Facebook IPO priced at $38 a share
Facebook is set to break the $100 billion mark in its IPO, pricing its shares at $38 a unit.
The pricing gives the social network a valuation of $104 billion, making it the largest public offering from a US company in history and the sixth largest globally. The valuation puts Facebook on par with Amazon and exceeds that of Hewlett-Packard and Dell combined.
On Wednesday, Facebook increased the size of the IPO by almost 25% to 421 million shares, a 15% float, according to Reuters. The company and its founders stand to gain handsomely from the float, with as much as $US18.4 billion ($18.6 billion) likely to be generated.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who turned just 28 on Monday, is set to gain the most, but the company’s investors also stand to make impressive gains. A venture capitalist who sits on Facebook’s board of directors, Peter Thiel, stands to reap around $US640 million from the $US500,000 he invested in the company back in 2004.
Predictions of how the stock will trade on the first day of trade vary with some saying anything short of a 50% jump will disappoint, while others say the size of the float and the fact that there’s been a raised price range could reduce first day gains to as little as 10%.
YouTube steals attention away from Facebook
YouTube steals attention away from Facebook
Any Aussie who frantically clicks away from Facebook when the boss is walking by and insists that he is just taking a peek is lying. With Australia coming in third highest in a table of average time spent on Facebook per session across 8 countries, we are certainly doing more than just sneaking in a quick look. In fact, according to a study on the use of social media, Australians spend an average of 26 mins and 27 seconds browsing each time they log into Facebook.
Conducted by information services company Experian, the study, which examined social media behaviour in Australia against seven other countries across the world, also found that while Australia only lags behind Singapore and New Zealand in terms of time spent on Facebook, the number of visits to the social media platform is actually decreasing.
While it remains the most popular site with a 51.8% share of visits among all social network channels, visits to the site have dropped by 5.09% in the last year. YouTube, on the other hand, has increased its visit share in the Australian market by 6.58% in the past year, growing from 14.91% in August 2010 to 21.49% a year later.
Matt Glasner, general manager of Experian Marketing Services says: “The study shows that whilst Facebook continues to be the most widely used network in Australia, brands should not underestimate the importance of YouTube in deeply engaging with their audience. With video advertising set to become an even more popular channel for brands in Australia, they need to develop an understanding of how they can capture the active YouTube market to deliver content in an effective way.”
Social MEDIA 5 Tips
Social media. It’s no secret that it is an increasingly important factor in connecting with your consumers. You’ve read all of the articles on engagement techniques and the overnight success stories.. but how do you get there? We’re all looking for the perfect social media campaign that will be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but where and how do you come up with them? It’s all in the strategy.
Behind the scenes of these impressive social media campaigns there are often creative departments, research groups, and lots of time spent brainstorming in a board room. If you don’t have all of those things are you out of luck? Not at all. Small companies can also have big success with their social media campaigns. Here are 5 tips to getting a start to finding your pot of gold.
- Start with the Basics: Most of the successful campaigns you have read about do not start from ground zero. Just because you created a Twitter account does not mean you are going to inherit 20K followers overnight. Social media is a process and you have to start with a solid base before launching a campaign. At first, your followers might only consist of close friends and family, but in time you will grow your fanbase. You need to come up with a consistent engagement plan that works before thinking about the big picture.
- Brainstorm Your Ideas: What campaigns have you read about that you like? Have you read case studies? WOMMA has a great resource of case studies that you can use to familiarize yourself.
- Tell Your Story: What is unique about your company’s story? This step is worth spending some time on. What is your company or product’s personality? Is your story funny.. inspiring.. family-oriented? What makes you different and why are people going to care? For this step you need to take a step back from your “baby” and look at the story from a mass-consumer perspective.
- Make it Happen: Once you have decided what your story is and why people will care, it is down to business. How are you going to make the campaign happen? Do you need to build a custom Facebook application? Are you doing a sweepstakes? What are your incentives for people getting involved? Is it something funny to share? Is there a great prize? Once you nail down the logistics, utiliza your team and make it happen.
- Share: You’ve put in all of the hard work and now it is time to get the word out there! Share your campaign with your friends and family and tell them to share. You can also utilize traditional PR tactics to reach out to the media and blogs online to spread the word.
There you have it. The basics of building a successful social media campaign. Do you have any other suggestions to add? Please share in the comment section below!
This is why you need to call us, today, so we can talk about how we can implement a strategy for you business.
Call me on 0402741740 or 0414900030 and we can have a chat.
Speak soon,
Michael Becker
Building a Brand Awareness the Cost-Effective Way
Social Media
Building a Brand Awareness the Cost-Effective Way
Facebook used to just be a cool place to find your old school friends, but business is turning to the social media supersite, and others, in droves to utilise their power to spread brand awareness. In fact, the number of Australian visitors to social media sites is allegedly surpassing the number of people using search engines.
Did you know:
• There are more than 800millionFacebook accounts users and half these people use the site daily
• People spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• The average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook on their mobile devices and those people are twice as active on Facebook as non-mobile users
• Australians spend more time on Facebook (average seven hours, 19 minutes per month) than residents of the United States and Italy**
The goal of any social media campaign should be to build brand awareness. Should you expect a bucket load of sales through social media? Generally, no. However, social media is the most cost-effective way to promote events, manage your reputation, care for your customers, hold competitions and create awareness. Don’t get us wrong, there will be some retailers for which social media can be held directly responsible for sales, but this will definitely not be the case for all.
Although social media sites offer ‘free’ and easy access, business owners need to look at the bigger picture before committing their staff to maintaining a social media presence for the business as it’s not as free as it looks and there can be other pitfalls.
Once you’ve committed to a social media presence, you should commit to engaging with the sites and your likers or followers on a daily basis. Regular posts or tweets and timely responses to other people’s comments form the basis of many successful pages as this is the best way to build meaningful relationships with your followers. But this all takes time. So your ‘free’ marketing channel just started costing you at the pay office.
The addictive nature of social media can also cost business owners in lost time as staff, who are supposedly ‘working’ on social media, find themselves instead chatting to their friends about what’s happening this weekend. And if social media is new to your organisation, there are also going to be hours lost in training and finding your way around the finer details. Using all the features available on Facebook, for example, can turn your business page into a slick mini website – if you know how.
Ultimately, business owners have two choices; set up a clear social media strategy for their business, or outsource their social media public relations to an expert.
When considering an inhouse social media policy, business owners should clearly specify who is in charge, what can be said on the business site/s and how many times per day/week you will post. Sharing the administration rights can alleviate the burden on any one person, but the roles and responsibilities must be individually identified.
But if this all seems like too much work, giving an outside PR consultancy admin privileges takes the pressure off having to think up creative posts and spending valuable hours engaging with your clients online. MeMedia has been utilising these marketing channels for our clients for years. The relatively small cost involved in engaging a consultancy will definitely pay dividends if you are planning to get serious about social. But it shouldn’t be a question of ‘if’ – moreso ‘when’.
This is why you need to call us, today, so we can talk about how we can implement a strategy for you business.
Call me on 0402741740 or 0414900030 and we can have a chat.
Speak soon,
Michael Becker
Get to Know Social Media
For companies that have yet to understand or implement social media, it’s not too late to get involved with these powerful platforms. OpenForum.com recently outlined some simple steps to help social network novices become familiar with these major marketing channels.
1. Concentrate on Your Business and Brand – Rather than getting overwhelmed by the numerous social media platforms, focus on defining your brand’s purpose and promise, then use social media as a way to promote these attributes.
2. Decide on Your Marketing Strategy – This shouldn’t be a complicated plan, but rather a set of goals you hope to achieve from your social media efforts. Your strategy will help you develop initiatives and determine directions that are in the best interest of your brand and your objectives.
3. Think of Social Media Platforms as Places – After clearly defining your brand message and strategy, think about how you’ll use social media. Picture each social media platform as a separate address with different people residing at each one. When you enter each address, you’ll talk to the people within and overhear other simultaneous conversations. Now, plan what you want to say to these people about your brand and realize that they are likely to listen, respond, and discuss your brand with others. You don’t want to come on too strong, but you want to casually share your message and get people involved in your conversation. When you look at social media this way, it’s much easier to navigate and understand.
4. Take a Personal Approach to Business – When interacting on social media, no one wants to hear a stuffy corporate message. Humanize your business by using a relaxed, friendly tone and sharing personal experiences that resonate with others.
5. Don’t Sell, Just Share – Social media should never be used as a sales tool because a hard-sell approach alienates your followers and gives your brand a bad image. Instead, use these forums to share, interact, educate, build relationships, boost your credibility, and connect with new people. By taking this approach to earning consumers’ trust, the sales will soon follow.
6. Establish Your Presence – Turn your social media pages into engaging destinations by posting interesting content, compelling features, worthwhile promotions, and valuable information about your brand. Once you’ve started attracting followers, continue to post fresh content, start conversations, and encourage interaction to keep them coming back.
Remember, social media is relatively new for everyone. We’re all still trying to figure out the best ways to use social networks to make the most of our marketing efforts.
This is why you need to call us, today, so we can talk about how we can implement a strategy for you business.
Call me on 0402741740 or 0414900030 and we can have a chat.
Speak soon,
Michael Becker
LinkedIn is your Business There
There are so many social media websites around these days; it’s hard to know which one is best suited to your requirement.
Facebook is great for keeping up with mates and building brand awareness for your business, yes, but the difference with LinkedIn is that it is strictly about business. You won’t have to wade through dozens of posts about what Steve did with the boys on Saturday night or how Sally is getting her haircut and wants to know if she should colour as well – LinkedIn is a legitimate speciality business tool.
According to the site, LinkedIn is the “world’s largest professional network with over 100 million members, and growing rapidly”. One hundred million members is nothing to be sneezed at and is proof of LinkedIn’s power.
Here are some key points to get you started on your first foray into LinkedIn:
Establishing a profile
Information is key – make sure you load your page with as much relevant info about you and your business position as possible. But don’t make it too bland. Stand out from the crowd with catchy lines to ensure you engage with, and impact on, the person reading about you. Remember, your ‘summary’ is your elevator pitch – make it memorable and snappy or readers will get off at the next floor.
Treat your profile as a modern resume – email your URL rather than snail-mailing a pile of paper (and make sure you personalise your LinkedIn URL, rather than offering up a forgettable string of auto-generated letters and numbers).
Have you Googled yourself lately? LinkedIn profiles rise to the top of search results which enables you to have some control over the first impression someone gets of you.
As a day-to-day, general business tool
LinkedIn contacts generally stay up to date so while your business associates are moving from job to job, from town to town, you can easily keep up with them.
A LinkedIn search will quickly give you background on a potential hire (and reference checks), or a new client, or a potential sales target.
LinkedIn keeps you informed of job opportunities, sales leads, freelance work etc.
Boosting your business
Now that you have a profile, let’s really leverage the site. Join relevant ‘Groups’ and mingle with experts in your field.
Use LinkedIn’s ‘Answers’ feature to ask business questions and get great answers. If you answer other people’s questions with business nous, you yourself will become an expert in their eyes, all the while building a strong business reputation.
Social media success, like anything, takes time to build and grow. But knowing where to start is half the battle. And, no, you will not make sales today by joining LinkedIn, but it is another way to build that all-important brand awareness in an increasingly digital-savvy marketplace.
This is why you need to call us, today, so we can talk about how we can implement a strategy for you business.
Call me on 0402741740 or 0414900030 and we can have a chat.
Speak soon,
Michael Becker
Social Media Effect
Social Media Map
Social Media Overview
Facebook Management
For clients who want to start connecting online and soft-selling their products using Facebook, our Facebook Business Page or Facebook Fan page service is the way to get started fast. By interacting with others using Facebook Business Pages you provide easy ways for others to connect with you online outside of your website as well as increased ways to showcase your services and seasonal promotions.
Not only will a Facebook Business page help to position your company or personal name as a leader in your industry, but when used effectively Facebook Business Pages can bring you business, create new selling opportunities, attract potential employees, and start conversations with prospects.
Linkedin Management and Marketing
Linkedin is growing every day. It almost has 100,000,000 million users. It is barely behind Twitter but far ahead of it with the quality of people. What makes Linkedin work is wonderful is you are dealing with professionals who are looking to network.
Twitter Management
Some of those millions of Twitter users, 175,000 of them, are your customers. Our social management Twitter services will help you connect with the twitter users in both your target market but also your location.
What our Twitter management service can do for you:
Develop the Twitter plan (including ideas on what you can do increase your business)
Start a Twitter account including a background design and logo incorporation (if you need this)
Follow people in your customer base per day
Generate an initial twitter following
Link your website
This is why you need to call us, today, so we can talk about how we can implement a strategy for you business.
Call me on 0402741740 or 0414900030 and we can have a chat.
Speak soon,
Michael Becker