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Is Facebook Losing its Cool?

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I remember my senior year of college when this thing called Facebook came around. I waited rather impatiently for the time when they would open up Facebook to my university. Finally, it opened up and I was one of the first people at my school to sign up. As a result, my inbox was flooded daily with dozens of friend requests.

Fast forward a couple of years and we saw high school kids getting into Facebook. Fast forward a few more years and anyone with an email address is signing up for Facebook!

In the beginning, Facebook was an exclusive club with limited membership.  Now, this club has almost a billion members. Facebook has become the destination for extensive marketing campaigns and promotions brought to you by some of the world’s largest companies and brands. And, there’s this privacy issue that doesn’t seem to go away…

The mainstream media tells us that some teens aren’t liking Facebook as much as older users.  And, the comments in this SodaHead poll seem to suggest that Facebook has become a “geriatric social network”. There’s even this website set up for people that aren’t to jazzed that their parents are even on Facebook.

While the number of cool things that you can do on Facebook has increased, do you think Facebook’s losing its “cool” appeal to the masses? Was Facebook ever cool to begin with?

The Mid Atlantic Marketing Summit is coming to Baltimore on October 18th  where we’ll be be discussing Facebook’s coolness factor, content marketing and the next big thing. Hope to see you there!

Now it’s your turn! Take our easy Facebook poll below and then tell us what you think in the comments. To throw in some fun, we’ll be giving away a FREE marketing summit pass to someone randomly selected from the comments below.

Facebook- hot or not?

[polldaddy poll=”6580616″]

4 Things You Should Do Before Hiring a Social Media Agency

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It seems like every marketing and PR shop out there is “doing” social media – everything from influencer outreach and managing your social media presence to “getting you (insert number here) more followers – guaranteed!”. And yes, Tuvel is also a digital communications shop that offers social media services (and we do some great work, too). But the task of choosing a social media agency to help you out should not be taken lightly.

Before even starting to look at potential social media agencies, there are 4 important steps you need to take (by the way, this will help you tremendously when it comes time to writing up that RFP for agencies to bid on):

Do your research. Just as you would research the online and offline publications your audience is reading, you should also do some preliminary research into their social media habits. Are your customers/members/attendees using social media? If so, where are they? What are they talking about? This is certainly something a social media agency can help you do, but this cursory research will help you gain valuable insights and establish goals. Which is the next thing you should do…

Establish goals. This is where you need to ask yourself WHY your brand should be using social media. Use the insights from your preliminary research, in conjunction with your high-level business goals, to determine specific, trackable and realistic goals for your social media marketing efforts. Examples might be:

  • Increase awareness of your brand or product.
  • Establish a customer service channel through social media.
  • Establish your brand as a thought-leader.
  • Increase new leads and sales.
  • Increase traffic.

Evaluate resources. You may have already determined that you need to hire a social media agency to provide your organization with the additional knowledge and people-power to run a successful social media program; however, you should still evaluate the resources you already have in-house who will be assisting with program implementation, or even carrying on the effort after the agency has laid the groundwork.

Set expectations. Make sure that your internal team and management are clear on what to expect from social media. Everyone needs to understand that it will take time to build traction. Social media is also so much more than a set of tools – a well-defined social media strategy will have content, email, PR, sales and customer service elements woven into it – and everyone will need to pitch in time and effort to make it work, in tandem with the agency.

What steps do you take before hiring an outside marketing or communications agency, social media or otherwise?

VIDEO: The Power of Social Media

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The Case Foundation recently launched this amazing video called “The Power of Social Media: Connecting for Good.” It really resonated with us here at Tuvel – one of our mantras around here is “Social media isn’t just about Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – it’s about being social.” That’s exactly what this video illustrates so vividly, especially when it comes to using social media to mobilize supporters around a cause. We’ve done this with organizations like Share Our Strength, Venture Philanthropy Partners and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Enjoy the video, and I hope it inspires you to do GREAT things with social media!

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