Tomorrow (Thursday the 28th) I will be doing a FREE webinar with Marketing Sherpa along with Grant Simmons from The Search Agency. We’re going to be covering search, social, and the future of the two together. This is going to be  a great webinar and I hope you can attend. If not, it will be recorded and available after the fact, but you need to sign up for the Search And Social Webinar today to get that recording!

Also, on NMM I’ve asked the question if humor can build a tribe. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Josh “Shu” Peters

I’ve been doing some research for a client recently and looking at some top performers in eCommerce which is when I came across Amazon’s rather extensive network of Facebook Fan pages. I’ve also found 2 twitter accounts and 2 YouTube accounts, but Amazon doesn’t make it easy. They don’t have a nice list of all their social properties anywhere I could find.

First let’s look at the basic profile stats and then we’ll look at some great engagement info I got from my friend Damon using Export.ly, one of his amazing analytics tools.

The Fans
As of writing this here are the current fan counts of each of their Facebook Pages

• Amazon App Store for Android – 4,859
• Amazon Books – 2,464
• Amazon Uk – 43,868
• Amazon.de – 28,634
• Amazon Studios – 960
• Amazon Magazines – 1,237
• Amazon Movies and TV – 25,777
• Amazon Home Improvement – 821
• Amazon Mom – 3,978
• Amazon Student – 11,801
• Amazon Instant Video – 9,327
• Amazon Fashion – 11,864
• Amazon Mp3 – 27,777
• Amazon Kindle – 658,061
• Amazon – 620,226

 

The counts for Amazon’s Twitter account

• Followers: 71,931
• Following: 41
• Tweets:  894
• Listed: 3,595

Amazon’s Kindle Twitter account

• Followers: 27,565
• Following: 51
• Tweets:  586
• Listed: 1,364

 

The details on Amazon’s YouTube account

• Total Uploads: 4
• Channel Views: 8,361
• Total Upload Views: 53,004
• Subscribers: 181
• Channel Comments: 20

And the details on Amazon’s Kindle YouTube account

• Total Uploads: 12
• Channel Views: 151,627
• Total Upload Views: 3,054,031
• Subscribers: 1,044
• Channel Comments: 102

 

And for good measure a dash of Google Search Results

• Amazon.com – 5,210,000,000 Results
• “Amazon.com” – 364,000,000 Results
• Amazon Kindle –  108,000,000 Results
• “Amazon Kindle” –  14,700,000 Results

 

Engagement Stats

Amazon Twitter

• Replies: .61%
• RT’s: 10.94%

Kindle Twitter

• Replies: 6.04%
• RT’s: 10.88%

 

Amazon Facebook Fan Page Activity (over 4 days)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon Kindle Facebook Fan Page Activity (over 4 days)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s pretty clear to me that when it comes to social popularity and engagement the Amazon Kindle is crushing it’s creator. People are much more engaged by, interested in, and willing to communicate with the product social properties than the company social properties.

My theory on this is that we have a deeper connection with the products a company makes, because we physically use them, than the company that makes them. We hold a Kindle, use it, share it with friends, and get endless hours of entertainment from it. We just order stuff from Amazon.

What do you think?

Josh “Shua” Peters

 

 

p.s. Twitter engagement stats come courtesy of TweetStats and in case you forgot, Facebook came courtesy of Export.ly. Both of which come courtesy of the brilliant Damon Cortesi

The title is a bit of  a misnomer in this case because I’m not actually at the The Search Agency today. It’s Friday and that means I’m hoboworking in the Monrovia / Arcadia / Sierra Madre area. Hopping from one wireless hub to the next  and fueled by good coffee, great music, and relaxing in the “small town” environments of this area of CA.

I have to say, this definitely helps with the adjustment from being on my own to in an office. The fact that every Friday I can resume my old work habits of working where ever I want when I want that day is nice, and it’s another example of why I think The Search Agency has been so successful, they actually care about their employees time.

Every Friday you are able to work from home if you live outside of a certain mileage to help relieve some of the stress that commuting in this part of the country can cause (my 44 mile & 1.5 – 2 hour commute gets old real fast). The need for getting up early and rushing through a morning routine just to get stuck in traffic is gone and replaced with having a nice sit down breakfast at a local diner followed by a couple hours of listening to Pandora and working from a local coffee shop. Or I can put on a movie I’ve seen a million times and write strategy documentation from my couch.

Now the question that should follow this is… what’s the value to the business? Why would they allow their employees to run wild one work day per week?

Employee Benefits

1. Instead of taking a whole day off of work to make it to the doctor’s, dentist, oil change, etc. You can just wait till Friday, go to your local service location and then enjoy some coffee and spreadsheets after / while waiting.
2. One less day of the “daily grind”, traffic, and meetings. One more day of “uninterrupted” productivity.
3. More time with friends and family.
4. The feeling that you have a “real job” and you can do it from anywhere just feel nice.
5. The change of scenery is refreshing, it’s really nice to be able to look out the window and see something else.

Employer Benefits

1. Employees taking less time off for things like doctor, dentist, and car based appointments.
2. Employees feel more refreshed and energized when they come back to work on Monday.
3. Employees know their employer cares about them and their time.
4. Employees see that their employer trusts them and treats them like adults. No need to constantly supervise their every action. This results in loyalty and reciprocal trust.
5. Probably saves some amount in utilities with conference rooms, work stations, and appliances not being used (but I have no hard data on this).

For the most part the benefits of this work from home Friday setup has no real tangible benefits. It can’t be quantified on a spreadsheet, it can’t be placed on a quarterly financial review, and it can’t be used in any kind of ROI equation for investments in the work staff. It’s all about what it does for everyone mentally, it’s one of those “we know it’s good for the people so we’re going to do it” kind of things.

Does your employer do anything like this? I’d like to hear about it if they do.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll now resume normal blog posts.

Josh “Shua” Peters

 

P.S. Check out my post today on NMM about the Features And Benefits Of Social Media

 

The first 2 days were a big adjustment and I guess everyone figured I had adjusted enough to just slam me with work. It’s by far the busiest day I’ve had in a while, and email felt like an avalanche. I’m not complaining, just explaining.

One thing I’m going to say is that I’m learning just how important time management skills are in an environment like this. I thought mine were pretty darn good till I started getting slammed with work and quickly realized systems I used on my own don’t hold up quite the same in a place like this.

So what does this mean?

It means that new environments need new systems. New ways of doing things, and new ways to get things done. This is something that relates right back to companies just starting out  in social media.

Social media is often a new environment and doing things the same old way just plain doesn’t cut it. You need to create new systems, new ways of doing things, new ways of addressing problems and doing business.

Social media is more than just YouTube and Twitter, is has a whole mentality shift to it. To treating your customers more like friends than faceless numbers on a data sheet. Treating your employees like they are people and not just a necessary expense like a copy machine or computer. It’s also about creating a culture that empowers your employees to become your best marketing tool.

The latter is something that they really push at The Search Agency. Culture is one of the most important things to them here and they refuse to hire anyone if they are not a good cultural fit for the company. I find this amazing. Amber and Jay would like what they see.

Thanks for reading, can’t wait to see how day 4 rolls out.

Josh “Shua” Peters

 

 

image by Robert Vignola

 

 

 

So here it is. The end of solo work and the beginning of a new chapter in my career. It’s exciting and a little bit scary too because now there’s more at stake when it comes to client interactions. Success or failure no long just affects me and my client, it now affects an entire company full of people.

A little over a week ago I accepted a position as Manager, Social Media at The Search Agency, and while the last week I was employed here it was filled with paper work, company training, welcome week events, etc. This is the first week here where I’ll be working on clients the whole time so it’s what I consider my real first week.

 

About The Search Agency

TSA is an internet marketing agency that is deeply rooted in SEO, PPC, and online display marketing. They have worked with a host of extremely well known companies (I don’t know which ones I can list yet since it’s my first week) with several amazing ones in the pipe I’m looking forward to working with.

They have a proprietary suite of tools they have created over the years that produce some of the most amazing and insightful data I’ve even seen in my years of internet marketing. This is one area where I feel they dominate many others is in the technology they have spent 100′s of hours and who knows how much money creating all for the benefit of them and their clients.

Their company motto is “There’s Always A Better Way” and I find that amazing. It represents a company that never gets comfortable and is always evolving (like adding a social media division…). They also have a host of awards and certifications to their name.

 

What I’ll be doing there

My job description at TSA is a little open ended right now. I get to help really define it and help create what it means to have a social media arm inside the company.  However, as it’s defined right now I’ll be doing:

• Social media analysis and strategy for clients and TSA
• Social media training and coaching both for clients and internally
• Building content and grow the online presence of TSA

 

I’m quite excited about this new opportunity. The company has an amazing culture (something Jay & Amber talk a ton about in NOW Revolution) which is one of the main factors that swayed me from other job offers with 1/2 the commute this one has (1.5 – 2 hours one way via car 2 – 2.5 via bus).

If you’d like to find out more about TSA checkout their Site, blog, or follow them on Twitter.  You’ll be seeing my name on all of these in the coming weeks.

Thanks for Reading,
Josh “Shua” Peters

P.S. Check out my new office and my post on New Mix Marketing today about Being A Lighthouse