and about 80% of those tweets are negative, which means it’s really easy to figure out areas where people haven’t been happy about your business!

Beyond that, though, you can also use social media to test out new products or even take surveys on your Facebook page or through your blog. Consider using a giveaway to see if customers love new products your business is considering using. If not, you can go back to the drawing board, but if the products receive some great feedback, you’ll have a better idea of who to market them to.

Connecting locally and globally

One of the great things about social media is that it’s perfect for both local and global businesses. Since it’s online, it allows you to connect with people from all over the world. On the other hand, since you can tailor your marketing to the people you really want to reach, you can get local customers for your local business. Running specials for customers in your own area or far off is really easy with Facebook, Foursquare and other social media platforms, which make it easier than ever to connect with a broader audience for your business.

[Read More] How social media can help grow your business.

Is Social Media The Right Tool For Gaining New Customers? | The Social Customer

Many times when visiting with people about social media, it is discussed as a tool for acquiring new customers. This is often the case in traditional marketing and advertising as well. Ironically, for many industries, it costs more money to acquire new customers than it does to sell to current ones.

So, the question is, why do we constantly make social media about customer acquisition when there are plenty of other opportunities elsewhere?

[Read More] Is Social Media The Right Tool For Gaining New Customers? | The Social Customer.

Enterprise Efficiency – On the Case – Dell World: Q&A With Dell Social Networking Expert

On the Case: Dell World: Q&A With Dell Social Networking Expert

Rishi Dave explains the crucial roles social networking can play in enterprises, and tells us how Dell gave all employees – even engineers – the permission and the ability to talk directly to customers.

[WATCH THE VIDEO HERE]  Enterprise Efficiency – On the Case – Dell World: Q&A With Dell Social Networking Expert.

Salesforce CEO: Facebook Is Leading The Direction For Where ‘We’re Going As An Industry’ | TechCrunch

 

 

While Benioff’s tone has definitely tempered somewhat since OpenWorld in relation to Ellison and Oracle, it has not changed in terms of what the CEO sees as the future of his company and the future of the enterprise industry as a whole. Enterprise has to be, needs to be: Social.

[Read More]  Salesforce CEO: Facebook Is Leading The Direction For Where ‘We’re Going As An Industry’ | TechCrunch.

LinkedIn Lets Companies Post Status Updates [VIDEO]

LinkedIn has long let users follow companies, but Thursday the professional networking service is finally allowing the more than two million businesses with company pages to post status updates to their followers.

Company Status Updates will enable assigned administrators of company pages to post updates, up to 500 characters in length, to the “Overview” tab of their pages.

[Read More]  LinkedIn Lets Companies Post Status Updates [VIDEO].

If Google’s Management Doesn’t Use Google+, Then Why Should You?

One of the most important rules in software is to eat your own dog food. The concept is simple: If you have confidence in your product, you use it.

Perhaps somebody should tell that to Google’s senior management, because the people in it are not eating their own dog food when it comes to Google+.

Rooftop QR Codes Aim to Infiltrate Google Earth

Here’s a circuitous route to free advertising on Google: An Austin, Texas, firm will install QR codes on rooftops in an attempt to sneak into Google Maps.

Phillips & Co.’s new proposition, called Blue Marble, offers a “space-accessible profile” for businesses, cities, schools — anyone who wants to raise their profile. In addition to catching the attention of the odd plane passing by, Phillips says in a statement that Google Earth has been downloaded 400 million times and “by integrating a readable code into the space-accessible profile, mobile users can access dynamic marketing programs, videos, digital coupons and other content while viewing the specific geographical location.” (Actually, Google announced on Wednesday that the app has been downloaded 1 billion times.)

[Read More] Rooftop QR Codes Aim to Infiltrate Google Earth.

What Facebook Has Announced So Far: The Timeline – And Verbs – AllThingsD

Facebook unveiled a series of changes to users’ main profile pages with a new view, dubbed “The Timeline.” In addition, Facebook will now let people do actions beyond just “liking” something. Users, as expected, will be able to show they have read a particular book or seen a particular movie.

[Read More]  Facebook at f8 Announces Timeline – Ina Fried – Social – AllThingsD.

Facebook’s f8 2011: This Is Your Life

“Now is the heart of the Facebook experience, completely rethought from the ground up. We’re calling it ‘Timeline.’ Timeline is the story of your life: all your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are.”

[Read More]  Liveblogging Facebook f8 Developer Conference 2011 – Liz Gannes – Social – AllThingsD.

View Now: The Science of Social Media

“Now, the crux of my presentation– and of all the research that I really do is to take aim at what I call unicorns and rainbows advice. So I to a lot of social media marketing conferences, read a lot of social media marketing books and blogs. And I hear a lot of advice that is, well, for lack of a better word, it’s unicorns and rainbows.

It’s stuff like engage in the conversation, and love your followers, and have a personality. And it’s stuff that’s kind of hard to disagree with. Because I’m not going to get on the webinar and tell you to punch your customers in the face or anything. But it’s generally not based on anything more substantial than what sounds right, what feels right, what’s truthy. And as we know from the history of the medical world, sometimes those things, those superstitions, those myths, like blood-letting or magic tonics actually do more harm than they do good.”

[Read /View More]  View Now: The Science of Social Media.

How to “Turn on Profile Review” to protect yourself from tag-jacking scams.

Facebook had somewhat of a privacy overhaul last month. One of the most welcome changes that users have been screaming for is the ability to approve tags before they are posted to their profile. The photo-tagging exploit has been abused by scammers on a grand scale…until now! Follow these simple instructions to enable the new feature.

[Read More]  How to “Turn on Profile Review” to protect yourself from tag-jacking scams..