Earlier this morning Fred Wilson published an interesting comparison of his blog’s traffic sources where upon splitting “the top ten” referrers “into three categories”, he discovered the following breakdown:

• Direct — 50%
• Social — 40% (with nearly 1/2 from StumbleUpon)
• Search — 10%

These numbers amused me to say the least, and I decided to perform a quick analysis my own blog’s traffic sources over the past 30 days.

As expected, my situation is quite different:

• Search — 72%
• Direct — 13.3%
• Social — 8.1%

I suspect most blogs will see a breakdown more similar to mine than the one that Fred is witnessing now. But that’s only my guess, and I would love to hear from other bloggers on this one.

I’ve also analyzed my top social media sources, and here’s what I see:

Top 7 Social Media Referrers

4.5% — t.co
1.6% — facebook.com
0.8% — twitterfeed
0.5% — linkedin.com
0.3% — stumbleupon.com
0.2% — bizsugar.com
0.2% — hootsuite.com

I guess, I should get more active on StumbleUpon. Fred’s figures are truly compelling.

Finally, I’ve decided to measure what role news aggregation sites are playing in my blog’s traffic (I could’ve included these in the “social” category too, but on a number of reasons decided to single them out), and it appears that they are referring just a bit less than 3% of all my visitors. Here’s a breakdown of what I see in my case:

Top 3 News Aggregators Sources

1.7% — affbuzz.com
0.5% — affdaily.com
0.3% — marketingland.com

What are you seeing on your blog(s)? What social channels do you see perform most effectively? And how effective is social in your case?

You’ve read it right — followers, not the people that I follow… I do realize that the more traditional way of learning that we use on Twitter, Google+ and other social networking platforms is to listen carefully to the people we follow, and learn from them. Well, if you know anything about me, you know that I’m a huge fan of transformational leadership. And the key principle of it is to stay open to learning from the people that follow you, allowing room to be transformed by them.

Today I’ve passed 5,000 Twitter followers mark:

As I saw it, I took a screenshot of the follower-count, and tweeted:

http://twitpic.com/87pn98 – Flattering to know that 5,000 people care to listen to my Twitter rumblings

But as I pondered on it for the next few hours, I realized how much there’s beyond followers following you. These folks have transformed my views and approaches in ways most of them don’t even know about. So, in my today’s post — with sincere thanks all these guys and gals — I’d like to outline the 5 things that they have taught me since July 16, 2008. These are:

Lesson #1: Don’t follow to be followed — I made this mistake initially (over 3 years ago), but quickly realized that it helps no one. So, a few months into my use of Twitter, I re-evaluated my approach to it, and started following only the Twitter accounts that were of genuine interest to me. And guess what? Some of these folks don’t follow me… But why should this even matter? I follow them to learn; not to be followed.

Lesson #2: Filter ruthlessly & courageously — That follow/unfollow button is a powerful one! It’s akin to our TV’s remote control: when you don’t like the show, you move on… Now the adverb “courageously” is an important one. Whatever anyone says about social media “snobbery”, don’t listen, and do what works for you. Your time is valuable. Cut the noise, filtering out what doesn’t add value; then rinse, and repeat.

Lesson #3: Engage in conversations — Most of the things that I’ve learned on/through Twitter, and all of the business that I’ve landed due to Twitter (and my estimates show that $80,000+ worth of contracts I signed were directly or indirectly influenced by my tweeting), was due to my participation in conversations.

Lesson #4: Share generously — One of the major goals of social networking platforms (including Twitter) to make social sharing (please, do not confuse with broadcasting!) an easier task. So, about a year ago I’ve made it my rule — share everything that I find of interest.

Lesson #5: Stay your authentic self — Some say you want to maintain separate accounts for personal and business stuff. It may work for some people, but being my own personal brand, I, like many others, have decided not to split my tweets. You’ll see me tweeting pictures from my fishing trips, and links to photos and videos that I find of interest. Of course, most of my tweets are about the things that fascinate me in the digital world (and online marketing, in particular), but keeping it all in the same place with the other things that matter to me has proven to be a good branding strategy. Kind of like Bill Marriott’s blog posts, only more personal, you know?

If you’re following me on Twitter, thank you for making it such an amazing ride!!

I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but a new book has recently been published by a co-founder of what is today Google Affiliate Network. Jeff Molander authored “Off the Hook Marketing”, which positions itself as a book on how “to make platforms like Twitter,” Facebook, YouTube, “and blogs to produce sales.” I took the book with me on my Mexico vacation, and it actually made a very good read.

Before I get to the bullet points (outlining those of Jeff’s ideas that have really hit the nail on the head for me), let me say that I disagree with his choice of the book’s title, or rather its sub-title, which is “How to make social media sell for you.” Yes, Jeff does talk a lot about Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and how various brands are already using these to produce sales. However, the principles that he establishes and the key points that he’s making go way beyond social media platforms. In fact, the better sub-title, in my opinion would be “How to successfully sell in a social world”. However niche or local your business may be, online- or offline-oriented, it can be greatly improved by the advice this guy is giving. Here are just a few of his noteworthy ideas:

1. Shift the focus from “getting customers to bite on Facebook, Twitter, or a blog” to “earning a sale from them”. “Attracting customers is relatively easy” and “should be taking up less of your time” as opposed to “earning a sale from them.”
2. To land that sale you want to focus on “helping customers solve everyday problems.” Always think of things “in terms of a problem and solution.”
3. “Selling someone something doesn’t require engagement, conversation, and a relationship.” These three are, rather, “created by selling them something.”
4. Beyond everything, focus on “helping customers to get things done.”
5. “Be a thought provoker, not just a thought leader.”
6. Success comes when you’re (a) not losing track of the end goal, and (b) when you have a good guide.
7. When discerning your customers’ need, keep in mind that “the way they express [it] may be explicit or implicit, urgent or latent.”
8. Per Facebook’s Paul Adams “behavior is at the center of successful social strategy.”
9. A good “approach to social media application looks like this: Business problem → business strategy to solve the problem → incorporate social media into said business strategy.”
10. It is “by focusing on behavior” that “a business is much more likely to create something that people” will “value and use.”
11. Brand is behavior! Yes, “your brand is the tangible benefits actually delivered to customers: their total experience online and offline.”
12. “The truth is Twitter, Facebook, telephones, email – none of these are the secret sauce.” It is “giving customers what they’ve (rather secretly) been wanting: a better way to shop.” So, don’t try to “predict which technologies will be dominant” but focus on understanding “how these technologies will support human behavior” and how new tools and technologies can “help people do things they are struggling” with.
13. The “secret sauce” is never in the tool or “application itself,” but rather “in the design of the tools: their functional purpose and ability to provide a highly useful experience within a realm that makes sense.”
14. The two key words to keep in mind are: “relevant” and “useful”. Strive to be both – at all times!
15. “The answer to selling more with social tools is rooted in starting conversations that are worth having, conversing in ways that align the needs of buyer and seller, and designing conversations with customers in ways that generate inquiries and sales.”
16. Today’s “best social sellers are” actually great “translators of customers’ evolving needs.” So, look “for clues, listing to customers, and learning about their shopping context” to be truly relevant and helpful. If you’re following trends, re-think your approach; and start following customers instead (for example, by targeting consumers’ dislikes).
17. Every ‘next big thing’ (from electricity and automobiles to Zappos and Apple’s iPod, iPhones and iPads) has had something to do with uncovering and satisfying “preexisting, unmet demand.” Gunnar Branson calls it “latent demand” or one “that customers cannot express that competitors do not – or cannot – see.”
18. Be a “behavioral architect”, and while “creating awareness, interest, desire, and action,” remember to focus on the “action” part.
19. One of the main characteristics of social Web is the interactivity it empowers us with. Forget about “broadcasting messages at customers” (whether contests or coupons/promos), and focus on “designing interactions with them,” creating “meaningful exchanges, ‘give-and-takes’ that connect with sales.” “Monitor for signals emanating from” your (or your competitors’) customers, and “spring into action” when you hear one. Some companies are landing six-figure sales by using Twitter this way.
20. Do not be “marketing for marketing’s sake and measuring for measurement’s sake,” but attach “specific goals” to what you’re now “able to observe”. Don’t just focus on ‘likes’, clicks, followers or ReTweets, but make meaningful (and hence useful) observations. It’s that sale or lead that you’re ultimately after (or you better be), aren’t you?
21. The core idea is simple: “Tell the truth, and tell it with relevance, immediacy, and meaning.”
22. So observe, and then prompt behavior for “more outcomes, more reliably and more often”. Monitor, translate, design, and all of it with the goal (sale or lead) always in focus.

Whether you are B2C or B2B, merchant or independent marketer, e-tailer or affiliate, I believe you will benefit from reading this book. It’s abundant (I mean, abundant) in real-life case studies (of both marketing successes and failures), relevant to what you’re doing (again, regardless of your context), and, most importantly, practical and readily applicable. Pick up this book, read it, and apply its principles, before your competition does. I’ve already made the former two steps. Off to brush up my action plan to make that third one…

Yesterday, GrowMap blogged on What NOT to Tweet on Twitter, and when I first saw the post’s title (in Ann Smarty’s ReTweet) I thought the post was going to be on something else — namely, on things not to tweet for security or reputation management reasons. While I enjoyed that GrowMap’s post regardless, it also gave me an idea for this list. So here they are (in no particular order):

10 Things Not to Share on Social Media

1. Birth dates (and places) for yourself, your spouse, your children
2. Your mother’s maiden name
3. Your home address (neither entire, nor any parts of it)
4. Detailed pictures of your home
5. Details (dates/time) of your vacations or trips away from home
6. Pictures/scans of your government issued documents
7. Your home or mobile phone number(s)
8. Any information that may be used to retrieve/guess your password(s)
9. Your weaknesses, fears, insecurities, or anything that may be perceived as such
10. Work-related complaints (if you’re working for somebody)

In a nutshell, never tweet or share anything that may be used against you or your family — to compromise your identity and/or your reputation.

Have I missed something that belongs here? If you believe so, please post it through the “Comments” area.

We may argue about the effectiveness of social media presence/campaigns for business promotion and sales generation, but one thing that no one seems to doubt is that it is one of the hottest topics in present-day marketing. Whether fueled by a global hype or not, but Google Instant keeps popping suggestions on social media marketing even when I’m not looking for things related to it at all… Google prides itself with its prediction technology which helps it “predict the rest of your query (in light gray text) before you finish typing” [more here]. Well, here’s what I get:

1. When we type in “social”, “social network” is among the top 5 suggestions:

2. Type in “why marketer” and you get:

3. When you start with “how do marketer” Google Instant suggests:

4. If you type in “can you market”, the social medial outlets are even more prevalent:

5. And, finally, should you wonder about “effective marketing”, the suggestions go as follows:

Wow… You can believe in social media marketing or not, but clearly there’s no way to ignore it…

It is interesting to see where Gartner places social media developments in its annual “Hype Cycle” report of emerging technologies:

According to the above curve, out of social media technologies:

• Social analytics is on the rise. Gartner says “the value resides in applying” predictive analytics techniques “in new applications such as social analytics and sentiment analysis”.
• Microblogging (which predominantly happens on Twitter) is 2 to 5 years, and it’s on the bottom of the “Peak of Inflated Expectations”.
• Corporate blogging, social software suites, and wikis which were scored in the previous Hype Cycle report are no longer there, but should be in Gartner’s “Slope of Enlightenment” now.

I’m split on the subject of social media marketing effectiveness (I could certainly use more analytics data). I do understand how when properly handled social media efforts increase engagement with brands (personal or corporate) and facilitate loyalty growing “fans”; but I, personally, do not know of one marketer who could confidently compare the sales effect of social media efforts to, say, search engine-based paid search, SEO, or affiliate programs. But then again: shouldn’t we distinguish between the types of social media efforts? Blogging isn’t the same as microblogging (aka “tweeting”), and even within Facebook — a PPC campaign is very different from interaction with consumers via a “fan” page.

What do you think? What has been your experience? Does social media marketing work for you? The comments are all yours.

Earlier this morning Business Insider reported:

Salesforce just spent $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock to acquire Radian6, which makes tools for big companies to monitor their social media presence, the company has just announced.

While not being as dollar-impressive as the acquisition I’ve written about yesterday, this one is quite significant in the meaning of it. While Warren Buffett believes that valuations for “most of” social media networking websites are “overpriced”, even he acknowledges that there “will be huge winners” [italics mine].

Radian6 “helps companies listen to what people are saying about them online and engage in those conversations across the social web” [source]. Kind of like the tools I mentioned in my Brick and Mortar Businesses Must Monitor Online Space post back in 2009, but on a different scale (more comprehensive and flexible).

So, what has just happened? A popular “on-demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution vendor” [source] invested a third of a billion dollars into a social media monitoring startup. How else could we better underscore the importance of social media to present-day CRM? The line between the two is blurring quickly, as one becomes an integral part of the other. Radian6 describes itself as “a next-generation listening platform that includes the integration of social media monitoring and analysis with social customer relationship management (CRM) and web analytics.” They made “listening and engagement” their core goals, and that was the best decision they could’ve made.

On a separate note, I find Impact6′s example extremely encouraging. Every industry, company, and manager who focuses on active listening and strives for engagement wins. It was good to be reminded of it once again today.

If you know anything about me, you know that I have two hobbies: fishing (one I actively participate in) and football/soccer (one I love to watch). Yesterday my hometeam, FC Zenit (St Petersburg, Russia) got through into the 1/8th of Europa League beating Young Boys (Bern, Switzerland) 1:3 in snowy St. Petersburg at 12°F (-11°C). I follow my team on Twitter, and yesterday also found out that some of Zenit’s players (e.g.: @malafeev16, @shirokovr15). So, I searched Twitter for other football/soccer players, and today since it’s #FollowFriday time again I’d like to bring you a list of the 20 football (soccer) stars every fans must consider following on Twitter. The list is merely alphabetical: full player’s name first, his current (even if on loan) football club second (most of the below-listed players also play on their respective national teams):

1. Sergio Agüero — Atlético Madrid (Spain)

2. Xabi Alonso — Real Madrid (Spain)

3. Jozy Altidore — Villareal (Spain)

4. Nicolas Anelka — Chelsea (England)

5. Alvaro Arbeloa Coca — Real Madrid (Spain)

6. Andrey Arshavin — Arsenal (England)

7. Landon Donovan — Los Angeles Galaxy (USA)

8. Maurice Edu — Glasgow Rangers (Scotland)

9. Samuel Eto’o — Internazionale (Spain)

10. Rio Ferdinand — Manchester United (England)

11. Diego Forlan — Atlético Madrid (Spain)

12. Andrés Iniesta — Barcelona (Spain)

13. Kaká — Real Madrid (Spain)

14. Lukas Podolski — FC Köln (Germany)

15. Carles Puyol — Barcelona (Spain)

16. Sergio Ramos — Real Madrid (Spain)

17. Ronaldinho Gaúcho — Flamengo (Brazil)

18. Cristiano Ronaldo — Real Madrid (Spain)

19. Gilberto Silva — Panathinaikos (Greece)

20. Jack Wilshere — Arsenal (England)

If I have missed your favorite player, please do post about him in the “Comments” are below!

With PubCon South at Austin 2011 coming up in just two weeks, I thought it would be interesting to analyze PubCon‘s past and current speakers ranking them in the order of their social influence on Twitter. I must tell you, there are some really impressive folks on the list!

I’ve used Twitalyzer as my main tool (it is significantly more sophisticated than Klout which I used for a similar list in the past), and fed in my list from this PubCon’s Twitter list (205 speakers on it at the time I’m performing my analysis) also including the speakers that I know will be coming, but aren’t listed there (e.g.: Jeffrey Eisenberg, Shawn Collins, and Missy Ward).

So the Top 10 List of speakers looks as follows:

1.

@unmarketing Thought Leader

74.8% Impact

16.9% Engagement

79.9% Influence

2.

@copyblogger Thought Leader

44.3% Impact

6.3% Engagement

46.7% Influence

3.

@mattcutts Thought Leader

40.7% Impact

7.3% Engagement

35.8% Influence

4.

@PRsarahevans Trendsetter

26.2% Impact

6.6% Engagement

23.6% Influence

5.

@randfish Trendsetter

19.5% Impact

6.0% Engagement

23.0% Influence

6.

@pogue Trendsetter

34.6% Impact

1.5% Engagement

20.4% Influence

7.

@danzarrella Social Butterfly

14.4% Impact

6.9% Engagement

12.9% Influence

8.

@leeodden Reporter

12.5% Impact

9.0% Engagement

11.1% Influence

9.

@andybeal Reporter

11.5% Impact

21.5% Engagement

10.7% Influence

10.

@WarrenWhitlock Social Butterfly

21.7% Impact

39.3% Engagement

9.6% Influence

I know you’re probably wondering two things: (1) what exactly does the categorization (e.g.: Social Butterfly or Trendsetter) mean, and (2) how do you define the above-quoted % metrics and benchmarks, and how exactly are they calculated. You may find the answers to both of these questions on this page. Speaking of the former, for example, here’s what the folks at Twitalyzer write:

Twitalyzer Influencer Types are a categorization we derive from work done by Lisa Barone (@lisabarone). The five types we track include:

• Everyday Users have a small circle of influence but great potential
• Reporters are connected people and great communicators
• Social Butterflies are very active within their individual networks
• Trendsetters are early adopters who love to share new ideas
• Thought Leaders are the voices people listen to most

For more information about Lisa Barone’s five influencer types we recommend reading “Five Types of Influencers on the Web”.

And here is the full Top 40 List for you:

Enjoy studying the list, and if you aren’t yet following some of these folks, it’s a good time to look into it.

Yesterday brought an interesting news — Zibaba, a Facebook ecommerce storefront provider, is set to launch their (first one around?) Facebook-based affiliate marketing platform.

The network is scheduled to launch at the end of January 2011. Both merchants and affiliates are gonna be charged to participate (between $20 and $100 a month “depending on their number of Likes and how many products they want to sell”). InsideFacebook.com has more:

Affiliate marketers will be able to choose items from any existing Zibaba merchant, agree to a revenue sharing or CPA system, and sell these products from a storefront on their own Facebook Page.

Page storefronts help brands monetize their Likes. Directing these fans off of Facebook in order to make purchases raises a barrier to conversion…

This is where Zibaba, within its Facebook-based storefronts comes in. Now they’re taking it a step further, seeking to embed the performance marketing model into the process as well. InsideFacebook.com continues:

Similar to affiliate portals outside of Facebook such as ClickBank and ShareASale, merchants offer an incentive to affiliates such as 25% of revenue or $2.00 per lead. Affiliates then leverage their existing Facebook audience or send traffic to their branded storefront through advertising.

For consumers, the storefronts are easy to browse and search. Social features include the ability for users to Like and comment on products, and publish these actions to their stream. If users Like the Page hosting the storefront, they can receive a 10% discount on their purchases.

Here are just a few examples of Zibaba-powered storefronts (aka Z-Shops): Interflora | Deja Vu Cosmetics | Wolverhampton Wanderers FC | Shudoo. At this time Zibaba doesn’t offer a universal shopping cart which would work across different Z-Shops, but adding such a functionality is in the company’s plans.

I remember at least two affiliate marketers (Chelsea Osoling and Sharon Mostyn) predicting a closer affiliate integration with social in 2011, and this is definitely getting us a huge step closer to it. Will affiliates be happy to pay is a big question though. Will we see similar free-for-affiliates platforms/networks springing up soon thereafter? Time will show, but in the meantime we’ll be monitoring how things develop on Zibaba’s front.

The famous Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes of Syracuse is known for saying: “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I can move the earth.” For an affiliate marketer (and any online marketer, for that matter!) the “place to stand” remains the same as in 2010 — the Internet. Now let’s look at the “levers” to use in moving towards success in 2011.

There are a number of directions we can explore this year; and I believe there are at least 5 trends to take advantage of:

1. Marriage of Search & Social – At the end of 2010 both Google and Bing confirmed that Twitter and Facebook signals influence search rankings [more here]. While I do not believe Social to be the new SEO, it is hard to overestimate its importance. How will you leverage this in 2011?

2. Local Marketing Opportunities — More and more people are searching for local products, services, coupons and deals. Are you taking advantage of this tendency yet?

3. Rise of Mobile — Mobile Internet devices market is expected to overtake the traditional PCs in the next 5 years, and the mobile Internet will eventually grow to “at least 2x size of Desktop Internet” [source]. Are your websites even mobile-friendly yet?

4. Pay-Per-Call is Hot — Whether you’re reading this as a merchant, or as an affiliate, you don’t want to miss out on this one. For merchants pay-per-call works beautifully with other payment models [more here], while affiliates should take notice of the impressive conversion rates PPCall draws.

5. More Networking Opportunities — The number of affiliate marketing forums and conferences has at least doubled in 2010. Many of them present affiliate marketers with good networking opportunities which can also be leveraged for success.

Have I missed anything?