| "In America, you have the watches but no time. In | | | | marketing sites, which are not all created equal. |
| Nairobi, we have the time but no watches." That's a | | | | This brings you back to the basics of direct marketing |
| familiar quote I heard recently from "Evans," an | | | | and defining your target market. The following social |
| international student from Kenya who is currently | | | | media summary will help you filter what makes the |
| enrolled at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth | | | | most sense for your business. Keep in mind that the |
| College. He got me thinking about the economics of | | | | targeted groups within a social network (e.g., LinkedIn) |
| marketing in the U.S., and how the proliferation of social | | | | may be just as important the network(s) you choose. |
| networks has influenced media consumption and | | | | Take a targeted approach to social media. |
| business user engagement. Although it is rarely thought | | | | Would a gun safety instructor hand you a blindfold and |
| of in this context, the rise of social marketing is rooted | | | | take you to the Bronx Zoo? Of course not, but why |
| in basic economic principles. When the price is "zero," | | | | are we so cavalier about social marketing just |
| the laws of supply and demand often are ignored, but | | | | because it is free? Again, there is no free lunch, so |
| they still are relevant. Don't forget another familiar | | | | evaluate the opportunity cost of your time and do not |
| quote: "There is no free lunch!" | | | | target the wrong audience or there could be negative |
| Back to Basics-The Economics of 'Free' | | | | implications to your brand. There's nothing wrong with |
| Remember those undergraduate days, waking up | | | | a shotgun approach when shooting skeet (moving |
| from an afternoon nap seated in a lecture hall, dazed | | | | targets like search algorithms), and the same is true for |
| and confused by a myriad of supply and demand | | | | connecting with your target market. Here's a list of |
| curves compounded by explanations of elasticity and | | | | resources you may use to reach your market with |
| marginal utility? Well, all that stuff is still the foundation | | | | social media. It's never too late to get started. |
| for business behavior today and will continue to be the | | | | Free Social Media Resources for Business (Top 100) |
| underlying principles of the free market economy. | | | | Aggregation Tools (5): Bloglines, FriendFeed, |
| While there may have been hype about the | | | | Lifestream.fm, Lijit, YouBundle |
| "chocolate rainmaker" (YouTube celebrity) and | | | | Blogs (7): Blog.com, Blogger, Livejournal, Posterous, |
| "twitters being quitters" (retention rate concerns), the | | | | Tumblr, Typepad, Wordpress |
| basic economic principles remain essential to | | | | Blog Directories (10): Blogapedia, Blogarama, |
| understanding current social marketing trends in | | | | BlogCatalog, Blogdirs, Blog Flux, Bloghub, Blog Listing, |
| business today. A couple of modifications to traditional | | | | Blogtoplist, BritBlog, Technorati |
| variables can help explain the logic supporting the rise | | | | Bookmarks (12): Delicious, Digg, Diigo, Fark, Mixx, |
| of marketing "freeconomics." Here's how it works in a | | | | MyBlogLog, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Slashdot, |
| free market. | | | | StumbleUpon, Yahoo! Buzz |
| Traditional laws of supply and demand state that | | | | Comment Systems (2): DISQUS, IntenseDebate |
| increased prices are the result of decreased supply | | | | Free Directory Listings (25): Akama, Bateekh, BizHWY, |
| and/or increased demand; the inverse also is true. For | | | | Cardboard, CrunchBase, DMOZ, EVliving, |
| example, with all other factors remaining constant, you | | | | GetFreeListing, Google Local, IllumiRate, Jayde, Jigsaw, |
| can generally expect to negotiate lower mailing list | | | | Librarians' Internet Index, Little Web Directory, Manta, |
| prices when there is a greater supply of lists on the | | | | MerchantCircle, NextMark, Simple Directory, Spoke, |
| market and/or a decrease in the demand for list rental. | | | | SuperPages, TurnPike, VentureBeat Profiles, |
| This macroeconomic principle is based on perfect | | | | WebBuyersGuide, Web World, Yahoo! Local |
| competition, so don't jump the gun and expect to | | | | Name Checks (2): Namechk, Usernamecheck |
| negotiate a 50-percent net-name arrangement on a | | | | Post Documents (3): eHow, Google Docs, Scribd |
| highly targeted, niche response list of 5,000 names. | | | | Post Presentations (3): AuthorSTREAM, Myplick, |
| Putting the traditional list industry model aside, how | | | | Slideshare |
| does macroeconomic theory relate to social marketing | | | | Post Videos (2): Vimeo, YouTube |
| when the price of those services is "zero"? First | | | | Press Releases: (4): i-Newswire, PR.com, |
| remember, there is no free lunch. The variable for price | | | | PressReleasePoint, PRLog.org |
| simply needs to be replaced with the opportunity cost | | | | Publish Articles (5): ArticleDashboard, Articles |
| of time, which in itself can have a wide range | | | | FACTORY, Ezinearticles, IdeaMarketers, Yahoo |
| depending on who is most engaged in the process. | | | | Articles Group |
| Within the macroeconomic context of "price," the | | | | Social Networks (8): Biznik, Crowdvine, Facebook, |
| opportunity cost of time generally will be lower as the | | | | LinkedIn, Naymz, Ning, NowPublic, Plaxo |
| supply of time is increased due to factors like | | | | Twitter Tools (5): Grader, Ping, TweetDeck, |
| unemployment or idle capacity. This makes the relative | | | | TweetLater, Twitter |
| labor "price" more attractive and increases the | | | | URL Shorteners (4): bit.ly, doiop, memurl, TinyURL |
| demand for services that enable businesses to | | | | Wikis (3): Pbwiki, Wetpaint, Wikipedia |
| leverage those resources; it goes without mentioning | | | | Here are three tips to help you with choosing the right |
| that there are a lot of independent consultants out | | | | services for your business. |
| there trying to rule the blogosphere. | | | | Tip 1: Since PageRank is important to your exposure |
| Explicitly stated, the economic downturn resulted in an | | | | on the Google search engine results page (SERP), you |
| increase in the supply of labor and a decrease in the | | | | may want to check out the page rank for each of |
| average marketing budget. Therefore, companies and | | | | these services as well. That can be done for free |
| individuals are challenged once again with delivering | | | | online by using the PageRank Checker (higher = |
| more for less. Social networks, bookmarking services, | | | | better). |
| free business listings and affiliate programs become | | | | Tip 2: adding your blog to the directories can improve |
| more attractive when we have fewer "watches" and | | | | your search rankings and exposure; the same is true |
| more time. The suppliers of these services, mostly in | | | | for your web site and your business. That's the reason |
| the form of online application service providers, benefit | | | | for including the 35 directory listings (25 free directory |
| from the free labor and leverage the resulting assets | | | | listings + 10 blog directories) in the top 100. You only |
| (content) as a platform for contextually targeted | | | | need to do it once, so take advantage of them. |
| advertising solutions and other innovative message | | | | Tip 3: be careful which URL shortening service you |
| delivery systems used to stimulate demand and add | | | | use, as it may affect your future search rankings. Not |
| revenue. | | | | all URL shorteners are created equal, and there are a |
| Furthermore, the implications for search engine | | | | surprising number of issues to consider when choosing |
| optimization (SEO) expand the value proposition to | | | | one of these services. You certainly could roll your |
| include getting noticed from higher positions on search | | | | own to have full control, but there are plenty of good |
| engine results pages (SERPs). Bookmarking services | | | | commercial solutions available for free. Just be careful |
| provide external links that may be scored by search | | | | to avoid those services that point to their Web site |
| algorithms to increase a particular Web site's ranking | | | | with your site in their wrapper, as they rob your site of |
| by Google and other major search engines. This is a | | | | the fuel from external links, devalue your analytics and |
| key benefit to marketing professionals who have | | | | generally undermine your business. |
| embraced the digital revolution, but it's still not that easy | | | | A best practice is to choose a service that uses a 301 |
| to measure the ROI. Despite any claims that search | | | | redirect, indicating that the short URL referring link be |
| rankings can be mastered by prioritizing domains for | | | | moved to the long URL as the permanent address for |
| placing external links, an effective long-term strategy | | | | your Web site. In contrast, a 302 redirect tells the |
| must recognize that SEO is a moving target-especially | | | | search engine that your destination is temporary, and |
| as personalized SERPs continue to evolve and take | | | | the service provider can subsequently take credit |
| root. If that doesn't leave you feeling out of control, | | | | (SEO results) for the link-that's bad. |
| then add in the fact that there are hundreds of social | | | | |