» 2011 » December

So last week I came across KISSmetrics.com, a person-based analytics platform stating a “guarantee” that their software will “help you increase your sales.”

Apparently, KISSmetrics was built specifically to provide established and start-up businesses metrics relevant to their marketing goals, especially ecommerce, lead generation, on-demand software (SaaS or software as a service), mobile, and other businesses that monetize in forms other than advertising.

The platform helps businesses create and manage split tests and measure conversion funnels – more particularly how different actions such as “referrers, promotions, or split tests affect those funnels.” KISSmetrics also provides real-time data so users can understand their consumers’ behaviors and interactions with their products and services as it is happening.

According to their website, Hootsuite and amazon.com are among the major companies utilizing KISSmetrics’ comprehensive analytics.

KISSmetrics is a paid service, however, you can sign up for a free trial period right here.

As I was sifting through Facebook today, I came across a video that my acquaintance Scott Ayers over at Hubze.com posted on his wall titled “The New Rules of Engagement.”

The video features “motivational poet and strategic storyteller” Sekou Andrews discussing (or perhaps more appropriately reciting) consumer-client relationships, more important how to build relationships with your market base. In his 3-minute+ soliloquy, Sekou repeatedly stated that the foundation of a beneficial consumer-client relationship lies in the new rules of engagement which if properly done results in a return on investment – I couldn’t agree more!

Anyway, let Sekou tell you! For more on The New Rules of Engagement as told by Sekou click here.

And if aren’t already, make sure you “Like” us at Facebook.com/CloutMedia.

Here are two websites I recently came across that all Twitter marketers should utilize to help maximize their viral outreach.

TrendsMap.com, a real-time trends mapping portal, provides Twitter users an abundance of information regarding popular trending words or topics as they populate the social network in overall tweets and only show the important ones. Trends Map continuously tracking twitter trends regionally and globally, allowing individuals to see what users are talking about right down to the second.

I haven’t been this excited about a Twitter tool in like – forever! Trends Map is a must for marketers seeking to interact and capitalize on Tweeters interested in industry-related conversation.

The second website I came across that tickled my fancy was MentionMapp.com, an exciting web app which explores and maps your Twitter mentions. Mention Mapp is the perfect way to find relevant users by allowing you to discover who interacts the most with what you and they are talking about.

Mention Mapp works by uploading users’ tweets and displaying data visualizations of discussions between users in clusters. “The lines drawn between nodes [i.e., users, hashtags, images, etc.] become thicker if the users talked about each other more often. This draws the viewer’s attention to big discussions. Hovering over an edge also reveals the exact number of mentions.”

If you haven’t already, then you definitely need to include TrendsMap.com and MentionMapp.com to your existing arsenal of Twitter tools.

A new study conducted by NM Incite, a subsidiary of the Nielsen McKinsey company, revealed the top reasons why Facebook users add friends and conversely delete friends.

Real-life acquaintances was the top reason users add friends according to the survey; 82% of people surveyed cited “Knowing [a person] in real life” as the reason for adding them as friends on Facebook. Having some form of intimacy with an individual was also a top reason as 60% of people agreed that being “Mutual friends” contributed to adding friends on the social network.

In contrast, 55% of those surveyed said they removed friends for “Offensive comments,” while 41% deleted friends because they didn’t know the person well enough. Other reasons for getting deleted included pitching users something products, depressive commentary, and lack of interaction.

The study suggests that men were more likely too use Facebook for career networking opportunities, and more trifling matters, like dating (8% of men admitted to adding friends based on a persons “Physical attractiveness.”) Women on the other hand were more likely to utilize the social network as a creative outlet, to collect promotional coupons, and provide positive feedback.

For more on this study view the infographic underneath or visit NMIncite.com.

“*Methodology: NM Incite, State of Social Media Survey (April 2011). NM Incite’s ‘State of Social Media Survey’ is based on a representative sample of 1,865 adult (18+) social media users who were recruited from the Nielsen Online Panel to take an online survey. “Social media user” is defined as participating, talking, and networking online through various platforms to share information and resources. This includes Internet forums, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, video sharing, consumer rating and other social networking websites. The survey fielded from March 31 to April 14th.”

People often think that attaining media contacts is difficult but what they often don’t realize is that most of those contacts are right underneath their noses. All it takes is a phone call to a publication’s editorial department, or better yet, a simple copy and paste from a media outlet’s website into a spreadsheet.

Emails and even phone numbers can easily be found on a website’s “Contact” or “About Us” page. Blog usually have email addresses on the home page – as a side note, you may want to scroll through blogrolls to find new websites, and thus, contacts that you may not have known about.

Now that the simplicity of finding the media contact is out of the way, organizing them in a manner that is clear and easily accessible is important. The best way to create an organized media contacts list is to open up a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. First designate categories like “Publication/Website,” “Contact Person,” “Email,” “Phone,” “Address,” and “Status/Notes.”

Next, as we mentioned at the top, simply copy and paste all the pertinent information into the proper categories. Note, if you cannot find a phone number for a specific contact feel free to call the publication and ask for the particular journalist’s extension number.

Utilize the “Status/Notes” category for any detailed information you may learn about each contact. For example, if the contact prefers to be called at a certain time or whether they prefer to be contacted via email, etc.

Building media contact lists is fairly simply and straight-forward. The duty might become a little tedious, however, once you’ve established a long list of media contacts you’ll be happy you took the time out to do so.