Population
In the Knoxville area there are 243,940 Facebook users.  According to the City of Knoxville’s census data from 2000-2002, it puts the population of Knox County is 389,327.

Approximately 36,480 more women have profiles compared to men. That shows that in Knoxville there are 24% more women than men on Facebook. The age demographic with the largest population is 25-34 with 55,040 profiles. According to City of Knoxville data Knox County has 55,057 people in the 25-34 range. So even with this old data from 2000-2002, approximately 99% of the demographic would be on Facebook!! Another interesting fact is the largest age demographic in Knox County according to census data isn’t the largest range on Facebook, but is the 35-44 range. In Facebook rankings, this demographic comes in third at 42,840.

Relationships
Let’s turn to relationships. A total of 79,380 people have their relationship status as married, and 31,360 are “in a relationship.”  A total of 6,020 Knoxville Facebook users are engaged and 48,700 are single. Sadly, the number of popular “it’s complicated” relationship status was unable to be determined for these results.

Sports
The top ranked sport should come as no surprise as football topped the ranks with 14,500 listing it in their profile. Basketball comes in second at 11,180. Baseball is a distant third at 5,380 and soccer barely tips the scales at 4,100.

Education
While 65,100 Knoxvillians indicate they have graduated from college, surprisingly only 18,840

say they’ve graduated from the University of Tennessee.  A total of 10,500 say they are in college.

Unique Facts
Rocky Top is an interest for 2,120 Knoxvillians, while only 800 list the Sunsphere and 400 list the illicit alcohol moonshine.

A few other tidbits: 17,100 indicate “music” on their profile versus 13,880 with “reading.” The Dirty Guv’nahs are listed by 2,580, and Dishwater Blonde is mentioned 780. Surprisingly, Swiperboy isn’t listed at all.

In summary
Facebook users in Knoxville are typically female, 25-34 years old, are college graduates, like football and baseball and prefer the Dirty Guvnahs over Dishwater Blonde.

It’s been an interesting year for Google.  Back in May they stopped selling the Nexus One phone directly, effectively ending their attempt to takeover the mobile phone business.  Now after much hype on how Wave would change the world as we knew it, Google shuttered the service.  Even with several people all about it like Chris Brogan (ChrisBrogan.com) and Gina Trapani (Lifehacker.com) it couldn’t get enough lift to fly.  What happened?

As a Wave user and creator, I was bothered by a few issues.

First, it was limited to the invited only, and that eliminated possible connections.  Because of the limited connections, a low number of people were using it, which led to limited connections, which led to…  you get the point.  Early users were invited, then allowed to invite others.  This worked great for Gmail, but not so great for Wave.  Back when Gmail came around there were already web-based email accounts available, most notably from Yahoo and Microsoft/Hotmail. So there was competition. Gmail started small, but began to grow as people talked about the new ways of organizing emails.

But Wave promised to connect us all with email, chat and more.  But we already had email. And we already had chat. And the connections were already being given to us by Facebook and Twitter, especially Twitter. There, I can follow anyone at anytime with no invitations necessary.

But I tried!  I really tried! I created a Tennessee Wave Users Group that evolved into a place for people to say, “I’m using Wave from Nashville!” or whatever area of the state they were in.  Not exactly the kind of collaboration that changes games.

Next, it was hard to see potential uses for it.  Once you were in it, there was no clear path to do anything.  I found it confusing to figure how to read waves, update waves, follow waves.  Evidence of the complexity was Gina from Lifehacker.com who took it upon her shoulders to build the manual.  A manual that ended up being 195 pages (too?) long.

If you did sit straight up in bed with a revelation on how you could change the world with it, you had to invite someone to join, try to explain what Wave did, wait for them to join, then work with them through their learning curve. Clunky. By that time, you could have implemented your world changes with email and Facebook chat/messages.  You could even let the world in on it with a Twitter update.

And for me it was slow.  I heard there was some massive javascript running behind the scenes.  I have no problem with pushing the envelope, but it seemed the browser and computer struggled to get that all going in the same direction.  And yes, I tried multiple browsers.  I mostly used Chrome, Google’s own and supposedly the best for all this javascript juice.

OK, so I wasn’t the biggest fan.  I still believe this is not a total failure.  Google learned a lot from this effort, and I’m sure we’ll see pieces of it again.  Maybe in Gmail, maybe in search, maybe in documents, but we’ll see parts of it again. In fact, ZDnet has already weighed in on how it could rise from the ashes.

So what did you think?  Did you try it?  Do you agree with me, or were you getting misty-eyed when you heard the Wave had passed?

The ability to follow businesses and people is important because in one click, people can sign up to hear from you when you make an update. Your sales, posts, or company updates are now pushed to people that want to hear from you.

Five years ago, people pulled the information they were interested in. They would come to your website when they wanted to (or remembered), and they’d grab the information they wanted to read.

With the ability to follow, it can be as simple as a calendar reminder that pops up on computer screens or phones. Instead of a lunch appointment, it’s an update from you about your latest news.

So where can you follow?

• Blogs
• Twitter accounts
• Facebook pages
• LinkedIn companies

Here are a few examples.

If you want to stay in the know, start following. Get content pushed to you today!

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The webinar was presented by Thoughtlead and sponsored by Hubspot with a whole gang of partners. A full audio download and transcript of the webinar is available here. I thought I would pull some of the real gems from the presentation and share them here.

My favorite of the bunch is Jason Falls’ message. It’s simple, but really says it all: Share good stuff. He said a lot more but his main message can be summarized in those three words. Social media interaction is all about sharing. And we want to see good stuff and pass it along.

After you read through these snippits take a minute and let us know if you agree with what you’ve read. How does this match up with the way you interact with your online community and are you going to try to do anything differently?

“Online video is probably the fastest way to get your message out there, to increase visibility, and to get clients and customers online. Get a good camera, make sure your lighting is good and you have an external microphone. Come up with some great content—it can be two to three minutes, it does not have to be a lot. Create content around your area of expertise and then distribute, distribute with gusto!”
Shama Kabani, author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing

“Share good stuff.”
Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer

“Share who you are and what you stand for with the world. Your hopes, your dreams, your life. Then like magic, you’re going to start drawing kindred spirits and like minds towards you.”
Robbin Phillips, Brains On Fire

“Get on Facebook, set up a fan page, make a welcome tab with a video on it, and come up with engaging content, like ask a poll question, or link to interesting articles that are not related to you.”
Michael Stelzner, SocialMediaExaminer.com

“Content is King. You can’t have influence, no matter how well you play Twitter, no matter how much you know how to use Facebook, no matter how up to date you are, whether it’s Formspring or Quora, I don’t care what it is—if you don’t know what you’re talking about, you will lose. Content is always king.”
Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV and VaynerMedia.com

“Master one niche, become the owner of that niche, promote a lot of good content and start using webinar marketing to get your message out there and promote your personal brand.”
Lewis Howes, LewisHowes.com

“Social media has created new ways of utilizing proven tactics even more effectively. But to gain proficiency in this new media, you’ll need a practical methodology—a social marketing roadmap for developing your integration strategy.”
Sergio Balegno, Marketing Sherpa

“Think about the authenticity of your voice and the consistency of your voice across your entire online and offline presence, making sure that the story that you tell has a deep connection to why you do it, and a consistency in terms of the message that you’re telling, no matter what platform you’re on.”
Cathy Brooks, Other Than That

“My one piece of advice for internet and marketing folks would simply be to think about social media not as its own strategy, but a strategy to enhance your existing marketing and business goals. Strictly looking at social media as an island unto itself, I think will take you down a path of which will lead to little return.”
Aaron Kahlow, OnlineMarketingConnect.com

“Online influence is a slow burn, and it’s not something that you can really manufacture. It’s something that’s really organically grown by having quality one-on-one conversations with people over time.”
Amber Naslund, Radian6

“Figure out or distill what it is that you feel you bring to the table in terms of value and expertise. And identify the influential individuals that already in place, at varying levels, from the A list to the C list, and figure out how it is that you can connect with them, and how you can connect your insights to them directly.”
Brian Solis, BrianSolis.com

Image by Drew Olanoff via Flickr

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Joining me on the panel were Lynsay Caylor of Pilot Corporation, Nicole VanScoten of Pyxl, and Zane Hagy of Z11 Communications.

As a panel we agreed that LBS sites are being used more each day; they are a great opportunity for brick-and-mortar to connect to an online audience, and they’re mostly targeted to consumers.

Specific takeaways include:

• Companies offering specials should go beyond the Mayor only specials. It’s often hard to unseat a Mayor, preventing people from trying. By offering additional first-time specials or a special based on return visits, you give your regular customers a reason to come back more often.
• Companies need to think creatively about how they use these tools. Opportunities to unlock difficult badges have proven to be successful. Think about partnering with companies that can give your customers the chance to unlock more than they could from your business only.
• There are some security aspects to using Foursquare. When you say where you are, you’re also saying where you’re NOT.  Every person has a different level of risk they’re willing to accept, but two tactics for security are 1) to check in when you’re leaving a location if you’re there for a while and 2) to not accept anyone as a friend unless you trust them knowing where you are.

We had a question from the audience about how Foursquare could be used in a crisis.  One idea was that the leaders working to solve a crisis could show they’re on top of the situation by checking in to the command center regularly.  Checking in would inspire confidence in a positive outcome.

Overall, it was a very interesting and entertaining event.  I look forward to more opportunities like this.

Thanks to Laura Bower PR for helping arrange the discussion and to Pyxl and the Knoxville Social Media Club for sponsoring. View the Knox ivi event video here.

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UPDATED

Buying in bulk for cost savings isn’t exactly the cutting edge on getting a great deal, Sam’s Club members have done it for decades. But what about leveraging technology to create a group of customers for bulk savings?  That’s new and the two national powerhouse sales sites, Groupon and Living Social have set their sights on Knoxville.

Beating them to the punch, multiple hometown solutions have emerged to connect customers with great local deals: SugarSave, FlutterToday and Seize the Deal which both Carly Harrington’s and Coupon Katie have covered in detail.  These sites represent a great opportunity as a customer to try something new (or get a great deal on something you love).

As a customer these sites give you the opportunity to save money on the places you love and give you the courage to try places you’ve yet to visit since you’ll get such a great deal. How good of a deal you ask? Well, Friday’s FlutterToday deal which was $50 of value at Baker Peter’s for $20 (60% off!) or SugarSave’s recent feature of $50 for $25 at Nama Sushi Bar - great deals, great places.

You’ve probably heard of Half Off Depot, which on the surface seems the same as the services above, and while they all offer great deals the method is different. Half Off Depot operates on a limited quanity model, there are 10 of the $15 for $30.  Whereas Groupon, SugarSave and FlutterToday are group buying sites.  There must be a minimum number of people who say “yes, I’d buy it” before the deal becomes active.  As a customer this may not impact you, but as a business owner this is an important point because it allows you to test interest without paying the price of operating at a loss.

If you’re a local business, this is a great opportunity! These sites exhibit what you sell in front of new customers at a steal of a deal. Let’s be honest, they certainly lower your margin on those products you sell because of the discount, but in exchange you get new customers in the door.  Additionally unlike other forms of marketing that will require an upfront cost - these services instead take a percentage off the ones that sell. While it would be unfortunate if you sold a low volume, on the upside you’ll only pay for what is sold.

You can also set a minimum number that need to sell for the deal to activate - that way you can protect yourself from providing an opportunity to a customer where you lose money.

You’ve also got your existing customers who may explore your offerings because of their savings.  Perhaps as a restaurant, they’d try that tasty appetizer or that delicious dessert that was just out of their price range before. Who knows, they might just fall in love with it?

The gist? If you’re in any type of retail you should check out the services above because the value you receive outweighs your risk.  Just keep an eye on your inventory, don’t blink - it will be gone before you know it.

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Asked and answered.

Foursquare has released Foursquare for Business and your indecision is over.

Why?  Well, now you can take control of your presence on Foursquare like never before.  As the owner of a location, you can dictate specials, see customer statistics and take advantage of Foursquare’s mobile focus all in one place. Let’s look at each of these opportunities, shall we?

Specials

You can now manage a number of interesting specials for your best customers.  You have the standard mayor special for your most frequent customer, check in specials for customers that choose to mention they’re at your location, frequency specials encouraging customers to keep coming back and custom specials like “Show us the bender badge for a discount on headache pills”.

Foursquare knows business is ready for local promotions, so they’re planning more opportunities for you in the future.  To see some examples of specials around Knoxville, go to Snacksquare.com.

Stats

What business doesn’t want to know more about its customers?  None I know about.  Foursquare for business gives you real-time stats on people checking in at your place.  Click here to visit the Foursquare for Business page for details and everything they track.

Extras

A nice touch is Foursquare also lets you request static cling stickers for your windows and doors to help you raise awareness.  They’re supposed to ship soon, but if your patience can’t hold out that long you can download a PDF to print and get started now!

Intangibles

As a business it’s nice to know the services you use care about you.  Foursquare for Business shows they’re serious about helping your business succeed.  That’s hard to put a price on.

We Use it.

At Moxley Carmichael we believe in using and experimenting with new technologies.  Foursquare is one of those fast-moving trends.  Check out how we use Foursquare:  Cynthia Moxley, Scott Bird, Charley Sexton, Gavin Baker, and me Bob Wilson.  We’d  love to talk with you about using Foursquare for your business.

Contact us.

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Facebook sticker on the door of Trio Cafe

Awareness. It’s what most businesses want more of and ultimately a very important part of long-term success. Traditionally organizations have earned awareness through word-of-mouth referrals or TV and print advertising. In recent years the game has changed, and we’ve seen businesses small and large move to online advertising as a tool for building awareness.

This year social media has become a popular and effective method to attract attention, particularly for retailers. Users of social media tools commonly share where they are, what they are doing, and how it makes them feel while they are there! As a consumer, these opinions form a basis for what to buy and where to buy it. Businesses must capture these reviews and engage with these consumers for the valuable feedback and exposure they provide.

Online platforms such as Facebook, Foursquare, Google Places and Yelp have looked to partner with retail businesses to raise awareness of both the platform and the business. Each of the companies above have programs that provide businesses with a door cling or sticker that promotes the business on their platform. Yelp and Foursquare aren’t currently individualized, but Facebook and Google stickers are tailored to your business and allow interaction via text or QR code (a black and white image that has embedded information such as a URL that can be read with a camera phone  see Wikipedia) right from the sticker.

I just started noticing these here in Knoxville last First Friday, first with a Yelp sticker at Crown & Goose and then with a Facebook sticker at Trio Cafe.

These programs can be great methods for local marketing – as easy as peel and stick, right on your door! They build awareness every day and help educate your customers that you want them to find you online. Additionally, these programs will lead to the development of reviews and interaction with your existing customers, creating an engaged atmosphere for those that find you online before they visit your location.

If you’ve seen other businesses utilizing any of these programs, please share in the comments and/or e-mail them to me gbaker@moxleycarmichael.com and I’ll update this post. I’ve yet to see any Foursquare or Google clings on doors, but I’m sure they’ll be here soon!

]]> http://newstreak.moxleycarmichael.com/2010/06/03/as-easy-as-peel-and-stick-a-key-to-awareness/feed/ http://newstreak.moxleycarmichael.com/2010/05/18/the-new-guy-gavin-baker/ http://newstreak.moxleycarmichael.com/2010/05/18/the-new-guy-gavin-baker/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 19:27:08 +0000 GavinBaker http://newstreak.moxleycarmichael.com/?p=697 I’m Gavin Baker and I’ve recently joined Moxley Carmichael as director of digital media. I was previously with Ruby Tuesday Inc. at the corporate headquarters as part of the interactive marketing team, focused on using social and emerging media to connect with customers. While I’ve been in Knoxville for a few years, I’m originally from St. Louis, Mo., and spent my college years in Pennsylvania.

I’ve been using technology to communicate before I could drive and find it fascinating how quickly technology trends can move from bleeding edge to mainstream. I’m a firm believer that we can use technology to help people and organizations connect to each other and provide real value to all involved. We’ve only just started down the path of digital communications and it already affects almost all organizations and people.

Some other things about me: I love reading, use a Mac and am a sucker for technology. You can learn about my thoughts on most things at http://gbake.com , and, of course, I’ll be contributing here at the New Streak as well.

I’m excited to see what the future holds both for our clients and in the exciting world of technology.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.