BJ Penn.com Learns that Web 2.0 is Much More Powerful Than Traditional Marketing

BJ Penn, like all other brands serious about reaching their customers through relevant channels, are searching for tools to help get their messaging out to the masses. This past weekend, the BJ Penn camp became the first Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) team to leverage a real-time customer loyalty program via the Internet. They did it with Qmania.

Now that BJPenn.com has a profile on Qmania, their biggest fans can get exclusive up-to-the-minute deals, promotions, exclusives, etc... literally. A deal driven website, all companies have to do to begin fully utilizing Qmania is to simply create a deal/discount/coupon for their loyal fans. They then sent a short email notifying them that there are exclusive deals simply waiting for them.

It doesn't stop there. BJPenn.com and other businesses are able to have direct email and/or SMS text communication with their "Insiders". That means that when a business posts an exclusive deal to their Qmania profile, their Insiders (opt-in service) will receive a text message, email or both.

Once an Insider learns of exclusive deals, they can post it to their Facebook, Twitter and other favorite social media sites. These Insiders then become a driving force spreading the word about the deal. Added value all around.

The Qmania platform is designed to be equally functional for a multi-national brand or a local spot. The good news is that not only does Qmania connect to consumers in more effective ways, but it also seamlessly links businesses to each other. Let's take for example: RVCA and BJPenn.com . Through Qmania's 1 Click system, these two brands can connect on the Qmamia platform and make their respective deals/promotions/coupons available to one anothers core users. Digest that for a second. It's even more powerful than most can imagine at first glance.

Good thing that BJPenn.com picked up on this and is taking it to the next level! We're honored to be part of this.

Learn more about Qmania here.

28% Offline ROI - Social Media Marketing Pays Off

Image via CrunchBase

AdAge reports that an unnamed personal-care brand earned a measurable $1.28 Million in offline sales from $1 Million social media campaign. Package goods brands have been very wary about participating in Social Media, figuring that the ROI there can't be measured. A conversation may or may not lead to a sale, after all. Now, however, a method is emerging to relate that conversation on Social Networks like MySpace or Facebook to the offline sale, potentially eliminating a major cause to brand executive's hesitation to join in on social media conversation. Read more at AdAge.

Facebook Driving More Traffic than Google (for Some)

Social media is becoming a more powerful driver of traffic than Google for many high authority sites on the web. It seems surprising at first, since web users go to search engines like Google to decide where visit next, while they usually head to Social Media sites like Facebook to hang out and share photos, videos, and thoughts. It's even more surprising considering that Facebook receives about a third of Google's traffic (50 million vs. 149 million in January, per ComScore).

Some of the big name sites receiving more traffic from Facebook than from Google include PerezHiltion.com, Evite.com, Tagged.com and even Twitter.com!

Although it's still early in the development of this trend, it's clear that Social Media has become a serious platform for growing your a website's traffic and providing real value to web users.

If you're looking to increase traffic to your website, enabling and encouraging people to share your content with their networks is key. Boiled down, if you give web users a great thing to share, and tools to share it, they will likely share it.

Keeping that in mind, we've ensured all deals posted on Qmania can easily be shared on Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter. As Social Media continues to find its place in the online world, we'll be there to continue providing you tools to get the word out on your most buzzworthy deals.

Thanks for reading. We'll be sure to keep you updated on this trend and how Qmania is adapting to it as the trend evolves.

Skittles - Social Media Integration into Website

Just a quick shout out to Skittles (and their site agency, agency.com). Great job on the new site design!

The integration of social media profiles is phenomenal. On a larger scale, Skittles is demonstrating that feedback from their consumer drives the quality of their product. And that their listening. A fantastic message that we love to hear from one of our favorite candy brands!