Upaya Services works with you to identify your short and long term social media marketing (SMM), search engine optimization (SEO), and search engine marketing (SEM) objectives. We manage your SMM, SEO, and SEM for two-three months while we actively measure results, refine our outreach, and provide you with the training/skills and resources necessary to manage your own SMM-SEO-SEM projects.

Social Media Marketing – Optimized social media that shares relevant content across multiple channels.

• Channel development – we set up your social media assets, optimize for SEO, and show you how to maintain and update your social media.
• Community activation and growth – we identify the best ways to activate and grow your social media community from better “Tagging”, to “Seeding”, to great content that makes a difference!
• Content creation and aggregation – we show you how easy it is to create and source compelling content! In the end – it is all about CONTENT!

SEO – Focus on good content that is keyword rich. Drive traffic to website and social media channels from high value sites (high traffic with relevant keywords).

• Keyword research (using analytics from Google Analytics and AdWords) and optimization. Do you want to compete for keywords that your competitors are willing to pay high prices for or do you want to find the “niche” keywords that you customers are searching for and spend your money more effectively?Quality Content – Content is key! Good content creates engagement, engagement (video, commenting on blogs, sharing/commenting/liking on FB, retweeting, +++) improves SEO.
• Quality Links – Drive traffic from high volume sites (media outlet, Twitter Hashtags, Huffington Post, LinkedIn Groups) to your digital ecosystem (website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, etc).

SEM – Our Google AdWords expertise allows you to maximize your SEM budget, target relevant audiences, and drive traffic to your web channels (web, social media, blog).

• Keyword research (using analytics from Google Analytics and AdWords) and optimization. Find the”niche” keywords that you customers are searching for.
• Setup/Reset – we conduct a SEM audit to identify the areas to improve your SEM. We explore what campaigns are most relevant for your short and long term objectives.
• A/B Testing – after 2-3 months, you know how to maximize your SEM budget.

Why Upaya? The Upaya team has the ability and skillfulness to acquire and create the necessary resources to succeed. We see obstacles as opportunities to perform! We work seamlessly to craft creative solutions to every type problem (and we are good at it!). Most importantly, we are used to making possibilities out of the resources we can acquire and that you have within your organization.

Upaya Services understands the limited resources of non profits: money, human resources, and leadership bandwidth. What a organization can achieve is often limited by these factors. Upaya’s experience with a diverse clientele has given us a unique and “real time” perspective on what works and why (it is always changing!). We do not merely add to your team we multiply the effectiveness of your team and organization.

Give UPAYA a call to schedule a complimentary call to discuss how we can help you! We provide general consults, design and implementation, DIY help and training, or something in between. The Upaya definition of success: 100% satisfaction!

Ben Simon-Thomas
Principal & Founder
UPAYA CONSULTING
Voice: 510-859-4236
Email: bst@upayaservices.com

LinkedIn is becoming increasingly relevant in the target social space.  LinkedIn has made some great improvements: updated profiles, new company pages, the influencer following program, and the endorsements feature. This network is becoming even more valuable.

LinkedIn is fast becoming the destination for all aspects of your professional life, not just the place to look  for a job. Companies and organizations using LinkedIn well are treating LinkedIn much more like Facebook’s Newsfeed: posting more regularly and engaging within relevant communities.

New Year’s Resolution – ACTIVE your self and your business on LINKEDIN today!

Take home for social media…

• Be Bold! Capture Attention
• 3-6 words is all you have
• Be Familiar

Read more @ “The subject lines that reaped millions” By Michael Sebastian (http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13273.aspx#)

Staunch social media enthusiasts have rung the death knell for email.

The presidential campaign shows these doomsayers are full of it.

“Most of the $690 million Obama raised online came from fundraising emails,” reports Bloomberg Businessweek.

You might know these emails, which began with overly familiar—some might say creepy—subject lines, such as, “Hey,” or, “Do this for Michelle.”

Turns out, they brought in millions for the campaign.

Obama’s camp shared email figures with Businessweek, including the amount of fundraising dollars each subject line reaped on one day of the campaign (June 26).

They tested a number of email subject lines—a common practice in the campaign—the most successful being, “I will be outspent.” It raked in $2,540,866.

Some of the other top earners that day:

• “Some scary numbers”— $1,941,379
• “If you believe in what we’re doing” — $911,806
• “Last call: Join Michelle and me” — $894,644
• “Would love to meet you” — $755,425
• “Do this for Michelle” — $714,147
• “Change” — $711,543

As The Atlantic Wire noted, the top three earners on June 26 were “guilt-trippers.”

Over the course of the campaign, guilt-inducing subjects lines weren’t the most successful. That honor went to casual introductions. “Hey,” for example, brought in millions of dollars, according toBusinessweek.

The lesson is that a familiar tone beats one that’s more formal.

“The subject lines that worked best were things you might see in your inbox from other people,” Toby Fallsgraff, director of Team Obama’s email staff, told Businessweek.

Is that what you’ve experienced?

By Michael Sebastian | Posted: November 30, 2012

From: “The two ingredients of stories that motivate giving”, By Jeff Brooks.

We create SKILLFUL SOCIAL MEDIA!  Your customers stop being merely a demand on the limited resources of your company, they become a supply for nearly endless free resources: promoting and selling your products, discovering new applications and channels, providing support and education to the world. Understanding your target audience — and what they want right now — is the foundation for the design and execution of a great social media campaign. This understanding affords strategies that allow Upaya to connect your messaging with the right audience, at the right time. Your social media campaign is an integral part of your entire marketing outreach, and should be planned accordingly. Our analysis and recommendations are tailored to meet your unique goals and provide insight into current trends, challenges, and opportunities.

Why Upaya? The Upaya team has the ability and skillfulness to acquire and create the necessary resources to succeed. From content creation, to running inspired marketing campaigns, to creating new markets – this team see obstacles as opportunity! We work seamlessly to craft creative solutions to every type problem (and we are good at it!). Most importantly, we are used to making possibilities out of the resources we can acquire and that you have within your organization. We understand that our success depends on our team, effective decision making, and performance based incentives. Opportunities to perform are the resources that we are most interested in. We are driven to succeed and have the greatest possible impact.

Please contact me for a complete proposal. We start with an audit of your existing social media presence including goals/objectives, competitor analysis and market review, ROI analysis and summary with actionable solutions. After we conduct our social media audit, we will have a better idea of the scope of the project and what social media strategies to recommend. We will provide a detailed proposal that outlines our recommendations. ​ The integration and training typically take 4-8 week period. We also offer individual services – cost depends on scope (TBD).

We guarantee that your social media campaign will more than pay for itself (repeat clients, referrals, real time promotions, etc). Give UPAYA a call to schedule a complimentary call to discuss how we can help you use social media more skillfully! We provide general consults, design and implementation, DIY help and training, or something in between. Upaya Services delivers SKILLFUL SOCIAL MEDIA. The Upaya definition of success: your completed project must run under its own power and deliver more than you ever thought possible.

Ben Simon-Thomas

Principal & Founder

UPAYA CONSULTING

Voice: 510-859-4236

Email: bst[@] upayaservices.com

For more information, please visit UPAYA SERVICES (http://upayaservices.com/).

Facebook Cover Photo

This is arguably the biggest change made by Timeline. The Cover Photo gives companies a space that is 815×315 pixels to convey their “brand image”. However, this cannot be used as a banner ad. There are specific rules for this space, namely:

• Cannot be used for displaying pricing or purchasing info
• Cannot display contact info
• Cannot display any calls to action
• Cannot show references to Liking or Sharing page

Despite these restrictions, this space can still be used effectively. The best examples I’ve seen are the Nike Facebook page, the Ben & Jerry’s Facebook page, and the Coca-Cola Facebook page. If you look closely, you’ll see that all these companies have done creative things with the space to promote their brand.

Default Landing Tab

A big strategy used by Facebook pages to recruit non-fans to Like the page is no longer going to exist. After Timeline implementation, default-landing tabs will no longer be allowed. This means that fan-gating will no longer work for pages. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t have a landing tab. It just means that you have to pay for this “privilege”. If you purchase a Facebook ad, you still have the ability to direct users to a specific landing page. This new restriction may be a way for Facebook to increase revenue in anticipation of the upcoming IPO.

Admin Panel

Now lets examine one of my favorite aspects of Timeline; the new Admin Panel. This will help page managers view all relevant information about their page in one glance. The Admin Panel displays notifications, Insights, and the all-new messages feature. With messages, users can message a page about any issues that come up. This allows pages the ability to quickly deal with customer service issues or any other problems.

What do you think of the new Timeline for Pages? Let us know in the comments!

The Most Important Factor = Creativity!

In 2011 alone, there were over 25,000 projects launched on Kickstarter. In this type of environment, there are a lot of projects competing for donors. To be successful on Kickstarter, you absolutely need to stand out. There are many ways to do this. According to this New Media Rockstars article, a graphic novelist rewarded his backers by including them in his latest comic book. It was a successful way of getting the project noticed and funded, but from a branding perspective, it was a brilliant move. Those individuals that are part of the comic book are now fans for life.

Actionable Goals for Your Audience

Too often with start-up companies, people support the concept and team but feel helpless with how to play a part in their journey. With Kickstarter, that problem is solved. In our experience, we’ve seen support for start-ups stagnate after the initial interest phase, simply because there is no finished product that the “fan” can enjoy. Kickstarter gives supporters a feeling of being an integral part of building the product, which will make them invested in the company’s success. From a branding perspective, this is fantastic because it helps increase your early adopters and evangelists, who are pivotal in your success or failure (Ex. Apple fanatics).

Conclusion

Overall, Kickstarter is an effective source of small fundraising and branding. It is a great way to get evangelists on board and increase the excitement level surrounding your company. Let us know what you think in the comment section!

Other Resources:

Kickstarter Official Blog

• Have a second person review all posts. This is a good idea for all external communication, not just social media
• Monitor social media sentiment. This can be done the “old school” way by simply searching for and reading what people write about you. However, for larger businesses this might not be possible so using a platform like SocialVolt would be helpful
• Plan your posts in advance. This gives you time to reflect and determine if you want to edit your post for any reason, including controversy or improvement.

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

During our discussion, Mike brought up the trend of ads going from a “one to many” approach to a “one to one” approach. What this means is that while advertising has traditionally been done on a mass media basis, the trend is for advertising to become more personal. This means a switch from full page newspaper advertisements or TV ads to specific Facebook or Google ads.

Let’s do some math. If you are a company that advertises at the Super Bowl, lets say Ford, you are spending $3.5 million, even if you only have one, 30 second commercial. Now, it was reported that approximately 110 million people watched the Super Bowl. Of that 110 million person number, we can exclude about 30 million of them because they are children or college kids who won’t be buying a car. Now we’re down to 80 million. We can also exclude another 60 million, because at least 75% of the audience will not be in the market for buying a new car. This brings us down to 20 million. Of this group, maybe (and this is being generous), there are 2 million potential Ford customers. Of this group, a conversion rate of 1% or 20,000 purchases as a direct result of the ad are possible.

Now, with $3.5 million, you could run an enormously extensive online advertising campaign. For example, you could allocate $1 million for Google ads, running with keywords associated with Ford car purchases. These customers are actively looking to buy cars. Another $1 million can be used for Facebook ads, targeting people who are interested in American-made vehicles. At an average of $2/click for Google and $1/click for Facebook, you would be able to get 1.5 million potential customers to come to your site. And yes, I know the argument for Super Bowl ads includes a “brand awareness” boost. For this purpose, lets allocate the remaining $1.5 million in the budget for banner ads across the Internet (particularly on relevant sites, like car review and car magazine sites). From these banner ads, for argument’s sake, lets say another 500,000 potential customers come to your site. That brings your potential customer number to 2 million, equivalent to the Super Bowl ad number. But we forgot one key factor; conversion rate. Since your online ads are targeting Internet users who are actively looking for, or likely to buy a vehicle, your conversion rate will logically be higher. Even with a conversion rate of just 2%, you are already selling DOUBLE the number of cars you would have been able to sell from the Super Bowl ad.

Obviously the numbers used in the preceding paragraphs are a bit rough but the message is still important. Over time, advertising will start to shift towards this “personalized” direction. However, now is the time to be ahead of the game and tailor your advertising message to the group you are marketing to. It is simply common sense. If you were a big Green Bay Packers fan and there were 2 different companies advertising the same car to you: one using New York Giants quarterback, Eli Manning in the commercial and the other using Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the commercial, which are you more likely to pay attention to?

Do you have any thoughts on the future of advertising? Let us know in the comments below!

Besides all that, what can you learn from Facebook’s IPO? Well, if you haven’t done so yet, I highly recommend that you read the letter that Mark Zuckerberg (founder and CEO of Facebook) included in the IPO filing. You can find it here: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerberg%E2%80%99s-ipo-letter–why-facebook-exists.html

From Mr. Zuckerberg’s letter, there are some very important lessons to be learned. First of all, check out this particular quote from the letter:

“As people share more, they have access to more opinions from the people they trust about the products and services they use. This makes it easier to discover the best products and improve the quality and efficiency of their lives.”

As I’ve been saying for quite awhile, Facebook (and the Internet in general) are moving the world closer and closer to a tight knit community, similar to the kinds that were found in small towns years and years ago. This means that if your business doesn’t deliver the service that you promise, people will find out quickly and you WILL go out of business. For this reason, you absolutely must focus on quality and treat all of your customers as individuals, rather than just a paycheck. The empowerment of the “little guy” means that even one dissatisfied user or customer can wreck havoc on the state of your company. But…to put a positive spin on it, a satisfied customer can become the best salesman (or saleswoman) your company could ever dream of having.

Another quote: “Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.”

This has valuable connotations for any business, not just a rapidly growing tech start-up. If there’s one thing you can learn from Facebook’s business culture, it is that building something valuable and great should be the primary goal of your organization. For the business leader’s out there, this means making decisions based on customer value, not internal politics.

One last quote: “Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that’s changing so quickly, you’re guaranteed to fail if you don’t take any risks. We have another saying: “The riskiest thing is to take no risks.” We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time.”

As businesses grow, they tend to reduce the number of risks they take. The opposite needs to happen. As a business leader, you MUST be willing to try new things and be bold. Opportunities are out there for the taking but only the bold will seize them.

I could go on for hours with lessons from this letter but I’ll end it there. Let us know what you think about Mr. Zuckerberg’s letter and the Facebook IPO in the comments below!