The Pink is Cloudsurfing

, , , ,

PV Locker LogoIn February, Pink Visual announced PV Locker, their cloud computing solution for storing porn. Though cloud storage is nothing new, cloud storage for adult content is.  Essentially, the locker is a place you can keep your porn so you don’t have to save it on your hard drive. The cloud storage also allows you to access your content from any place, and any device,  that can get internet access. Have a tablet, like an iPad? No problem.  Smart Phone? Easy peasy!

With the launch of the new PV Locker, Pink Visual did not just keep their PR releases to the standard blog, news sites and Twitter.  They began crowdsurfing.

From the beginning, the talk of the PV Locker was not just a “Here it is!” Pink Visual announced the site and then asked for feedback.  They tweeted out to their followers, asking them to look at the site and let them know what needed improvement. But it did not stop there.  Not only did they ask for feedback, they followed up. When I tweeted them about loving the site, they quickly contacted me to ask for my thoughts on improvement.

Pink Visual Tweet

This is a great use of social media for launching a site. Soliciting this kind of feedback makes me want to dig around in their site, to see if I can come up with something that might be helpful.  In the process I become more familiar with the site, and am more likely to start using it.

In the process of crowdsurfing, they have received some feedback that will help design and navigation, from increasing the size of thumbnails, to 404’s on links. They also addressed the issue of 500 mbs of storage, and said that they will be increasing that soon.

A bit about the site

When you go to the site you immediately see featured video and a series of clips. Click on price and an internal pop-up window opens up that lets you easily create an account and purchase the video. Once you buy it, it is automatically saved in your locker.  Then when you want to access your content, you login to your account and can watch to your heart’s content.

The site is easily navigable by niche, porn stars and most popular. The design is very clean and has some fun logos (like the little PV locker) integrated nicely into the pictures.

What is so significant about the PV Locker is that this represents the new direction for porn. Businesses are accessing cloud computing for file storage in increasing numbers. More people are starting to see the benefits. And as our world continues to blend mobile computing into our daily lives, cloud computing will become an integral part of that transition.  Yet again, porn is leading the technology curve. Pink Visual is on the forefront of adaptive technology.

Though now you can only store videos from Pink Visual, the site will not keep its content storage proprietary. They have plans to open up their cloud storage to other companies.

When Pink Visual says that they are designing a site for their users, they really mean it. Crowdsurfing is a great tactic to find out people’s opinions as well as potential issues that may have been overlooked. It is a great strategy to get their fans more invested in their launch, and convert them to users as well as supporters.

 

 

/by

How Adult Compares in Social Marketing

, ,
The old spice man

Old Spice was one of the most successful social media campaigns ever. It had sex, nudity and humor and was everywhere.

Social media integrates traditional marketing strategy with the social component.  It has become the powerhouse for marketing campaigns.

The Social Media Examiner recently released their Social Media Marketing Industry Report. The top findings show that social media is growing in its influence. Most marketers are increasing their social media efforts across the board. Though the report did not feature an adult section, most of the findings are reflected in the Adult Industry.

Here is a list of the top findings:

• Marketers place high value on social media: A significant 90% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.
• Marketers want to know how to monitor and measure ROI and integrate those results into their strategy.
• Social media marketing takes a lot of time: Most marketers are spending a minimum of 6 hours a week.
• Video marketing is on the rise: 77% of marketers plan to increase YouTube and video integration into their social marketing plans.
• Facebook and Blogging are the two social media platforms marketers want to learn more about.
• The top benefits of social media marketing: Social media marketing is generating more business exposure (72%) and improved SEO (62%).
• The top social media tools: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs are the top social media tools used by marketers, in that order.
• Social media outsourcing is underutilized: Only 28% of businesses are outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing.

The adult industry is no stranger to the power of social media marketing.  Twitter is the playground for porn stars. It is an excellent way to grow networks, keep up with industry happenings and promote content.  But adult has not turned its back on any of the social media networks. Despite ongoing issues with Facebook, many stars continue to rock the Fan Page.

An interesting finding in the report was that video content is generally dominated by large companies.  The time commitment and tech requirements of video are often prohibitive to a lot of small businesses and solopreneurs. Video is one of the best forms of marketable content; it is far more likely to go viral and be shared across Internet platforms (ie. retweeted, posted in blogs, on Facebook, shared via email, etc.). Adult is actually ahead of the curve on the use of video in social marketing. This is not surprising since video is a cornerstone of the industry, but even un-produced content, like video blogs and behind the scenes shots from camera phones, are being actively used in marketing strategy.

Blogs have come in as the number one growth area for social marketing. 75% of marketers say they want to increase their blogging efforts.  Adult blogs are starting to emerge but finding good content has been a struggle.  Most adult sites do not know what to blog about, and the blogs end up focusing on product or site promotion. However, blogging is a great tool for driving traffic to your site. It will even allow adult sites to post content on Facebook, or other sites that frown upon adult content, as long as you keep your blog free of adult images and video.

The biggest inhibitor is the time factor.  When most people get into social media they worry about the time commitment.  Though there is a high percentage of people in Adult who invest their primary marketing efforts in social marketing and spend a lot of time with it, this concern is reflected in the Adult Industry. The Social Media Marketing Industry Report shows that marketers who invest more time into their social marketing found more success.  The great thing, though, was that even people who spent 6 hours a week still gained significant business results:

6 hours per week

  • 58% use social media for a minimum of 6 hours per week. 
  • 65% showed an improvement in their SEO
  • 78% showed an increase in their web traffic.
  • 81% said that social media helped increase their exposure

Less than a Year

  • 45% reported new partnerships
  • 52% had new sales lead generation

More than a Year

  • 73% reported improvement in their SEO

More than 3 years

  • 47% spent 16 hours or more per week on social media
  • 72% reported that social media helps close sales
  • 72% strongly agree that social media increases business exposure
  • 91% report increased traffic to websites

Facebook leads the pack, followed closely by Twitter. If this report were done specifically for Adult, I believe the result would have been reversed.  Twitter is still the social powerhouse.

Social media has become the most effective long-term marketing strategy. It drives traffic, creates business partnerships, facilitates alliances, increases exposure, generates sales leads and improves brand reputation.

/by

I Tweet Naked

, ,

As you know, I take part in a variety of social media platforms.  Primarily, I live on the big three: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Besides doing my own marketing, I spend a lot of time on these sites looking at what other people are doing.  I like to point out, and often blog about, companies or people who are doing good jobs.  Every so often I come across a piece of communication that is SO far from good I have to share it as a “What NOT to do”.

Most of the time these come in the form of Spam or auto-DM’s. This one is a little different.

On LinkedIn you join groups to talk to people in your industry, grow your connections and perhaps even make some business deals.  It is a great resource, but not a particularly sexy place.  It is not a place to go see naked photos (though you will find some in certain groups), or a place to meet a date (though sometimes this does happen).  LinkedIn is primarily a place for business.

One of the greatest values are the connections.  If you share a group with someone, you know you have a conversation-starter and a reason to add them to your network of business connections.  Once you are networked with that person, you can send them a message (unless you have the paid version of LinkedIn, in which case you do not have to be in their network).

I belong to a lot of groups and many people network with me.  If we share a group, you have a 99% chance of me saying yes.

So recently I received a LinkedIn email message from a photographer that simply said:

“you might have better luck if you were more pleasing to the eyes or dressed sluttier.”

So first off – Holy Inappropriate, Batman! I mean really, in what world is this considered an acceptable communication for a business platform (or any platform)?

Secondly, what did this guy think he was going to accomplish? Was I immediately supposed to be in awe of his amazing insight and start sending him naked photos? Then hire him to help me to be a more attractive slut?

And third, I am not unpleasant to look at. And luck has nothing to do with it. As a business professional, consultant and strategist it is not my goal to appear in any way other than how / who I am, and my expertise is the engine of my success.

Even if some business professionals prefer to tweet in the nude (and if I do, how will you know?)!

So here’s the lesson: don’t insult your audience.  If you are emailing, make sure there is some relevant purpose and intent behind it. You never know who your message is going to. You might just be burning a bridge you will later need.

/by

Adult Classifieds get a new venue!

, , , ,
Friday Feature Photo: Kyle King

Friday Feature Photo: The sexy Hot House Exclusive star, Kyle King

The adult ad section on Craigslist caused a big scandal in the United States. Craigslist received a lot of flack for their adult ads.  The “Craigslist Killer” was reported to have trolled the personal ads to find his next victim.  Despite intense scrutiny and a very public lambasting, Craigslist was not particularly interested in removing this section. In fact, the law sided with Craigslist. According to first amendment lawyer Doug Mirell, “The Communications Decency Act says that essentially those who are simply providing a bulletin board by which others can post their content is not going to be liable for the content itself.” When people cried out about moral responsibility, or about the site being used to facilitate human trafficking, the site reminded people that Craigslist had actively helped authorities track down people engaging in human trafficking. In the end, their adult/erotic section was removed.

Many people asked, “Where are adult ads going to go, now that they are gone from Craigslist?”  Duttslist has answered that question.  It is a site that is set up like Craigslist, following the same style of user interface. They have made no secret of their adult ad section, in fact they feature it; in their “Hottest Ads” section, you will see the most popular of their adult ads.  They also offer more traditional community ads, making the classifieds site robust like Craigslist. but they are catering to the adult industry.

Duttslist is a two-person operation. Mike is the owner and Jen is the media consultant. Their most popular city is Toronto, but they are quickly spreading into major US cities.  Active on Twitter, various message boards and escort review boards, Duttslist is actively promoting their site as the new source for adult classifieds.

Their promotions are working because they are averaging over 200,000 page views a day, with more than 15,000 unique daily visitors, and it just keeps growing. They offer three different levels of ads, from the free classifieds to sponsored ads.  Though they are not competing with Craigslist, since Craigslist no longer offers an erotic services section, they are raising some eyebrows over there, because they did receive a cease and desist from them.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact that the adult industry was looking for a good adult classified site and Duttslist answered their call.  Make sure you check out their site and visit them on Twitter

Friday Feature Photo: Kyle KingThe amazingly sexy Kyle King is this weeks Friday Feature Photo. I met him at the Phoenix Forum this past weekend, and was immediately captivated. Obviously he is incredibly good looking with a body I could eat sushi off. But he is also a really nice guy.  I had a number of wonderful conversations with him.  Kyle is a Hot House exclusive, and has starred in a number of great Hot House movies. He also has a blog where he shares his thoughts and pictures from his travels, talks about his life and presents some exclusive sexy pics.

Make sure you check out Kyle’s Blog

Find him on Hot House

And chat with him on Twitter @KyleKingxxx

 

/by

paper.li is your porn spam daily

, ,

 

paper.li porn spam dailypaper.li made a big splash on Twitter last fall. By December, paper.lis were becoming a frequent visitor to the Twitter timeline.  I did a review on the good, the bad and the ugly of paper.li.  As I saw more of them being posted, I also began to wonder about a few things:

  • Are people actually reading them?
  • Do they have any effect on SEO?
  • Would they actually drive traffic to my site?
  • Do the people posting even realize they are posting?
  • How much more spam does the adult industry need?

I gave it a try, and one question was answered right away. No, I did not know when they were posting. I would see the occasional retweet and then would realize that my paper.li went out. They were also pulling from stories I would not necessarily choose. Because I did not know the post was going out, I did not see the paper before it was created. So no content approval.

The traffic question did not take long to answer. As more of my stories were caught in the paper.li generator, I watched my traffic sources to see how many billions of people were coming to my site because of this “paper”. Well, the answer was zero billions. In fact, I was not receiving any traffic from the tweets. At most I was getting the occasional retweet, which also generated no traffic.

So then I began to wonder if anyone was actually reading them. I don’t. When I see them, they just filter through my newsfeed like other auto-posting spam. The only time I open them up is when I see my name mentioned. Then I check the story and re-tweet. Even then, I don’t usually look at the other stories. About 1 in a 100 times I see another story in the paper where I actually click the link. I decided that if I am not reading them, the likelihood that other people were reading them was pretty slim.

The other issue is the idea of auto-content generation. paper.li automatically pulls content from specified users or keywords and then puts it together in the form of original content. The author credits are not always right, and if they are wrong there is nothing you can do about it. Once created they are posted to your account, jamming up the timeline with paper.li posts. Usually we call posts that jam up the timeline with content that we ignore spam,;why is this any different? Oh wait, it isn’t! At least the spam that jams up my news feed has boobies and man candy in it.

I like the idea of aggregating your favorite content into a single page and then sharing it with your followers. But this is more like phoning in your news aggregation. You have little control and it is just junking up the timeline. In fact, people are starting to block paper.li from their timelines. Which makes it officially what? SPAM!

/by

Pics from The Phoenix Forum

,

The Phoenix Forum was a great show! I met a lot of amazing people and saw some amazing things! It was a crazy three days filled with networking and new technology and naked women, three of my favorite things. Check out some of the pics.

/by

15 Tips to a Tip Top Twitter

, , ,

Twitter is one of the strongest tools in social media for the Adult Industry.  You can essentially post what you want,

Feature Friday Photo: Seth Gamble

Feature Friday Photo: the very sexy and talented Seth Gamble.

without fear of being deleted. You can network with people any time of day or night and every audience is to be found, from fans to B2B. This means that your Twitter needs to be working for you and not against you.

Having a strong Twitter bio is important. This is your first impression – your first chance to get someone to like you. This is also how search engines find your profile, so you want to make sure it is SEO optimized.

Once a week I go through my new Twitter followers and decide who I am going to follow back.  I consider a lot of factors in deciding why I follow or don’t follow someone.  One of the biggest reasons is their bio on Twitter.

Think of your bio as your 10 second elevator pitch. You have 160 characters to tell me why I should be interested in you.  If I like what I see, maybe I’ll click your profile and check out your most recent posts.  If those are interesting then I’ll follow you.  But the bio is your handshake.

5 Tips for a strong Twitter Bio:

  1. Tell me who you are. Are you a public figure? What do you do? Why are you here? I want to know who I am following
  2. Web Address: if you have a website, put the url in your bio.
  3. Don’t be crass or abrasive.  If you seem unfriendly and rude, why would I follow you?
  4. Don’t try to sell me.  If your bio is trying to push a product, that tells me you are about your sales and not about engaging with your followers.
  5. Be charming. Be nice. I want to think that if I follow you, you are approachable.

5 Tips to optimize your Twitter Bio

  1. Putting your web address in the bio is an easy way to have your Twitter associated with your business in the search engines.
  2. Use industry key words in your bio. Do some keyword research and make sure to use some of the big ones. That way, when people use them in a search you have a chance of coming up in the results.
  3. If your name is branded, use your name, so when people search your name they will find you.
  4. Don’t shorten any words.  Search engines don’t search for abbreviations. So unless your key term is usually abbreviated, spell it out.
  5. If you have a long URL for your website, use a Bit.ly to shorten it.

5 Ways to make me think you are a spammer

  1. Sending an auto-DM like, “Are u fun?” This is just spam.
  2. Using a validating service like TrueTwit. You are not preventing spam, you are creating it.
  3. DMing me the same message over and over…
  4. Tagging me in a post to a random link. If you post a link that says nothing but the link and my name..wham, bam, spam!
  5. If your avatar is an egg, I will think you are a spammer even if you are not.  Put in a pic.

Feature Friday Photo: Seth Gamble This week’s Feature Friday Photo is the very sexy Seth Gamble.  I would like to say I was captivated by his beautiful blue eyes or his amazing body but I was drawn in by his Twitter. Seth set him self apart on Twitter because he was so genuine and approachable. This boosts his star power exponentially.   He says that “well-behaved people rarely make history….life is a gamble…I’m all in.” Seth is also a very talented actor and has appeared in a ton of movies. Make sure you check out his films and follow him on Twitter.

Visit him on Twitter @sethgamblexxx

View his acting bio

Seth a big supporter of Hot Rawks, an injected aphrodisiac made from raw organic superfoods and herbs.

/by

Crowdsurf Naked!

, ,
Crowd surf Naked

Crowdsurfing naked means being honest and asking tough questions. Do you use crowdsurfing as a strategy?

What is the old adage, “Want to do it better? Do it naked!”  …no, probably not an old adage in any society.  But this could be a new motto for social media and crowdsurfing.  The idea behind crowdsurfing is that you are asking a wide audience their opinion about a topic or decision. Kim Kardashian blew Matt Lauer’s mind on her interview with the Today Show when she talked about crowdsurfing decisions from nail polish color to branding her perfume.

“[Twitter] is like the best focus group.” – Kim Kardashian

Kim is not wrong. Twitter as a giant focus group – thousands of people who are all interested in the same thing, from every demographic and around the world, all willing and able to give you feedback and comments. All you have to do is ask.

How do I crowdsurf?

Easy. All you do is ask a question and request feedback, e.g., “Tell me what you think; boxers or briefs?” If it is something you want a lot of feedback on, I would recommend tweeting throughout the day or week, let people know you are trying to get opinions and even ask your followers to help.  The longer you run your crowdsurf the more information you will get. Of course this is within reason; if all you tweet about is your question, you are likely to bore or annoy people. So keep it interesting and relevant and mix it up a little.

Do you need a big following?

Actually no. Having a good size following definitely helps in any crowdsurfing endeavor but is not essential. You can use crowdsurfing as a way to poll people and a way to grow your network as long as you use hashtags strategically.  If you are asking a question about sex, you might want to use the hashtag #sexquestion.

Does majority rule?

There is no law that says you have to do what your crowdsurf results tell you. Ultimately it is up to you. But since you did take the time to get pubic opinion, you might want to take the advice of the majority.

Crowdsurfing can be a highly valuable tool. People use it for getting viewpoints on simple things like where to eat, or complex issues like personal branding and business strategy. The key to successful crowdsurfing is to do it naked; do it honestly and be forthcoming.  If you are going to crowdsurf, be willing to go with the crowd.  Ask the tough questions and you will get better feedback if you are inquiring about something real.

When you crowdsurf, your fans and followers feel involved in what you are doing. It lends an air of authenticity to your social media and helps create an emotional investment between you and your followers, all of which creates loyalty.

Try integrating crowdsurfing into your online strategy. You might be surprised by how helpful your fans and followers really are!

/by

Facebook Questions: Not a Fan of Fan Pages

, ,

Facebook has rolled out another update. Honestly, this one will not likely have a big effect on the Adult Industry. I am even arguing with myself about how this update will impact the Adult Industry because it is generally irrelevant to Fan Pages at present. But here’s the latest: Questions has been unleashed on the Facebook world.

Questions is a new feature that allows you to create a poll to post in your status update. You can ask any question, then add as many answer options as you wish for responders to choose from. The “options” are your poll choices. You can even offer “Allow anyone to add options” to let people write in their own answer, if they do not want to choose one of your pre-sets.

Everyone likes polls. Everyone likes quizzes. There are more quiz applications on Facebook than almost any other kind of app.  Why? Because we are dorks and love answering questions about whether we think we’re going to survive the next Zombie Apocalypse.  Of course, quizzes and polls are also a great way to crowdsurf ideas.  There are reasons why Survey Monkey is so popular.

Crowdsurfing is a great way to include your audience in your decisions. For Kim Kardashian, crowdsurfing is integral to her business strategy. Where Questions has the potential to be a boon for crowdsurfing Twitter, it is currently a big #FAIL because of its limitations with Fan Pages.

This is what Questions looks like when you are creating a poll:

Questions on Facebook

When you create a poll, it appears in your newsfeed and on your wall.

If you have a personal Profile and you post a Question, it looks like this:

Facebook Question in the newsfeed

In the newsfeed the Question appears as the full poll, showing profile thumbnails of people who have answered.

If you post a Question from your Fan Page, it looks like this:

Questions post on fan page

When you post a Question from your Fan Page, it shows up as a link instead of showing the poll.

As you can see, there is a big difference between how Questions appear on the newsfeeds and walls for Fan Pages and Profiles, and there is an obvious benefit to posting as a Profile. Because it shows up as a link instead of a preview to the poll, the usefulness for Fan Pages has been generally negated.

If someone does actually click through and answer the question, it will show up as activity in their news feed (as either the link or the post – Facebook is still testing this). For now, the Fan Page link situation is inhibiting the use of this feature as an interactive business tool. Maybe Facebook will change it as they work out some of the kinks.

In any case, if you’d like to try out this interesting new feature, get Facebook Questions.

Make sure to check out Wednesday’s post on Crowdsurfing for the Adult Industry.

/by