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Facebook

How Facebook Got 6 Million Free Workers

by Eric Miltsch on 06/15/2009 · Comments

Give it up for Facebook and their latest marketing stunt: Vanity URL’s.

Within hours, Facebook wrangled about 6 million people to convert their profile URL from,

this: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1128085240
to this: www.facebook.com/ericmiltsch

Does this help you? Sure, maybe you feel better now that your name isn’t a number. Personally, I haven’t seen my Facebook profile move up in the search results.

Who does this help? Facebook. They’re hoping everyone forwards their address to everyone not on Facebook. Imagine if half of those 6 million people sends their new URL to 25 Facebook noobs. That’s 75,000,000 new, warm referrals. Imagine if your business got 75mm warm leads. For free.

Want to beat Facebook at their own game? Here’s two ways to make either your personal, or professional brand, just a little different from everyone else. And that little bit can go a long way.

Collateral full movie Shorten your URL using any site that shrinks URL’s with the ability to customize and provide tracking. Several sites will do the trick – for this example I’ll show you what I did using BudURL.com’s service a few months ago.

Radio Flyer divx I changed my original long URL to this: http://budurl.com/fbem. The last four characters signify ‘Facebook Eric Miltsch’

Other examples follow the same naming convention for consistency:

budurl.com/dgem | Digg

budurl.com/dlem | Delicious

budurl.com/viem | Vimeo

budurl.com/twem | Twitter

budurl.com/suem | Stumbleupon

Another easy way is to purchase your own custom domain name and simply forward it to your social profile site, such as: EricMiltschOnFacebook.com or some other variation.

You need to do everything possible to promote your personal or professional brand – put your name(s) first.

We’ll see what happens in a couple of weeks when Facebook Pages can get their Vanity URL’s as well.

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David Letterman&amp;amp;#039;s Sex Jokes About Sarah Palin&amp;amp;#039;s Daughter

by Eric Miltsch on 06/13/2009 · Comments

Heist rip David Letterman recently had some fun, at the expense of Sarah Palin’s daughter.

Before I go any further – let’s be sure we all understand one fundamental point: This is NOT a political post. Save yourself the keystrokes before commenting about how I’m anti-Republican, pro-Democrat or how I should worship the ground Rush Limbaugh walks on.

Dave made a couple of sexual jokes about Sarah Palin’s daughter involving Alex Rodriguez (NY Yankees) and Elliot Spitzer. (Ex-NY Governor) Not necessarily his best material, but it was an easy, timely target.

What kills me are the responses from both Sarah and Todd Palin. From their Facebook page. Watch the video and you’ll hear their comments.

They took a desperate, off-course approach by saying the jokes about their 14yr. old daughter were inappropriate. Of course, if that’s who he was talking about, it would have been uncalled for. But, he wasn’t talking about the 14yr. old. He was talking about the one considered an adult now. (And the argument that she’s a young adult is weak. She was old enough to…well, you know the rest)

I find it mildly amusing that the person who had a shot at holding, what many consider, the second highest ranking job in the free world, would use Facebook to voice her comments.

I use Facebook to laugh at old pictures of me and my fraternity friends doing ridiculous things that late night TV hosts would use against me if I ran for office. Ah, the power of Facebook.

Public officials, especially those running for a spot in the White House, have to expect to be thrown under the bus. Public officials with a teenager who is already a parent, well, that’s simply a teed-up ball waiting to be smacked out of the park.

Their Facebook comments made Dave’s “apology” a grand slam.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Palin’s comments as well as Dave’s jokes. (But please, don’t make it a political discussion. That’s not what this about.)

Broken Arrow on dvd

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4 Ways to Create A Successful Online Presence

by Eric Miltsch on 06/07/2009 · Comments

I recently had the honor of presenting a case study to the executive management team from Wegmans. For those not familiar, Wegmans is the pinnacle of grocery shopping, having created a shopping experience unlike any other.

People leaving the Rochester area actually include Wegmans as a must-have when deciding where to move.

Cherish download

The case study presented include some of the online technology solutions and social media guidelines I created for Auction Direct USA. Regardless of the market segment, basic underlying tenets can be applied to creating and managing a successful online campaign.

Create A Unique Online Experience

Does the design stand out above your competitors?
Is your website memorable?
Are key items easily called out and identifiable?
Can visitors provide instant feedback?
Are you leveraging social channels and tools to extend your online reach?

Create a Continuous Improvement Process

Are you actually listening to your visitors feedback and comments?
Are you gaining real-time feedback with questions and polls via blogs and micr-blogging platforms?
Who will manage customer feedback; is there an escalation process?
Is the feedback directed to the appropriate contacts and departments?
Is your online brand being managed (ie: Brand mentions, keywords and competitors?)

Create Metrics to Measure Performance & Ensure Growth

Have you implemented a management process to measure past performance, marketing results and benchmarks for your segment?
Are you measuring traffic performance with items such as visitor locations, exit/entry locations and bounce rates?
Are you monitoring analytics to ensure efficient web activity? (ie: Key sections, effective ad channels, conversions)

Create a Social Media Presence with Specific Objectives

Activities on the major networks are a must: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter & YouTube
Communicate the overall plans with your internal staff; be sure everyone is on the same page
Keep the message congruent between online & offline channels – consistency is so important
Emphasize your visitors – not you or your company; create authority, build confidence and earn their trust
Develop specific objectives and measure them. (ie: New sign-ups, leads, appointments, revenue, etc.)

What has helped improve your online presence?