As you can see in the chart below, Facebook reigns supreme over all other networks when it comes to user age. No age group measured fell below the 95% mark.

Photo Credit: Mashable

It should be noted that the total number of Golden Generation adults on social networking sites is significantly smaller than younger age groups. And that they use these sites less frequently. But Forrester’s findings are still significant for online marketers who promote and sell products and services that cater to those in the upper echelons of the age spectrum.

Source

Does your business need help with achieving its Facebook marketing goals? Contact Cement Marketing today.

Trust us, we haven’t.

We’ve been so busy planning new projects, launching websites, managing our search and social marketing clients and keeping up with the day-to-day — more like hour-to-hour — changes in our industry that this is the first opportunity we’ve had to sit down and show you all some signs of life.

Well, alive we are. And don’t let our workload fool you. We’re having a blast.

Just check out the photos from our teambuilding retreat in Athens County last weekend.

Not one frowning face to be found. (But that’s to be expected when sipping on delicious craft beer made at Jackie O’s Brew Pub.)

We’ll be back at blogging on the reg soon, but if you ever do miss us, you can always follow Cement on Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook is all about your fans. That’s easy enough to say, but how do you prove it and also engage your fans at the same time? How do you drive them into an action with your Facebook page? One sure bet is through photos. Feature a photo of a customer or client on your Facebook page and they will come back, tag themselves and share that photo with their friends. It’s simple really, but how do we bring that to life?  

While working with Raising Cane’s of Ohio on their Facebook marketing, we put the photo tagging tactic to the test by suggesting Cane’s set up a fun photo booth for a couple of nights outside their newest location in Pickerington. We asked fans one questions – “What is your one love?” They answered on a dry erase board, got into costume and hopped into the booth.

We showed up to document the action and, as you can see, “Caniacs” loved it.  After emerging from the booth they were handed a business card size flyer telling them to find the picture the next day on the Raising Cane’s Ohio Facebook page and tag themselves. And tag themselves they did.

Most of the people in the photos were not already Cane’s Facebook fans and wound up “liking” the page to tag themselves. Also, because tagged photos show up in friends’ Facebook newsfeeds, Raising Cane’s Ohio received hundreds of additional followers from that extra bit of exposure.

Moral of the story: As much as your business’ Facebook page is about your brand, it’s also just as much about connecting with your followers in new and creative ways.

Want to talk Facebook and social marketing? Contact us today.

But why should you care?

It only took Google+ two weeks to swell to over 10 million users. As the network continues to grow, Google+ will give the world’s most used search engine access to tons of social data that will influence search. (You’ve heard us talk about how search and social marketing work hand-in-hand, right?)

Google+ is also releasing pages for businesses later this year. Just imagine the profitable possibilities of combining the power of Google Local and Places with an active, engaged social networking community.

Get on the Plus

If you’re not on Google+, we recommend you find a friend who is and ask them for a coveted invite.

To help you find your way around some of Google+’s most important features, we’ve created a few video tutorials. Scroll down and watch to get acquainted with what just might be the future of social networking.

How to Use Google+ Part 1: Google Circles

How to Use Google+ Part 2: Setting Up A Google+ Profile

How to Use Google+ Part 3: Google Sparks

Are you on Google+, yet? Let us know your thoughts or if you have any questions in the comments below.

If you’ve spoken with the Cement Marketing crew in the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard us buzzing about our trip to SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas.

The time has finally come for us to bid Columbus adieu and head south for one of the world’s largest and most important interactive conferences.

We can’t take you with us, but you can live vicariously through our Twitter (@cementmarketing) and Facebook. That way you’ll be up to speed on all of the latest in Web design, development, SEO, SEM and social marketing.

It will be just like being there, only without all the delicious Texas barbeque.

[Photo Credit: Flickr, Werner Kunz]

Facebook is overhauling its fan page layouts. But Facebook fan page administrators need not fret — at least not that much — because these changes are mostly for the better.

Fan pages are about to get far more versatile, allowing brands and businesses to engage the Facebook community in new and exciting ways. Take a look at the most important fan page alterations you’ll be seeing come March 1.

Keep your wall newsworthy

There will only be two default filters for Facebook news feed posts now: Everyone and Just The Page. Previously, users could filter a page’s wall three ways: Just The Page, The Page And Others and Just Others.

While that change might seem fairly banal, Facebook will be applying its news algorithm, EdgeRank, to posts on a page’s wall. That means after March 1, a Facebook user could come to a fan page and find older posts at the top of the page’s news feed because EdgeRank deemed those older posts more relevant than recent ones. Admins can combat this by ensuring users land on a default landing page with current information.

Be the page

Administrators will finally be able to travel around Facebook disguised as their Facebook page personas and comment on and friend other fan pages. All an admin has to do to activate this feature is select “Use Facebook account as page” from the personal account drop down menu and presto, you are your page. And it’s just as easy to revert back to using your personal account again.

Pages won’t be able to comment on personal profiles, but when admins assume the identity of a fan page, they’ll receive notifications in real time when users like or interact with the selected fan page.

Meet me at the photo bar

A photo bar, just like the one that appears at the top of personal pages, will now sit right above a fan page’s news feed, but unlike the personal page photo strip hacks that appeared around the end of last year, the new fan page photo bar will display a fan page’s five most recently tagged photos in a random order every time the page is reloaded.

Even though that last bit of information might come as a disappointment to some, the photo bar’s sequential randomization will keep page admins on their toes as they try to keep their photo content fresh.

Good-bye tabs. Hello left hand navigation links.

The tabs at the top of Facebook fan pages are moving from the top of the page to the left sidebar.

This change once again makes a company or client’s page look more like a personal Facebook page. And unlike the old top-of-the-page tab system, link titles in the left sidebar won’t get cut off, allowing users to see the full name of a link all at once.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for iFrames

The Static Facebook Markup Language (FBML) tab app will officially be a thing of the past come March 11. That’s not a typo. This development does proceed the overall page design change on March 1.

However, developers will still be able to use FBML, HTML, PHP and now iFrames to create new Facebook apps that could create a richer user experience. Don’t worry, though, any Static FBML tab created before March 11 will still appear in a page’s navigation links and admins can still create Static FBML tabs until that date.

If you have any questions about Facebook marketing or want more tips on how to improve your Facebook page’s marketing power, contact Cement Marketing or ask in the comments.

The Cement Marketing team, a creative and fun Web marketing group with a spectacular office in the heart of Downtown Columbus, is looking for our next intern. We are a full service Internet marketing firm that offers Web design and development, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and social marketing.

As an intern, you won’t just be running errands and grabbing lunch (although that is definitely a job requirement). You’ll receive invaluable firsthand experience in things like:

>Blog post writing
>Twitter & Facebook marketing
>Google Analytics monitoring
>Website content migration

Writing skills are a must, so only those who know the proper usage of “there”, “their” and “they’re” need apply. Also, if this is your first week on the Internet, let’s talk in a year or so. This internship could turn into a paid position, so we’re looking for someone who wants to take a giant leap into search and social marketing.

For more information on this one-of-a-kind opportunity that begins on March 1, 2011, e-mail alaina@cementmarketing.com with your qualifications, experience, Twitter handle, website and anything that demonstrates you’re the best candidate for this internship.

In July of 20o7, I wrote a blog post and included this picture of my son and his new E.T. doll.

Over a year and a half later, a guy named Josh in California Googled the term “life size E.T. doll” and found my post. Unable to find the doll anywhere else – Josh sent me an e-mail.

The doll you got for your kid is pretty much exactly what I’m looking for. Can you give me any information on this doll? (manufacturer, details on the tag or anything else you think may aid me in my search for this illusive collectible?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Josh

After a few e-mails Josh revealed that he wanted E.T. to join him on the front of his bike for a ride in California benefiting the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. After a chat my son, we decided to lend Josh the E.T. doll. I figured packing E.T. up for a trip across the country would serve as an awesome lesson for Benjamin in geography, sharing and being altruistic.

After a few good-bye shots in the Cement Marketing office

Benjamin and I brought E.T. to the nearest FedEx store.

Before packing him up

and shipping him off to a far away place called California.

Just a few weeks later the pictures started pouring in.

Josh had E.T. all over his Facebook page and apparently, E.T. had become the star of the benefit bike ride.

In the end, E.T. ended up back on our door step with a beautiful notebook filled with thank-yous from riders written to Benjamin. One Google search led Josh to us, leading E.T. to him and his race and then Facebook ultimately impacting hundreds of cyclists and those who benefited from their charity.

Now–a question for marketers. What if Benjamin and I had been a business and E.T. had been our product or related to our product or service in some way? How are you engaging your clients or consumers? Are you proactively creating online content like blog posts, photos or videos that they can share or find some day? If not today, then when?

There’s no time to lose and so many opportunities to be missed. Not even to mention amazing opportunities to help make the world just a little bit better.

It’s 8:00 am on Monday morning – what’s the first thing you do when you sit down in the office? As a marketer or a business owner you should be checking your website traffic report from the prior week. Did your traffic drop or jump? And if so, why or how? What can you do this week to ride the momentum or turn the dip around? Does your current advertising agency provide you with weekly analytic reports? If they don’t, they’re not doing their job.

When launching a Twitter campaign a good social marketer will measure the incoming traffic throughout the day and watch the visitors poor onto the website, tweaking as necessary. Using Google Analytics we  can then tell which page they visit after the home page and follow their user path until they leave the website. We can even tell you what time of day they come onto your site and tell you exactly how they got there.

A challenge for you… ask your marketer or website manager for your site’s analytics report. If they hestitate for a second, you may want to us a call because you may be driving a lemon.

Chances are, by now, your head is spinning.

During every one of our meetings with new clients we always hear this question, “I just need someone to tell me where to start, what do we do with all of this stuff.” Our answer –  “What’s your message? What do you offer your target audience?”

It’s an age old question but one we’re all forgetting, which should be expected when we are so overwhelmed with information.  Your message should be the same across all of the networks you are on, whether it be Twitter, Facebook or YouTube and you should be leading all of your potential visitors to one targeted channel on your website. But to bring them to action on your website or from within their social network your content must be worthy of that action. You can spend all day on Twitter but if you don’t have a compelling piece of content, like a fantastic blog post or YouTube video, no one is going to pass it on.

So rather than being swept up in the social marketing whirlwind of creating accounts to this and that, re-focus yourself on your message. What is it and how does it translate online? And when visitors arrive on your website are you measuring their experience with your analytics?

The way in which we share information is changing but one thing will never change — your brand must be worthy of sharing in order to fly in the social media space. And while you may think your content can’t be livened up at all, think again. You do have employees don’t you? Or a CEO with a compelling personal story? What about your products or services? How do they stand out from the rest?

Your job as the marketing agent of your company is to move products or services. Our job is to give you the tools necessary to make that happen but before we give you those tools we also take stock of your existing social and search inventory. Then we make a detailed strategy recommendation on what content to create and how to share that content online and elsewhere in order to make the biggest impact.

Consider us your social and search zen doctors. We’ll center you again and then send you back out there armed with the tools you need to convert your website into a machine, one working for you – not against you.