RepEquity Blog

In June, Facebook tallied 870 million unique visitors and one trillion page views, meaning the social network is reaching 46.5 percent of Internet users.

Pandora now accounts for 3.6 percent of all U.S. radio listening, a number based on the 1.8 billion hours users spent listening to the service during the second quarter of 2011.

After Steve Job’s resignation announcement on Wednesday evening, Apple’s stocks fell almost 7 percent in after-hours trading but by mid-day Thursday had stabilized at 1 percent below average.

Last month, Android owners spent an average of 56 minutes a day using their phone to interact with apps and the mobile web. Apps, however, seem to be more popular with Android users – 67 percent of the 56 minutes spent on their phones was using mobile apps and only 33 percent of that time was spent browsing the web.

Google and the United States Government have settled their dispute over charges relating to the advertisement of illegal online pharmacies… to the tune of $500 million.

This week, the Red Cross released a report showing that one in five people use Facebook during an emergency – a statistic that doesn’t surprise us this week as our news feeds fill with personal reports and commiserations about the Virginia earthquake and impending Hurricane Irene. The report also shared that almost a quarter of the general population would use social media outlets to let loved ones know they were safe following an emergency or natural disaster.

Are you “serial” tasking or multi-tasking? One article from Mashable says that multi-tasking may actually make you less productive, and offers advice for those of us trying to complete 30 items at a time…

This week has certainly been a crazy one here at the DC office. On Tuesday, central Virginia was hit by a 5.9 earthquake and several aftershocks.  After evacuating (from our building’s top floor, no less) the RepEquity team gathered outside and turned to our phones for more information. Despite the crush of people trying to make phone calls, text and access the Internet in the District, several of us were able to visit Twitter from our phones, which gave us the most up-to-date, if not comprehensive, news on the quake.

Thanks to Twitter, we quickly discovered that people as far south as North Carolina had felt the tremors and found out that one New Yorker learned of the quake before he felt it. User @JesseCFriedman tweeted Tuesday: “I saw the tweets from DC about earthquake, then 15 seconds later felt it in NYC. Social media is faster than seismic waves!”

That really blew our minds! More investigation revealed that seismic waves can travel between 5 to 8 kilometers per second. Information traveling via fiber signals travels at 200,000 kilometers per second. If you consider the 482 kilometers from the quake’s epicenter to New York City, it would have taken the quake up to a minute and a half to reach the Big Apple, definitely giving some speedy tweeps in Virginia or DC time to tweet about the quake before it reached NYC!

On Tuesday afternoon, the official Twitter account shared that within one minute of the quake, there were more than 40,000 earthquake-related tweets and the tweets-per-second spiked to 5,500.

All is back to normal in the RepEquity office, after some minor picture-frame readjusting, just in time to prepare for this weekend’s hurricane. See you in the Twittersphere!

Tripp Donnelly, CEO of RepEquity, and Huard Smith, President of RepEquity are candidates for a panel at next year’s SXSW Interactive Conference, which is being held March 9-18 in Austin, Texas. Voting is now open for the panel – we would appreciate your vote. You can read the full description below, thanks!

The Indestructible Brand: How to Bulletproof Your Brand Online

A brand, whether personal or corporate, is only as good as the reputation behind it. We’ve all seen the headlines: United Breaks Guitars. Netflix’s price increase. Sony’s PlayStation hacking scandal. A Congressman’s unsolicited yet salacious Tweets. Each of these brands suffered major damage in a very short time because of the amazing power of digital channels and social networks.

And yet while we all know about the immediacy with which the online world can damage a brand and reputation, we don’t recognize the power of using these same digital platforms to build and protect our brands before, during and after such inevitable events. Even if such events never happen, these digital platforms have become the best way to define and nurture a brand image and reputation.

This panel, with examples from client experiences, makes the case that a digitally well-built brand, properly harnessing search, social media and mobile-Web digital experiences, is the key to withstanding any reputational damage that may come its way. The speakers will show how to construct a corporate or personal brand that not only weathers any challenge, but actively engages audiences and customers with content you want them to see, wherever they may roam online.

This presentation will distill the challenges faced by brands in a world that is increasingly being defined by Google, Apple, and Facebook, identify the three major areas in which brands need to work to “bullet-proof” themselves (search, social media, and mobile-Web digital experiences), and provide practical takeaways in each area based on real-world results that the panel audience can use with their own personal or corporate brands.

There is no silver bullet to be found. No shortcuts. No one-time fix that will forever protect your brand and reputation online. The steps to take, while straightforward, are time-consuming and continuously required. Nothing worthwhile is easy! But doing them will not only strengthen your brand and reputation online, they will even shift your and your entire organization’s perspective on digital media, how to practically use it, and how it is helping people and companies succeed while others stumble.

Click Here to vote for this SXSW panel!

According to a new study, 55 percent of parents use Facebook to keep an eye on their children and 11 percent of those parents joined Facebook for the sole purpose of seeing what their kids were doing on the social networking site. In addition, a whopping 76 percent of parents reported that they monitor their children’s Internet history.

For advertisers wishing to target audiences in specific zip codes, they now can, using Facebook’s zip-code targeting tools in the site’s Power Editor and Ads Manager.

Fifty-two percent of Americans over the age of twelve have a profile on at least one social networking site and 70 percent of active users log in to their social profiles at least once a day, according to this Mashable infographic.

A new Pew Internet study shows that 92 percent of Internet users are using search engines to find the topics people are interested in and 59 percent are using search engines on a regular basis.
Think QR codes aren’t going anywhere? Think again. Fourteen million Americans used a QR code in June. A report issued by comScore estimates that those who scanned QR codes are mostly males between the ages of 18 and 34.

Popular movie-rental service Redbox will offer discounts to those who check into Foursquare at the rental kiosk from August 15-24. Discounts will range from $.10 to $1.00.
A Mindflash infographic published this week by Soshable shows that 70 percent of companies continue to block social networking sites in the office. http://soshable.com/twitter-in-the-workplace/

Of 304 small businesses surveyed, 64 percent reported that they did not believe social media was necessary for marketing or was something on which they did not hold an opinion. Among those using social media for marketing efforts, Facebook and LinkedIn were the most popular platforms.

Earlier this year, All Facebook and a handful of other tech blogs posted statistics showing that the average Facebook user doesn’t know 20 percent of the people listed as friends on the site. In one study, conducted by GoodMobilePhones, 54 percent of people said they stayed friends with strangers out of politeness and 34 percent reported that they remained friends with strangers to appear more popular on the social networking site. According to Facebook, the average user has 130 friends, meaning that they’ve never personally met 26 of their online “friends.”

Personally, I don’t agree with these statistics. I haven’t actually scrolled through my list of friends to see who I do and do not actually know, but I would say that it’s much lower. I would guess that less than 5 percent of my Facebook friends are complete strangers. If the survey reported that the average user has only met 20 percent of their Facebook friends once, I can certainly agree with that. How many times have you attended a networking happy hour or football tailgate and found friend requests waiting the next time you logged on? These are people you’ve personally spoken to and spent some time with. Over the years, though, I’ve made a habit of only accepting friend requests from people I know personally. Sure, some people may have sneaked through, but that’s my general rule for approving friends.

This survey perplexed me so much that I decided to conduct a RepEquity office survey. Here are the results; keep in mind, these are far from science or even remotely reliable answers.

Katherine Ann, Senior Account Executive
Friends: 899
Facebook friends she’s never met: 0%
Facebook friends she’s met once, then never socialized with again: 0%

Katherine, Marketing Strategy Manager
Friends: 1,886
Facebook friends she’s never met: 0%
Facebook friends she’s met once, then never socialized with again: 20%

Matt, Senior Account Executive
Friends: 500
Never met: 0%
Met once: 10%

Terry, Search Marketing Director
Friends: 386
Never met: 0%
Met once: 30%

Eric, Vice President of Account Management
Friends: 440
Never met: 0%
Met once: 1%

Sarah, Director of Technical Services
Friends: 241
Never met: 0%
Met once: 0%

Damien, Senior Software Engineer
Friends: 452
Never met: 10%
Met once: 3%

Jim, Director of Search Engine Optimization
Friends: 162
Never: .62%
Once: 0%

Megan, Director of Content Strategy
Friends: 370
Never met: 2%
Met once: 2%

Steve, Vice President of Search and Social Media
Friends: 300
Never met: 2%
Met once: 2%

Melissa, Account Manager
Friends: 1,374
Never met: 5%
Met once: 20%

Sorry, All Facebook and other tech blogs… we’re not sure who you’re confirming as friends, but at RepEquity it appears that we tend to use Facebook among a pretty close-knit group of friends.

LinkedIn, the business-related social networking site, has added 5 million members in the last month, bringing its total users to 120 million. And, by doing the math, that means the site is gaining two new members every second. For more impressive numbers, read the rest of the TechCrunch article.

Twitter brought its number of supported languages to 11 on Monday with the launch of Dutch and Indonesian.

After 11 months, Twitter finally did away with “Old Twitter” this week. It’s unclear how many, if any, accounts were still using the old display, but for comparison, in September of 2010 (when the new Twitter layout was launched) the service was sending 90 million tweets every day. The number of tweets sent each day in July passed 200 million. Boom.

The most social company in the world is The New York Times, according to a report published by NetProspex Social Business. Google ranked 8^th on the list of top 25 social companies.

In the last six days, the White House Twitter account added 22,000 followers – 3,100 new followers per day, a 37 percent increase over the number of new followers the account gained each day previously. This contrasts the news stories reporting the loss of 36,000 followers seen on President Barrack Obama’s account during the campaign to get constituents to tweet at their representatives during the debt crisis. While this number may seem like a lot, keep in mind that the president’s account still has 9.4 million followers.

Looking for a job? A. We’re hiring. B. More jobs are asking that their marketing applications be social. In June, 2,300 new online job ads for marketing managers with social media skills were placed online. That’s a 71 percent increase from last year!

Asking if an associate or friend is “online” is a thing of the past. You rarely hear: “Hey – are you on Facebook?” Instead, you’re more likely to end a first date or a networking event with a “Hey – I’ll Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn you.” Assuming that your acquaintances aren’t searching for you online is naïve and could even be harmful. Statistics show that many companies will do extensive online research on a potential employee before they’ll extend an offer. Back in June of 2010, we reported that nearly 70 percent of college graduates Google themselves to see what Google returns, an act that is no longer considered vain or unimportant, but a necessary step in monitoring your public persona. Even if you’re not a celebrity or big time government official, we still highly recommend caring for your online reputation. Below, we’ve made it simple: Online Reputation Management in three easy steps.

1. Your identity is already online – make sure you have control.
Just because you don’t actively participate in the online community, don’t assume that your identity is safe. It’s not uncommon for individuals to make fake accounts using real names to post slanderous statements, viruses and worse online. By claiming pages using your real name, you begin building your online brand, be it personal or professional, giving credibility to your name and taking steps in the right direction toward a positive online reputation. Create profiles on sites like Facebook and Twitter (if you haven’t already) as well as LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and other social media networks. If you’re a business owner, claim the company’s pages on review sites like Yelp, Google Places and foursquare.

If you’re willing to spend a few dollars, we highly recommend buying your name as a domain name (think joesmith.com). That way, if you do ever decide to start a blog or a personal website, you can circumvent the difficulty of obtaining a relevant URL. Using websites like GoDaddy or Domain make the process simple and inexpensive. Consider buying several variations of your name and nicknames while you’re there.

2. Online reputation management is not a set-it-and-forget-it task. You must manage your identity online.

Make sure you know what is being said about you online. The easiest way to do this, without paying an online service, is to set up free Google Alerts. Once you enter your name or business name (don’t forget to include variations) in Google Alerts, you’ll receive an email when there are Google results that match your keyword.

But, there’s more to monitoring your online reputation than just listening to what’s being said. It’s important to get involved and participate in online discussions about your company, your field of expertise, or your interests. When commenting on blogs or news stories, include links to your personalized sites – this will add to your comments credibility and direct traffic to your sites or accounts.

If a negative situation arises online – say you find an incriminating photo, or someone is verbally attacking you or your business – there are several actions to take. Try contacting the person privately at first and ask them to remove the offending information. Use your response to clearly explain yourself and the situation as seen from your point of view. This is the time to be articulate and polite – yelling and name calling will only make the situation worse. If you’re representing a business online, it’s also important to publically respond to customers in an appropriate manner whether it’s through a targeted blog post or in a story’s comment section. It is never acceptable to respond with a blanket comment or offer an incentive (discount, etc.). These responses can seem impersonal and insensitive.

3. Know when it’s out of your hands.

Most people can handle the basics of ORM themselves. However, it’s important to know when you’ve reached the point that you need to let professionals take over. Perhaps your small business has grown so much that maintaining your company’s online reputation is too time-consuming. Many people turn to professional ORM services when the press picks up an unflattering or untrue news story.

Professional services, like ours, can bundle your online reputation management program with other online identity strategies, like search engine optimization and overall brand development. Letting a company manage your accounts and online reputation isn’t giving up, or becoming disconnected with your online identity – it’s just a way to eliminate the stress of keeping up with it all on a daily basis. Any good ORM and SEO company will keep you informed about what’s happening with your online reputation program while offering advice and creating action plans that will help make your online reputation as spotless as possible.

Twitter announced this week that the social media service would be adding a designation to tweets that may contain sensitive information. The ability to flag tweets will only be available on those containing links and when someone flags a tweet as possibly sensitive, other users will see a warning in the media details pane of the tweet to warn users before they click through. This option will give Twitter users more control over the information they see and prevent any embarrassing situations at the office.

The top five airline companies have a combined 2,566,000 fans on Facebook. Southwest holds 65% of that total, or approximately 1,667,900 Facebook fans. As more airlines and travel companies move online, they’re finally seeing traffic online translate to a growth in website traffic. In fact, 69 percent of all travel companies saw traffic growth from Facebook and 46 percent saw traffic growth from Twitter. TechCrunch posted an infographic this week with these statistics and more.

Not only was Apple named the world’s top vendor of smart phones this week by Strategy Analytics, but we learned that the tech giant now has more money in reserves than the United States government. Strategy Analytics reported that Apples accounts hold a balance of $75.9 billion. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. government has a current operating balance of $73.8 billion.

Earlier this week, Congress released a study showing that almost two-thirds (or precisely 64 percent) of senior managers and social media managers for Congress believe that Facebook is an important tool for helping leaders understand constituents opinions and views. Nearly 3 out of every 4 congressional staffers believe that social media has allowed their members to reach people they had previously not communicated with.

Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco are the cities with the highest numbers of Google+ users.

In the world of SEO and PPC advertising, some clients worry that having their ads displayed at the top of a search page will negatively affect their page’s organic ranking. According to a Google study, this is not true. In fact, the study showed that people using PPC advertising on top of their high organic rankings saw an 89 percent boost in traffic. Does that number finally convince you that your company needs the help of SEO and PPC professionals? Let us help.

Last Wednesday I had the privilege of attending my first industry networking event here in DC. Months ago, when moving to the city was just a hope and a dream, I began following the Twitter account of the Social Media Club’s DC chapter. The group holds a variety of events, from panels on corporate blogging to happy hours – something for everyone! Wednesday’s event was the group’s Summer Social, hosted at the chic restaurant and chocolate shop Co Co. Sala. For this month’s event, SMCDC had partnered with ScoutMobDC, a new website sharing local deals through their mobile app. [The great thing about ScoutMob is that you don’t have to pay beforehand… and there’s nothing to print!] There were stick-on mustaches and watermelon juleps abound (and, of course, I got to talk to some pretty neat people).

I was honored to meet SMCDC President and UNC alumna Rachel King, who was so kind to stop and speak to fellow Tar Heels for a few moments. We talked a little about what we did and how we got to our current positions. Even though Rachel is several years older than me, it was nice to hear that we shared the same reaction to our jobs: “They’re paying me to do this?! But it’s so fun!”

Thanks to the SMCDC-provided nametags (not usually my favorite accessory) I was happy to spot the purveyor of one of my favorite DC blogs. Capitol Bites blog is a delightful look at the blogger’s travels through hundreds of delicious dishes in the city. She and I ruminated on the frustration that comes with trying to maintain a blog on top of having a full time job and a social life and she shared some of her favorite restaurants near my neighborhood.

I also briefly spoke with a gentleman working as a recruitment coordinator (and self-proclaimed “Director of Fun”) at LivingSocial in DC. He’s been there from the beginning, when the now 2,000+ employee company was just over 200. It seemed like he had attended many of the SMCDC events, so I’m sure he’ll become a familiar face as I attend more events.

At Co Co. Sala I also ran into a college friend who’s interning in Alexandria this summer. She loves the work she’s done this summer, but as her internship draws to a close, she’s hoping to find a permanent position and thought SMCDC would be a great place to meet people who are hiring or know of others who are. I also met a 2008 college grad from Kentucky was looking for a new job. I loved that she said she attended SMCDC events to meet other people interested in social media since her friends didn’t share the same hobby.

Overall, the SMCDC Summer Social at was a great evening and I’m already looking forward to the next event. Judging from just the handful of people I met at Co Co. Sala, I know I can learn so much from this huge and amazing group of social mediasts (that should really be a word, you know).

• Inside Facebook released a list today of the most liked pages on Facebook. Number one? Facebook, of course. Zynga, Eminem, YouTube and Rihanna round out the top five.

• In the third quarter of 2011, Apple reported $28.57 billion in revenue, a ridiculous amount on its own. These third quarter profits, though, pushed Apple over the $100 billion mark in revenue for the last calendar year – the highest amount of annual revenue the company has ever seen. That’s a whole $30 billion dollars ahead of Microsoft, who earned $69.94 billion in the past year. Pocket change, right?

• Ninety-seven percent of Google’s revenue comes from advertising, according to an article posted on the Blue Fountain Media blog. For those businesses and individuals using Google’s AdWords (like many of our RepEquity clients), that means it is important to take another look at the cost of your PPC keywords to avoid giving away your hard-earned dollars to the media giant. Keywords to avoid: Insurance ($54 per click), Loans ($44), Mortgage ($47), Attorney ($47) and Credit ($36).

• This week, Skype’s CEO announced that ads may begin appearing during Skype calls. Will advertising be targeted toward the conversation? Will Dominos know you just ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut using Skype and offer you a coupon? Those facts, my friends, remain to be seen.

• Last week, we reported that Google+ had already drawn 10 million users. This week, that number has doubled, according to comScore Inc. The web-traffic monitoring company estimates that, since its launch, Google+ has seen 20 million unique visitors. It also appears that the gender inequality reported last week is evening out as well. comScore now says that 63 percent of users are male, down from the 73-87 percent reported last week.

• Last Sunday, during the final game of the 2011 Women’s World Cup, viewers broke the record for most tweets per second, sending around 7,200 tweets per second during the final minutes of the USA/Japan game. The previous record of 6,939 tweets per second was set in January just as New Year’s Day began in Japan.

• And as we continue to complain about the oppressive heat here in D.C. (and celebrate the first official Shorts Friday of the summer) it appears that everyone else is doing the exact same thing. Mastermind Marketing, which tracks social media trends, reports that there have been over 4 million references to hot weather this month on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other online forums, and the number is still rapidly growing.