Digital New Years Resolutions for Web Workers – The 2013 Edition

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Mike Dickman

This post originally appeared in Website Magazine’s December 31, 2012 issue.

Resolutions are all about action – pushing ourselves to achieve ever greater results in our personal, and yes, professional lives.

As Horace Mann once said, “I have never heard anything about the resolutions of the apostles, but a good deal about their acts.” But as a Web worker – be it in interactive design and development, or digital advertising and marketing – what actions (and acts) should you concentrate upon and on which should one’s efforts be focused?

Here are just a few digital New Year’s resolutions for Web workers, along with a few “actionable” tips, to ensure 2013 is the best year yet for your ‘Net business.

Add new dimensions to your analytics

The more you know about the performance of your website and the interactions that occur on it the greater results will be achieved. While many interactive/digital departments are content with a particular set of analytics, adding in new dimensions to analytics enables enterprises to understand how they can make better use of resources (both time and financial). For example, instead of tracking unique visitors, consider exploring how and when each unique source of traffic sends the most/best traffic. Marketers may discover that one source drives the most traffic early in the morning, or that a substantial number of users come from a particular source across the globe. Developing promotions with these insights in mind are near sure-fire ways to have a merry year indeed.

Reduce the barriers to entry

It’s not uncommon for there to be barriers to the engagement of a website visitor. There are both experiential barriers, such as poor navigation and barriers to engagement which prevent website visitors from becoming product or service buyers. For example, if there is not a clear path for a user to take (with detailed navigation and a strong call-to-action) how can they ever be expected to purchase anything or move further through the conversion funnel. And if there are barriers to converting (such as forcing registration or high shipping rates) then perhaps a campaign to test ease of entry should be implemented. Post-visit surveys are a proven way to capture information from departing visitors about their experience and why they did or didn’t engage with the site’s unique selling proposition.

Minimize the performance problems

It’s impossible to convert a user if they aren’t around long enough to convert. In several frequently cited and well-publicized studies several years ago, for each additional second of load time, the conversion rate falls by a certain percentage. In 2012, 56 percent of consumers who spend more than two hours per week shopping online have canceled an order due to an error or slow response time. With more third-party integration’s than ever before and a greater reliance on others to host and integrate features on our own sites, performance problems will inevitably arise. Minimizing the most significant performance issues is a proven way to ensure that it is even possible to put your best foot forward with design and expose visitors to the Web businesses’ core products and services with creative promotions.

Accelerate the promotions

When the website has been optimized to provide a smooth and seamless experience (one without performance problems or outrageously high barriers to entry), it’s time to accelerate promotions in the new year. Armed with more meaningful insights (see the resolution above related to adding new dimensions to analytics) Web workers will find new ways to accelerate promotions. From posting fewer, but better, updates on social profiles (or switching a social strategy entirely to accommodate a new approach; one perhaps that is more focused on customer service than marketing) to employing more integrated advertising and marketing promotions on the Web and mobile (see below), there are myriad ways to accelerate digital promotions, and have a brand – and its products or services – seen and experienced more regularly.

Push the mobile strategy

2012 has been the year of mobile, and 2013 stands to bring the same amount of attention to the channel. Whether you are currently investing in implementing a mobile Web design or deploying a shiny new mobile application, even starting additional local-mobile marketing campaigns, there are plenty of mobile best practices and tactics available for digital-centric enterprises. In fact, most leading enterprise and even mid-level Web content management systems have made available features, which makes brands increasingly compliant with consumers’ evolving digital expectations. Pushing mobile in 2013 won’t be hard, but taking those first few steps are crucial.

Maximize local investment

Unchanged for many years, most queries conducted on search engines are of a local nature and the percentage is actually far higher on mobile devices. That alone should make an investment in any and all things local (even for the largest businesses in the digital landscape) a good use of time and dollars. From expanding local advertising and expanding a local footprint on the Web, enterprises will be in front or users more likely to buy and do so at a lower cost than ever before.

Rethink Social Participation

Of all the resolutions that readers will find herein, this will likely be the most controversial. While there is an ever-expanding list of social media destinations clamoring for consumer attention and brand investment (from bookmarking to networking sites), the role that brands (both B2B and B2C) play on these networks is changing. Today and likely for the foreseeable future, brands will have to work harder or pay more to achieve the same level of awareness on these networks.

End the Laggards, Focus on Winners Alone

Resolutions aren’t just about adopting new actions to achieve success (or perfection) but also to end those practices that are preventing success. One of the savviest practices in business is to kill laggards, those products, services or feature, which don’t lend an assist to conversions or experience low usage in general. For example, say for instance that of the 10 features rolled out last year on a Web property, one receives far less usage than the others. While it’s not uncommon to keep features because someone within the enterprise has some virtual connection to it, eliminating them should they be preventing improved usage (as determined by conversion) should be the focus.

Remember, resolutions are all about action. You might be saying to yourself that these resolutions are all important but how should an enterprise actually start following these resolutions. Simple – just take the first step. Once you get started, you’ll be glad you did this time next year.

Reach of Organic Posts Is Down, Engagement Is Up

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Mike Dickman

This article first appeared in AdAge’s online edition.

By: Cotton Delo

Posts Are Now Seen by Smaller Group of Brand Loyalists

Over the past year, a hard, cold fact has sunk in for brands about Facebook: If you want to reach your fans, increasingly you have to pay for it.

That’s a growing concern for agencies doing business with Facebook, so now one of the very biggest, WPP media-buying unit Group M, is investigating the matter.

Research conducted by Group M Next (a unit devoted to sourcing new technologies) into pages operated by 25 brands finds that the share of Facebook users seeing organic posts from a brand they “like” was down 38% in the five weeks after Sept. 20, from 15.56% (consistent with the average 16% Facebook has often reported) to 9.62%.

While those findings won’t be heartening to brands, researchers found a silver lining: engagement on posts in the form of comments, likes and shares is up significantly, from 0.76% before the algorithm change to 1.49% after. That’s nearly identical to the results of aEhrenberg-Bass Institute study of 200 top brand pages earlier this month.

The result is that while fewer fans are seeing organic posts in their news feeds, those who do are more likely to have a real affinity for the brand, as opposed to users who may have clicked on the “like” button to enter a contest.

The bottom line is that many brands will have to ante up more ad dollars to maintain the reach among fans they were accustomed to. But the study also digs into the change in newsfeed reach by post type to give brands insight into what content performs best in the new environment. It finds that links took the biggest hit from algorithmic changes and were being seen by 68.19% fewer fans after Sept. 20, but text status updates started getting viewed by 19.48% more.

The conclusion is that brands that change up the mix of their posts to rely less on the ones that saw the biggest drops in exposure can maintain their newsfeed reach at above 12% and thus use “paid advertising as a supplement, rather than a full replacement,” according to the paper.

“If you reallocate, you can make some of [your reach] back so it’s not 40% that you’ll have to go out and pay for,” said Brandon Fischer, Group M Next’s Director of Predictive Insights. “You’ll still need to supplement with some kind of paid strategy.”

Group M Next didn’t provide a list of brands in the study but says they represent a cross section of categories and have Facebook fan bases in the multiple millions at the upper end. Group M agencies MindShare, Maxus, Mediacom and MEC boast clients like Unilever, IBM and Volkswagen.

The findings are at odds with Facebook’s continued rebuttal of the contention that organic posts are reaching a smaller portion of fans. (The related inference it most objects to is that the change was made to encourage use of its ad product “promoted posts” to offset the lost reach.) Facebook contends that algorithmic changes were made to weed out spammy, non-engaging content, but that median reach of pages hasn’t changed.

“A few times a year we perform quality checks on the news feed algorithm to ensure high-quality and relevant posts,” Facebook said in a statement. “Based on a recent quality check, we made an adjustment to the news feed algorithm to respond to the negative feedback signals of spam and people hiding posts. Current signals show the adjustment has been successful. Median reach of Facebook pages has remained the same, while spam complaints and stories hidden by users have fallen significantly.”

But if the higher post engagement Group M Next observed is true across a wide spectrum of pages, the case can also be made that Facebook’s news-feed algorithm changes are a net positive for brands.

View the complete study

“It allows us to hone in on the segment of the audience that truly is interested and engaged,” said Jeff Semones, president of the Group M-operated social-media agency M80, who also observed that the change in news-feed exposure for a client with a sizable and consistent Facebook ad spend had been “neglible.” “What we’re seeing now is a benefit to marketers in spite of the reduction in reach.”

Group M agency Mediacom’s client Pennzoil has observed both reported phenomena of diminished newsfeed reach and increased post engagement over the past two months, but Global Associate Brand Manager Suzanne Clerkin says her team doesn’t intend to increase Facebook ad spend as a result. She says the increase in post engagement is a desirable outcome.

“We understand that not everyone who likes our page will able to see every post we monitor, but we’re hoping that Facebook will help us continue to monitor the fans who appreciate us the most,” she said.

Brand Engagement Rate Still 1%, But Facebook Is OK With That

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Mike Dickman

This article first appeared in AdAge on November 15, 2012.

by: Matthew Creamer

Sales Pitch to Industry Is All About Reach and Frequency

Back in January, we told you about research findings that engagement rates on Facebook brand pages were at about 1%. A lot has changed since then, chiefly the controversial tweaking of an algorithm that determines how many people see brand posts and a change to how engagement is counted. So what’s that engagement rate now?

Still 1%. Or, to be precise, 1.4%. That’s the percentage of fans and friends of fans of the top 200 brand pages on Facebook who are actually engaging with those pages, according to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, a marketing think tank based in Australia.

The small uptick, the research found, has to do with Facebook broadening what goes into its People Talking About This (PTAT) metric, a kind of proxy for engagement. PTAT is the number of people who have interacted with a page through a host of activities such as liking, commenting on it and sharing it over a seven-day period. Since late spring that number has also taken into account into friends of fans who interact with a brand’s post to account of the viral potential of the social network.

“The very slight change in the numbers are due to Facebook changing the calculation to record all interactions from non-fans as well,” said Karen Nelson-Field, postdoctoral research fellow at the institute. “For us this number is underwhelming. There has been so much hype about the whole ‘amplified reach’ opportunity — that friends of fans, while not explicitly linked to the brand themselves, offer advertisers huge potential outside of the fanbase. We don’t see it here.”

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute carries on in the tradition of the late Andrew Ehrenberg, a mathematician who argued that the concept of brand loyalty is a myth and that marketers should worry less about reaching a few loyal fans and heavy buyers than hitting a large amount of light and medium buyers. This orientation leads to a rejection of the notion that social media should be privileged over other media that can help the marketer in its central quest of reaching as many people as possible.

Read a press release accompanying the announcement, “Facebook is becoming more and more like traditional media. It may be time for advertisers to move on from worrying about how many fans they have to instead explore how many category buyers Facebook can reach, for what cost, and to what effect.”

Interestingly, Facebook doesn’t disagree. Lately, it’s been telling the story that if you want to sell stuff reach and frequency, traditional ad metrics passed down over from TV research are more important than clickthrough, an online ad metric. Last month, Facebook talked about Nielsen research showing only a 0.07% correlation between high clickthrough and actual sales and relative high correlations between positive ROI and maximized reach and frequency.

This week, when asked about the Ehrenberg research, a Facebook executive made a parallel point when it comes to the issue of earned engagement and reach.

“[The Institute’s] meta-point is that you should think about Facebook like you think about other marketing channels and not necessarily as a new and different beast,” said Graham Mudd, head of vertical measurement at Facebook. “Broadly speaking we would agree with that sentiment, that focusing on core marketing metrics, like reach and frequency is what drives effectiveness. Engagement is an interesting and important metric for some marketers and campaigns. But it shouldn’t be standard by which Facebook as a marketing platform is evaluated.”

Mr. Mudd emphasized that PTAT is not a reach figure and, to be sure, there is engagement on Facebook that isn’t reported in the metric: Looking at brand’s post or photo but not clicking on it would be an obvious example.

More than anything, the Ehrenberg-Bass study may throw cold water on any true believers left out there who thought they were headed toward some earned-media utopia where buying ads wasn’t necessary. For Facebook’s part, Mr. Mudd said that for the top 200 brands Facebook’s ad platform drives five times the reach that earned engagement does. There is, of course, the necessary and obvious caveat that Facebook’s financial future hinges in no small way on convincing marketers to buy ads there.

Methodology
Ehrenberg has done five waves of this study, each using the same methodology. Over a six-week period, they looked at PTAT as a percentage of total fans, while extracting new likes, so as to only measure interactions after initial like. The first two waves, which began in November 2011 and February 2012, yielded engagement rates of 0.5% and 0.7%.

Then the changes on Facebook’s end began. In late May or early June, Facebook changed PTAT to include the activity of friends of fans, essentially accounting for the personal network of each fan and relevant activity there. And around Sept. 20. Facebook changed the algorithm that determines who sees what and where in your newsfeed, known as EdgeRank. That opened a whole other can of worms, with many complaining that their brand posts’ reach had plummeted after the page. Facebook maintains that median reach of brand’s content hasn’t changed: 16% of the fanbase.

The PTAT change in particular led some noncommercial brand pages, like George Takei and Jesus Daily, to see their PTAT shoot up. Not so for commercial brands. After that change took effect, Ms. Nelson-Ran ran a wave. The result was 1.4%, same as the previous one, which took place before the changes to EdgeRank. To see the disparity, consider this: As of Monday, Mr. Takei had more than 3 millon PTAT to 2.9 million. Oreo, on the other hand, had 30 million likes and only 160,000 PTAT.

It should be noted that Mr. Takei, the actor and author who’s translated his fame as Star Trek’s Sulu into social media stardom, has said he’s taking on the whole EdgeRank controversy in his forthcoming book.

Understanding the Cloud

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Mike Dickman

This article first appeared in the Verizon Wireless Consumer Newsletter.

by: Paul O’Reilly

There has been a lot of talk in the media recently about “cloud computing” and how it is revolutionizing the way we communicate and how we interact through the Web. Driving forces behind the growth of cloud computing include both consumer applications and enterprise needs. But what is cloud computing and how is it going to impact our daily lives?

As far as it relates to consumer services, cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. By a hosted service, I mean a service that is fully managed by the provider; the consumer needs nothing more than a personal computer and an Internet connection to be able to access the service and take advantage of its capabilities. The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud that is often used to represent the Internet in flow charts and diagrams.

An example of consumer use of the cloud? Gmail. When we log on to a Gmail account, we are taking advantage of an e-mail application that is hosted by Google. All our incoming and archived mail is stored on Google’s servers, ready to be delivered to our computer screen whenever we want it. We don’t have to worry about upgrades or storage issues; all this is taken care of by Google with minimal impact on our own computer’s resources or capacity.

Contrast this with an application like Microsoft Outlook, where we download software and manage e-mail on our own computer. Although incoming and outgoing e-mail is temporarily stored on the servers of our Internet provider, it is ultimately downloaded to our own computer when we ask for it and is stored locally on that computer until we decide to permanently delete it. Similarly, we are responsible for software upgrades and making sure the data is backed-up.

Other examples of everyday consumer cloud applications include Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and online banking. In each case, the application programming and data is stored elsewhere and we access that programming and data only when we need it.

These are all consumer applications. When it comes to cloud computing on the enterprise side, the focus is usually on three main areas: software services, platform services, and infrastructure services.

As small companies grow, they are often faced with important decisions on whether to keep their IT services in-house or to outsource those services. For example, a rapidly growing online vendor can choose to build its own point-of-sale system or outsource that function to another company like Amazon that already has such a system. If it chooses to outsource, then its transactions are handled through the cloud – i.e. over the Internet to a third-party host.

As well as being fully-managed by the provider, the other distinguishing characteristic of cloud computing is that it is an on-demand service – the user can have as much or as little of the service as they want. This last point, plus improved bandwidth and response time, is really what is driving the current interest in cloud computing, particularly in a cost-cutting economy.

The main arguments against cloud computing are access and security. If your software and data files are stored locally, then they are always available and not subject to third-party “outages.” Similarly, you can take steps to secure data that’s held locally and not have to rely on others to take those steps for you.

As far as consumers are concerned, most of us are making a gradual transition to cloud computing without even realizing it. And the rapid growth of mobile platforms and super-fast 4G networks will only accelerate that transition.

As many observers point out, we have all been computing in the clouds for some time now and that’s a trend that is sure to continue.

10 Social Media Tips for Bloggers

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Mike Dickman

by Liz Borod Wright

This post first appeared on MASHABLE.

Liz Borod Wright, a freelance writer based in New York City, runs the popular travel blog, Travelogged. She is also a social media consultant and an adjunct for social media at Columbia Journalism School’s continuing education program.

When it comes to building an audience and driving traffic, bloggers are turning to social media with record results. Instead of relying on organic search or (gasp) IRL friends, successful bloggers know they have to develop a following on key social networks as a way to promote their brands and ultimately get more clicks.

Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and now Pinterest provide the savvy blogger with plenty of opportunities to attract new readers and engage with regulars, but it can be overwhelming if you’re new to social media or if you only use it for fun.

Here are 10 tips to help bloggers navigate the increasingly complex world of social media — while still making time to write content.

1. Display your social media icons prominently toward the top of your website.

Make it as simple as possible for your blog readers to connect with you on various social media platforms. They shouldn’t have to hunt around to find your Twitter handle, but should be able to click on a button and be taken right to your profile. Bonus points if your social media icons reflect the overall design or feel of your blog.

2. Every blog should have its own Facebook Page.

Even with Facebook’s new subscription feature, there’s still merit to giving your blog its own space on Facebook. It’s nice to be able to post a link every time you publish something new, and not have to worry about annoying your friends. Plus, readers who don’t your name but know the name of your blog can search for it on Facebook. Show your fans some love on your blog by using the Facebook social plugin, which makes it easy to convert readers to fans.

3. Generate traffic with StumbleUpon.

This “recommendation engine” serves as an alternate browser where users click through pages that their SU friends and SU itself have recommended. You can submit your own blog posts into the system, but it works best if you also share them with your SU friends and accept their shares back. Like most social platforms, you need to have a strong following to get good results. While people are still trying to figure out what makes SU content go viral, many bloggers have seen terrific, albeit fleeting, traffic spikes through the service.

4. Import your RSS feed onto your LinkedIn profile using its Blog Link application.

As long as your blog somewhat pertains to your professional goals, you should be showcasing it on LinkedIn. List it as one of your three websites in your profile, where it will be labeled “Blog.” However, by using the Blog Link application, your most recent posts will display right on your profile.

5. Pinterest is the hot new frontier for bloggers.

Pinterest is the cool new kid, and all of the bloggers are scrambling to establish a presence there. Pin your best photos onto themed boards with links to a relevant blog post. Blogs with strong visual content, like fashion, food, design, crafts and travel, are a natural fit. Infographics will also do quite well. Don’t forget to add a Pinterest plugin (like the Pinterest “Pin It” Button for WordPress users) to make it easy for your readers to share your content on their Pinterest boards.

6. Use link shorteners even when you don’t have to.

Twitter will now shorten your link for you, and the length of your link doesn’t matter on Facebook and Google+. But by using a link shortener like bit.ly, you will gain access to metrics, so you’ll know how many people clicked and at what time. With this essential data, you can experiment with different ways to tease your content and different times to post it.

7. Use your blog name as your username whenever possible.

Promote your personal brand by consistently using your blog’s name for your Twitter handle, StumbleUpon name, Pinterest name and so on. Then, people don’t have to wonder about your blog’s name — it’s right there. Also, people will remember you easily across platforms, which is key as you develop up your online community.

8. Join blogger groups on Facebook.

There are some very active groups on Facebook that are terrific resources for any blogging issues you encounter. Look for groups like “Travel Bloggers” or “Global Bloggers Network.” WordPress geeks have “Advanced WordPress” and Central Florida residents have “Central Florida Bloggers.” Not only are blogger groups good for problem-solving, but it’s well-known that bloggers like to read other blogs. Do some searching and find a bloggers group that’s suited to you, or start your own!

9. Be generous with other bloggers.

Promote other bloggers’ content, and hopefully they’ll return the favor. You can’t simply blast your own content anyway — you need some variety in every social media stream. So why not check out what your fellow bloggers are posting and give them a retweet, a share or a repin whenever you can. And don’t forget to reciprocate and share content from bloggers who share yours.

10. Be on social media — even when it’s not driving traffic.

It can be frustrating when you feel that you’re doing everything right (posting good content on the appropriate platforms in the best way possible) and you’re still not getting many clicks. But console yourself by thinking about all of the links that you see throughout the day that you don’t click on. Just spending time on social media platforms is great way to forge relationships, keep up on industry news and find inspiration for that next blog post.

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, ardaguldogan.

What Does ‘Communiting’ Mean???

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Mike Dickman

Musician will.i.am Challenges Marketers to ‘Make Conversations, Not Ads’

By: will.i.am

This post first appeared on AdAge.

whatever you think about the future of business…

whatever you think your brand means to the masses…

whatever your strategy is for marketing to youth…

one thing is certain…

we are in the midst of a major shift…

In some ways it’s like we’re back in the 1600s when everybody was racing to discover the new world…

google is the french…

twitter is the spaniards…

facebook is the english…

microsoft is the dutch…

freakin’ apple is the portuguese…

the ocean is the internet and computers and software are the ships…

and they are all sailing to find and conquer new land…

the shift is happening everywhere…

in politics all over the world…

in the corporate realm…

in entertainment…

in manufacturing…

businesses and brands have to ask:

why is it happening???

what caused it to happen???

if you don’t ask you won’t be able to stay relevant when the energy of change is finished…

New times call for new thinking…

looking to the past is no way to secure a future…

look at the movies:

there’s a new “planet of the apes,” a remake of “conan the barbarian…

while on TV, there’s a new “charlie’s angels,” and a new “hawaii five-0″…

it’s as if we aren’t imagining anymore…

where have all the creative minds vanished to…

or…

who stop investing in the dreamers???

the music industry is still selling plastic discs…

also known as albums when today’s music fans buy or listen to songs on the net or streaming to their phones…

today is all about accessing the physical representation of collective consciousness.

before…

collective consciousness was a concept…

now…

it’s on your smartphone and it’s called twitter…

twitter is a physical representation of collective consciousness where you can tap into the consciousness of millions…

you don’t have to guess what’s on the minds of people today…

people are connected…

to stay relevant, you or your business or your brand need to be part of the connection…

you need to be part of the conversation…

or start conversations…

you need to invent, or amplify culture…

brands need to listen to the community…

think about all the businesses that are prospering and the ones that are suffering…

many that are suffering rely on TV commercials and haven’t figured out a new way to sell their products…

the ones that are prospering don’t have commercials but still succeed.

when’s the last time you saw a facebook commercial???

when’s the last time you saw a zynga commercial???

when’s the last time you saw a twitter commercial???

or one from any of the growing businesses that bring community together???

there is a whole new concept of brands and businesses that bring community together…

you don’t have to go about the traditional way of marketing and advertising…

today, you need to turn a moment into momentum and momentum into a movement…

that can’t be done with 30-second commercials…

you need to create conversations with your customers…

so I say, MAKE CONVERSATIONS NOT ADS…

In 2011 you can’t be doing business like it’s 1991 or even 2001 if you’re trying to find your customers….

especially the youth market…

what caught you yesterday is not going to catch them today or tomorrow…

yesterday’s practices won’t solve today or tomorrow’s problems….

it used to be that businesses went where the money is…

today…

to have a business…

you need to go where the people are…

people have the power to kill brands or make them a success…

i think we need to go from marketing to COMMUNITING…

we have marketed so much that we have killed communities…

we have marketed so much that we have harmed our customer…

we need to conduct business in a manner that enables and sustains communities…

COMMUNITING is about COMMUNICATION between people and companies that enables or sustains a COMMUNITY…

in the intersection of people and company’s in a conversation is where COMMERCE is found.

COMMUNITING will be the new standard:

If your ad, marketing plan or communication doesn’t increase, rebuild, enable or empower community, then don’t do it.

6 Creative iPad Uses for Small Retailers

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Mike Dickman

by Lauren Drell

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

We all know iPads make great presentation devices and are excellent for business travel and chock-full of useful apps. Now, let’s focus on retail businesses — shops, salons and restaurants that use iPads to better service customers.

Read on for some creative implementations of the iPad. If you start using an iPad at your business, just be sure to sanitize it frequently — fingers can carry a lot of germs.

1. iPad as Customer Database — goodyoga

“The iPad is awesome,” says Flannery Foster, co-owner of Brooklyn’s goodyoga studio. The studio is also a bed and breakfast and serves as home to Flannery and her partner, “so we want it to seem less like a business and more like a community center or a home.” First order of business? Ditching the front counter and bar code scanner you see at a lot of yoga studios and gyms. “When people walk in the door, we hand them the iPad, and they sit on the couch — it’s a lot more casual, and we can bring them tea or water,” Foster says. Instead of standing awkwardly at the counter and filling out waivers and liability forms on a clipboard, the iPad makes people feel comfortable and also makes data entry a breeze for goodyoga. The studio uses a Google form, so the staff doesn’t have to worry about decoding a patron’s chicken scratch and the team saves times since the client info goes into the database automatically.

“People have fun with it, and we have a lot of people who’ve never used an iPad before,” says Foster. “Sometimes they’re apprehensive, but most people have a lot of fun using it, and they love being able to sign with their finger when they pay with Square.”

Lesson: Impress new customers and get them in your system quickly (for e-mail blasts, etc.) with a sleek iPad setup.

2. iPad as Entertainment — Tenoverten, New York

TriBeCa nail salon Tenoverten offers iPads at every nail station. Co-owner Nadine Ferber says customers mostly use the iPads for web browsing, so they don’t have to offer any fancy apps. And yes, they still offer the typical glossy magazines for those customers who’ve been staring at a screen all day at work and want something more low-tech. “Customers love the iPads — some people have never used one before and are just thrilled to be able to without making a commitment to buying one,” says Ferber. She says more than half of the people who come in for manicures or pedicures use the iPad during their service, either to look something or check an email. “It’s a great tool for them to multitask while taking a little time out of the day for themselves,” she says. “And it’s one of the most differentiating things about our business as we are the only nail salon in the world that has an iPad at every manicure station.”

Lesson: An iPad is a great investment as a differentiator that could keep customers coming back.

3. iPad as Fan Base-Builder — Butter Lane, New York

Butter Lane in New York’s East Village was an early adopter of the iPad craze, affixing one to the wall to encourage people to “like” and follow the shop on Facebook and Twitter. Now the cupcakery has taken to rewarding customers who interact with the iPad, offering a free frosting shot to those who do. Frosting shots sell for $1, so it’s a small price to pay, and co-owner Maria Baugh says the shop gets a lot of engagement with the device, and “it’s definitely increased our number of ‘likes’ and follows — we give away a lot of icing shots!”

Baugh says the device also helps them get customers in other ways. “We find that people use it to get more information about our [baking] classes and sometimes register for them,” she says. However, be warned that if you have an iPad, some customers might use it to check their own social media profiles, and you should also make an effort to lock it down. “The first one we put up just after iPads came out was stolen within the first month! We now have heavy duty industrial brackets holding it in place — it would take serious power tools to get this one off the wall,” says Baugh.

Lesson: Use an iPad on-site to increase your Facebook and Twitter followings — you can offer a small reward as a thank you.

4. iPad as Waiter — Stacked, LA

“The iPads allow guests to control the flow and timing of their experience,” says Paul Motenko, co-founder ofStacked. “Guests can order a drink and appetizer and then entrees and desserts, when they are ready — or their whole meal at once to move things along faster.” Stacked also offers customers the option to pay directly via the iPad, so patrons don’t have to wait for the server to bring the bill, and one’s credit card information is encrypted at the table, so the system is secure.

Of course, sometimes talking to a person is easier than dealing with a machine, so there are concierges on the floor to help guests when they need it. And all guests are given paper menus so that everyone can read through the menu at their own pace. When they are ready, they order from the custom-developed iPad app and tap “send” and then the order is routed directly to the kitchen.

Motenko says customers love using the iPad. Since Stacked offers burgers, pizzas, salads and sausages with myriad available toppings, guests build their meal from the plate up. “The technology just makes it easier to customize what you want, how you want it and how quickly you want it,” he says. Since the iPad is intuitive, Motenko says guests of all ages have found the app to be easy to use and empowering to choose your own ingredients.

Lesson: The iPad is a great, non-invasive tool that’s easy to use. You can save money on staff and not have to worry about pacing a meal, since the guests order at their own convenience.

5. iPad as Expeditor — 4Food NYC

Healthy fast-food concept 4food opened last year in New York City, chock full of digital integrations, like a 15′ Twitter feed on one of the walls. The restaurant has six iPads available for customers to order from and browse the web. During peak hours, 4food “hawkers” roam the restaurant with iPads to take orders from customers so they don’t have to wait in line. The iPad integration is working well for the concept, and 4food brand strategist Ashley Tyson says the restaurant hopes to develop an iPad app soon so that customers can order easily and access information about the food and offerings.

Lesson: Integrating digital tools into your business can help it run more efficiently, which could help your bottom line.

6. iPad as POS — 620 Jones, San Francisco

‘We take all of our orders with an iPod, and the staff runs credit cards with iPads,” says Jordan Langer of 620 Jones, a San Francisco bar. His team was also “very heavily entwined in developing the app” that drives the POS system. “It was a project that POSlab started doing, and then we jumped on board as their first main client. We started going after it with them because we know how a real POS should work,” says Langer.

Jones servers go to tables with an iPod to take orders, and then the iPad drives the merchant processing. The iPads are always in the hands of staff and never handed to patrons.

“People love it … they absolutely love it,” Langer says. “Inventory’s a lot easier to manage, the development is a lot easier, the interaction with the customers is a lot easier.”

Lesson: An iPad can help you organize and stay on top of inventory, in addition to serving as an excellent POS system.

Add new dimensions to your analytics

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Push the mobile strategy

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Rethink Social Participation

End the Laggards, Focus on Winners Alone

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Posts Are Now Seen by Smaller Group of Brand Loyalists

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Sales Pitch to Industry Is All About Reach and Frequency

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1. Display your social media icons prominently toward the top of your website.

2. Every blog should have its own Facebook Page.

3. Generate traffic with StumbleUpon.

4. Import your RSS feed onto your LinkedIn profile using its Blog Link application.

5. Pinterest is the hot new frontier for bloggers.

6. Use link shorteners even when you don’t have to.

7. Use your blog name as your username whenever possible.

8. Join blogger groups on Facebook.

9. Be generous with other bloggers.

10. Be on social media — even when it’s not driving traffic.

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1. iPad as Customer Database — goodyoga

2. iPad as Entertainment — Tenoverten, New York

3. iPad as Fan Base-Builder — Butter Lane, New York

4. iPad as Waiter — Stacked, LA

5. iPad as Expeditor — 4Food NYC

6. iPad as POS — 620 Jones, San Francisco

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