“JCP’s new CEO was most recently with Apple, but prior to that was VP of Merchandising for Target. He recently brought over Target’s Chief Marketing Officer to be JCP’s new President. So essentially both the CEO and President of JCP were top Target Execs. I know this because I work for Target….best company ever, they were fools to leave! “

There’s actually 2 points I’d like to make. The first is that Target’s branding is so well done that even when it’s copied by jcp and used by jcp, I still thought of Target. Target should thank jcp for the free advertising. Just goes to show the power of branding done well. Secondly, I’d like to point out that I used social media, specifically Facebook to do research and in moments I had a direct quote from an actual Target employee. Just goes to show the power of social media done at all….

P.S. I did end up doing a search on google for “jcp and target”. Here are the top 5 results:

Stock:J.C. Penney (JCP)
www.wikinvest.com/stock/J.C._Penney_(JCP)
J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) is a leading department store retailer of apparel, … ( WMT) and Target (TGT) at the expense of department stores such as J.C. Penney …
Will J.C. Penney Be the Next Target? – DailyFinance
www.dailyfinance.com/2011/10/…/will-j-c-penney-be-the-next-target…
Oct 12, 2011 – Two of the men most responsible for making Target a cool, hip shopping option will soon be leading J.C. Penney’s, which means bold changes …
J.C. Penney Appoints Top Target Executive as President (JCP, TGT)
www.beaconequity.com/…/J-C-Penney-Appoints-Top-Target-Executi…
Oct 3, 2011 – J.C. Penney Company Inc. ( NYSE: JCP ) has hired Target Corporation’s ( NYSE: TGT ) top marketing executive as its new President.
JC Penney Unveils New Target-esque $800 Million Revamp …
fashionista.com/…/jc-penney-unveils-new-target-esque-800-million-r…
Jan 28, 2012 – Like Target, JCP’s roster of designer collabs is growing. Joining MNG, Nicole by Nicole Miller, I Heart Ronson and Olsenboye, will be “L’amour …
J.C. Penney Company, Inc. : JC Penney Layoffs Target Some …
www.4-traders.com › Shares
Jan 23, 2012 – DOW JONES NEWSWIRES In addition to its expected layoffs of thousands of seasonal workers, J.C. Penney Co. will make cuts to its …

I don’t get a newspaper anymore. My news comes online and it’s based on my interests. A great deal of my news comes from Facebook. For purposes of this discussion, I’m going to use USA Today and local newspapers as examples. USA Today is a national newspaper that gives readers a broad idea of what’s going on in the nation and the world and your local newspaper gives you a broad idea of what’s going on in your county, city and local area. Their websites, of course, do the same. Is this what people truly care about though? Of course. On some level, we all care about what’s going on in the world, in our cities and in our towns.

What do we care about most, however? We care about our family and friends most. When you ask most people to list their priorities the top three will likely be their family and friends, their job and their religion or spirituality in no particular order. So where do we all go to get news on our family and friends??? Why, Facebook of course. My new Sunday morning routine isn’t reading the “funnies”, Sports section and Entertainment section of the local newspaper anymore. It’s getting a cup of coffee, opening my laptop or iPad and seeing what my family and friends did this weekend. Who had babies? Who lost a loved one? Who had a great time in Las Vegas? That’s what I care about most. I know that’s what I care about most because that’s the first thing I “research”. Then I’ll go to my favorite news outlets and look up how the my favorite teams performed last night and of course see what’s going on in the nation and the world.

What’s the point? What am I getting at here? Well, another thing that I can choose on Facebook is what “advertisers” I allow to appear on my news feed. I can’t choose that at all with a printed newspaper. Websites, especially Facebook, are getting a lot smarter and very sophisticated with the targeted advertising they feed me, but to be honest, it’s never really what I want to see. I mean, how many times can they suggest I like “Mayhem” on Facebook before I can make it go away. I can’t. I can control that I “LIKE” Pepsi and I can see what Pepsi is posting on Facebook in my newsfeed. I chose that. So did 4.5 Million other Facebook users. 31.5 Million users chose to allow Coca~Cola to advertise on their newsfeed.

This is the equivalent of telling USA Today or the Detroit News what advertising you want printed in the paper they deliver to your doorstep. Pretty powerful when you think about it. So if you don’t have a fan page on Facebook, I suggest you get one now. If you do have a fan page, but you really don’t have a strategy, I suggest you work on it. You need to create enough interest on Facebook that people choose to allow you to advertise to them.

If you have not developed a strategy for Facebook yet, it’s definitely not too late and it is worth doing as long as you are willing to do it right and invest the time and effort and staff into ensuring your page is worth visiting. Here are three quick tips to get you started:

1. Check out your competition.
See what your competitors are doing on Facebook. I would never recommend copying them directly, but there will be inherent similarities in the way you conduct your page. You can choose to do the same or try something completely different. It’s up to you, but it should be consistent with the rest of your marketing and advertising.

2. Meet with an “expert”.
I always say there is no such thing as a social media expert because how can someone be an expert at something that changes every single day. The point is, meet with someone who knows what they are doing and get their input so you can lay a solid social media foundation.

3. Make a Social Media team.
If your staff is too busy focusing on their day-to-day jobs to assign this to one individual, make it a team effort. This way the load is shared and it becomes a collaboration of different departments. This will also keep your content interesting and diverse, but will also be representative of your organization.

We recently ran a promotion for a customer that had surprisingly brilliant and unexpected results as well. The promotion was a “slot machine” game on Facebook where if the fan of the page got 5 logos to appear across the top of their page, they won a prize.

It took about ten days for people to figure out how to make it happen, which was what we wanted. We didn’t want the promotion to only last a day. The unexpected result, however was that the people who ended up winning the contest ended up promoting our client on their own personal Facebook pages. The winners of our contest had over 1,200 friends combined. Each of those friends had the opportunity to be introduced to our client on Facebook in a way we never anticipated.

Tebow’s results aren’t in and neither are ours at this point, but by experimenting and not being afraid to try new things, we discovered a great new way to promote our clients without spending hard dollars on advertising. The only true failure of an experiment is not realizing and appreciating the unexpected results.

So how do you do it then? You need to make sure that you are promoting it in EVERYTHING. Promote it in your company newsletter, emails, business cards, swag give-aways, letterhead, TV commercials, print advertisements and any other way possible.

I recently attended a college football game at the largest stadium in the United States. There were over 113,000 people in attendance. There was a one minute promotion of the home team’s Facebook page that ran on their new scoreboards. It was brilliant. I couldn’t get a picture of the ad when it was running, but I will make an effort to do so at the next game.

The point is, they get it. They have a captured audience and used the opportunity to promote their Facebook page in an undeniable way. What undeniable way will you come up with to promote your Facebook page?

If you’re like me, you’d likely purchase them from the third website. Image is everything, especially online. The first two are clearly templates that were home made, much like their cupcakes. The Cupcake Girls website looks as though it was professionally built. This also gives the sense that the Cupcake Girls are better at what they do and take it more seriously or they are just too busy baking yummy cupcakes to build a website.

This message transcends cupcakes and is really true for any business. If you’re not a programmer or web designer, focus on what you do best and leave the heavy lifting to the experts. It will pay off in so many ways including credibility, image, branding, SEO and more than likely, sales!

Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be a new Social Media platform, along comes Tout! Tout allows users to post 15-second videos directly from their smart-phones. Here’s how Tout describes it:

“Tout, the network for real-time video Status Updates (Touts).

Tout enables people to quickly and easily update their Facebook friends and Twitter followers with real- time short video Video Status Updates, captured from smart phones. Find and follow friends, family and people who interest you at Tout.com and get real-time notifications as they “Tout” new moments from their lives.

Tout delivers a rich social sharing experience that delivers “Life as it Happens” in full color, sound and motion… as opposed to “Life as it’s Written” in 140 characters of text.

Some things just can’t be described in 140 characters of text… Life is what you see, Tout it!”

Learning from Twitter and Facebook success, Tout already has athletes, actors, socialites and politicians using their platform and is rapidly growing their user base.

How Tout can work for you depends on your products and services. Essentially, if you can summarize anything about your company and what it has to offer in 15 seconds or less… TOUT IT! 15 second demonstrations, tips, advice or a series of them can be fun and entertaining. This platform will force you to “land the plane” and be direct and to the point. Many consumers will appreciate this.

Coca~Cola has nearly 34 Million people that like their page on Facebook. Is that enough? For a consumer product like Coca~Cola, they would probably like to and benefit from having even more followers. The fact that they are a consumer product, the quality of their Fans is very high. All 34 Million of their fans have probably purchased a Coke in the last few months and will probably purchase a Coke within the next few months. This sets up the quality factor.

What good would it be for your business to have 34 Million Fans? Do you even want 34 Million Fans? For some of you the answer will be yes. I’m pretty sure if LocalizeIt Online had 34 Million Fans we would have to hire a team of people simply to manage our presence on Facebook. This would be counter productive, however, because we couldn’t possibly provide services that generate revenue for 34 Million customers.

So what’s the point? The point is, many businesses need to focus more on the quality of their Facebook Fans. Every now and then scan your list of Fans and look at their profiles. Where do they live? If you own a hardware store in Sioux City, Iowa the majority of your Fans should be from Sioux City, Iowa. If you are a realtor in Charleston, SC the majority of your fans should be from there as well. These are broad examples and you need to determine your own guidelines for quality control based on your business, product or service, especially if you’re paying a third-party to manage and promote your Facebook page.