6 Indian Social Media Articles Worth Reading This Weekend

An extremely fragile week – at one end it was the ban on YouTube in Kashmir, a very cool app from Indian Railways for the common man and then end of the week we saw Bangalore Police creating a fabulous presence on Facebook. We also revealed Sony’s year long massive initiative on social media and brought you the latest Socialbakers report, ORM the Airtel way and the amazing content strategy on Idea’s Facebook page.

With that we came across some interesting articles that we have curated below for your weekend reading pleasure.

1. Indian government and social media: Priyanka writes about the Indian government and how the other politicians are using the medium effectively and trying to bridge the gap between their fans. Whether it be Narendra Modi or Mamata Banerjee or Shashi Tharoor every one out there is trying to connect with fans. Along with them, there are official departments like the various city traffic police officials who have set a great example. Wonder when can we see the PMO India using it in a similar way.

2. Instagram is two years old: Here’s to more food pictures: Instagram turned two years old recently and in this post, Hilonee writes about the growth story of the app. In these two years, the app has grown from time to time even though there are multiple other players in the same market. The billion dollar deal and how the Indian brands have shown interest in this popularly growing network which is a part of Facebook now. So be prepared to see more pictures of food, cats, dogs, etc.

3. Facebook contests- the ones where you don’t really want to participate: Palin pulls up a trend and shares his thoughts in this lovely crisp post. We all have seen the growing trend of contests like upload the photo and get likes from friends or quiz contests that you can play as long as you get them right. Contests should be easy but then for some free vouchers it’s really not worth the effort. Brands need to make the fan earn and provide cool gifts rather than make it easy and offer her gift vouchers.

4. How to design your platform for self- expression: Sangeet, a keen observer of different platforms in the market starts with sharing his thoughts on why would a user talk about a certain product. Sangeet also talks about the simplicity of platforms but then he discusses the downside of such social networks too. Towards the end, he explains how one should design for self-expression.

5. All about: Web-based video content: In this article at Campaign India, Gunjan finds out whether online video services are feasible in India or still ahead of their time. Media experts believe only freemium model will work in India for the lack of required bandwidth, HD content and user rejection of subscription models. However, it is interesting to note that 3G has enabled video communications on mobile with marketers showcasing their brands and engaging with users.

6. An open letter to Mark Zuckerberg: Rajesh via his blog post wishes the man who has managed to connect one billion people across the world. There is no doubt that the platform has made the world look smaller but in the quest of making it more open and sharing, the “promise of intimate conversations” is missing. Today fans have become a mass rather than individuals, risking the social network to be another platform of mass media. Interesting thoughts and along with Mark’s hunger for driving more revenue, a lot of marketers and agencies are to be blamed to a large extent. They have been feeding fans with content on a mass basis since they treat the platform as another mode of advertising. A trend that needs to change.

We hope that you enjoy our curated list for this week and do let us know if you would like to add some more articles to the list. You can always leave them as a comment or tweet us at @LHInsights.

Image courtesy: Instagram

10 Tips for Aspiring Female Entrepreneurs

The number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. has risen 54 percent over the last 15 years, and at a rate 1.5 times faster than that of any other group. The nation's 8.3 million women-owned businesses represent 29 percent of businesses overall—but female business owners still fall behind their male counterparts in several areas, including funding and revenue.

For instance, when it comes to first-year funding, women typically receive 80 percent less capital than men. Women-owned businesses generate $1.3 trillion in revenue—a 58 percent increase since 1997— but that only accounts for 4 percent of all revenue in the U.S. Their businesses employ 7.7 million people -- 6 percent of the country's workforce -- but research by American Express OPEN shows many female-owned businesses beginning to falter once they reach the $250,000 income mark, and/or they begin to employ five or more workers. 

How to avoid such pitfalls? Here, business-owning women share 10 tips to overcoming obstacles.

[Even Hooters Wants More Women - As Customers]

MAKE A PRE-FIRST IMPRESSION

Amy Zhang, founder of Affinity Fund Services LLC, a hedge-fund administration firm, says people label each other within the first 10 seconds of meeting, so establish some credibility before going face-to-face.

"You want to warm them up so your feminine look won't be the first thing they remember about you. Send a brief email covering what you both want to talk about during the meeting, and how you or your team may address the issues that they need. Women are known as better communicators than men, so use it to your advantage."

PROTECT YOUR IDEA

In 2010, Joy Huber was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Soon after, she saw the need to offer resources, support and encouragement to people coping with and effected by cancer. So she launched Cancer with Joy.

"When I got the idea for 'Cancer with Joy,' I was convinced it was surely already done. I'm not the first Joy to get cancer. But when I checked, the domain was available. I filed 'Cancer with Joy' with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, so I own it. When a cancer treatment center wants to bring 'joy' to their patients, there's only one. This creates supply and demand, and makes the idea more valuable. It also eliminates brand confusion: 'Are you that young brunette or are you the blonde doing this?' There's only one."

FOCUS ON FRIENDSHIPS LATER

Jill Schiefelbein is the founder of Impromptu Guru, a consulting firm that helps individuals and organizations gain confidence, but there's one thing she finds women already do too comfortably, and to a fault.
"Women tend to put a high value on building relationships, and get easily put off when others don't operate on the same page. But to enter into the more highly profitable markets that are male-dominated, we have to adjust our idea of what it means to form a relationship, from the model that focuses on personal commonalities first and builds on business later, to the more mutually beneficial partnership model that helps you and the other person become more profitable. In a male-dominated field, the audience is often looking for ways to get ahead first and for a relationship second."

[Should Women Want to Have It All?]

BUILD A (RELIABLE) WEB OF WOMEN
Ayo Hart and her husband started Dolphin Organics, a line of natural skin and hair care products, last year. While in meetings, consultants more often addressed him with their words and body language, but when her husband returned to his long-time career, Hart developed her own "mantras" as a means to success.
"Surround yourself with loyal employees. Some women can be catty. They don't like being subordinate to another female; they'll undermine that superior at any given opportunity. The rumblings can threaten business relationships before they start and have immeasurable repercussions. But there are probably twice as many supportive women. They can be the most loyal, trustworthy friends and colleagues. Foster those relationships and seek out that mentor, networking group or complimentary partner who will help you look at your business with an objective eye. These sisters can be an invaluable source of information, funding and support."
ASK FOR HELP
"Women, particularly super-moms, are so used to handling everything that they don’t realize they can be more productive and successful if they don't do everything themselves," said Leanne Babcock, founder of consulting firm Babcock Coaching & Training.
However, noted Lorrie Ross, CEO of marketing agency Web Marketing Therapy, "Men are more likely to 'do what they do best and hire others to do the rest.'"
Women business owners need to be assertive and aware of their needs, said Stephanie Ciccarelli, co-founder of Voices.com. "Ask for help when you need it, seek direction from successful businesspeople you admire, and don't be afraid to speak up," she said.
BE CONFIDENT

Kelsey Meyer, senior vice president of Digital Talent Agents, a professional branding and online public relations firm, recently attended a conference where people kept referring to her male co-founder as her boss. They automatically assumed that he had started the company, and that she worked for him.
"I decided that my only choice was to be very confident in my abilities and not fall prey to the stereotype that women-owned businesses perform worse than men-owned businesses. Be as confident as your male counterparts and don't take on a defeated attitude."
ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM...
Zhang adds, "In presentations, I'll sometimes say something like, 'I know you may be wondering what this young Asian lady can do for my sophisticated hedge fund, but I am here because I have the knowledge and experience in this industry and profession, and I am going to help your fund start and grow in the following ways...' It takes off the edge in the audience and steers them towards what I want to share."

[Wall Street Needs Women & Younger Clients]

BUT DON'T KICK THE DOOR DOWN
Hart adds, "Don't always enter the room feeling you have something to prove. If businesswomen come to the table feeling as if they have to put their best foot forward because they are a woman, they've already put themselves at a disadvantage. Don't try your best because you think you have something to prove, do your best because that's who you are as a person."
DRESS (WITHIN REASON) TO IMPRESS
Robin Wilson knows style. And as president and CEO of her eco-friendly interior design firm Robin Wilson Home, she advises you do too.
"Dress comfortably. Wear heels to meetings, but feel comfortable wearing flats around the office most of the day, as your comfort may help maintain your focus."
DON'T BE SORRY
Studies show that women say "sorry" much more frequently than men, but Kari DePhillips, owner of The Content Factory, an online public relations firm, says there's no room for regret in the workplace.
"If you spend too much time worrying about what other people think of you, or apologizing for things that you shouldn't be sorry for, people are going to walk all over you."
Melissa Brodsky, founder of Smart Savvy Social, a full-service social media agency, adds, "Stick to your decisions and convictions without apologizing."

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Bloggers

The advice on how to be “the effective guy” is just so common online that it starts to get boring … You know, reading yet another article on how to be a great blogger and all…

So why not take a different approach and consider the seven habits of highly ineffective bloggers instead?

If you think that it’s a joke, it isn’t. If you look around in the blogosphere I’m sure you’ll find tons of bloggers who fit this description perfectly. In fact, I bet that you’re guilty of one or two of these habits as well (I know I am).

Habit 1. Not proofreading

This is the first sin bloggers make. I know that crafting a nice blog post takes time. You need to do your research, prepare the resources, and finally write the thing using a number of relevant links and keep all the SEO optimizations in mind … there’s really a lot to do.

In all this commotion, it’s easy to overlook one simple thing: proofreading. The fact is that proofreading is one of the most important phases of crafting a blog post. Without it, you’re not using the potential of your post effectively—some readers will simply be discouraged with all the grammatical errors you’ve made.

My advice is this: proofread your posts at least once. In addition, use a plugin like After the Deadlinefor some extra help (it provides automatic proofreading).

Bonus tip: There’s one more trick I want to share with you. I’ve found that I get much better results when it comes to the quality of my writing if I write a post one day, and then edit and proofread it the next day.

Habit 2. Not networking

Did you know that 80% of your blog’s success depends on the people you know, not on the content you write? You didn’t? That’s because I made that statistic up!

Whatever the stats, I’m sure the benefits of reaching out to your fellow bloggers are pretty clear to you. Building a successful site is always easier if you have someone you can contact for help, or for a joint venture proposition.

Treat your blog like business. The more quality business partners you have the better. Networking in the blogosphere isn’t even difficult. It all starts with a simple email that says hi.

Habit 3. Not using offline blogging tools

These days, I’m all about offline blogging tools. One particular tool, actually. It’s called Windows Live Writer. What’s great about it is that it allows you to create an optimized blog post offline, and then send it to any WordPress blog you want.

Let’s face it: you won’t have internet access at all times. Maybe you’re staying in a cheap hotel, or visiting your family over the weekend, or some other scenario. If you want to be effective, you have to have a way of creating a post even if you’re offline.

I know that the standard way of doing this is through Microsoft Word or some other text processor, but they are not very good at providing WordPress-ready formatting. Windows Live Writer is great in this regard—give it a go.

Habit 4. Not staying on topic

Going off topic makes you highly ineffective. And the reason is that your readers have come to your site to read a very specific piece of information. They’ve seen a headline, or a search engine listing, and clicked on it. Now, if you decide that you want to change the direction mid-post, they’ll simply leave.

Over time, such practice will make you really ineffective at writing about the things you wanted to write about. You’ll always get distracted at some point and talk about other things. This is something you really need to be wary of.

The simple advice is this: if you fail to stay on topic, your readers will get confused and leave.

Habit 5. Not promoting your stuff

Writing and publishing the post is usually only half the job. If you want to make it really popular, good content won’t be enough, you also need to spend a fair amount of time on promotion.

And by promotion I don’t necessarily mean spending money on ads and reaching out to investors. Just a couple of clicks on some social media share buttons might be enough, or sending an email update to your subscribers, or notifying your StumbleUpon friends and contacts, and so on.

Also, this is where your network of contacts comes into play again (mentioned earlier). If you have some friends in the blogosphere, you can let them know whenever you publish something really valuable (your pillar content).

Habit 6. Not writing guest posts

Every website you know of—every single one of them—became popular because of some other website. There’s not one website online that became popular on its own (no, not even Google or Facebook).

The key to success, then, is to get featured on other websites. There are two possibilities here:

1. The difficult one is to do something remarkable and get mentioned naturally.
2. The easier one is to write a guest post and offer it for free in exchange for a link.

I really can’t emphasize this enough, but guest blogging is the cheapest and the best way of building your brand online. If you think that you don’t need to do any guest blogging, then you are not utilizing your full potential as a blogger.

Habit 7. Not doing SEO

I know some people say that SEO is dying. Mostly, this attitude is the result of the recent updates like Penguin, which killed a number of legitimate websites and online businesses just because they were building quality (yes, you read this right, quality) backlinks.

This whole situation makes the SEO game a lot harder, but it doesn’t mean that you should leave it completely. The fact is that one thing surely won’t change anytime soon: Google will still remain the main provider of traffic online, and if you want to get a piece of this traffic, you’re going to have to learn how to be up-to-date with the best SEO practices and implement them in your blog.

Make sure to pay attention to the popular SEO blogs and also the official Google webmaster central blog.

Are you guilty?

This concludes my list of 7 habits of highly not effective bloggers. Feel free to tell me what you think, and admit how many of these habitds you’re guilty of. Be honest—I know I’m doing at least two myself!

7 New Social Networks Niche Marketers Should Try

You're probably always hearing about the most popular, mainstream social networks -- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ -- and how you can use them for business. That's because these networks attract such a wide range of users, that it's easy for the majority of marketers to have success connecting with their audiences there. But you must know that those "top" social networks aren't the only ones out there, right?

Truth be told, there are hundreds of other, niche social networks on the web that, depending on your particular audience or your goals, can also be well worth it for you to participate in.

Why Niche Social Networks Are Valuable

A social network can be considered "niche" if either A) the focus of the social network is much more specific (e.g. a social network just for events), or B) the users it attracts are much more targeted than those of social networks that cater to a wide range of users (e.g. a social network just for animal lovers).

The beauty of niche social networks is that they take the step of targeting and segmentation out of the marketer's job. So for example, if your business sells yarn and you're a marketer participating in a social network for knitters, you already have a much more targeted audience at your disposal than you would on a social network like Facebook. And we all know how much more effective your marketing can be when segmentation is involved, right? So before you devote all your social media marketing time to just the top networks, it behooves you to do some research into whether there are any niche social networks populated by your audience.

Not sure what kinds of niche social networks have popped up on the web? Here are 7 of some of the more targeted social networks to open your eyes to what's out there. Have you heard of or used any of these before? Go ahead -- try 'em out!

1) Quora

Quora is often a forgotten social network, but it's also one of the most valuable. Quora aims to provide answers to almost any question you can think of. From questions about marketing to questions about coding, Quora provides a great resource to both users looking for answers, and marketers seeking to position themselves as thought leaders. Think of it as a much broader version of LinkedIn Answers!

How Marketers Can Use This Network

• Ask questions about your industry to collect direct insights into what your audience is thinking.
• Answer questions about your company, industry, or even competitors. This will help you position yourself and your company as a thought leader. (Note: Disclose what company you're from for the sake of transparency -- and credibility!)
• When possible, provide links to resources such as blog articles that help to answer users' questions.
• When appropriate, sprinkle in links to some of your educational lead-gen content such as ebooks and webinars to capture Quora users as business leads.
• Connect with other marketers on the network to see what is or isn't working for them.

2) Meetup

Attending and planning events is an important part of any marketer's job. Meetup makes this responsibility easier for almost every industry. Whether you're hosting or looking to attend an event that focuses on marketing, health, lifestyle, literature, or even family, pets, sci-fi, or photography, Meetup provides a centralized network with information on the events happening in your area. Marketers who want to reach a particular industry can immediately identify the right events and connect with attendees even before they attend.

How Marketers Can Use This Network

• Identify relevant industry events to attend. Not only will you be able to see all the industry's events in one place, but you'll also be able to find networking opportunities before the event even starts.
• Publicize your own events and attract more attendees by industry or geography.
• Find inspiration! Get cool event ideas from other cities, and bring them to life in your own area.

3) Care2

The trend toward "going green" isn't exactly breaking, but it has caused an uptick in many marketers making sure their marketing campaigns use environmentally friendly processes. The social network, Care2, popped up as people came together to discuss this eco-friendly type of lifestyle and educate others about it. And more and more, marketers need to use these practices in everything they do to cater to this growing audience. By participating in this social network, marketers can educate themselves about the ways they can implement eco-friendly tactics into their marketing strategies.

How Marketers Can Use This Network

• Research, research, research! Implementing green strategies into your marketing isn't easy. Learn what others are doing.
• Talk to people in this community, and see what they really care about. What topics matter most? Is your marketing aligned?
• Does your company sell products/services that cater to eco-friendly users? Then you're golden! Research what eco-friendly issues are prevalent among your audience to inform your content creation, marketing, product decisions.

4) Gentlemint

When the popularity of Pinterest began to rise, we noticed the emergence of another social network catered to men's needs and interests: Gentlemint. Often called the "Pinterest for men," Gentlemint has a similar layout to Pinterest with a layout of images that can be commented on and re-shared. But instead of pictures of fashion, food, and babies, there are pictures of guns, cars, and alcohol -- a community perfect for businesses selling products/services that appeal to the male demographic.

How Marketers Can Use This Network

• If your target audience is comprised mostly of men, use Gentlemint to do some research about what the male demographic is interested in. See what they're sharing, and identify what's popular (and what's not).
• Host Pinterest-like contests to drive traffic from Gentlemint to your website and engage your audience with your brand.
• Apply Pinterest best practices and set up a board (or a few) through which you can connect with Gentlemint. Here are 28 creative pinboard ideas you can adapt to cater to the Gentlemint audience.

5) CafeMom

Mommy bloggers have become a very popular resource for promoting products and services to other mothers looking for parenting advice. CafeMom is a popular network that gathers these mommy bloggers on one platform to share on childcare through blogs, videos, and games. This audience is becoming an increasingly valuable asset to marketers who are trying to get the attention of mothers.

How Marketers Can Use This Network

• Blog about and share information that is useful to mothers, and share it in the network. Give advice about parenting, and recommend products or services that might be useful to them.
• Research the articles and videos this audience is posting to get a sense of the topics that garner the most clicks and views. Figure out how to incorporate these topics into your content creation strategy.
• Make connections with other mothers to learn about the problems, challenges, and interest. Ask questions/survey them to learn how to better market to them.

6) ThirdAge

The fastest growing age group on the internet is senior citizens. More than ever, Baby Boomers and seniors are connecting online with each other and their families. As a result, the internet has become a resource for seniors to get advice from each other on health, aging, and retirement. This is where ThirdAge comes in. ThirdAge boasts newsletters, groups, discussion boards, videos, articles, classes, games, and more designed to help females ages 50+ connect and get advice -- perfect for marketers whose products/services appeal to an older generation.

How Marketers Can Use This Network

• Research to discover better ways to reach this audience. How do they like being marketed to? What do they like or dislike?
• Peruse the forums to learn what issues this demographic struggles with. Can you create and share content that helps address these issues and provides solutions?

7) Athlinks

Athlinks is a social network for athletes to compare statistics and network with each other. With over 266,000 members, it allows athletes to provide information about themselves such as the sports they're interested in and lists local races and events athletes can attend to meet up with other like-minded athletes. It also includes an athlete directory to search by person or location. This network is great for marketers whose products/services cater to the athletically inclined.

How Marketers Can Use This Network

• Using the event feature, find out and attend events that are popular among the types of athletes you cater to. This could be a great opportunity to chat with your buyer personas and even publicize some of your products and services in person.
• If you're a local business, search for and connect with members of the different clubs your audience may be a part of by location. 
• Share a relevant article or participate in the 'Action Spy' section of the website to participate in the conversation.

What other niche social networks have you found handy?

4 Ways to Use Automation to Drive Email Revenue

It is important to understand the value of automation within your email marketing strategy. Take Oovie for example, we wrote about their automation strategy this summer. Oovie experienced a 30% increase in sales using integrated and automated email marketing. Automation is extremely important to the health of any marketing strategy and it can be used to drive significant increases in revenue. 

Why is automation important? Routine and time-intensive tasks like data movement, segmentation, and messaging programs become easy with “set it and forget it” functionality. The right marketing automation tools make it possible for you to do more with less, freeing you up to focus on strategy and optimizing your interactive marketing programs, while keeping your revenue flowing.

Here are a few ways you can use automation to make your job easier:

1. Automate a welcome program. Welcome emails are highly anticipated, frequently opened, and (luckily for you) simple to automate! Use an automatic email marketing drip to increase conversions at a time when you already have the consumer’s attention by including products, services, or special offers. Tie together social media by adding Facebook and Twitter icons in your welcome emails to help subscribers connect with your brand across channels.
2. Capitalize on cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. If you send email receipts or online transaction confirmations, include offers on related products or services in those messages. Emails like this are easily automated and allow you to maximize your customer data to boost revenue opportunities.
3. Automate cart abandonment campaigns. Targeted emails using clickstream data can generate, on average, nine times more revenue. Integrate your web analytics and email marketing systems to run automated campaigns based on online behavior. Automatically include an image of the abandoned product, an incentive to purchase, or include related product recommendations.
4. Implement customer satisfaction programs. Customer feedback is vital to continued success—and yet, you may often be too busy to ask for input. If you’re a B2B business, try automating a customer satisfaction survey to send one to three days after a customer completes a transaction. If you’re a B2C company, automate an email to ask for product reviews two to three weeks after the customer completed the purchase.

7 Tips of the Chief Customer Officer

In the blog post, “Chief Revenue Officer: A Failed Experiment or an Evolutionary Step?” I talked about how the transition to a customer-centric organization will transform many Chief Revenue Officers into Chief Customer Officers. As organizations realize that the customer experience and relationship is the asset that leads to revenues, CROs will shift focus from the revenues themselves, to the customers that deliver it.

For CROs making this transition, it may feel like unfamiliar territory. Change is difficult for any organization and for the individuals involved. I wanted to provide seven tips for executives making the transition.

1. Get Inside your Customers’ Skin
In order to align all the company’s functions with developing, maintaining, sharing and performing to detailed customer experience maps, the company needs to have deep personal relationships with its customers to truly understand them.

2. Relationship Determines Revenue 
Customers often value relationship more than the product or service. Find out how to invest in stronger relationships, understand customer budget bibles and match their planning cycles.

3. Break the Technology Addiction
Technology doesn’t have all the answers and it can’t auto-service the customer. Technology is a tool and we must know when and how to use it in communications and analytics to create better decision outcomes. Invest in these tools, but don’t let them replace in-person conversations and relationships with customers.

4. Revenue requires a Village
Customer-centric organizations are not natural homes for lone-wolf, “hail-Mary pass” producing sales folks. Chief Customer Officers need sales, marketing and support departments to understand the holistic experience for the customer and deliver their individual components with the same tone, cadence and channels outlined in a unified experience map.

5. Pay for Relationship Quality
People do what they are financially incentivized for. CCOs that are supporting a customer-centric transformation are replacing NPS and customer sat scores with a measurement of each function’s role in delivering a customer experience that supports revenue. Instead of MBO, churn or close rates, consider performance metrics aligned with the customer experience story board, customer engagement and peer scoring.

6. Collaboration is your Lifeblood
Customer centric organizations are highly collaborative; it’s the secret sauce to delivering consistent, meaningful experiences and relationships. Only through enterprise-wide transparency, information sharing, proactive feedback, ideation and communication patterns that transcend hierarchical organization structures can teams respond to customer expectations and quickly resolve issues.

7. You’ll Never Know It All.
One of the biggest challenges facing CROs transitioning to CCO is that they don’t know or have experience in all the functions – marketing, sales, distribution, and customer service/support. At best someone might have deep experience in two but not all. That also means CCOs need to let go of tendency to ‘command and control’ and lead by example, enforce highest of ethical behavior standards, enable employees to their jobs to the best of their ability, and focus on building healthy teams.

3 Lessons That Startups Can Learn From Facebook’s Failed Credits Experiment

Editor’s note: Peter Vogel is co-founder and CEO of Plink, an online-to-offline loyalty program that rewards members for dining and shopping at their favorite national restaurants and offline stores. 

Startups face an ever-changing series of challenges. Luckily for us, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time we face a new problem. There are lots of companies out there that we can learn from, both through their successes and failures—and Facebook’s recent experiment with Credits is a great example.

Facebook made three vital mistakes that doomed the Credits experiment and never gave it a fair chance at success.

MISTAKE #1: FACEBOOK DID NOT ENCOURAGE SHARING — IF CONSUMERS DON’T HAVE A REASON TO SHARE, THEY WON’T

Consumers purchased and used Facebook Credits in a vacuum. Consumers who bought Credits typically used them in social games. This is inherently a social activity, where sharing is encouraged (brilliantly, by Game developers like Zynga); however, the process of buying Credits was practically anti-social. Only the end result was shared: a social gamer had more virtual goods to share with their friends, had advanced to a higher level in FarmVille or now had a more elaborately decorated home in The Sims Social. But gamers’ friends didn’t know that they had bought Credits or used Credits as the currency to purchase those goods.

Facebook could have encouraged users to share Credits purchases by offering purchasers a few free Credits to give away to their friends. Imagine receiving the message “John just bought Facebook Credits and thought you might like some, too” along with 5 Free Facebook Credits. That would cost Facebook about $.35* per friend — a pretty low cost for a new customer starting to use Facebook Credits. The actual cost is probably only a fraction of that, because some of John’s friends would never redeem the Credits. (Five Credits has a value of $.50, but Facebook normally keeps 30 percent when redeemed, so they realize a cost of $.35 for every five Credits redeemed.)

Or, what if Facebook offered a Credits purchaser a 25 percent discount on their next purchase of Credits if the user shared or posted about their first purchase? These are two simple ideas, but the point is that there were plenty of missed opportunities for some innovative marketing tactics on Facebook’s part.

Facebook did experiment with a few ways to encourage adoption by giving away Credits to some users and offering a highly discounted rate on a user’s first purchase of Credits. Crucially, these efforts did not encourage sharing, but instead focused on individual adoption of Credits — getting users to use or buy Credits for the first time, not to share the process or purchase of Credits.

In addition, members are still not allowed to give Facebook Credits to their friends. Credits can only be redeemed in social games or in Facebook’s App Store, not exchanged between friends. Imagine the bounty you could rack up on your birthday if each of your friends who wished you “Happy Birthday!” also gifted you 5-10 Facebook Credits ($.50 to a $1.00). Imagine the revenue Facebook could generate if users regularly started sending each other a Credit for an especially funny comment or great shared picture. Facebook tested this concept at a few colleges in 2009, but ended the test quickly and never publicly shared the results. One can assume that students in that test didn’t care too much about giving or receiving Credits because at the time there was little one could do with them. In fact, if you didn’t play social games, there really wasn’t anything to do with Credits. This is a problem that never went away—Facebook never communicated to users how or why they could use Facebook Credits.

MISTAKE #2: FACEBOOK NEVER MADE A CASE FOR CARING ABOUT CREDITS

Facebook never made an effort or easy way for users to find places to spend Credits. Why would a user want Facebook Credits if they had no idea what to do with them? Sure, a lot of social gamers probably knew you could use Credits in games to buy virtual goods or level-up faster, but only about 25 percent of Facebook’s users play games. Why would the other 75 percent want Facebook Credits? Unfortunately, Facebook never answered that question.

And there were more ways to use Credits, but members had no central place or listing to discover these ways to “spend” Credits. In 2011 users could have streamed a Widespread Panic concert live for 70 Facebook Credits or watched a variety of movies including The Big Lebowski, Jackass, Dark Knight and several others. In January of 2012, Facebook members could have watched the 2012 International Beer Pong Championships live on Facebook at a cost of 50 Credits. Granted, these examples are not varied enough to be appealing to everyone, but Facebook could have at least provided a central place where users could have found ways to use Credits. Lack of discoverability is one of the reasons why more developers didn’t make ways for users to spend Credits (see below). Why build something if no one will ever see it?

MISTAKE #3: FACEBOOK DISCOURAGED ITS PARTNERS (DEVELOPERS) FROM SUPPORTING CREDITS 

Social gaming flourished on Facebook and became a phenomenon embraced by hundreds of millions, because Facebook provided an open platform where developers could create games and share them with Facebook members, and, as a result, the games spread virally as members played online. The games were easy to find as Facebook then had very loose sharing/posting rules — rules that have since become stricter — that easily allowed members to see what games their friends were playing.

Facebook never created a place where members could find non-gaming ways to spend Credits. They could have placed a category or heading on the user’s home page, such as “Facebook Credits,” which showed users a listing of the various ways to use Credits. Without this central location, members had no way to find ways to spend Credits, except for gaming. And with only 25 percent of users playing games, how could the use of Credits ever reach a tipping point?

A “Facebook Credits” section could also have let users easily view their Credits balance. Currently, in order to see your Credits balance, a user has to click the drop-down menu next to the word “Home,” select “Account Settings,” click on “Payments” on the next page, and your Credits Balance will be listed at the top of the page. Obviously the average Facebook member will never see their Credits balance.

Developers were also discouraged from building ways for members to use Credits by Facebook’s 30 percent tax. Every time a member redeemed a $1.00 worth of Credits for virtual goods or a game upgrade, the developer would get $.70 and Facebook would keep $.30. This model may have been financially acceptable (barely) to developers of social games who were essentially selling virtual goods with little or no actual cost to provide, but this was an unworkable model for companies with a real cost of goods. For example, it would have been great to see companies like Netflix or Spotify offer a Facebook subscription where members could watch movies or listen to music for 50 Facebook Credits a month.

But most of these digital media companies pay royalties or licensing fees to utilize the songs and movies they provide to subscribers; often, there just isn’t a 30 percent margin left over to pay Facebook. Before the IPO, Facebook made a vague announcement that it would consider lowering that 30 percent tax on certain verticals, outside of social gaming, but nothing further was announced. By never making this change or providing pricing flexibility to other verticals, Facebook had limited the use of Credits to social gaming, hamstringing the currency from ever having a chance of becoming universally appealing.

Facebook added to the problem of not encouraging users to share Credits by not educating members on what Credits could be used for, and then put the nail in the coffin by financially discouraging developers from building applications or ways for consumers to spend Credits.

Start-ups would be wise to avoid this crippling trifecta of mistakes.

8 Apps You Don’t Want To Miss

Google+

Google rolled out a new version of its Google+ app for iOS and Android this week. It brings support for Google+ pages, a new design for the “Find People” feature in the Android version, and support for the iPhone 5 in the iOS version.

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Crazy Taxi

Sega released a port of Crazy Taxi this week for iOS. Sporting the same look and feel as the company’s January 2000 hit, the game can be controlled on your device’s touchscreen or by using the gyroscope.

Crazy Taxi is currently only available for iOS, however, Sega has plans to bring the game to Android in the near future

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Recall -- Reminders for Recommendations

Do you get to the bookstore only to forget the name of that great novel your friend recommended? Get to the movie theater only to find out that movie you’ve been wanting to see left theaters weeks ago?

Recall is an app designed to help you remember things. Music, movies, TV shows, and apps your friend’s recommend can be stored for easy access later on. For things that have yet to be released, Recall can also remind you when they are, so you’ll never miss that movie, book, or album you’ve been waiting for.

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Lookout Mobile Security

Lookout Mobile Security updated its app this week, adding the ability to find your Android device even if your battery is dead. A new “Signal Flare” feature in the app helps locate the last location your phone was before the battery died, potentially helping you retrieve it.

Lookout’s app also protects Android phones against malware and spyware and backs up phone data

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Twitter for BlackBerry

Twitter for Blackberry was updated this week to version 3.2. The updated version of app lets you see a preview of links and photos in a tweet, allowing you to decide if you want to click on them for more detail. The app also added a new find friends button for locating your BlackBerry contacts on Twitter and a Quick Follow button for following those friends on the service.

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Monopoly Millionaire

Monopoly Millionaire made its way to iOS this week. A new take on the classic board game, Millionaire has players battle it out to be the first to earn $1 million in the game.

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The Darkness

The '80s hair band The Darkness released an augmented-reality app this week to go along with the band’s third album, “Hot Cakes.” The iOS and Android app uses image-recognition technology to unlock virtual band memorabilia. The app also provides ticketing information for shows, and offers the ability to upload personal photos into the app.

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Lotsa Blocks

Lotsa Blocks is a block-stacking game from the same team that created the game Ramps. The iOS game has you rotate and stack blocks on top of each other to reach new levels, offering 140 different levels of gameplay spread across seven worlds.

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It can be tough to keep up with all the new apps released every week. But you’re in luck — we take care of that for you, creating a roundup each weekend of our favorite new and updated apps.

This week we found an app that will help you find a lost phone even if your battery is dead, and another that will make sure you don’t forget the name of that book your friend recommended.

A popular Sega game made its way to iPhone, and a popular glam rock band released an augmented reality app you’ll have to see to believe.

Check out the gallery above for a look at this week’s app highlights.

Still looking for more? See last week’s Apps You Don’t Want To Miss for more highlights. Think we left a great new app off the list? Let us know about your own app highlights from this week in the comments below.

Photo courtesy iStockphoto, scanrail.

17 Survival Tips for Facebook Marketing

This is the second infographic from our weekly series of infographics on Facebook Page Marketing.  Each week, we’ll be publishing a new infographic covering Facebook-related topics.  

[Update 10/5 - New post - What's Going on with your Facebook Page Reach?]

1. Completely Fill Out Your Page’s Profile - Be smart– the last thing you want is a potential fan or customer to bounce from your Facebook Page due to lack of information.  Give them a clear concise description of what your Page is all about and an easy way to connect with you on your website, Twitter, etc.

2. Don’t Ignore Facebook Insights - The vast majority of Page owners I’ve spoken to have NEVER exported their Insights data for further analysis.  It’s crazy, as most of these people depend on their Facebook Page for a significant amount of referral traffic to their website.  Don’t be one of these people please.

3. Always Write Back - This should be ingrained in the head of everyone with a Facebook Page.  It might be tough– or impossible– to respond to each and every person, especially if your posts get hundreds– or even thousands of comments– but smaller pages have no excuses.  Even if you just ‘like’ a fan’s comment– that acknowledgement could turn someone from a ‘fan’ to an advocate.

4. Don’t Oversell - Most people feel some sort of pressure– from their CEO, manager, or even themselves– to get a measurable ROI from their Facebook Marketing efforts.  The worst thing you can do in this case is oversell– as this is a sure-fire way to piss off fans.  More sales-y posts doesn’t equal more sales.  Find the right mix.

5. Moderate Spam and Negative Comments - What would you like your first impression to be when someone arrives on your page or sees a story about a friend’s interaction with your page in their newsfeed?  Thanks to some simple features (seen below), you can control this.  Quickly respond to anything negative, and hide spam.  First impressions last a lifetime!

6. Focus on Engagement, Not ‘Likes’ - How many people ‘like’ your page means nothing.  In most cases, the pages that have the most likes aren’t the pages that people actually like– it’s just the companies with the biggest advertising budgets for fan acquisition.  A funny example, you ask? Look at Audi’s Page versus the I Love Audi Page.  The community page has less than 20% of the total likes but a higher PTAT.

7. Pin the Best Posts - Although most fans don’t come back to your page after they like it, many Facebook users land on your page and make the all-important decision: to like your page, or not to like your page.  Give yourself a better chance of converting these people by pinning your best post to the top— so you can make a good first impression.

8. Keep it Short (It’s a Post, Not a Novel.) - Facebook users don’t visit the site to read paragraphs about your page.  Make your content easy to consume– i.e. a quick one-liner to go along with a photo.  You’ll get more engagement when you keep your posts below 250 characters, according to Facebook itself!

9. Post At The Right Frequency - This is one of the most controversial topics for Facebook Pages.  I’ve already said my perspective, if you want to read the long version.  There is no one answer like “Post X times per day”, as it varies from page to page.  Generally, I’d recommend 2-3x.

10. Don’t Waste Time and Money on Page Apps - Page Apps are generally a waste of resources.  It was easier when you could send traffic by default to your app pre-timeline, but look at what happened to BandPage (via TechCrunch via AppData). Prioritize your resource spending on creating quality content and getting into your fans’ Newsfeeds.

11. Know the Rules About Cover Photos - Facebook was vocal from the beginning about their rules and regulations for cover photos, yet brands continue to cross the line.  It’s only a matter of time before they start suspending/shutting down pages for these violations.  Don’t let your page be one of them.  It’s not worth losing all you’ve put into your page.

12. Always Ask, “Does This Post Help My Fans?” - Ask yourself this question before you ever hit the ‘post’ button.  Will they laugh?  Will they gain knowledge?  Will they be happy to see this?  If you can’t answer yes to at least one of these questions, scrap the post and start over.

13. Don’t Autopost from Twitter - Twitter and Facebook are two completely different beasts.  People go to each site with different expectations.  You’ll never see Starbucks or Coca Cola post the same exact message on both sites– and that’s for good reason.  Don’t do it.

14. Be Personable (No One Likes a Robot) - Your responses to comments and posts from your fans should read as if one human was speaking to another.  If you wouldn’t speak what you’re typing, don’t hit ‘enter’.  Also, sign the response with your name (-Matt from Coca Cola) adds to this human element.

15. NEVER Buy Bulk Likes - You’ll see these silly schemes all over the place.  ”$10 for 1000 likes!”  Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.  These fake likes are worthless– and now Facebook is even making moves to remove them from your page.

16. Always Stay Up-To-Date with Facebook Updates - Facebook makes changes each and every day– some minor, some significant.  Being an early-adopter can help– as Facebook typically gives new features higher visibility in the Newsfeed (i.e. Offers with it’s recent public launch).

17. Be Visual - This relates back to #8.  Grab the attention of your fans with an eye-catching photo.  It’s no secret that photos perform best on Facebook.  If you want to know why, check this out.