Top 10 lists make our life easier by creating shortcuts of what’s really important.

However, there were so many top 10 lists this year, it got confusing. So that’s why we here at flyte put together the top 25 lists of 2011! (We couldn’t stop at just ten!)

1. Top 10 Tech Stories of 2011:

Technology is rapidly changing and evolving so it is important to be able to look back year after in order to observe how fast change happens. In 2011, the tech geeks of the world as well as the average consumer witnessed many profound moments in history including the death of Steve Jobs, AT&T’s failed battle with the U.S. government when attempting to acquire T-Mobile, as well as the epic hacking of Sony’s Playstation which caused the company to have to take it’s system off-line for a significant period of time.

2. Top 10 for Intergrative Medicine Policy and Action in 2011:

As the cost of traditional medicine rises along with the information generation, alternative forms of medicine are becoming more and more valuable. The Obama-Pelosi Affordable Care Act led the way to help these discoveries and subsequent developments.

3. Top 10 Marketing Infographics of 2011:

Since marketing can be very complex, visual aids tend to encourage further understanding of valuable information. Although infographics have been around for some time, they became very dominant in 2011 as people’s ability to visualize data with new technologies allowed for incredibly creative displays of information.
(more…)

The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital takes to Facebook to engage their audience.

Recently we started working with the Maine Medical Center on some of their social media activity and profiles. One of the first things they wanted to tackle was to improve their Facebook activity for The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital.

We wanted to engage visitors to the page, and frame the experience with BBCH on Facebook, rather than just throw them at the Wall and see what sticks.

To that end we build off some of the great branding done by Garrand here in Portland, Maine, and created a landing page that included an introductory movie.

Although the page asks for the “like,” we didn’t want to keep people from exploring the page before they were ready to like BBCH, so visitors still have the choice of navigating to the wall or anywhere else.

Raising funds for the children’s hospital is equally important, so we created a second page, this one specific for giving. (And who could resist the tiny little baby with his stuffed monkey in the ICU?!?)

Visitors can see how they can make a difference in BBCH’s mission, by donating funds, volunteering, or helping with a fundraiser.

Ultimately we decided to send people back to the main BBCH website to make a donation, but using Facebook tabs we could have collection donations or managed volunteers forms all without sending people away from Facebook.

Of course, there’s more to a successful Facebook presence than a slick looking landing page (or pages, in this case.)

BBCH should update their page a few times a day, respond to posts and comments on their wall, and consider some targeted Facebook ads based on geography and interests.

Even if you’re not ready to donate or volunteer, you can like BBCH here.

Rich Brooks
Facebook Business Pages

I found myself surprised at how much the news of Steve Jobs’ death moved me.

It’s only been a few minutes since I heard Steve Jobs had finally lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. I read his obituary on CNN.com, realizing that they, like everyone else, had it ready to roll the moment they got the news. I guess that’s true with all celebrities, business leaders and politicians.

Maybe it’s a sign of one’s fame or notoriety that your obituary is out there, waiting for you.

Apple and Steve Jobs had more noticeable impact on my life than probably any other business or CEO. His impact on what’s considered to be good design and good user interface cannot be overstated.

Every day I spend ten or more hours working with the Apple interface, whether it’s on my MacBook Pro, my iPad, my iPhone, or even my classic iPod. (There’s just not enough memory for my music collection on the iPod Touch.)

My first Apple product was the Apple IIc, and I remember writing a simple software program that played “I Spy”; my dad, a child psychologist, used it with his patients as a game. I remember having a Mac classic in college with only one floppy disk drive, and having to swap out floppy discs 20, 30, 40 times to install software on the computer. I lost count of the number of Grateful Dead bootleg tape cases I made with MacPaint. I made beer money from typing other students’ business papers on my Mac, too.

Since starting flyte I can’t count the number of times clients over the years have pointed to Apple.com when we’ve asked them to list websites that they admire from a design standpoint.

While a lot of the inevitable remembrance pieces will talk about what has been lost with his passing–as well as what this means for Apple going forward–I can’t help but focus on all we’ve gained.

Just think of all the people who were able to compose music, make movies, design websites, and share stories using the software and hardware that he inspired or oversaw. Imagine all the art and creative work that wouldn’t have been created if we didn’t have these amazing, easy-to-use tools at our disposal.

The creative output that he inspired is beyond measure, and for that we all have something to be thankful for.

I leave you with this great quote that was referenced in the CNN piece, something he said to the Stanford graduates in 2005:

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

I do love it, Steve. And I have you to thank for that.

Rich Brooks
Apple Fanboy

Companies of all sizes are driving traffic to their Facebook pages rather than their website…should you?

Dear Rich,

I’ve been noticing that a lot of companies are driving traffic to their Facebook pages in ads lately. “Come find us on Facebook”  rather than sending them directly to their website. Why is this? Should we be sending traffic to our Facebook page instead?

–Facebooking in Falmouth

Dear Facebooking,

The reason a lot of companies are directing valuable traffic to their Facebook page is because they want to be where their audience is. According to recent stats, 1 out of every 13 people on Earth have a Facebook account, and over 72% of the US Internet population are on there. The average user visits the site 40 times a month and spends an average of just over 23 minutes on the site each visit.

Facebook also represents ongoing engagement with your customers and prospects. If they visit your website and leave, that’s the end of your relationship. If you can get someone to like your Facebook page, you have an opportunity to regularly appear in their newsfeed. (Learn more about Edgerank, the algorithm that determines whether or not you appear in your fans’ newsfeed.)

Whether that’s the right approach for your business depends on your goals and strategies. If your target audience is active on Facebook this could be a good approach. However, keep in mind that Facebook may be fleeting. Although it seems like an 800lb gorilla now, that may not always be the case. Or their algorithm may change so your messages are less likely to reach your audience. 

The best list to have is the one you build yourself and have under your control. In my opinion, that means building your email list. Ultimately, whether I first engage my audience at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or on my website, I want them to sign up for my email newsletter. Although strictly speaking it resides at Constant Contact, I can download that list at any time as I own it.

What do you think? Do you drive traffic to your website, Facebook or somewhere else?

Rich Brooks
As Seen on Facebook

If you want to increase the number of people who “like” your business on Facebook you should create a landing page for them. Here’s why.

Most businesses who have a presence on Facebook do it because “everyone else is doing it,” or “I was told I needed one,” or some other vague, undefined reason. They set up their free page, update it a few times, and generally ignore it.

Then they wonder why it’s not working.

Being successful on Facebook requires that you have a social media strategy that matches up with your business goals. Otherwise you’re just wasting your time and your limited resources.

If engaging your audience on the world’s biggest social network will help you grow your business, then you need to take it seriously.

One critical part of increasing your likers is to have a landing page. Your Facebook landing page serves multiple purposes:

• Sets the stage. Your wall can be a fun, engaging space when you do it well. However, for someone less familiar with your business, it may feel chaotic and overwhelming. A landing page explains who you are and acts as an introduction to your Facebook presence.
  
• Explains the benefit of liking your business. Although liking a page isn’t a big commitment–just a click will do it–there will certainly be “like fatigue” as people are bombarded to like more pages on Facebook. A landing page can explain why someone should like your page and what benefits they may receive: discounts, daily tips, ability to engage with a brand or company they like IRL. (In Real Life.)
• Extends your brand(ing). Whenever you setup an outpost (love that term, stole it from Chris Brogan), on a social media platform, you want to ensure that your brand is visible. In conjunction with your profile photo (the image on the left hand side of all your pages), your landing page can help establish your brand in the mind of your prospects and customers. Make sure that your brand’s personality comes through. Watch the movie embedded on flyte’s landing page to get a sense of what I mean.
• Shows that you take Facebook seriously. It’s too easy to get started on Facebook, which is why every business seems to have a Facebook business page. Whenever you use a social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) you’ll get better engagement when you make your profile look “lived in.”

The new way to build Facebook pages is to have them hosted externally and embed them on Facebook using an iFrame. (Talk to your web developer if you reread that last sentence three times and still aren’t sure what it means.) That means that anything you can do on a regular page you can do on your Facebook landing page: photos, forms, embedded video…it’s all available for you to engage and persuade your audience.

So, if you want to get in front of the 750 million people using Facebook (or, more likely, a targeted segment of that audience), then add a customized, branded landing page and start getting more likers today.

Rich Brooks
Facebook Landing Page Designer

On your business blog your voice and perspective are your competitive advantage. “Overshare” for the right type of lead generation.

I do a lot of presentations on blogging and web marketing…ways to generate online leads and increase sales. What businesses should blog about is often a concern to people just getting started with a business blog, and even those who have been blogging for a while. When it comes to what type of content to create–whether in blog posts, videos, etc.–I’m a big fan of the how-to. On this blog I’ve posted about how to grow your LinkedIn group, how to embed a video in a WordPress site, and how to put on a free webinar, which represent just a small sampling of how much free information we’ve given away over the years.

On more than one occasion when I’ve suggested the how-to approach for lead generation, someone gets concerned that they’re giving away their best information. My (glib) response goes something like this:

If you’re able to explain away all of your accumulated experience in a 500 word blog post (or 2 minute video), then you’re in the wrong business.

Don’t worry about giving away all your “best stuff.” Your competition already has.

They already have blog posts and videos and email newsletters and webinars that teach your prospects how to do everything that you’re charging for.

Don’t let this stop you. Because you have something that they don’t have and can never have: you. You have a specific way of explaining how-to hire the right people, or grow the greenest grass, or raise healthy children. Maybe your approach is more factual, or funny, or musical, or whimsical, or irreverent, or illustrated, or angry, or French, or sublime or maybe you’re the only one who presents it as an interpretive dance.

And by presenting something in a fashion that makes it uniquely your own, you will attract that audience that’s looking for something that’s more factual, or funny, or musical, or whimsical, or irreverent, or illustrated, or angry, or French, or sublime…or perhaps they just prefer to see things explained through dance.

And for those do-it-yourselfers who take your best material and do it themselves? Don’t worry about it. They weren’t going to hire you anyway. But what they will do, (and this has happened to me time and time again over the years), is they’ll refer business your way when their friends, family and associates ask them for help.

So in short, don’t worry about giving away your best material. (Unless you’re developing the next generation iPhone.) Get your information out there in your voice, make sure it’s search engine optimized, shareable through social media, and start attracting the people who want to do business with you..and with whom you want to do business. Most of them won’t want to put in the hard work, even if that was their original intent. Once they see how well you do it, they’ll want to hire you instead.

Just remember: you’re the most important person in the whole wide world.

Rich Brooks
Factual, Funny, Musical, Whimsical, Irreverent, Illustrated, Angry, French, Sublime Web Marketing Done In Tap

Photo Credit: UW Digital Collections

Coach Deb on Stage at Social Media FTW 2010

When not running flyte new media, I can often be found wearing one of my many other hats, including the one that says “Co-Founder of Social Media FTW.”

For those of you unfamiliar with Social Media FTW, it’s a group I run with Chrystie Corns and Jaica Kinsman to bring social media events to Northern New England. We’ve run two successful fall conferences over the past two years, both selling out. We’re ramping up for FTW 2011, and that means having a call for presenters.

Today–actually yesterday, but who’s counting?–we’re opening our doors for applications to present at this year’s conference which will be held in Portland, Maine on 9/22/2011. You can submit your application to present through 6/27/2011.

A few things to note about this speaking opportunity:
(more…)