By Amaya Marichal

Same old story. You’re writing a review for the company’s Newsletter or an article for a popular magazine. Maybe it’s just an email or a simple post for Tumblr. But there it is: The Almighty Message. You look at your text and you can’t help but wonder if it’s alluring enough to get everybody’s attention. And trust me, you WANT everybody’s attention…

It’s been 6 years since the first time I wrote a post for my blog and I still can’t define with precision what readers want. There are, of course, some general guidelines to follow but you must take into consideration that intuition is a very important matter in this process.

Creating killer content is something beautiful and inspiring, isn’t it? Well, let me warn you: it may become your worst nightmare if you are totally clueless.

But don’t worry. We know sometimes it’s difficult to produce attractive messages and that’s the reason why we’ve got some useful tips. What follows is a list of things you should be doing to get the most out of your text and to seduce your readers ASAP:

• Catchy headlines. This is the most important advice of all. Headlines, more than anything else, will catch the eye of your readers (and potential customers). Make them curious! They won’t read the text if the headline doesn’t grab their attention. You can start reading the headlines of popular articles to get an idea. Once you understand  why magnetic headlines pull readers in, you’ll want to have them every time. Don’t be afraid to be a little bold and crazy when it comes to headlines. This is the perfect occasion to be flashy!
• Flawless text. Oh, the eternal problem of a text full of errors. Please, have a little respect for your readers and get used to consulting a dictionary or thesaurus. Believe it or not, once you train yourself to detect errors, you can’t NOT detect them. Remember that mispelling is just as repulsive as bad breath, and you don’t want that.
• Decorate your work of art. As much as possible, include a relevant photo or graphic. I know you think your text is so perfect that it doesn’t need anything else. Just remember that a picture is worth a thousand words.
• Read, read, read! Yes, you’ve got it right. I did say “read”. If you want to become a good writer, you can start by reading good stuff. The more you read, the better equipped you’ll be. That should give you lots of ideas for hot topics and catchy phrases for your readers.
• How-to articles. Sometimes you must be useful to your readers by teaching them something new or showing them resources they can use to accomplish a task. If there’s some kind of knowledge or guide in your text, it’s almost sure that your readers will bookmark it and share it with their friends.  So, be helpful and your content will be viral.
• My top 10. People love lists about anything. And the great thing about lists is that they are very easy to read (and to write). Your readers can easily catch your main points without having to spend much time reading the whole text. So, take advantage of bullets  to have a better structure, summarize your content and share your top 10 points.

Finally, please note that it’s not what you write but how you write it what makes your content charming.

En esta ocasión Leonel Azuela participa como expositor invitado en la clase de Mercadotencia Política impartida por el profesor Luis Alvarado de la Maestría en Mercadotecnia del Tecnológico de Monterrey.

El tema del radiochat es “Redes Sociales”.

1er. Parte – Haga Clic Aquí

En este capítulo de nuestro podcast, Amaya Marichal habla sobre Redes Sociales como invitada en el curso de Comunicación de Mercadotecnia y Medios Alternativos impartida por el profesor Luis Alvarado de la Maestría en Mercadotecnia del Tecnológico de Monterrey.

2da. Parte – Haga Clic Aquí

Nota: Para oir los podcast, necesita de Real Player, si no tiene instalado el plug-in haga clic aquí.

Alterian SM2 is a monitoring solution designed for brand marketers and public relations. It helps you keep track of conversations and the positive/negative feelings about your brand, customers, and competitors through different social media channels such as wikis, blogs, and photo sharing sites.

Alterian SM2 is a user-friendly tool that offers a great variety of reporting options to identify location, demographics, and the emotion of what is being said.

By Diego Avalos

Email Marketing is nothing more than what is defined by its literal meaning: it is to use email as a means of marketing communication.

Whether you are sending a promotional direct mail to acquire new customers by persuading them to buy again or to design some email from the templates of your favorite program or leave them to the business experts from outside, you should take into account:

1 .- When using a direct mail using a list of contacts (whether owned or rented) and  your email carry promotional messages or advertisement a special offer, be sure to regionalize or segment according to your offer.

2 .- Instead of just designing your email to encourage consumers to buy, remember that you can send messages of “retention”, which usually take the form of a “newsletter.” This bulletin also carry promotional messages or advertisements,  but must have a lasting impact for your clients. This is achieved by adding interesting or entertaining information that interests your customers.

3 .- Adding ads to other emails, instead of making your own, will serve to be released and start creating your own base, so you can take into account these other advertising spaces.

While these points may sound “cheap”, Marketing in emails is usually more complex. If you want your emails to become a success and your customers to read and respond to your message, is just a matter of “asking permission”. This means that you need the consent of the person who is sending the message in order to get the user’s interest  and to avoid being seen as SPAM or unsolicited email.

With these simple steps, you can start easly Email Marketing faultless and gradually go deeper into this field.

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Introduciéndonos al Marketing de correo electrónico

El Marketing de correo electrónico no es más que lo que se define por su significado literal: es usar el correo electrónico como medio de comunicación en mercadotecnia.

Ya sea mandando directamente un email promocional para adquirir nuevos clientes persuadiéndolos a comprar nuevamente o diseñar algún correo desde las plantillas de su programa favorito o dejándolos a personas expertas pero ajenas a su negocio, debe de tomar en cuenta lo siguiente:

1.- Cuando utilice un correo directo usando alguna lista de contactos (sea propia o alquilada) y su correo lleve mensajes promocionales o anuncie alguna oferta especial, no olvide regionalizarlos o segmentarlos de acuerdo a la oferta que está ofreciendo.

2.- En lugar de  que solo diseñe su email para alentar a comprar al consumidor, recuerde que puede enviar mensajes de “retención”, los cuales por lo general adoptan la forma de un “boletín de noticias”. Este boletín además de llevar mensajes de promoción o publicidad, deberá tener un impacto a largo plazo para sus clientes, esto se logra agregando información interesante o entretenida que les interese a sus clientes.

3.- Agregarse como publicidad a otros emails en lugar de realizar el propio le servirá al principio para darse a conocer y empezar a crear su propia base, así que puede tomar muy en cuenta esos espacios publicitarios de los demás.

A pesar de que estos puntos puedan sonar “baratos”,  el Marketing en los correos electrónicos suele ser más complejo, pero para que su meta se vuelva todo un éxito y los clientes lean y respondan a su mensaje, solo es cuestión de “pedir permiso”, esto significa que usted necesita el consentimiento de la persona a la que va a mandar el mensaje ; esto con la finalidad en primera instancia de que al usuario le interesa y en segunda para que no lo considere como SPAM o correo no solicitado.

Con estos sencillos pasos, usted puede empezar un fácil Mercadeo por Correo Electrónico sin fallos y poco a poco ir adentrando más en este campo para que cuando empiece a medir sus alcances a detalles, pueda realizar ofertas más ambiciosas.

By Jorge Jaimes

It’s late Friday, Joe and his family have just arrived at home; everyone enjoyed one of those 3D movies and had a delicious dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant in the mall.  Even though it’s kind of late, nobody is tired enough to go to bed, so, before too long, all of them make their way to their keyboards. Joe’s wife is already digging into her inbox while their teenaged daughter is chatting and posting on Facebook; and their little son is playing some kind of online penguins game on his computer.

Joe makes a quick trip to the kitchen, just to heat up a big cup of coffee, gives it a sip, adds a bit of sugar, makes his way to his laptop; sits back and relaxes in front of the bright thin screen to check his emails.

“Joe!” calls his wife in a singsong voice, “Have you heard about this poor little girl Amy Bruce that needs one million emails…?”

“It is SPAM.” Joe interrupts her using the same singsong tune.

It has just passed less than a minute when she asks again, “And what about the 15,000 dollars that the IRS will refund us…” again she gets interrupted by Joe’s answer, “That’s another one”, again he says with the same singsong voice.

Within the next 30 minutes or so questions about Bill Gates giving away big money just for forwarding an email to all your contacts, a notice about the worst virus in the history that supposedly reported by CNN on the news, and a guy from Zimbabwe that is looking for the heir/heiress of a 75 million dollars fortune… “Spam”, “Spam”, “Spam”, it’s almost always the automatic response from Joe.

Suddenly, it seems that Joe’s wife is not asking questions anymore; but there is some kind of unusual behavior in her. She’s not reading anymore. Joe becomes aware of this because she’s stuck on her monitor like he’s never seen her before; biting her lips, her eyes bounce at some sort of pace following –something- on the her computer screen, as her left hands fingers franticly jump on the spacebar, while her right hand seems to be dancing quickly clicking the mouse buttons; … could it be? … Yes she’s playing a video game!

“What are you doing?” Joe snaps, as if he’s not suspecting anything.

“Remember that printer that we bought my mother for her birthday?” she asks without blinking, completely focused on her monitor.

“Yes.” he responds immediately, “The one that -prints gorgeous pictures with vivid colors at an amazing speed-” Joes says mimicking the clerk’s voice from the computer store.

“Well, they sent Mom an email invitation to play –Ink Invaders-…” she says while she raises her left eyebrow, making this special face that she makes when she feels she did the right thing, “and she sent me also an email invitation to play the game”

“And…?” Joe asks like he knows there is more coming.

“And now we are trying to beat Mike’s high score!” she finally says with a touché expression.

“Mike?!” Asked Joe in disbelieve, “the – I’m very busy right now – Mike?!”

“Yep, the same himself!” she responses at the same time that Joe jumps out from his laptop and goes directly to her wife’s monitor.

In many cases video games become an excellent piece of marketing; creating powerful messages that are very welcomed by thousands of users. Users that will act as your invisible partner; helping not just to grow your clients databases by inviting others to play the game, but also creating top of mind product awareness.

To create this kind of e-marketing campaign requires a good understanding of the target, product, technologies and trends in social media and video gaming. Not all video games suits well for all audiences; and in a similar way not all products fit in the same way inside a Sponsored Video Game or as an active element in the form of product placement.

Prior to introduce a Video Game inside your next marketing campaign, here are some tips that you may find useful to get the user’s full attention:

- Bullet-proof GDD (Game Design Document):
A GDD is a document with a detailed description of what you want -and need- for a video game. Concept art, description and functionality of the game-play, user interface, specifications for branding and/or product placement, sound FX, and graphic look and feel are just some of the aspects that should be included in this document.

- Casual vs Hardcore gamers:
Identify if you are aiming casual gamers or hardcore gamers. If you are doubtful  you are probably aiming casual gamers. This means that your game must be easy to learn and play; a master piece of usability that engages the users to play it since the very first minute they know about your video game.

- Viral factor:
An email and/or a Newsletter campaign will help you promote your video game, but the must powerful promotion that you will get are the users’ word of mouth and referrals invitations; providing email addresses from friends, family and colleagues. At the end, this is what you are looking for; priceless first handed pieces of information to expand your databases.

- Replay Value:
Try to think in to a game-play that asks always for more. If your game couldn’t engage the users to play it more than twice; then rethink on your game idea until you get one that can have the users playing it again and again and again…

- Unlockables and Hidden Items:
Include some “extras” on your videogame, such as additional levels and/or hidden characters that can be reached by simply playing the game several times. Make sure that the users know there is more content waiting to be discovered.

- Social Medialize it:
Encourage the users to share their achievements on the videogame. You may reward them by adding extra points to their scores every time they share their gaming activities on Facebook and/or Twiter.

Our experts at Quaxar, have the know-how to design and develop an excellent well crafted solution for your emarketing requirements, that could also include a digital interactive application that will get your clients fingers jumping and dancing on their keyboards and mouse buttons, all while inviting their friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

By Erick Ovalle

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Digg, Flickr, Delicious…There are so many social media sites nowadays that trying to name all of them in one article would be impossible. Nevertheless, it is important to know that there are thousands and millions of consumers or potential customers in these sites and this number is growing every day.

Is this important for your business? It should be, because customers control all the conversations there are in these social media sites today. Do you know if these conversations are positive or negative for your business?  Are you interacting and participating in those conversations? Do you have a strategy to promote your brand in these sites? I hope that the answer to all of these questions has been YES.

A lot of companies are beginning to get close to the social media sites but sometimes they don’t do it in the right way. The companies that finally embrace social media successfully  lead their customers to promote their brand or influence other customers in a very positive and natural way. Unfortunately, there are companies which just “are” on these sites but do not “participate”.

What is the difference between “being” and “participating”?

• Being, when companies:
  • Erase negative comments or criticism that some users have written.
  • Advertise a product and wait for customers to purchase it.
  • Publish content in one of those sites and restrict the access.
  • Receive questions from customers and never answer them.

• Participating, when companies:
  • Advertise a product and ask to the community if anyone has already tested it and what would they change to make it better?
  • Recognize mistakes, answer questions, meet customer demands, deny false information, and interact with customers.
  • Invite the community to participate in their sites; invite the employees, suppliers, customers, and let them interact.

Well used Social CRM  is very advantageous for businesses because it enables the company to have a real-time and direct interaction with the customers or potential clients, allowing them to offer a better product and a better customer service, to build loyalty toward the brand, to generate leads based on the recommendations of our customers, among other things.

I’ll give you a little advice: your company may have 1 or 2 blogs with specific issues about your industry, a twitter account for addressing complaints or suggestions from customers and other people, a Facebook fan page where people can interact with your company, a YouTube channel where you can upload videos about product releases or new services, perhaps a Flickr channel where you upload photos of your products. There are many ways you can launch your company through social media and enter fully into the Social CRM for the good of your business.

Español

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Digg, Flickr, Delicious… Existen tantos y tantos sitios de social media hoy en día que sería imposible nombrarlos a todos en un artículo; más importante aún, miles y millones de consumidores o clientes potenciales están a diario en estos sitios y el número va en aumento.

¿Es importante esto para su empresa? Debería, pues hoy en día los consumidores tienen el control de las conversaciones que se realizan en todos estos sitios de social media. ¿Sabe usted que tan positivas o negativas son las conversaciones sobre su marca? ¿Está interactuando y participando en estas conversaciones? ¿Tiene usted una estrategia para promover su marca en estos sitios? Espero que la respuesta a estas preguntas haya sido SÍ.

Muchas empresas empiezan a acercarse a los medios sociales pero a veces no lo hacen de la manera correcta; las que lo hacen exitosamente pueden lograr que sus consumidores promuevan su marca o influencien positivamente a otros consumidores de una manera natural. Por desgracia, hay empresas que solamente “están” en estos sitios pero no participan.

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre estar y participar?

• Estar
  • Anunciar un producto y esperar a que los clientes vengan a comprar.
  • Borrar los comentarios negativos o críticas que haya escrito algún usuario.
  • Publicar una página en alguno de estos sitios y restringir el acceso.
  • Recibir preguntas de los usuarios y jamás contestarlas.

• Participar
  • Anunciar un producto y preguntar a la comunidad si alguno ya lo probó y que le cambiarían para hacerlo mejor.
  • Reconocer los errores, aclarar dudas, atender demandas de clientes, desmentir datos falsos, interactuar con los consumidores.
  • Invitar a la comunidad a participar en nuestras páginas; invitar a los empleados, proveedores, clientes, etcétera. Y permitir que interactúen con nosotros.

El Social CRM bien utilizado es muy benéfico para las empresas porque permite tener una interacción directa y en tiempo real con los clientes o clientes potenciales, lo que nos permitirá ofrecer un mejor producto, dar un mejor servicio de atención al cliente, generar lealtad a nuestra marca, generar leads con base en las recomendaciones de nuestros clientes, entre otras cosas.

Como tip, su empresa podría tener 1 ó 2 blogs con temas específicos sobre la industria en la que se desarrolle, un canal de Twitter para atender quejas o sugerencias de los clientes y demás, una página en Facebook donde la gente pueda interactuar con su empresa, un canal de You Tube donde subir videos de lanzamientos de productos o servicios nuevos, quizá un canal de Flickr donde suban las fotos de sus productos, etcétera… Hay muchas formas en las que usted puede apalancar su empresa con los medios sociales y entrar de lleno en el Social CRM para bien de su empresa.

By Amaya Marichal

The outbreak of social media. What a topic! You have undoubtedly come across people talking about this subject all the time. I bet some of you are fed up with the concept. Some of you maybe just hate it and don’t want to know anything about it.

However, even if you don’t like it, you should consider that social media is already here. It provides the way people share ideas, content, thoughts, and relationships online. If you are clever enough, you must have noticed that this is the perfect place for companies to connect with their customers and learn more about them.

Until now, companies have been very cautious about social media but they have realized that it is very important to integrate and listen to feedback for a better understanding of how the audience is relating to their brand.

Consumers are looking for value that goes beyond just a discount. They are active users of social media. They talk. They engage. They suggest. They criticize. They promote. They share.  They judge. They are not just customers. They’ve become Social Customers.

As companies move forward in this new terrain, they should motivate their own people to embrace the process with a smile. Clearly, one of the most interesting features of social media is that people talk about you (yes, they do!), your company, and its products and services. Most of the time, you can’t control these conversations. However, it isn’t impossible to guide the conversation if you’re a bit creative.  And believe or not, you can get a lot from these discussions.

At the end of the day, companies do get involved in the social media world for many reasons, ranging from the feeling that they’re on the cutting edge of marketing to increase revenue to a genuine interest in creating better relationships with clients.  Whatever  the reason to embrace social media, we have some words of advice on how to do it without going crazy:

• Find the social media site for you. It doesn’t matter if it happens to be Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Digg, YouTube or Tumblr. You can even try two or three channels at the same time. Just be constant!

• Find your own voice. Sometimes, companies (as well as politicians) have a hard time trying to  connect to the community because they use an “institutional” voice that doesn’t help at all. Most companies don’t know how to find their own voice and feel confortable with it. It takes a lot of practice, go for it!

• Be a good listener. It’s fine if you’ve got lots of interesting content to publish but you must LISTEN to your customers and let them know you are doing it. If you listen to them, they’ll begin to trust you.

• Be patient. This takes a long time because you are going to be transforming your company, one person at a time.

• Be a teacher. Share your knowledge. Share your expertise. Share other’s users interesting content. Eventually, people will come to you to be informed.

• Be opportunistic. Try to take advantage of popular topics, influencers, applications, and interesting publications that may help your company to get an impulse.

• Be flexible. You never know what’s going to happen so you have to adjust  your strategy if you notice something is not going right.

• Be collaborative. You never know when you’ll need someone else’s help. Furthermore, your community will be thankful if you show a disposition to cooperate.

• Be funny. You don’t have always to be businesslike. You can try a couple of catchy phrases or even personal anecdotes on your content.

• Be efficient. There are many free tools for social media that will help you to get the most out of it. You can use, for instance, HootSuite to manage your different accounts or Google Analytics to measure the traffic to your site.

• Most importantly, be humble. Remember that social media sites come and go, but the connection you establish with your customers is your best asset.

Remember that success comes from being bold. Smart companies succeed just by trying. Be a part of the action! Embrace social media today!

Carlos Baruki, representing IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group), the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms and Latin America’s most experienced international hotel company, said ‘thanks’ to the Quaxar Team during the “Celebrate Service Week.

A complete press release may be found on the website of the Business Leader South Florida. >>Read the full article

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success.
By Lon Safko and David K. Brake.

The Social Media Bible is Quaxar’s Star of the Month. This book is the perfect guide if you want to develop a social networking strategy but don’t know anything about the tools to accomplish the job. It’s practical and well referenced with additional readings and resources for the user to explore.

Although some of the principles in this book will last, much of the descriptions for popular social media tools will quickly go out of date. However, the authors clearly recognized this and intended it to be an opportune and functional book.

Overall, there is great information for everyone to find in this useful guide, the kind of information that will help you to give new impulse to your company’s digital marketing efforts in the social media world.

By Allan Vazquez (guest collaborator)

Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts and hold on real tight because we are heading straight into a collision course.  The word has spreaded out and there’s no turning back. Each day, the digital buzz grows at a faster pace and becomes more influential than ever before. But that’s not where it stops. Above all, there’s a clear and perfectly defined constraint commonly known as “Time”, where each hour, each minute and even each second is crucial for survival.

What happened? Well, without previous advice or notice, we’re suddenly standing in the verge of the most significant technological shift to date.  An accepted motion that gives life to a new stage filled by different rules, habits, needs and desires.

As days go by, traditional methods, along with the usual ways of performing regular tasks such as buying, selling, advertising, building relationships and establishing conversations, amongst others, are no longer valid enough to successfully break through the market’s turbulent seas.

The corporate atmosphere is experiencing some radical changes.  Many businesses across the globe are hiding from external diseases, they’re making a contradictory statement while refusing to catch the contemporary train. Many of them are scared to do such thing, whereas others are simply convinced that their current blueprints and recipes will lead the way.

So many inquiries and presumptions arise directly from the digital (slash) social vertigo. Lucrative organizations and all-sized enterprises are asking themselves repeatedly: How come our brilliant TV campaign didn’t return a positive ROI? Or why we haven’t increased our sales due our big and colorful newspaper ad every month? And, what happened with the sales conversions that came out from our radio publicity?

The answer to every issue isn’t found by solving a complex puzzle or by cracking the human genome. No. Stop your company’s propeller for an instant and take a good look around.

Are you watching closely? You’re almost there! Ok, I will give you a little insight. Ready? The real guidance is and has always been right in front of your eyes. Each plan and strategy should be constructed through the comprehension of social behavior, of people’s needs and demands.

The real value won’t come from one-sided conversations. Take the proper time to listen and then make the necessary adjustments in order to adapt to whatever your consumers want and expect from you as a brand. At the end of the day, it’s your personal branding and public image (not just digital presence) what you’re trying to build as a fully committed and respected corporation.  The time for establishing sales at first sight has expired. Your purpose to exist and modus operandi should be both based on seeking the one thing that matters the most: Engagement. It’s all about connecting with real people, not just generating new accounts, money, and infinite numbers.

Doing Marketing through Social Media isn’t anything new. There are 2 basic factors that differentiate new strategies from early approaches: (1) The working tools and (2) an increase of personal empowerment on the regular consumers.

By now, you should probably dominate the whole Social Media Mix. In extreme case you don’t let me introduce you to all their main categories: (a) there are Social Networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. (b) Social Media sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr. (c) Social Bookmarking sites such as Digg, Reddit, Delicious and StumbleUpon. (d) Location-Based Social sites such as FourSquare and GoWalla. (e) And finally there’s the blogosphere with 2 major platforms, WordPress and Blogger.

Having accounts on each and every single Social Media site does not guarantee your digital success. If it were like that, at least 500 million people that own a Facebook profile would be a wealthy individual as today. You should always keep in mind that the most important thing in the digital age is to give added value, to generate first-class content and to have a previously defined message (slash) purpose which you seek to share with the world and that truly reflects the values of your own identity. You need to find out where is your target audience and then, and only then, you have “green light” to integrate the tools you require to orchestrate an accurate campaign.

Do you want to know a secret?  You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on focus groups, interviews or other data-collecting techniques; you have the market’s pulse at your hands within few Twitter queries. You don’t have to do all the work; the content that your fans create can overtake the efforts of your competitors. You won’t need to outspend the biggest competitors anymore; you have the ability to surprise them with viral campaigns.

At the end, tools come and go. Don’t spend too much time or effort trying to gleam on… Twitter for instance. There’s no reward for being the “Master of the tweets”, trust me. What it should really concern you is, the strategy you’re capable to execute, the creativity on the ideas you originate during the process, the authenticity of the message that you’re willing to communicate. All of those things will never be forgotten from years to come, if they’re majestically done.

Now, on second hand, what about the consumers?  Well, while you’re reading this post, consumers are getting more connected and involved than ever before. They’re having millions of conversations on the web, whether you like it, ignore it or not. During the process of seeking better products and services, they’re reinforcing marketing efforts by sharing experiences and thoughts of their own. They are the new brand managers and marketing directors (in a certain way). So, why don’t you take one minute to think about it? Almost done? Ok, after evaluating the situation (I hope you did) you probably have figured out that every second that your company is not engaging them in Social Media is a wasted chance.  So, what are you waiting for?

So with everything I just shared, you’re not yet convinced? Get ready for a few mind-blowing facts that I’m about to unveil:

• Traditional media fell 10% from last year, while online media rose 24%.
• Recently, Internet exceeded 300% the impact of traditional media.
• 96% of Millennials have joined a Social Network.
• The total amount of online video viewers is greater than those who watch TV.
• Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate positive ROI.
• More than 1.5 million items of content are shared daily through Facebook.
• 25% of online search results belong to user-generated content.
• There are about 200 million blogs and 34% of bloggers talk about brands and products.
• 78% of consumers trust peer to peer recommendations.

How other companies and human beings have succeeded and achieved greater goals through the adequate use of Social Media:

• Lenovo got a 20% reduction in call center activity as customers went to community website.
• Burger King got 32 million Free Media Impressions through its Facebook application.
• Blendtec quintupled sales with “Will it blend”? YouTube videos.
• Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million.
• Dell sold $3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter.
• 37% of Generation “Y” was aware of Ford Fiesta before its launch in the US.
• Genius.com reported 24% of social media leads conversion to sales.
• 5.4 million people clicked on an “I voted for Obama” Facebook button.