Blog
Revealed: The Actual Worth Of A Facebook Fan
June 29, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Revealed: The Actual Worth Of A Facebook Fan
Alyson Shontell, Social media marketers often complain that their efforts aren’t measurable.
Hitwise used internal data to determine the ROI of Facebook advertising. It found that each Facebook fan generates about 20 visits per year to a retailer’s site.
“The figure of 1 fan = 20 extra visits to a website uses a unique methodology that combines Hitwise data with data from social media experts Techlightenment,” it writes.
“We took the top 100 retailers ranked in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category and benchmarked visits to those websites against the number of fans those brands had on their Facebook page. We then also looked at the propensity for people to search for those retail brands after a visit to Facebook using our Search Sequence tool.”
From that stat alone, fans are clearly worth the social media effort. http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/Revealed-The-Actual-Worth-Of-siliconalley-1117658836.html?x=0
How To Dominate Twitter And Facebook And Get Millions Of Business Followers
Use targeted advertising on Facebook Sure it’s pretty basic, but that’s for a reason. It’s the most effective tactic for growing your Facebook followers. These adds are relatively inexpensive, highly targeted, and can be customized to appeal to different prospective demographics
Pay for fans Believe it or not, there are actual services out there that guarantee you a certain number of fans–if you’re willing to pay for them. FansAndInvites.com and SocioNiks are two such companies that offer these services. You can even target fans or followers by location.
Though the companies absolutely insist that the followers they bring are real, genuine people, beware: their interest in your company or intent to support your small business probably isn’t. Still, one Facebook “like” begets more, and this is one way to get the snowball rolling in hopes of an eventual avalanche.
Incentivize clicking “like” or following on Twitter
If you’re not willing to pay for followers directly, try offering free stuff, discounts, or other attractive items. But make them available only for people who “like” you on Facebook or follow your Twitter feed.
Piggyback off hot-button issues
How did one little-known author get more Facebook fans than George Clooney? Completely by accident. But it serves as a good lesson for those looking to up their fans.
Gregory Levey’s memoir recounting his experiences as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s speechwriter was titled “Shut Up, I’m Talking.” Facebook users became fans of the book’s page for the title’s implications rather than the content of the book.
Sure, many of those fans aren’t likely to buy the book, but once again, it’s crucial to get the ball rolling. And going from 700 fans to 700,000 in a matter of months does exactly that. Consider using catchy headlines, or reference hot-button issues to garner attention for your Facebook page. The more popular it becomes the more likely you are to turn heads among people that actually might contribute to sales.
Notice trending hashtags. Maybe the popular #RIP2TheCompetition hashtag isn’t the best way to introduce the world to your business, but engaging in trending topics is an excellent way to get the word out.
For example, if you’re in the travel industry, be sure to chime in on the “Travel Tuesdays” hashtag and offer a discount to followers. Or, your company sells treats or luxury items, engage in the “TGIF” hashtag and tell all who are willing to “Like” your Facebook or follow your twitter that they’re eligible for weekend savings
Target popular tweeters
Say you’re opening a sandwich shop in your neighborhood. Seek out a popular local food blogger that tweets, and tell him about your business. Fatten him up with a free sandwich, and, if he likes it, he might fatten your social media following.
How? Be sure to tell him that any of his followers that follow your business on Twitter are welcome to a half-off sandwich. Remember, anyone interested in the blogger’s content is perfectly suited for your business. Or, for a quick gauge of your ROI, consider offering a discount to customers that mention the blogger’s name.
For a mere $8 sandwich, you could potentially gain dozens of interested followers
Create good content
If people who discover your page find it boring or useless, all that hard work you put into getting them there in the first place will go to waste. Create beautiful, compelling content that invites visitors to click around, read, and truly “like” or want to follow your page.
Update frequently
Several digital media PR experts told us the number one mistake businesses make with their Facebook and Twitter pages is they don’t update enough. Social media is not rotisserie chicken—you can’t “set it, and forget it.”
Take advantage of Facebook’s news feed, and applications like TweetDeck, by constantly updating your social media pages. It will keep you fresh in your follower’s minds and, with a little luck, can appear on news feeds–or be retweeted–to prospective customers.
Engage customers conversations
The beauty of social media is that customers truly believe they can have direct content with your company. Uphold this belief and create trust by responding to your customers who comment on your page or tweet to your account.
But don’t dare do so in PR-speak or corporatese. You’ll shatter their trust. Answer in an authentic voice that’s consistent with your values to keep existing followers happy and give reasons for new ones to hop on the bandwagon.
Respond to complaints
Remember Domino’s recent campaign that urged customers to post photos of pizza delivered to their homes? Well, here’s a shocker: some of those pictures showed some pretty sloppy, nasty pies. Worse, some pizzas depicted orders gone wrong.
Yet Dominos used social media savvy to turn a disaster into more Twitter followers. One store manager-turned-social media expert, Ramon DeLeon, took matters into his own hand. He tweeted a link to a video to one unhappy customer, and has since garnered nearly 7,000 followers.
Interest rates – TD Bank forecasts low interest this year
June 15, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
The TD Bank says Canadians can expect borrowing costs to remain near record lows for the rest of the year.
That’s because the pace of the economic recovery is expected to slow sharply in Canada, the United States and much of the world.
As such, the Bank of Canada will likely refrain from raising its key interest rates until 2012, TD says.
The central bank has had its policy rate set at one per cent since September. The rate was set at all-time low of 0.25 per cent through much of the recession, to stimulate borrowing and spending, until a series of rate hikes began last summer.
The still-low rates have been a double-edged sword for Canadians who are already piling up debt at record levels, according to the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada.
The association says Canadian household debt has reached a record $1.5 trillion, and calculates that more than half of indebted Canadians are borrowing just to afford day-to-day living expenses such as food, housing and transportation.
Low interest rates will make it easier for Canadians to keep borrowing, setting them up for a fall further down the road.
Debt is partly contributing to a slowdown in Canadian growth, says the TD Bank, because households are too tapped out to spend and stimulate the economy.
The bank says Canada’s economy is believed to have already slowed to 1.3 per cent growth during this current quarter that ends at the end of the month, one-third the pace of the first quarter’s 3.9 per cent gain.
The rest of the year will see growth crawl along between two and 2.5 per cent, the bank says.
As the recovery moderates, so will job growth. The bank says it expects the unemployment rate in Canada will remain above seven per cent throughout its forecast period to the end of 2013.
With little help from consumers, Canada will need to depend on exports and business investment to fuel growth.
The full story can be found at http://www.therecord.com/news/business/article/547758–td-bank-forecasts-low-interest-rates-this-year
Trevor Tyson in the 2011 Easter Seals Drop Zone London
June 15, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Please support Easter Seals and help kids with physical disabilities succeed!
Trevor Tyson is participating in the in the 2011 Easter Seals Drop Zone London – presented by Libro Financial Group to become a Superhero in support of Easter Seals Ontario.
Secure online donations can be made with your credit card and an electronic tax receipt will be sent to you by e-mail. Click Here to make an online donation now.
For 88 years, Easter Seals Ontario has been assisting families of kids with physical disabilities with the purchase of costly mobility equipment and communication devices. By providing financial assistance, Easter Seals performs an essential service to families who might not otherwise have the resources to obtain this equipment.
Easter Seals also owns and operates two fully accessible camp properties and is recognized as an industry leader in providing specialized recreation programs for kids with physical disabilities at Easter Seals camps.
For more information about the 2011 Easter Seals Drop Zone London - presented by Libro Financial Group, or to join us on Sep 29, 2011 8:00 AM
Please visit www.thedropzone.ca or see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_-1vFPYzRc
Thank you for taking the time to sponsor Trevor and for helping kids with physical disabilities succeed.
Canada in middle of growth spurt, to lead G7 in first half of 2011: OECD
April 11, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
OTTAWA – A leading international think-tank says Canada will lead its peers in the G7 in economic growth during the first half of this year. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says the outlook for economic growth has brightened for all G7 countries, with the exception of Japan .
But the improvement has been most marked in Canada and to a lesser extent the United States.
“The outlook for growth today looks significantly better than it looked a few months back,” OECD chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan said in a statement.
“Growth perspectives are higher all across the OECD area, and the recovery is becoming self-sustained, which means there will be less need for fiscal or monetary policy support.”
Canada is now expected to grow by 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, and 3.8 per cent in the current second quarter.
Much of that growth has come from the resources sector in Western Canada and continued strength in the housing market in most parts of the country.
Germany is the next strongest economy, with growth rates of 3.7 and 2.3 per cent in the two quarters.
Overall, the Paris-based organization says the G7 economies excluding Japan are set to grow at an annual rate of about three per cent in the first half of 2011, well above the organization’s previous forecast.
The growth estimates given by the OECD are the middle of a range, meaning the rates could be slightly lower or higher.
The new forecasts exclude Japan because of the uncertainty over the full cost of damage from last month’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.
The Canadian economy began the year with an impressive 0.5 per cent expansion in January that has set the stage for the strongest quarter in a year, according to Statistics Canada.
The performance was in line with market projections, but still was a mild surprise because many economists had worried of a possible payback after December’s equally robust 0.5 per cent gain in gross domestic product.
The strong back-to-back months put the economy on pace to grow by as much as 4.5 per cent in the first three months of the year, analysts have said. That’s two whole points more than the Bank of Canada’s now-dated estimate. At that growth rate, the pace of job creation should be high enough to continue pushing down the national unemployment rate, currently 7.8 per cent.
In the last year, the Canadian economy has created 322,000 jobs and has rebounded nicely from the 2008-2009 recession that battered the country’s manufacturing sector.
In some sectors of the economy, price pressures have been building, raising the prospect of higher interest rates down the road to fight inflationary pressures.
The next scheduled announcement on interest rates from the Bank of Canada is April 12, although the central bank isn’t expected to change its policy rate at that time from the current one per cent. Another announcement is scheduled for May 31, after the federal election.
Most economists believe Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney will leave a hike on the sidelines until July
By The Associated Press – http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/Canada-middle-growth-spurt-capress-340380811.html?x=0
London and St. Thomas Home sales
April 11, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Home sales in London posted a year-over-year decrease in the fourth quarter of 2010. Residential sales totaled 1,617 units in the fourth quarter, down seven per cent from activity in the same period in 2009.
On an annual basis, home sales totaled 8,389 units in 2010, up one per cent from 2009.
Single detached home sales numbered 1,090 units in the fourth quarter of 2010, down three per cent from year-ago levels.
The number of months of inventory climbed to six at the end of the year, up from 4.7 months at the end of 2009. Homebuyers took advantage of this, and extended their shopping time from the previous fourth quarter.
The median sale price for single detached homes rose six per cent from year-ago levels to $224,250 in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Century 21 London
Century 21 London
