It’s true the buzz phrase of the year is “social media marketing.”

Recently there has even been a new term coined called “social influence marketing.”

Are you still at a loss of what social media it is and why it may be important to your business? I understand, so let me see if I can bring some clarity and demystify the phrase that often causes business owners to get a headache.

Think of social medial like this — you enter a bar and there are conversations going on at each table. You hear one conversation about work, another about a brand new vehicle someone purchased and perhaps the other is a business meeting where co-workers are discussing the latest strategy in their industry. Are you with me? If so, good — let’s continue.

Think of the sphere of social media has this bar. All of these conversations are floating around. There is a lot of information sharing, opinions being broadcasts and relationships being created. Does that help?

Now, I want to show you how big these spheres are growing by sharing with you some recent statistics that were reported by Econsultancy. These statistics are recent, it will give you a glimpse of how quickly social media is growing and the impact it is having on businesses today.

• There are over 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• One half of YouTube users visit the site at least once a week.
• There are over 250 million users on Facebook and 120 million of them log onto Facebook once a day.
• At least 30 million of the Facebook users access Facebook via their mobile phones.
• Over the last twelve months Twitter has broken the 1000% barrier of year-over-year growth.
• It’s estimated that there are 6 — 10 million global users on Twitter.
• Tuesday is the most active day on Twitter, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.

Do you still think you can afford to ignore social media marketing?

Success or failure?  While the billboard did create buzz among the I-35 North commuters, I don’t know if I would call this campaign brilliant.First off, we all know that viral marketing success is extremely difficult to track. I can tell you that based on my own web traffic analytics people were very interested in who initiated this billboard proposal but for a truly successful viral campaign I would think those searching would have found Helzberg, not me.  Could that be point of failure Number 1?The reason I question the success of the viral campaign are for the following reasons:Was it tracked?  What determined the success? What was the outcome that was desired? Why was the campaign not followed through online?I’m also not sure that the banner they have placed over the billboard proposal makes sense.  It now reads “This guy proposed on a billboard, regular men go to Helzberg.“Truth be told we as women don’t want to marry ordinary or regular men, so the natural next question I have — Is the skinny little guy with the beady eyes on the billboard really single?  Hmmm…single girls might want to know, especially if they are not looking for the “regular” guy.When it comes to an advertising concept, in order to work in a viral perspective, the concept needs to add value to the user’s experience. This value can be explicated in something entertaining, in something educational or in something rewarding.  I agree that the billboard was entertaining, but does it fit in adding to the user’s experience?I realize I could be missing key-points to this campaign, since I’ve not been in the market for diamonds lately. I’m interested in more details because where I’m standing I’m not really seeing the success of this viral campaign.While Helzberg may have been speaking to the gentlemen out there, they have now put the thought in the woman’s mind that if her guy buys a diamond at Helzberg — he is just a “regular” guy.

Last week on my way into work I noticed a billboard that displayed a proposal

Jennifer will you marry me 

–John

First off, thank goodness he included his picture after all how many Jennifer and Johns are there.  I actually giggled when I saw the billboard, because my first thought was how long has that been there.  I couldn’t help but to wonder if she had driven past it like I had done in previous days without it grabbing my attention.

My perception is now not only do we encounter banner blindness, but we have also developed a level of billboard blindness.  

Perhaps I’m cynical when it comes to romance, a woman scorned per say who doesn’t necessarily believe in the happily-ever-after myth, but I do hope for his sake that she saw it the first time, because wouldn’t that be a disappointment if she didn’t — eek! 

So John all of us who drive Northbound on I-35 into downtown Kansas City want to know what her answer was. Did she in fact say yes and did she see it on the first day it was displayed?  

For all the others reading this what do you think of traditional billboard advertising (not necessarily for proposals) —  Is it effective? 

This weekend we decided to venture out to try a new restaurant in our area. I love trying new places. It gives me a chance to see if their marketing is inline with what they are selling. I must admit I had to coax my significant other to take a chance with me and go to this china grill. Their claim to fame — healthy chinese.

I love chinese food, but I’ll be honest lately I’ve been trying to lose a few pounds (bkini weather is coming) so we are being a little more cautious about what we are eating these days. Their website stated that most dishes were under 10 grams of fat and their food was not deep-fried. I’m sold!

We headed out and I must say the atmosphere was fantastic. A gorgeous restaurant that was quaint and the service excellent. Angel is a bit picky when it comes to dining out. He’s happy with a meal at home, so when he ventures out he wants great food with a classy atmosphere — we struck gold. This place fit the bill and I’m happy to say he was pleased.

One thing he did state which I totally agree with — is while the name is catchy it didn’t quite explain the dining experience you were in for. They are in for a bit of a marketing challenge. Their hope in successful marketing will depend mostly on word of mouth, so I’m doing my part here. I love the fact that they encompass an upscale chinese restaurant with healthy options.

The amaretto sour and martinis were great as well. Cheers!

I’ve been missing in action. Ok, not actually missing just busy. As many know I started a new position a month ago, so I have not been posting as regularly as usual.

I promise it will get better, I’m beginning to strike a routine and get in a groove.

Now since I recently promoted PayPerPost, I feel the need to first of all retract that raving review. I’ve given the concept a lot of though, listened to my readers, and now I am willing to admit I was wrong.

While I do think that PayPerPost in general is a grand idea — it contains it’s own flaws. I do understand the need for disclosure. After all when we read reviews we place a certain value on that review. For example, recently I ordered the Blackberry Pearl. I wanted to know what others though ot it, before I dropped the cash. What did I do? I research reviews online, reading what others thought of this phone. The reviews were helpful and I felt I could trust them.

If we do in fact turn blogs into paid advertisements without disclosures we discount the value of the review. Truth is I’m all for making money, but we do have an obligation when it comes to our readers. If we mislead them once do you think they will believe you in the future? You must place the value on your audience not on false advertisements just to gain a buck.

Jim and William thanks for helping me see a different perspective.