“Social Media” is a broad term that encompasses many consumer-generated content avenues, including blogs, forums, micro-blogs, social networks, product review sites, media sharing sites, virtual worlds, and more. Each of these, by its very nature, involves very different usage patterns from the others. This, in turn, has strong implications for marketers who wish to be socially active.

Two dimensions of usage patterns are of particular interest – reach and influence. Some media, such as the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace, have broad (and rapidly growing) audiences, and hence reach. However, because large percentages of the time spent on those sites are for personal connections and communications with friends/acquaintances, little time or focus is typically devoted to other communications. This, in turn, means that these sites have lower overall influence on consumers’ buying habits and decisions.

On the other hand, media such as blogs and special interest forums, are generally topically focused; therefore, the people who visit and participate in these media are more inclined to be aware of, pay attention to, and consider opinions and other communications on the central or related topics of that media. As an example, a site like Chowhound, including all of its message boards and forums, is focused on culinary experiences. Therefore, participation in communities like this by a kitchen appliance manufacturer might have more impact than the same participation in a general social networking site. However, blogs and special interest forums have much smaller reaches than the large social networking sites. So, the number of impacted people on Facebook might still be as or more significant, because a low percentage times a huge population base can be large.

As another example, product review sites generally have an even lower reach than the other social media sites (especially when you narrow down the site visits to the general category of interest). However, the influence is probably higher than any other media because the people visiting these sites are specifically interested in your brand category and are also further along the sales cycle.

Domus is a full service marketing communications firm. We integrate classic marketing principles with a strong understanding of today’s social media environment to develop and execute effective, state-of-the-art marketing communications. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

These two terms (“Social Media” and “Internet Presence Management”) might at first glance seem contrary to each other. However, if embraced in the appropriate spirit, social media is really just an important component of effective internet presence management.

Social media marketing starts with the realization and acceptance that people will be talking about you, your competition, and just about everything else online. It then continues with the marketer embracing the conversations, joining them, encouraging them, and occasionally leading them. Internet Presence Management, on the other hand, is the process of monitoring and guiding the online thoughts about your company or brand. So how can one accept and participate in independent conversations while at the same time managing and guiding those online thoughts?

Internet Presence Management is also about recognizing that independent conversations exist, but it’s not about resigning oneself to the complete content, distribution, or frequency of those conversations. Rather, it is the understanding that by honest, dilligent engagement strategies, marketers can expand and highlight the positive impressions of a brand or company.

Domus is an integrated marketing communications firm based in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Although mobile marketing is growing at significant rates in the U.S., there has not yet been a high adoption rate by state lotteries. With lottery revenues around the country struggling along with the rest of the economy, this might be an ideal avenue to add to the marketing mix.

There are many possibilities for lottery mobile marketing, from advertising current games, to providing jackpot sizes and winner notifications, to locating nearby retailers, and more. Simple programs like these would significantly keep lotteries in the forefront of likely buyers’ minds, which in turn should have a strong positive impact on sales volumes.

Domus, Inc. is a Philadelphia-based marketing communications firm with many years of experience providing lottery marketing services. For more information, please visit our web site.

Google just released “Domestic Trends ” on its finance site (http://www.google.com/finance/domestic_trends). It tracks search traffic on Google across a number of sectors of the economy (e.g., automotive, construction, real estate, etc.). Moreover, it allows you to easily add to its graphs other financial indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and Nasdaq, as well as the prices of any stock.

Given the increasingly large role of online activity in the US economy, the importance of having information like this in predicting economic activity in the near future can’t be understated. In fact, Google recently delivered a white paper (Google Predicting the Present) where they show that economic models that take into account their data outperform models that do not.

As marketers, information like this can be critical in helping us improve our brand performance. If we can better understand week-by-week the overall volume of searches in our general economic sector, we can tweak our SEM and other online campaigns accordingly. E.g., we can lower our target CPC but increase our overall spend when activity is spiking, or we can raise our target CPC but lower our total spend at other times. Or we can change our message, depending on the insights we derive from the search activity level. Or maybe we do nothing different, but now we have new information highly correlated to industry sales, using which we can make better decisions.

Domus is a full service advertising, PR, and interactive agency based in Philadelphia. As stewards of our clients’ brands, we are constantly researching the market and available technological tools to better serve them. Please visit our web site for more information about us.

In a previous blog, we discussed the importance of employee appreciation and making sure office morale is high so your loyal soldiers don’t jump ship. During a recession, that task is much more difficult with salary cuts, layoffs and other ramifications seen throughout businesses across the country. Hefty raises and generous bonuses are unheard of now; however there are ways to keep employees motivated, driven and committed to company success without breaking the bank.

It’s important to give your employees something they will appreciate, such as Lottery tickets, which make great incentives and are inexpensive gifts. For example, instant tickets have great odds so the chance of employees winning is high, driving office excitement. Also, the small token of appreciation is recognized, increasing employee value which in turn drives productivity. In addition, each state lottery has its own local beneficiary, for instance the Pennsylvania Lottery proceeds benefit older Pennsylvanians. So by purchasing tickets, you are contributing to local funding to help support your state.

Incentives are also used to motivate employees to drum up new business. By instituting a friendly office competition aimed at identifying potential new accounts, you motivate employees; bragging rights are priceless.

Domus, Inc. is a full service advertising, public relations (PR), internet marketing, and social media agency headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Please visit our web site for more.