I fell into the video department, or rather the live streaming section of the New Media world at Atlantic Records and was put in charge of the live streams for James Blunt’s new single ’1973′ (James Blunt if you are reading this, it was a pleasure working with you – I remain a huge fan and can’t wait until your new album this November).  I also produced the Live From The Red Carpet for Diddy’s new fragrance – Unforgivable Woman, which was streamed successfully on Myspace to hundreds of thousands of live viewers.  This was pretty revolutionary, an especially an honor for me to work with such a brilliant Entrepreneur.  (Diddy – if you are listening, hire me again – perhaps for the White Party)

In fact, looking back, it was my time spent at Atlantic Records where I really learned the true meaning of innovation!

While everything was extremely exciting, Facebook Fan Pages were not yet available and twitter was just starting to take its course.  Now, lets fast forward 4 years later.  This morning I woke up to be excited to see that the team at Atlantic Records has done something brilliant!  About a month ago, Cee Lo Green came out with a song called, “Fuck You.” which was a viral success.  Now let me point out that the video was just the lyrics in a Keraoke fashion popping on the screen Whether the nature of the song, (everybody likes to drop the F Bomb here and there) combined with the smooth beats, the song was an instant hit.  In true Social Media fashion, it caught on, and people were sharing it everywhere!  Currently it has over 4 million views on the Official You Tube page.

Well today they took it one step further.  They released the brand new video with true Social Media expertise.  In order to watch it you must become a fan on his Official Facebook Fan Page before you can watch it.  So, in a time where more and more people are consuming music and video content for free, in this instance they are making their money by the value of a Facebook Fan.

So, what is the value of a Facebook Fan go for these days?  According to recent studies each fan is worth $3.60.  Right now the Cee Lo Fan Page has about 18,000 fans, which brings the value of his page to approximately $64,000.  The value is calculated by the fact that a fan is more likely to spend money on your product than a non fan. If this video goes viral like the first release the fan page will be worth millions.  I expect this to happen.

Another brilliant aspect of the fan page is that you can sign up for the newsletter right on the video player, further increasing the value of this campaign.  In the end Cee Lo will have more fans than he ever did as well more signups to the newsletter.  Both of which can successfully be used to sell his albums, merchandise, and concerts.

Overall I would say that Cee Lo Green and the Atlantic Records team get my vote for the Social Media Excellence Award!

Lessons Learned And How You Can Apply This To Your Fan Page Or Business

1.  Content is King – but don’t give it away for Free.  There should always be a cost of some sort.  Whether this is signing up for your newsletter in order to give away that free Ebook or making someone become a Fan on your Fan Page in order to give them that discount at your store.

2.  Virality Rules – The object of the Social Media game is sharing!  Make your content shareable, easy to access and most importantly unique.  If you have something funny, touching, or just downright ridiculous you will go far!

3.  Creativity Conquers – Innovation is a blessing.  Try something new and think out of the box.

4.  Fail Harder – You never know if something is going to be a huge success unless you try!  So go ahead and be prepared to fail.  At least you will know what doesn’t work.

PS.  If you like funky soul piano rock music, you should definitely become a fan of my brother, Andy Frasco.  He is an up and coming rockstar in the making!  Go Andy!!

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In the game of Marketing, especially word-of-mouth and peer-to-peer marketing, testimonials and endorsements have always stood as the most valuable type of messaging out there. There is no doubt that when you hear an appraisal of a product from a friend, family member, colleague or anyone else close to you, your trust level of the product will increase. As humans, and as consumers a recommendation goes a long way. In fact, that basis is foundation of my business in Social Media Marketing. My goal is to get people talking about a product, and hopefully in a good way.

However, recently the FTC has come out with some new rules about endorsements that will forever change the way we as marketers, advertisers and business owners, can play the game. The FTC’s has updated its “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising,” which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers.

Some of these rules include:
1. Bloggers are now required to indicate the existence of any financial relationship when they are writing about a product.
2. Celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.
3. Endorsements on your website should only be from current clients or customers
4. You may be liable for marketing done by affiliates selling your product

While at first glance it looks as if the FTC has a strong hold on what you sell and how you brand it in the marketplace. You may be thinking, how do I get around this new rule and keep your product “word-of-mouth” friendly and keep the endorsements updated, fresh and from current clients or customers? Consider Nils Andres for example.

Where the rules might have changed for your own website, the new FTC regulation makes the case for having a presence in Social Media even stronger.

Why Use Social Media for Endorsements?
Social Media is a place for clients, consumers, and customers to talk in an open forum. It gives the consumer the power to endorse freely without the constraints of the product. How can you make sure you are not liable for the endorsements?

Step 1….Make a Facebook Fan Page. (If you need help with this, my company, SocialMediaPlans, will handle this for you)
Step 2…Build your fan base. (Again, if you need help with this, SocialMediaPlans, is your go to destination)
Step 3…Encourage your fans to endorse your product.

CASE STUDY

Last week, a company I help, SEO ARTICLE WRITING PROS, a company that specializes in creating content all things internet marketing, came to me asking me about the new rules and regulations. They wanted to build their presence on Facebook and since they were brand new to the Facebook Fan Page game, they wanted content on their page so new clients and customers could see that they had a following and they would be trusted.

How did we do this?
Step 1. Create a fan page. (SEE HERE)
Step 2. Come up with a strategy that would entice people to write on their fan page. In this particular instance we used a contest.
SEO Article Writing Pros agreed to give away $100 of free content to a member of the fan page. To be entered all you had to do was Join the Fan Page and write a short greeting on the wall. (With contests, the easier the entry level, the more entries you will receive, so for the short-term goal of getting content and endorsements on the page, this contest was an easy solution.)

The contest was a big hit for the current fans as well as a way to gain new fans through facebook marketing. (A general rule of Facebook marketing is getting your name on people’s homepage and profile. Likes and comments are a Facebook marketers best friend!)

In one week SEO ARTICLE WRITING PROS gained 100 new fans without spending $1 dollar in advertising. In addition, they also received 62 wall posts, which means they have 62 new endorsements! 62 new endorsements that the FTC can not complain about because they were written by the people themselves as User-Generated Content.

Fans offered up their opinions, praises, and regards at their own will. Whether they did it to win or whether they did it to voice their opinion makes no difference. The fact of the matter is that consumers on Social Media are willing to offer up their voice and as a marketer, business owner, you should take advantage of that.

Lastly, you can also use the fan page badge as a way to show the endorsements received on facebook on your own website. (The picture below is a screen grab of the fan page badge that I have on my website SocialMediaPlans.com)

Besides the reasons listed above, a fan page is also important because it spreads your visibility, as your page will be indexed and searchable on Google, Bing, and other search engines as well as Facebook.

• You can have an unlimited number of fans, unlike your profile page which only allows you to have 5,000.
• When people add your page, comment, or like something you have posted it will show up on their feed which filters out to their friends and network for increased virility.
• You can establish your brand further
• You can create exclusive deals, offers and content
• You can use it as a forum for customer support and/or praise
• You can use it as market research into your brand at a low cost.

If you like what you have read and what you have seen, make sure you go ahead and fan this innovative company! And of course you can become a fan of SocialMediaPlans while you are at it.

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