From USAToday.com (5/14/2012):

After a slow start, Big Business is embracing social media in a big way. Forrester Research says the sales of software to run corporate social networks will grow 61% a year and be a $6.4 billion business by 2016.

Two-thirds of big companies surveyed now use Web 2.0 tools such as social networks or blogs, with use of internal social networks up 50% since 2008, according to a survey by McKinsey & Co. Nearly 90% said they have reaped at least one measurable business benefit, though most say the improvements have been modest.

Heavy use of social tools has a statistically significant correlation to profitability, said Michael Chui, senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute. But it’s early: Only about 3% of respondents used social business tools for all three major uses — reaching customers, connecting employees and coordinating with suppliers, McKinsey said.

“Innovation is a two-way street,” said Chris Laping, Red Robin’s senior vice president for business transformation. “When people see things, they feel things. And when they feel things, they change.”

Making connections

Using social networks to foster connections lets companies match the skills of people working all over the world who wouldn’t easily find each other, said Eric Lesser, a research director at IBM’s Institute for Business Value. It’s especially valuable for companies built by acquisition, whose managers in different divisions often don’t know each other, he said.

“You’ve got to let the conversations happen, even if you might not like all of that conversation,” according to SuperValu’s Chief Information Officer Wayne Shurts. “It’s going to happen around the water cooler anyway.”

Listening to customers

Companies can also use blogs and social sites to bring customers into their product-design process, said Barton George, director of the Dell computer division that sells to Internet-based companies. Through its IdeaStorm site, Dell has taken in more than 17,000 ideas for new or improved products, and has adopted nearly 500, including backlit keyboards that are better for working on airplanes.

Social media has the potential to be as important to the broader economy as more obviously business-related information technologies such as mobile phones and cloud computing, said Stacey Bishop, a venture capitalist at Scale Venture Partners, in Foster City, Calif.

“I’d put the cloud first, but they’re all important and they’re all related,” Bishop said. “Mobile is an extension of the cloud, because it lets you get your data wherever you are. And social is the layer on top of that, making it easier to cross-communicate.”

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-05-14/social-media-economy-companies/55029088/1

Invite others to connect.  When sending an individual an invitation to connect, try writing a warm introduction and include why you are interested in connecting with them.  Even better, include how you may be able to help them if you are in their network.  It is important to reach out to those you know and trust.  If reaching out to strangers, be sure to state your goal in connecting with them.

Make the message personal.  Don’t just send the automated message that LinkedIn generates.  Personalizing the message shows you genuinely care and are truly interested in connecting.

Build relationships.  Don’t just request to connect to increase your number of connections.  The goal on LinkedIn is to build relationships and personal credibility.  Take your connections seriously, and be cautious when accepting invitations when goals are not clearly defined.

Positive responses & recommendations are valuable.  Participate in your groups’ discussions with meaningful responses.  This further markets you as an expert in your field and shows you are an active, caring member of the group.  Leaving feedback as a public recommendation on a connection’s page is thoughtful and rewarding.  After all, if a job is well done, it deserves to be recognized so others are aware of the connection’s reputation.  If you do this for others, they are likely to do the same for you when you provide your services.

Remember your audience.  When creating posts, keep in mind who your audience is (this applies to any online atmosphere).  Make sure the content is credible and relevant if part of a conversation.

If you are interested in expert and caring management of your LinkedIn and other social media pages, contact us at 877.380.6698 or info@now-marketing-group.com.  We can help you and your business be found, be social, and be useful!

~Tara Stuttler, Now Marketing Group Account Manager

- © 2012 NOW Marketing Group, Inc.

We have found that users like to have fun on Facebook.  (Who doesn’t, right? )  We’ve had much success with contests such as TSC’s “Where in Wapakoneta is Nathan?” contest or Stolly Insurance Group’s “Over-The-Top Sandwich” contest among many others.  These two are great examples of engaging the fans and involving the community in a fun way!  TSC’s “Where’s Nathan” contest involves TSC posting a picture of their star employee (now a local celebrity) at a different location in Wapakoneta each week for their fans to guess his whereabouts.  Stolly’s “Over-The-Top Sandwich” contest allows fans to pick their favorite sandwich within Allen, Auglaize, Mercer, and Logan counties in an effort to award one restaurant with the bragging rights of having the best sandwich in the area.

Contests do not have to be complicated, and are a great way to gain more fans.  They help grow a page’s following, because each time a fan participates or posts, their friends will see this in the Facebook news feed/side bar.  Planning a contest involves complying with Facebook rules.  These are very important to consider when creating a contest for any page.

If your page could use more excitement and engagement, call NOW Marketing Group!  We’re here to help your social media pages grow and interact with your audience so you can do what you do best—run your business!  Want to see more of our clients’ pages?  Click here!

- © 2012 NOW Marketing Group, Inc.

I’m a collector. One of my latest joys was unpacking my lifelong collection of seashells to display in a second bathroom we just added to our house (finally!!). When Beanie Babies were hot, I bought.  But I’m not a hoarder… well, at least not in tangibles.

Okay. I confess. I’m not just a collector. I’m an electronic hoarder. I’m hooked on Pinterest. My collection of ideas for that new bathroom – along with a number of other collections – are all pinned to electronic Pinboards so I can pull them up on my laptop anytime I please and enjoy my collections… er, hoarding. And, even better, I can check out what others are collecting… er, hoarding on their Pinboards and see if I want to add any of their collection to my collection…

You get the picture.

You *Like it?

Repin it!

I’m one of more than 10 million registered users of Pinterest, which hit ten million monthly unique visitors faster than any other website. Pinterest users create individual sites where they showcase “boards” that hold photos “pinned” from other parts of the Web. Other Pinterest users can “Like” other’s pins and/or “repin” those pins onto their own Pinboards. According to recent findings published last month, more than 80% of all pins are repins.

Jay Ehret, marketing specialist and author of a guide to using Pinterest offers this perspective, “about 70 percent of Pinterest users are female. Women just tend to use social media more than men. Even as Facebook has matured, 55 percent of Facebook users are female.”

Okay. I’m a woman… but why am I HOOKED ON PINTEREST? According to Ehret,  “…the reason is clear: It’s brilliant in its simplicity. Users just collect things they like. Simple. Their Pinboards are passively shared with their Pinterest friends, and they can peek in on anyone else’s Pinboards. Another big reason is that Pinterest is visual. People are attracted to pictures more than they are words.”  That’s true. It’s a fact: the majority of us are visual communicators and learners, and collecting has been a passion for people for thousands of years.

People love to collect. Collections connect us to our past and memories and satisfy personal aesthetics. Our collections provide us with a “happy place” within our comfort zone – away from the world out there – that reflect who we are and our own distinct personality. Many people enjoy unique and even strangely weird collections that showcase their uniqueness and individuality (gum wrappers? Not weird. Google “weird collections” and you’ll see WEIRD). Another reason we collect is to satisfy a need to be “complete” – how many of us rejoice when we find the final “thing” that makes our collection complete… Yes! It is FINISHED!

Add to all of this the interestingly publicized phenomena of hoarding. While viewers giggle as the media shares stories of excessive hoarders and the consequences of their lifestyle, electronic hoarding, (yes… Pinterest), has also become the focus of popular social media buzz for its rapid rise in popularity – in electronic collecting, er… hoarding.

What do we love on Pinterest?

Pinterest loves cute! The Humane Society of New York capitalizes on this opportunity with a Pinboard full of portraits of adoptable animals  in the New York area.

Pinterest loves recipes! Food is the fastest-growing and most viral category on Pinterest, as recipes and quick video recipes are shared from YouTube.

Pinterest loves to be a resource! Now Marketing Group collects social media infographics to share and enable others to learn more, and The Wall Street Journal created an informational Pinboard  to help new Pinners understand the social network.

Pinterest loves to be a little off-beat! Yogurt brand Chobani includes plenty of the expected Pinboards featuring recipes, but also brings a little flavor and personality with “We Would Like to Eat With You,” a board focusing on beautiful spoons and bowls. Get it?

Pinterest loves to inspire! GE leverages that popularity in its “That’s Genius” board  focusing on the sayings of GE founder Thomas Edison. Of course, not all brands have a well-known genius as part of their legacy, but we can all start somewhere…

And it’s NOT all fluff, either. Out of the people recently surveyed who had an account on the site, an astonishing 21% of them have actually purchased items that they found on someone’s Pinboard.

According to Mashable:

The Top 10 Categories on Pinterest

1. Home (17.2%)
2. Arts and Crafts (12.4%)
3. Style/Fashion (11.7%)
4. Food (10.5%)
5. Inspiration/Education (9.0%)
6. Holidays/Seasonal (3.9%)
7. Humor (2.1%)
8. Products (2.1%)
9. Travel (1.9%)
10. Kids (1.8%)

The 10 Most Popular Board Names on Pinterest

1. For the Home (3.15%)
2. My Style (1.97%)
3. Products I Love (1.86%)
4. Books Worth Reading (1.68%)
5. Food (1.23%)
6. Favorite Places & Spaces (1.00%)
7. Recipes (0.75%)
8. Craft Ideas (0.74%)
9. Christmas (0.72%)
10. Crafts (0.65%)

http://mashable.com/2012/03/12/pinterest-most-popular-categories-boards/

Pinterest is a place where we can store, showcase, and share images that have meaning for us and are important to us. It’s a place where we can get new ideas while being part of a group that shares things we enjoy.

Is Pinterest a tool your organization can use?

Does your business have, or can you create, interesting and sharable content on your website? Do you have products to sell that can be presented visually? Are you willing to devote the time that it takes to market on Pinterest? Businesses may be tempted to try social media marketing because it’s “free.” But the primary investment in social media marketing is time, not money. To be done right and accomplish purposeful goals of growing your online presence, social media must be a scheduled business activity, just like opening the doors or doing payroll.

Our focus at Now Marketing Group is to ensure that your business will be found, be social and be useful online. Our goal and guarantee to you is that your message WILL be heard. Check out our website at www.Now-Marketing-Group.com and stop by and see us on Pinterest! Check out our boards, *Like some pins, and we’ll be happy to check out your boards too!

Happy pinning everyone!

- © 2012 NOW Marketing Group, Inc.

You do not have to accept every connection request you receive and there are two ways to handle requests from those you do not know.  1.) Click “Ignore” to simply ignore their request or save it for later.  2.)  Check the person’s profile and if it looks interesting send them a message politely asking how they know you or why they would like to connect, then make a decision based upon their response.

Remember, if you do connect with a person that you decide you would rather not be connected to later down the road, you can always “unconnect” on LinkedIn just as would “unfriend” on Facebook.  This can be done through the Remove Connections feature, and the person you unconnect with will not be notified/alerted of it.  However, they may notice you are no longer a 1^st-degree connection if they look through their contact list.

Don’t have time to keep up with your LinkedIn page, but are interested in providing your professional connections with regular updates?  NOW Marketing Group can help you build up your profile and post regular updates on your LinkedIn group page, and all of your social media venues, so you can do what you do best—run your business.   Call us today at 877-380-6698, email us at info@now-marketing-group.com, or find us on the web at NOWMarketingGroupInc.com.

Your competitive edge starts NOW.

We’re here to show your customers why your business is what they’re looking for!

- © 2012 NOW Marketing Group, Inc.

When people ask us what we do at Now Marketing Group, we always get this… “So you play around on Facebook all day?” If it was only that easy…

Our accounts are our “babies” here at Now Marketing. That means, as an Account Manager, that I have 12 babies to care for everyday, and no… I am not Amish. Just like any baby requires 24/7 attention… so do our “babies.”  When you are a parent, you will experience early mornings and late nights, but the task is all done out of love and a purpose. Managing social media isn’t just a 9-5 job; it’s a life lived with and for our clients.

According to Mashable, 1 out of every 4 minutes spent online is on social networks. When we look specifically at time spent on social media sites, 3 out of every 4 minutes are spent on Facebook. Mediabistro.com reported that, in January alone, the average Facebook user spent 409 minutes on Facebook… that’s a whole lot of time for your business to be seen. That’s where we come in. We offer ‘round-the-clock monitoring of your social media venues, because people are talking about you at all hours.

Here is my rebuttal to, “So, you play on Facebook all day?” (I will try to say this in one breath)

As an Account Manager, we do research and more research for the companies we work with. We meet with our clients monthly, sometimes more often, to make sure we are on the same page and going in the right direction. We send out monthly insights so our clients can see the progress of their social media accounts. We run contests for our clients to grow their social media pages and promote them! We schedule video shoots with our clients to keep their videos fresh for their online community. We live life with our clients and attend their conferences and community events. We have a weekly account manager meeting for creative thinking, vision assessment, and focus! We are our client’s voice online and that’s a big deal of trust for us. We LOVE what we do and share our passion by promoting our “babies” everywhere we go! It’s A LOT of fun – but work too!

We know that your business does not have the time to “live”, market, and engage your target audience through social media…you’re busy doing what you do best, which is running your business. That’s what we are here for… and we’re pretty good at it!

Feel free to contact us at info@now-marketing-group.com or at 877-380-6698 with any questions that you may have. We’re here to help your business be found, be social, and be useful!

Ben Swartz (@swartzyben)

Account Manager

Now Marketing Group

Maybe you’re already on Google+, but want to make better use of its features?

If you want to be more in the know about Circles, Hangouts, and the other features – including enhanced SEO – that make Google + the new social media place to be, join us Wednesday, March 28^th, from 9:00-10:00am for our Google+ webinar. Jessika Phillips, founder and president of Now Marketing Group, will facilitate an interesting and informative time where you can see how Google + is used and why it’s grown to well over 100 million users since being launched on an invitation-only basis in June 2011 and opened to the public three months later.

Want to find out what the “Plus” in Google Plus is all about? Plan to join us next Wednesday morning!

CLICK HERE to let us know you want to be there. We look forward to seeing you then!

Want to know how your business can be found… be social… be useful?

Your competitive edge starts NOW.   We’re here to help YOU get your customers talking!

- © 2012 NOW Marketing Group, Inc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZvfq7jXJN0

If you’re looking for video production for your business, contact us!

877.380.6698

info@NOWMarketingGroupInc.com

By: Tara Stuttler

I became an account manager with NOW Marketing Group in November 2011.  Prior to this, I worked for over nine years as a customer care representative, maintained a family website of my own, socialized online through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn, and attended college online.   I knew I was going to love this job before I even started; it was something I dreamed of doing but doubted I would be able to find in this area until I came across NOW.  E-Business and internet marketing are very interesting to me, and I feel fortunate to be given the opportunity to work where my interests truly lie and to work for a company in which I am proud to be a part of.  I’ve learned so much in my first couple months at NOW Marketing Group and I’d like to share with you three important things I’ve learned so far.

Lesson #1:  The Importance of Social Media for Business

Why should businesses use social media if they already have a website?  For the same reason you staff your place of business—interaction!  If a business is not social, they are missing out.  Businesses need to do all they can to be found (boost SEO), connect and interact with current and potential customers, and maintain their online presence through relationship marketing.

Lesson #2:  Page Maintenance and Relating to the Audience

Just simply being online or on Facebook isn’t good enough.  You need to build up each page, post frequently, and engage the audience.  To do this, time management and becoming familiar with the business’s culture and goals are key.  When interacting online it is important to focus on the business’s goals and reputation.  Information shared should educate, engage, entertain, and set you apart as the expert.

Lesson #3:  The Many Facets of Internet Marketing

Web 2.0 and SEO are two terms that are popularly affiliated with internet marketing.  Web 2.0 is the second generation of the web focused on enabling people to collaborate and share information online through social media networks, wikis, and communication tools.  Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital and desired by any business so they can be found easily and preferably above their competitors.  Engaging the customer, promoting the social media fan growth, and managing the business’s online reputation are important in building ongoing positive relationships.

Of the many lessons I’ve learned so far I would say those are my top three.  As an account manager with NOW Marketing Group, I have the privilege of working with some great local businesses to help build and manage their client relationships.  It is so rewarding to watch their online presence blossom and their following grow.  I love what I do and I look forward to continue helping businesses be found, be social, and be useful online through relationship marketing!

Are you social? 

          Do potential customers know you? 

                    Let us show you what social media marketing can do for your business!   

Your competitive edge starts NOW.

We’re here to show your customers why your business is what they’re looking for!

- © 2012 NOW Marketing Group, Inc.

Almost anyone can share information. Many can do so with effective grammar, spelling and ideas that make good sense.

Great content is just the beginning. The key is drawing people in, and encouraging active and engaging conversation.

It’s all about relationships.

Social media is not meant to be a straight line of push information. Social media is meant to run in a circle like a snowball rolling downhill, actively growing through interesting information and active participation from your community of followers.

Reach out – get a response. Interact. Communicate. Engage.

Social media is not supposed to be a lecture series. It’s supposed to be an active event where everyone participates because they WANT TO!

How is this done? How do you become… engaged?

Behave like a friend.
Your goal, when interacting with your community, is to be a friend. Look at your followers as friends – real people who are in your life and network for a reason – and less like objectives. Friends are always available to help, they’re easy to talk to and, quite frankly… you want to hang out with them.

Talk like a friend.
Jessika Phillips, founder of Now Marketing Group, relates social media interaction to being at a party.

Picture yourself at an interesting party, with a roomful of interesting people that are enjoying the interesting atmosphere and each other. An interesting place to be part of! What a great place to relax, converse, and get to know one another better and grow together because of each other. Don’t be a wallflower.

Engage with your current audience and write for your target audience. Engage your followers and potential followers. Before you post on social media, consider…

If I read this, would I give it a second look? Would I look it over, or look over it and move on?

Consider social media as a party, and you don’t want to be the guy in the corner talking about yourself – to yourself. Boring… or interesting? Look for conversation and interaction to make an impact with your audience at the party! Go to your party and ‘fit in’ with conversation that creates interaction because it’s not only thought-provoking… it’s engaging!

Be a friend.
Friends are more likely to support friends because they trust and want to show their support for their friends.

Show that you are a real person, with real experiences. Spend as much quality time as you can with your community, so it can grow and gain momentum. Interact through following your follower’s pages and be active on them as well.

Engage. Entertain. Interact. Educate. As the Expert.

Continually come up with new ways to engage your audience. A community will only interact with you if they have a reason to do so. This means creating interesting and active content. Your followers want to DO things on your pages, so give them things to do to build your relationship. Give them something useful – something they didn’t know – something  they can grow from and become better from. Ask for opinions to encourage interaction and community:

Did you know…? Consider this… Ever felt like this? How’s your day going?
Hope you enjoyed a — weekend! What did you do? How did you do it? How did you enjoy it?

Followers like to be acknowledged, so the next time you’re on Facebook, Twitter or your blog – address them personally. Show them you’re interested in THEIR opinions. Give THEM a reason to engage and to comment. Make it interesting – make it fun – make it a productive use of their time!

Social media was meant for US – not just ME.

Capture your audience, and ENGAGE THEM.

What’s your next step in this… ENGAGEMENT?

We can show you HOW your business can Be found… Be social… Be useful!

Your competitive edge starts NOW.   We’re here to help you get your customers talking…

- © 2012 NOW Marketing Group, Inc.