The Social Media Marketer

Social Media Marketing: 5 Simple Ways To Tell If You're Doing It Right

Karen Fabiane — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:29:00 GMT

Often living online as much as anywhere else, the social media population continues to grow and seek new ways to interact and communicate. In our consumer society, messages about products and services are nearly as frequent as those about friends and social events.

You want to establish a consistently loyal consumer base, which also informs others about the goods you sell.

5 Ways to Determine the Success of Your Social Media Marketing

Analyze consumer opinions: Perhaps the single most identifiable characteristic of social media marketing is its interactive quality. People use Facebook, Twitter and similar alternatives to speak to each other as if they were in the same room. Their opinions are not confined to social events or friend-related news; consumers exchange impressions about products they've actually used or seen advertised online.

Since they are vocal about their ideas, its good policy to discover what consumers (current or potential) think of your stuff (products, services). Do they like the color of a garment, camera, or awning? Would they prefer another? Is the artisan gelato you offer a little too salty? Or maybe, its perfect.  Find out if you're doing it right by asking consumers if your product meets their requirements, and if not, what's wrong. Checklists, Yes/nos, multiple choice or discussion boxes accompanying online marketing generate opinions, as can monitoring online social media discussions pertinent to what you sell.

This free source of customer feedback helps improve your offerings by acquiring opinions directly from the source. Estee-Lauder, Frito-Lay and Walmart all use these methods; so should you.

Sales and revenues: Properly applied social media marketing generates sales, from which your organization derives revenues and profits. Sales may not be immediately apparent; although some sales activity may result at the outset, conversations about your stuff among social media users can produce leads, those early indicators of interest and purchase among consumers.

It is the relationship your social media marketing can perpetuate with consumers that directs their subsequent purchase behavior and product loyalty. One way to determine if you're doing it right is to check sales figures, maybe not the day after you launch a campaign but at a designated time. Sales indicate the appeal of your social media marketing messages and the popularity of your goods.

Website traffic: A primary objective of social media marketing is persuading consumers to visit your Web site. Engaging appropriate analytic tools will help determine the level of traffic and to what extent it has been generated from social media site referrals. By calculating the change over time, you can determine if social media marketing has sent more traffic your way and, equally as important, if the remarks social media users make about you are positive.

Of course, good user-content indicates you're doing it right. But the occasional negative remarks can be useful, as a departure point for improving your products and the way you market them.

Monitor competitors: You need to know what your competitors are doing. And be sure they'll be using the same analytical systems you use to scrutinize your efforts and progress relative to their own.  These are the simultaneous benefits and drawbacks of social media marketing; everyone has access to everybody else's business. The advantage is you can learn what customers find appealing AND displeasing about competitors' goods, an inexpensive way to improve what you're offering.

Comparing good/bad customer remarks for your goods and competitor’s indicates if your social media marketing is providing the results you seek or needs to be modified to reflect realities in the marketplace.

Search engine optimization (SEO): Evaluate access and response to your homepage. You'll want people to find your page easily and use social media to report affirmatively about what they found. Tools like Google Analytics assess the impact of your homepage, determining if your optimization decisions truly reflect what's best for the site's visitors, the consumers of your content. Is your site easy to navigate? Do meta-tags accurately describe content? Answering questions like these will establish if your social media marketing is successful, and what needs to be improved.

Social media marketing has replaced print and other media to an exceptional degree; a wide variety of content exists, but not all successfully reaches consumers. The methods suggested above should help determine if your content is appealing and believable, and to who.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Social + Local = The New Google+ Local

Karen Neal — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:23:00 GMT

What was once known as Google Places has recently evolved into a key part of the Google Plus offering. Google Places provided a directory type of service for businesses to list and allow people to find more detailed information. With the migration into Google Plus this service is now called Google+ Local and can be an even more rewarding experience for small and medium businesses that need to improve their online presence.

Google+ continues to grow and enhance its offerings for both the online users as well as the businesses that are courting their target audiences. By combining the power of Google’s search engine capabilities with localized directory capabilities, Google+ local can be a worthwhile investment.

Putting Google's Local Search Domination To Work For You
While Google+ has not yet gained the market share of visitors that Facebook or Twitter has, the social media powerhouse that is Google should not be taken lightly. Small and medium businesses can become an early adopter to this new feature and get in on the ground floor of some real opportunities.

Google continues to dominate the search market share, where just under 70% of search engine queries occurred through Google as of the last comScore report. Mobile searches reflect an even greater Google dominance with around 95% percent share.

Virtually all consumers do some type of search to find a local business before venturing out the door or making the first phone call. Imagine the ability to improve the likelihood of your business being at the top of a Google search through the utilization of Google+ Local. There are definitely perks from a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint.

Also the Google+ Local page has been enhanced to be quite appealing and easy to manage for local businesses. The expanded content distribution, hangout capabilities for improved audience interactions, and easy audience segmentation give businesses some additional advantages over the other social media sites.

Taking the first step into Google+ is as easy as setting up an account. From there, your business can take full advantage of Google+ Local and realize some positive rewards by combining social media with local directory and search capabilities.

The Social Olympics: It’s A Small World After All

Beth Hrusch — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:17:00 GMT

Are you watching the Olympics? If not, that’s ok. You can always catch up on social media later, and why not? Everybody else is. The 2012 Olympic games in London are predicted to be the largest social media event to date, so you can bet that your buddies knew who won the gold medal in synchronized diving before the athletes even had a chance to dry off.

It occurred to me that the Olympics were always a way to bring the world together, so they are a natural for social media—also purported to bring the world together, and in real time. It’s a good thing.

If you’re wondering how to access all the action, here’s a short list of sites to check out:

http://www.olympic.org/ : The official site of the XXX Olympic Games

http://hub.olympic.org/ : The IOCs portal to interact with your favorite athletes

London Olympics Doodle Contest : Got Faceboook? Log in to submit a doodle and win a prize

http://www.nbcolympics.com/liveextra/help/index.html : NBC’s streaming video of live action

https://www.facebook.com/nbcolympics : NBC’s Olympic Facebook page

https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics : Ditto for Twitter

As you can see, it’s everywhere and you can’t really avoid it—even if you wanted to.

The Olympic games are not the first major event to take full advantage of social media. The royal wedding used it, of course (do I smell a British conspiracy here?). Both have in common a global audience—not a niche market, not just your family and friends. The power of social media is drawing together people from a wide variety of cultures and interests, using technology to access the human drama, to tell stories, to share in the moment.

It’s not without its potential issues. The IOC has even developed guidelines. Athletes are encouraged to keep the “Olympic spirit” in mind when using social media, and no video or images of the competitions are allowed. Given the minefield nature of real time communication, it’s not surprising that one athlete has already gotten herself into trouble. Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou was kicked off the team for a tweet that was deemed racist.

Dr. William Ward, Professor of Social Media at Syracure University, states “A lot of these athletes are younger people who may not be savvy on branding and marketing; they're there for the first time and away from their home and family," he said. "That could be a problem if they use social media in a way that is not appropriate.”

But let’s keep it positive. The 2012 Olympic Games offer an opportunity for social media to shine. Share the moments, connect with the athletes, cheer them on. You can do it now like never before. Create content that inspires. It’s social media at its best, and it’s what the darn thing was invented for in the first place.

Go Team USA!

YouTube For Small Business: 3 Ways To Make It Work For You

Susan Davis — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:17:00 GMT

The extensive reach and undeniable power of YouTube videos has been demonstrated by everyone from major artists launching careers, like Lady Gaga, to new businesses like the Dollar Shave Club. Below are some YouTube pointers that small businesses would do well to understand and apply to their marketing strategies.

1. Focus on Information. Rather than designing a sales strategy, think about ways to improve your brand image. One effective way to draw attention to your business, without being obvious, is to increase the public's knowledge and understanding of what your company offers.

Internet users become fatigued with the constant bombardment of ads. Between all the pop-up and banner ads, it is easy for people to become frustrated. Part of the reason that entertaining and educational videos are so effective, is that they are usually not obvious selling attempts. When crafted creatively, videos can be very effective at conveying a subtle marketing message.

The business and sales culture is ad-dependent. Sales materials are placed everywhere, in addition to the constant interruption of radio and television commercials. Videos are no exception, and when they are designed like a television commercial, they can be just as annoying to the viewing audience.

Some savvy advertisers have realized this, instead focusing on education and entertainment with their visual ads. This has proven to be very effective, as demonstrated by the CLIO and Webby Awards.

Design your videos as a worthwhile effort that actually interests potential customers. Providing informative and engaging content will not be lost on the public, and could prove to be part of the most effective online marketing campaign your business has adopted.

Start by establishing your branding message. Inform the public of what you are offering, and why it is different from other products and services. Include pieces of information that entertain and educate. For example, a new product launch might include an enthusiastic video demonstration that displays how a product or service will work.

When changes occur within your business, create videos announcing them. In addition to posting the videos on YouTube, links to them can be sent to new and existing clients as part of an email marketing campaign.

2. Establish Uniqueness. The most creative YouTube videos are usually the most interesting. In fact, these are the ones that go viral, sometimes making the television airwaves, creating a sensation. Take a look at popular videos that describe similar products and services, and study ways to develop your own unique message.

Your YouTube videos should focus on making your business interesting. The goal is to make your products and services as intriguing to prospects, as they are to you. This is relatively easy to accomplish, by creating videos with the most visual appeal and excellent sound quality.

Spend some time thinking about creative presentations that will engage the viewer. Use varied information, trying out different approaches. You might create a series of videos, each leaving a cliffhanger, which invites the viewer to return. The more creative your videos are, the more interesting they will be to the audience. The goal is to use information to make your videos different and stand out from the others.

3. Inform and Educate. Just as is the case with articles and blogs, the higher the quality of content, the more it is recognized by the public and acknowledged in the search engines as relevant. This is why one of the great ways to use YouTube is with How-To videos.

Many people search on the web to specifically find out how to do things. Because of this, the how-to video is one of the most popular on the YouTube network. Additionally, videos are far more effective at instruction than articles, because of the instant impact of their visual aspects.

How-To videos can gain a lot more exposure for any small business. It may seem as though showing people how to do something on their own will make it less likely that they will purchase something. However, the opposite is true.

The how-to video itself puts your company before people, providing them with value that gets them to think and talk about your business. Also, great how-to videos motivate people to share them. A viral video can get a company more exposure than just about any other advertising medium.

YouTube should be an integral part of any online marketing strategy. The art of visual storytelling is a very effective tool for attracting interest. Additionally, the exposure gained builds a robust social media profile, leading to a strong customer base.

4 Essential Twitter Tips For Business

Tracey Sandilands — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:15:00 GMT

The arrival of the Twittersphere and Twitterverse was perfectly on time for businesses. It broke down the barriers of traditional advertising and allowed companies to speak directly to their customers, using informal language. Suddenly, all you have to do is send a short message and it’s out there, reaching everyone who might be interested!

It’s not quite that simple, however. In fact, Twitter is the ultimate in “pull” advertising, in spite of the fact that at first glance it looks like a “push” mechanism. To get the most out of Twitter for business purposes, you need to follow a few golden rules.

Planning Your Strategy

Twitter success doesn’t happen by itself. Your Twitter strategy needs to be watertight, intensive, focused, otherwise you’re simply taking shots in the dark. With 100 million users out there, how do you reach the ones you want? How do you reach anyone on Twitter, for that matter? By giving them content they want to receive, that’s how. That’s where the “pull” aspect comes in – if they follow you, it’s likely they are interested in reading your content.

The first step is to identify your business goals. Is your main purpose to:

Raise awareness of your products
Build the reputation of your company
Drive traffic to your website
Develop expert status in your field
Generate sales leads

Once you know what you want to achieve, create a strategy and a plan of action for regular tweets, on the right days, offering the right sort of content, and stick to it.

Targeting Your Audience

Next, identify your target market. You probably already know who they are in the real world, but on Twitter they may have a different face. For example, if you market a product that targets older, conservative consumers, they may not be on Twitter. To get the most out of the free advertising opportunity provided by the tweet platform, you would need to target their children instead, which would require a completely different angle and approach.

Optimizing Your Profile

Ok, so you’ve heard the words “search engine optimization” or SEO a gazillion times, and you know it means using the right keywords in your online content. But, in the Twitterverse, it’s more than that. Optimize your Twitter account by:

Choosing a smart Twitter user name that reflects your business. Here’s a revelation: this might not be your company or product name! Think carefully about what would resonate best with your audience. For example, ACME Products sells coffee grinders. How likely are people to search for and follow ACMEProd, compared with ilovecoffee? You get the point. This is often overlooked by marketing people so intent on getting their name out there that they forget Twitter is not actually an advertising channel.
Building your profile. It’s not just about the user name – Twitter gives you the option of customizing your profile page with images, web links, and other content, and – here’s the kicker – it doesn’t have to be static! You can change it regularly – daily, if you like. Use keywords here too, preferably industry-specific ones. As with everything else on the Internet, quality content published frequently brings you up in the search engine results pages, and attracts more followers.
Get listed. Add your Twitter link to your email signature, submit it to blogs, directories and other websites. Wherever your company is listed, it should be accompanied by your Twitter handle. Savvy Twitter users know that clicking to follow your profile is a lot faster than visiting your company website and signing up for a newsletter subscription. So if you want to reach the Twitterverse, make it easy for them to find – and follow – you.

Measure Results

Unlike most other forms of marketing, Twitter isn’t only about the numbers. You can’t assume that because you have 20,000 followers, you’re actually reaching them all. This is the number one reason why your tweets need to contain links, apart from the fact that Twitter guru Dan Zarella believes tweets with links get retweeted more than those without.

Use website analytics to identify the traffic driven to your site by Twitter, compared with other social media platforms. Check the days on which the traffic is up, and take a look at what you tweeted that day. This will help you understand what works and what doesn’t. Check the retweets you get, and look at the profiles of those users. These tips will help you to get the most out of using Twitter to promote your business.

7 Ways To Take Control Of Your Social Media Addiction

Flora Richards-Gustafson — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:59:00 GMT

Do you spend a lot of time thinking about your social media networks or connections? Do you use social media as a platform to get away from or forget about problems in your life? Do you become irritable if you can’t check the notifications from your various social networking accounts? Have you tried to cut back on the time that you spend on social media platforms without success?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have a social media addiction, according to the research results from the University of Bergen in Norway. No longer just an affliction that affects teens and young adults, business owners find themselves so addicted to their social networks that it causes anxiety or problems in their relationships, personal and professional.

A May 2010 article published in Psychology Today acknowledges the reality of a social media addiction, or at least its extreme overuse. Social media and the latest mobile technologies have become an integral part of running a business, and has influenced how prospects, customers and others communicate, as well as the expectations regarding the frequency of such communications.

These trends have helped create a culture that makes constant interruptions (e.g., flashing notifications and buzzing mobile phones) acceptable. Afraid of missing the next interesting status update or personally directed comment, a business owner can benefit from integrating social media tools and practicing the following tips:

Never forget that you’re using social media as a promotional, not social, tool for your business. Like direct mail, trade shows and newspaper ads, treat social media like the other promotional tools in your marketing strategy.
Remember your marketing goals. What role does social media play in your marketing goals in regards to promoting your company and forming relationships? If you haven’t created a social media strategy, SocialMediaToday.com recommends mapping one out to help you keep your social sanity. Just as you set cost investment limits for your marketing campaigns, set time investment limits for your social media platforms.
Schedule social media into your day. You schedule appointments and meetings, and social media should be no different. Write your social media schedule on your calendar or date book and stick to the plan.
Use social media tools to help you gain control. There are a handful of websites and applications available that can help you manage your social networking accounts. Some allow you to view the notifications from the different platforms that you use in one single location. Others allow you to pre-write and schedule your status updates so you don’t have to worry about taking time out of your day to do so. Scheduled posts are particularly helpful if you want to update your company’s status several times a day. Then use your allotted social media times to check your updates and respond to your followers.
Limit the number of social media platforms that you use. Updating, tweeting, clipping, pinning, digging and refreshing can eat up hours of your day. Avoid over-extending yourself by cutting back on the number of social media platforms that you use based on the types of conversations that you prefer to have with your target audience. For example, if you prefer short updates, use a platform that limits your word-count.
Keep it strictly business. The account settings on various social media platforms allow you to create several accounts with a single username and password, making it easier than ever to participate in personal and professional conversations online at the same time. If your social media practices are interrupting your professional or personal life, create a separate username and password for each type of account. This trick will help prevent the co-mingling of your personal interactions while you’re at work and vice versa.
Turn it off. While this may be easier said than done, turning off the notifications on your cell phone and computer can help you learn to re-focus your attention. By turning of your notification alerts, buzzing, flashing lights or other distractions won’t take your attention away from completing your business tasks or spending time with your family. As you wean yourself away from constantly checking your updates, remember that the latest social media updates will still be there when you’re able to get to them.

As with all things in life, moderation is key. When you learn to use social media in moderation, you will gain control over how you spend your time so you can focus on the elements that truly matter in your business and personal life.

Are You Making The Most Of Your Social Media Efforts?

Flora Richards-Gustafson — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:23:00 GMT

Up to 80 percent of U.S. businesses have a social media presence, according to a survey conducted by InSites Consulting. While the use of the various platforms varies, there is one consistency—the lack of consumer engagement.

There is a big difference between having a social media account for your business and using it. Simply updating your status on a social media account isn’t enough because most posts only have a shelf life of 18 hours or less, especially when there is no user engagement.

By getting more from your social media efforts, you showcase your expertise, increase conversion rates, drive more traffic to your website, experience less customer turnover and reach new audiences.

How to Make the Most of Your Social Media Efforts

Listen. Some businesses like to post several social media updates throughout the day, which can be good if the information is perceived as valuable. Make the most of your posts by taking the time to listen to your target audience. Read their posts and join in on their discussions to learn about what they find important. Then use this information to create value-added content that your audience will appreciate instead of ignore.
Specialize. While breaking news and the hottest celebrities may be the hot topic, it’s better to have focused social media content than posts about anything and everything. Integrate the latest trending topics when they are relevant to your industry or business, or to start a discussion among your followers and set yourself up as an expert.
Focus on quality. When it comes to social media, quality always beats quantity. It’s better to have fewer high-quality social media updates per day than a dozen that are spam-like. Likewise, it’s better to have 200 close followers who track and interact with your social media feeds than have 2,000 uninterested followers. According to Susan Gunelius in an article for Entrepreneur, when you compound quality content with quality followers, the followers will share your posts, which can build your online audience.
Build an influence. Connect with industry influencers who have quality audiences, and build a social media relationship with them. If these influencers find you interesting, relevant and trustworthy, they’ll share your information with new audiences.

Share. The law of tit-for-tat is big in the world of social media. Spend a portion of your social media efforts on sharing content that influential, trustworthy sources have published. Don’t be afraid to positively acknowledge your competitors because doing so will get your name in front of their followers. When you mention an individual or business in a post, provide a link to the respective social media profile. Doing so will get the attention of the other’s followers. Plus, the other individual will hopefully return the favor by mentioning you in a thank-you post.
Be accessible. Social media efforts are wasted if you publish content and disappear because you become forgettable. Even though you can’t see or talk to your audience in person, you need to build social media relationships as you would with a customer in your office or physical storefront—social media success relies on this.
Encourage sharing. Social media extends beyond each platform’s respective site. Make your company’s website work for you by encouraging its visitors to share the content they enjoy with their own followers by simply clicking on an embedded button.Reach for more markets. If you offer customer coupons, consider extending the coupon offers beyond your local newspaper or community circular. By posting a copy of your coupons on your social media page, you can reach individuals who don’t receive those publications in the mail and gain new customers.
Establish yourself in different communities. Several social media platforms have groups or forums dedicated around hobbies, vocations, industries, milestones and different interests. Branch out from your business profile, become a helpful group member and join in on the conversations. Doing so will establish you as an industry expert, help you gain new followers and drive more traffic to your business.
Be easy to contact. Forgetting to include a business' contact information on a social media profile is a simple mistake. Many companies only list a website, but an email address and/or a phone number can help you tend to customers who seek a personal or immediate means of communication. Your social media efforts are ineffective if others can’t get in touch with you.

While social media is a cost-effective marketing endeavor, if you're not making the most of it, you're wasting your resources. Engage your followers and post valuable content to keep them coming back for more.

Communication: The Key To Social Media Marketing Success

Tracey Sandilands — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:55:00 GMT

Social media doesn’t like advertising. We’ll say it again: if you want to advertise your product or service, do it somewhere else. Social media is about conversation, about communicating with your followers, peers and colleagues, and blatant advertising just doesn’t cut it!

Businesses that don’t realize this quickly find themselves unFollowed, unFriended and unLiked. And with 900 million people on Facebook and 100 million on Twitter, those aren’t markets you want to unAnything.

Interacting with your Followers

You post threads and answer other users’ discussions with your personal social media profiles, don’t you? Why then wouldn’t you do the same with your business profiles? And yet, sadly, it happens. Stats for 2012 from DigitalBuzz show that 95 percent of Facebook Wall posts are not answered by brands. Could it be because it’s considered a “social” space that this occurs? Just how “social” would you be if you ignored 95 percent of all customer feedback from other sources - complaints or otherwise? The whole point of the platform is to interact with your clients on a more personal level than bulk email, newsletters and product promotions. So answer their questions occasionally and comment on their posts on your wall, using their names if possible to make a real connection.

Get some help

The speed and pace of social media means your profile pages need frequent attention. If you have more than one, it becomes difficult to keep up with posting regular, quality communications as well as responding to posts. It’s critically important, however, if your plan is to build your following and optimize your use of the medium.

So, get yourself some help, by

Hiring an assistant
Bringing in a summer intern fresh out of college who knows a thing or two about social media
Using a freelancer who specializes in content marketing.

Create a basic policy and guidelines for your social media person to follow – don’t just let them loose with your company image – and all you will need to do is keep an eye on the progress.

Reciprocate

Ever been followed by someone famous? Try it – follow Barack Obama’s Twitter profile and within days, he’ll follow you back! Well, not him personally, of course, but his social media person will. That’s because the White House understands the reciprocal nature of social media. Whoever follows your business Twitter account, follow them back. It’s the least you can do, and it has the added benefit of enabling you to find out early if they tweet something less than complimentary about your company or product. Besides, communication is a two-way process, so if only one channel is open, it isn’t true communication.

Plan your posts

As with any other promotional strategy, your social media marketing should follow a planned program of activities. When you create the plan, include the number of posts you intend to make each day, week or month, and allocate a percentage of those to promotion. Yes, we know we said no advertising, but if the bulk of your content is quality information, news items and other interesting topics, you can get away with the odd promotional tweet without your followers holding it against you.

Watch the numbers

We’re all familiar with the 80/20 rule, right? Well, here’s the 60/20/20 rule: aim to make 60 percent of your social media content fun, interesting and newsworthy. Add 20 percent that’s useful, including advice and information of value, links to blog posts, white papers and eBooks. Make the final 20 percent promotional, taking care to keep your tone chatty and personal. So, no “We are pleased to announce X new product.” Wording more like “Check out what we’ve got for you” should do it.

Make adjustments

So, if you’re finding your social media isn’t working that well, you might need to adjust your strategy to become a better communicator. Calculate the number of posts you can logically make, compared with the number you would ideally like to make, and determine whether you need help or not. Set up some basic company rules for social media, and create a list somewhere – on a white board, on your iPad or mobile – where you note ideas for posts as they occur to you.

Set aside some time each day or week for communicating on social media, responding to others and building your followings. The beauty of social media is its immediacy, which means you’re likely to see the results of your efforts to become a communicator in a very short time.

Social Media Failure Is Not An Option: 5 Tips For Success

Flora Richards-Gustafson — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:23:00 GMT

Social media is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways for startups and businesses on a budget to market its products or services. According to a 2011 article in Inc. magazine, social media can help increase traffic to a website by up to 72 percent and improve search rankings by up to 62 percent.

However, because your reach extends to so many prospects and customers, you can’t afford to fail. Whether you have established social networking accounts for your business or have just created new ones, the following tips will help lead you on the path of social media success.

Start with a strategy. Just as you would develop an advertising campaign for traditional forms of marketing, you need to take the time to develop a social media strategy that details your goals and your plan to achieve them. By creating such a strategy, you create the foundation for current and future social media efforts. As you work on your social media plan, use the answers from the following questions as a guide:

Who is in charge of the social media efforts?
Who is your target audience?
What are your business goals in regards to social media?
How will your social media strategy tie into your current marketing efforts?
What is your plan for communicating with your target audience?

Measure the success of your social media endeavors. All good goals are measurable. Just as you measure your business goals for progress, measure the outcomes of your social media strategy. Track items like the number of mentions regarding your business, the amount of traffic that a social networking account drives to your website or the number of followers.
Time your updates accordingly. Posting your social media updates at the wrong time can make them almost invisible. The most popular and shared posts in 2011, according to KISSmetrics, were those that were posted at noon and 6:00 p.m. (EST). This is important to take into account since over 30 percent of the U.S. population live in the Central Time Zone, and almost 50 percent live in the Eastern Time Zone. So, if you live in the West Coast and update your social networking account during your lunch hour, up to 80 percent of the U.S. population more than likely won’t see it.
Don’t neglect your competitors. This is where the saying of keeping your enemies closer than your friends becomes relevant, as you should know who your competitors are and what they’re up to. Social media gives you the unique advantage to learn about and participate in your competitor’s social media campaigns by simply following. By doing this, you can see what the followers of the competition are saying and use it to your advantage. For example:

If the competition’s followers complain about a missing feature, adding that feature to your product or service could prove fruitful.
If followers are praising something that you and a competitor do, consider promoting this aspect in your ads if you aren’t actively promoting it.
Notice the emotion that a competitor’s followers associate with a product. Then determine if there’s a way that you can tap into the same emotion with your own fan base.

Follow the rules of social media etiquette. Yes, there is a code of conduct on the Internet to help secure your popularity, and they include:

Using thought-provoking questions regarding relevant current trends to start conversations and engage your followers.
Not following others unless you truly intend to follow them back.
Promoting others (e.g., businesses, partners or people in the news) in your updates. While mentioning another business, especially a competitor, seems like a marketing taboo, remember that it gets your business’ name out there and in front of your competitor’s followers.
Keeping self-promotions short and focused on the reader’s benefit. You have less than five seconds to capture the interest of your followers; make those seconds count.
Minding quality over quantity. Entrepreneur advises that it’s better to have 200 followers, for example, who actively read and share your content than have 2,000 who follow your business, but disappear. Also, keep the quality over quantity rule in mind as you create professional social media accounts for your business because its better to fully engage with fans on four or less social media outlets than spread yourself thin.

When paired with a strategic plan, social media can give your marketing efforts a cost-effective boost when you play the game right. Such outlets give you invaluable insights and the ability participate in one-to-one interactions with current and prospective customers, which is harder to do with just a website alone.

5 Essential Tips for Social Media Marketing Newbies

Tina Reichmann — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:11:00 GMT

There is no doubt that social media marketing is the wave of the future. With print advertisements in newspapers, magazines, trades and Thrifty Nickel having gone the way of the dinosaur, it is important that business owners use the latest methods for promoting their company.

Social media is it! Look at the statistics; over 800 million people have Facebook accounts and Twitter has over 300 million accounts. That is a lot of people who can be reached via social media marketing efforts! However, this can be daunting for marketing newbies, especially those who are not familiar with social media.

The following list are 5 essential tips to enhance your marketing efforts on social sites like Facebook and Twitter:

1. Create a powerful welcoming page. This page can organically drive customers to a website by using a call to action. Be sure to make it clear why this website deserves their business, and promote what they do best. Do not command your customers to "Like" you on Facebook or "Follow Us" on Twitter without explaining why. They must know what is in it for them (i.e. rewards, special coupons, etc...) before they make the move to helping your social media marketing efforts. If you would like more advice on how to successfully accomplish this, go to the Likeable Book site on Facebook.

2. Offer coupons and discounts. This is an extension of tip # 1 where you can send coupons and discount offers to potential customers. It can also be used to entice those who are not your big fans to become one of your fans. While this is an old school marketing technique, it can certainly improve your number of "Likes" on Facebook.

3. One of the biggest mistakes newbies make is not updating your page frequently. Nobody wants to read articles from 1 or 2 years ago, they want to see you making an effort to connect with them. You can do this by posting blogs frequently, responding to comments, let them know about deals that are happening now and make special offers to those who act soon.

4. Share pics and videos with everyone. Most people love to watch videos and look at pictures. This does not cost a fortune either, which most marketing newbies do not have. You can take pictures or make short videos with a smart phone or digital camera and upload them to your social media pages. The old adage is true; a picture is worth a thousand words and they can help convey an image of you that plain text simply cannot.

5. When starting a new business, your company is building and gathering information. You should know what customers want, and the best way to determine this is by creating quizzes and polls for potential consumers. It not only helps you decide what people are looking for, but figure out how many people are interested in what you have to offer. Go to the Polls App for Facebook and watch the demo on how you can download this application, and use to your business' advantage.

Remember to be patient, as starting up a new business can take time to turn over a profit. You may be fortunate enough to experience instant results, or it may take you 6 months to a year to find success. However, if you are patient, persistent and truly passionate about your product, you can tackle the social media marketing outlet and work it to your benefit!

Social Media Proves A Rich Source Of Marketing Content

Karen Fabiane — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:04:00 GMT

Because it's so popular and frequently used, social media provides a rich source of marketing content. Not only does a vast audience exist for marketing, especially among consumers under age 35, but the content of the seemingly unending messages among social media users offers some indication of which products might be appealing, and ways to advertise to them to digital consumers.

In this way, social media users almost write their own marketing content, most frequently for and about the niched micro markets the majority of them currently occupy. It is up to marketers to refine these messages in order to sell.

Social Media Marketing as a Practice
Marketers increasingly recognize the benefits of social media strategies and are committed to developing content for these consumers. For instance, as the $100 billion/year mobile-app market continues to grow, marketers can improve their efficiency by using less costly, easily implemented interactive advertising, enhancing reputation and revenue simultaneously.

Developments in social media advertising reflect a substantial change in marketers' focus, from mass marketing to micro markets. Shifting demographics and increasingly nuanced consumer preferences have caused these developments. Accelerated use of social media and digital technology has intensified this growing trend, as has competition among digital providers for consumer interest and dollars.

Social media's interactive nature takes advantage of speed and mobility. Compared to traditional advertising, it enjoys expanded reach and engagement of consumers in real-time.

Social and interactive media provide possible explanations for this shift in consumer preferences, with significant advantages over traditional media. Their interactive capacities increase marketers' power to contact and connect with a wider range of potential customers.

Social media consumers can become very vocal (digitally, that is) about reasons why they prefer one product or service in comparison to others, giving marketing perhaps the most authentic source of information about their product selection processes. Each social media participant can (and often will) provide opinions and ideas about not only products but the content of their advertising messages, a valuable contribution for niche, micro markets where often consumers share very similar product interests.

This reaction-content (coming as it does in response to product display and use) is extremely value in shaping content. You know what consumers want since they've told you; now, you can use their content to modify your own messages back to them, based on the preferences expressed in their original (source) material. This should generate for you an effective strategy for promoting your client's (or your own) products and business.

Social media management combines with SEO to generate thousands (tens of thousands) of prospective consumers for your commercial offerings. On its own, SEO adds distinct marketing possibilities for social media marketing through consumer texting and tweeting, online interactions that create buzz about your products and perhaps stimulate sales. These developments suggest comprehensive integration of SEO and social media marketing.

And social media will allow you to source content from consumers, as you refine your own, on a regular basis. The fact that your social media consumers are currently connected to:

•Facebook,
•Twitter,
•LinkedIn,
•YouTube

and similar sources should allow a wide range of messaging. The result may be a consumer base extending well beyond the range of acquaintances, to a much wider base of online friends and prospective consumers.

While marketers continue to expand their own enterprises with social and digital marketing capabilities, media consultants can more selectively prioritize strategies and tactics of interactive advertising. These experts can detect trends among consumer purchasing records and the content they exchange with each other about their choices. Collaboration with copywriters, developers, designers, and strategists and developers expand the potential for social media and digital product offerings.

Social media marketing and interactive advertising through digital and related media emphasize micro marketing, simultaneously involving one-to-one and wide-scale communication with a diverse base of consumers and their product preferences. As social media-generated shopping and spending becomes increasingly mainstream, marketers need to develop smart, meaningful and entertaining experiences for these consumers.

The interactive capabilities expressed through social media provide a rich source of content that marketers can and do use to their advantage. Interactive advertising and digital marketing are rapidly becoming the marketing of choice for today's savvy online entrepreneurs.

Social Media Lessons Learned From The Big Brands

Jody Pellerin — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:25:00 GMT

Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies at Twitter and other social media sites may have thought they were just launching cool, new ways to share stuff online with their buddies; but they should have known-- where a lot of people hang out is where businesses will want to advertise. And once it appeared social media wasn’t a passing fad, marketers started trying to get the message out about their companies’ products and services on social media even if Facebook, et al, actively discouraged them.

Social media sites realized it was a losing battle and now it is much easier to use social media for engaging with your customers. How to use it effectively is the puzzle to unravel.

Luckily, some of the biggest companies around have already been there and done that. And you can learn from them how social media can fit into your marketing strategy.

Plan

The first step, as always, is planning. Determine what you want to accomplish, what response you are looking for, and what answers you hope to get out of it. The bigger the campaign, the longer and more involved it will be from a time and resource standpoint. A simple poll may only take a week to put together and launch whereas a sweepstakes give-away can take months to pull together. You need to decide what marketing activity would get you the answers you seek.

Launch

Next step: implementation.

Planning is over; it is time to launch your idea into the social media universe. In the past, the marketing campaign was complete at this point. These days a campaign will continue to live far beyond its launch date because now your customers can interact and engage. You can ask for responses that can take time to formulate or can be given instantaneously. For example, a campaign asking customers to submit a short video by a deadline would be active longer post-launch than answering a quick poll.

Measure

Either way you gain valuable insight into your customers and a means of measuring the effectiveness of your marketing. With the real time analytics typically available from social media sites such as Facebook or independent sites like Klout, you can pilot your marketing campaign toward the more fruitful areas and trim things that aren’t working while the campaign is still running.

Don’t ignore trending data though. Seeing how a campaign plays out over the course of time is also needed to determine how well it worked. Some managers prefer to rely on weekly and monthly reports rather than up to the minute stats. Don’t overwhelm yourself with metrics; find three or four that will give you the information to take definitive action. Some examples include number and type of referrers, engagement level, and conversions.

Resources

Many independent marketing companies handle social media campaign strategy and implementation. It may be worthwhile looking into getting their help especially for more ambitious projects. While larger companies have bigger budgets and the capability to perform all their own planning, that may not be the best method for smaller businesses who launch fewer social media marketing campaigns and who don’t need a permanent staff for all their marketing.

5 Harsh Truths Learned From Social Media Marketing

Sarita Harbour — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:28:00 GMT

Marketing your business through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ is the latest craze in the world of marketing. Incredible stories of increased sales and profits that appear to occur almost overnight grace the pages of all the business magazines and websites.

While it's true that social media can increase your SEO results and move your business to the top of the search results page, there are a few key truths that small business owners should keep in mind when venturing into the world of social media marketing.

A social media marketing strategy is not a cure-all for your business woes. It won't magically make all of your operational and financial issues go away, and it is unlikely to immediately double or triple sales. Correctly implemented, a marketing plan using social media can help build brand awareness and increase visits to your website to help improve sales and increase profit, but don't expect it to solve all your business problems.
Social media marketing is a tool, not a goal for businesses. It is very easy to become consumed by online social activity in the course of posting status updates and sharing useful content with followers. Remember that it is NOT the goal of your business! Some individuals find it very difficult to avoid the "social" aspect of social media marketing, but as a businessperson you are using it as a means to help you sell your products and services to new and existing customers. Call on your inner boss to remind yourself that it is just one of the tools in your marketing toolbox, and exercise some self-discipline on the social media sites, at least during working hours.
All social media sites are NOT equally effective for all businesses. It is easy to get excited when reading about the success of other startups using Pinterest or Facebook to get sales leads and grow their businesses. However, unless they are in the very same business and market as you, your business Pinterest or Facebook account is probably not going to generate exactly the same results as theirs did. Instead, begin by identifying the demographic of your target customer when choosing social media sites for your business, and work on creating a following there.
Building a business social media presence takes time and hard work. Posting a few random tweets or updating the status on your Facebook merchant page when you have time will do little to build your brand and business through a social media site. An effective social media marketing strategy requires planning, scheduling, and a consistent daily effort. In addition to posting useful content to benefit your readers, businesses must allow time to respond to comments and concerns, as well as to interact with your followers. Social marketing professionals often recommend scheduling at least one to two hours each day to work on your social marketing plans.
Marketing your business through social media sites is not free. Many believe that social media marketing doesn't cost anything, and that is far from the case. The cost of using social media for marketing a business is quite simply the time. While there may not be fees charged by the social media sites, someone has to spend the time to maintain the account, post updates and interact with followers. This may be completed either by a paid employee, contract freelancer or a business owner who could be making money actually engaged in the activity of their business.

Social media sites continue to grow at an astounding pace. As of early 2012, there are almost 850 million Facebook accounts and over 465 million Twitter accounts, with more added by the minute. While there are many opportunities for businesses to use social media as a powerful marketing tool, entrepreneurs should be aware of the truths about this type of marketing and avoid making social media marketing mistakes.

How To Improve Your SEO Results With Social Media

Sarita Harbour — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 12:18:00 GMT

As a business owner, you know that increasing your search engine rankings brings more visitors to your website, improves visibility and ultimately increases your sales. Traditional search engine rankings used the number of high quality incoming links as a means of evaluating the quality of a site, and search engine optimization specialists know that the more quality backlinks a site has, the better.

As individuals spend more time online for a variety of personal and business tasks, the importance of social media in SEO is taking growing. Use these tips to improve your understanding of social media networks and learn why people share content is key to improving your business SEO results.

Get on Google+ Now!

If you haven't already done so, set up a Google+ account for your business. Google's obsessive competition with Facebook has led them to launch a massive-scale social media initiative in the form of Google+, and as an entrepreneur or small business owner you can reap the benefits and improve your SEO. Here's how it works.

Google's determination to grow Google+ has prompted two critical changes to the search results pages that greet online users. Businesses with Google+ accounts are now prominently displayed on local results page, and in some cases even bump Google Adwords ads over or down. Additionally, information shared through Google+ shows up higher than other content, and gets an added search engine boost each time it is +1d.

Bing for Facebook

Though it trails far behind Google as a search engine, Microsoft's Bing categorizes content that Facebook friends like or share with each other. Because of the exclusive relationship with Facebook, businesses focusing social media activity around Facebook merchant pages benefit with improved Bing search engine rankings.

Create Great Content

Social media platforms or networks encourage users to share content with their followers, family and friends. Improve the likelihood of your content being shared by creating useful, well-written quality content that helps people and makes them want to pass it on to others. If possible, vary the way you present your material. Include text, images, infographics, slideshows and videos. Take time to research your target market and create user profiles to better provide information they will want to read and distribute.

Include Share Buttons

One of the most important things to remember when trying to improve your SEO results with a social media strategy is to make it easy for readers to share the content. Invite users to share your blog posts and articles with share buttons for Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or other social media platforms used by your target audience. Engage your users by inviting them to post comments on your Facebook page, or Pin a favorite image to your Pinterest fan board.When content is repeatedly shared and spread across the internet, the search engines take this as an indication that it includes useful information, and moves the content up the search engine rankings.

Don't Forget Pinterest for your Business

Businesses are discovering Pinterestt as a valuable tool in their social media marketing strategy. Initially most popular with women, this fast-growing social media platform allows users to pin images to their virtual pinboards, and then like, repin or comment on the pinboards of others. While anyone can set up a Pinterest account by requesting an invitation from a current Pinterest user or the directly from Pinterest itself, the businesses that benefit most are those that have a compelling visual appeal, such as design, decor, art, travel and food-based companies.

LinkedIn is Social Media Too

Growing a network of social media followers greatly increases your business' marketing reach. LinkedIn is a business social media network where businesses and their employees and management can network and make contacts. While it is often left out of discussions regarding SEO, an active LinkedIn account helps establish a business as authentic and reveals the people behind the company. This is a great way to grow your online network and connect with peers, begin business-to-business relationships and attract followers to your other social media accounts as well.

7 Indicators Of Social Media Marketing Success

Rachael Priest — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:04:00 GMT

You’ve no doubt heard or read about various social media marketing tips and you’ve probably tried your hand at a few of them. But how do you know if the tips and techniques that you’re trying are bringing about positive results?

If one technique is working then you want to keep it up. If another technique isn’t having any effect, then why keep wasting your time? One of my favorite social media tips is to only try one or two new techniques at a time so that you can get an accurate view of how they’re working for you.

To that end, here are 7 ways that you can assess the effectiveness of your social media marketing campaigns:

1. The Volume and Sharing of Your Brand. The amount of times your users mention your brand over a given period of time is your volume. The amount of times your users mention your brand versus your competitors is your voice. Both are related and are strong indicators of how your current campaign is going. Your volume should increase steadily as more users come to know you and get excited about your business. Your voice should be substantial since it indicates social consumer awareness.

2. Engagement and Interaction. These concepts have to do with the social conversation that you are able to generate. Engagement is getting people to talk to your brand via social media. Interaction is the amount of replies or comments that the implementation of your social media marketing tips has generated.

What this basically boils down to is, if all you are doing is writing content and no one is discussing it, then you’ve got to figure out why no one is interested. Without engagement and interaction, there’s very little point in even having a social media marketing campaign.

3. Reaction of Top Influencers. Your top influencers are those people or companies who, if they mention or share your posts, can really boost your results because of their wide reach and the reputation they’ve built for themselves.

I’ll use a personal example to demonstrate: Writing is my first love, but I grew up in the floral industry. As such, I have a vast knowledge of all things floral design. Occasionally, when I have the time or desire, I’ll write a blurb about caring for, designing, or ordering flowers. One Valentine’s Day, I wrote a guide to ordering flowers that time of year and my mom posted the link on her shop’s Facebook page.

One of her corporate partners saw the article, loved it, and posted it on not only their Facebook page, but on their blog as well. I saw an incredible influx of page views for my article, and my mom’s social media interaction jumped up as well. That is the unprecedented power of having influencers speak up for you!

4. Your Click Through Rate. For most businesses, the ultimate goal of using social media is to get new visitors to their website in order to create awareness and increase conversions. How many times users click a link you’ve shared on social media equals your click through rate. Use your webmaster tools to see where your website traffic is coming from. If you’re running an active social media campaign, a large portion of your traffic should be from social media sites. If it isn’t, then you probably need to try new social media marketing tips.

5. Mobile Interactions. Mobile social media sites are ever increasing in popularity with the advent of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. You should track the number of mentions you are getting from these sites, as a great deal of your users will only see you if you show up there. Try some mobile social media marketing tips, like mobile coupons and promotions, to see if you can increase your mobile mentions.

6. The Span of Platforms. Your campaign should reach across every social platform that your targeted audience is using. If your targets live on Twitter, then devoting your efforts to creating a popular YouTube channel doesn’t make much sense. Focus on where you need to be based on your customers’ needs and activity, and then monitor that success.

7. The General Attitude About Your Brand. If the social sentiment about your brand is largely positive, you’re doing fine. If not, you’ll have some work to do. Because in business, your reputation is everything and nothing influences your reputation in this digital age like the opinion of your social networking users.

3 Tips For Avoiding Social Media Marketing Failure

Marti Norberg — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:38:00 GMT

Have you been following all the tips, hints and “sure-fire” rules for implementing a super-successful social media marketing campaign – only to find it is not working? What you need are the three absolutely essential, vitally important, critically needed, can’t-do-without components I am about to give you!

Are you really, really organized?

If you feel like there is something new every day in the world of social media marketing, it's because there is something new every day! You need to be very organized to keep up with all the changes, additions, variations and updates while maintaining the marketing campaign strategies you have already planned and implemented.

You need to organize your social media marketing for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and you need to schedule time for each. Schedule time to blog, share, post, comment and interact.

You need to set an organized schedule and stick with that schedule. As new social media opportunities appear, you need to revamp your schedule. Schedule a time to review your schedule. Evaluate your social media marketing campaign and redo your schedule.

Get organized as to what you need to do when and in what order. Set specific times for replying to emails, for implementing new ideas, for researching your competition, for answering questions, for providing feedback or for asking for feedback -- and for reviewing your schedule.

Initially getting organized and setting schedules will be time consuming, and you will probably change your schedule several times before it starts running like a well-oiled machine. However, it will be well worth the time and effort in the end.

Does anyone want, need or even like what you have to sell?

An example I read about recently concerned a company that made dog food. They worked and worked on their social media marketing campaign. They followed all the tips and hints from marketing gurus. They tweaked, refined, and fine-tuned their social media messages until everything squeaked it was so tight. Still their campaign was not bringing in any business.

Turned out the problem was with the dogs themselves – they didn’t like the food! It did not matter how great this company’s social media campaign was, their “target market” just plain refused to eat the product.

Remember that old advertising saying about “trying to sell ice to Eskimos?” Well, this is the same concept. You not only need a great product idea, someone actually must have a need for that product.

Instead of starting with a great product idea and then looking for a market, you need to find the market first and create a product to the needs of that market. Do your research first to determine what people need based on what they enjoy, covet, lack and desire, or on what they exhibit an aversion to or a compulsion for. What causes frustration, concern or distress? Find out what people need and create a product to fill that need.

When you have a product people truly NEED, they will be sure to purchase what you have to offer. The same concept works for offering a service rather than a product. First determine what people need, then provide the service that fills that need.

Are you feeling sociable?

If you are not feeling friendly and sociable, it is not a good time to be working on your social media marketing campaign. The whole idea is being social – friendly and helpful.

This is not the time or place to be a pushy salesperson. You are not selling a product; you are offering to fill a need. You are not trying to tell people why they must buy what you have to sell – you are asking what you can do to help them with a problem.

Each social media platform was developed to meet a different need or for a specific function. They all have different looks, aspects and formats, but they are all intended for communication. You need to remember this concept and focus on plain and simple communication.

When you are communicating on social media, you need to remember the basic “social graces” your mother taught you – say thank you and please. Show your appreciation and ask permission to share. Be friendly and neighborly.

Remember, your social media efforts are not sales pitches, they are communications between friends and potential friends – who will eventually become customers because they want to be your customer and they want what you have to offer.

Blend Social Media And Traditional Marketing For Tasty Results

Karen Neal — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:27:00 GMT

Have you ever noticed how often blending items make them better? Coffee blends are a great example, where just the right amount of beans from Columbia and beans from Africa create a sensational taste. Blending works well with workout routines, also. Combine a good amount of cardio with weights and stretching to create a healthy body.

Blending social media with your traditional marketing practices is highly effective as well. Your potential customers are bombarded with marketing in virtually all aspects of their life – it is important that your business is noticed as a great choice when that prospect is ready to make a decision.

Marketing encompasses multitudes of strategies and tactics. Putting the right combination together requires careful consideration and evaluation of your business goals to make sure the appropriate marketing tools are utilized.

Here are a few scenarios to consider when looking for that special blend of social media and traditional marketing:

New web site – announce your new web site through Facebook, Twitter and also through a post card mailer to increase your web site traffic.
Photography – the use of images is a long standing marketing practice. By leveraging images in social media and creating multimedia posts your photography investment can go much further.
Article “teaser” – publish a brief article in your local newspaper or trade magazine that discusses a particular problem that your business can address. But do not give away “all” of the clues or answers. Instead refer them to your social media accounts for more information.
Analytics and tradition – social media analytics can tell you what demographics are attracted to your brand. From there you can tailor your print, radio and television ads to that audience.
Contests and sweepstakes – a very effective blend of marketing is to launch a contest on your social media site such as Facebook, and reference that contest in all of your materials. Include in your sales flyers, on your voice mail, with your customer service reps, and in your email newsletters.
Surveys – leverage social media to get existing customer feedback as well as acquire information about prospective customers. Also include an offer to take the social media survey on your store receipts or in your email newsletters.

Why is the combination of social media and traditional marketing so effective? There are two primary reasons:

Timing is everything – and blending the methods increases your likelihood of being available at the right time and place for your target market.
Ease of use – Not everyone reads everything that is on printed paper, and many do not want to take the time to fill out an info card then mail it. If they glance at the card, and then happen upon your business through social media, you can have them fill out the form online, which makes it easier for you as well as your target customers!

The right blend of traditional marketing with a social media approach gives your business a delicious boost that will bring your target audience to your door.

5 Social Media Mistakes That Are Holding You Back

Sarita Harbour — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:37:00 GMT

Congratulations on your website, blog, and new social media accounts. As a small business owner, give yourself a pat on the back for wading into the new world of marketing your business online. Now that you have Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest or other social media profiles, you have the tools to build an online following, grow your customer base and increase sales.

Don't get too comfortable just yet, though. Opening the accounts is merely the beginning. While many entrepreneurs are joining the ranks of businesses using social media to spread the word about their products and services, this new form of marketing has ample room for error.

Take some time to study what NOT to do and avoid wasting time and money on these social media marketing mistakes that could be holding you back.

Not Having a Social Media Marketing Plan

This is the first social media marketing mistake that businesses make. Tweeting or posting Facebook status updates on a whim without careful planning and a social media strategy is ineffective and can cause confusion amongst your followers, especially if posts appear inconsistently and are on random topics. Take some time to identify your typical customer, and schedule posts that will appeal to them at optimal times of the day or week. Integrate your posts with other promotions or marketing initiatives occurring in your business. For example, invite Facebook followers to your end-of-season sale, or provide Twitter followers with links to your latest "how-to" blog post series.

Social Media Branding Mistakes

Don't make the mistake of establishing your social media presence as separate from other public relations or marketing activities. Consistent branding across all online and offline business communications is crucial to building a seamless branding campaign. Social media profiles and posts should bear the same look and feel as your website, logo, and bricks-and-mortar stores or offices. Treat your social media accounts as additional tools in your business branding toolbox.

Self-Promotional Posting

It's easy to get excited when you start posting for your business on social media sites, but proceed with caution. It is poor social etiquette to continuously post a stream of self-promotional status updates, tweets or pins. Social media isn't all about the poster, but rather about providing valuable information for the social media community. Posting too often, posting links to bad quality or irrelevant content, and posting exclusively about your own business are social media no-nos. Be sure to post links to other online articles, blog posts, images and infographics that provide some benefit to your readers.

Ignoring Opportunities to Engage on Social Media Sites

As businesses move towards relationship marketing or long-term relationship building with customers, the opportunity to interact and engage in two-way communication becomes increasingly important. Social media platforms gives a business the chance to build an entire virtual community around their brand by asking for input from their customers. Get readers involved by asking them to vote in a poll, post pictures or share a story. Most importantly, immediately respond to all requests, concerns, or questions especially negative comments - to illustrate your continued commitment to customer service.

Neglecting to Analyze Your Social Media Data

Your social media followers are the most valuable source of information about the likes and dislikes of your target market because they ARE your target market! Don't ignore the gold mine of data they provide. Collect, analyze and evaluate information about your followers and your posts to make decisions about future online marketing strategies. Which tweets were retweeted? Which Facebook status updates received the most likes? Which pins and boards on Pinterest have the most followers, favorites and repins?

Pay attention to what your followers pay attention to, and what questions they ask on your social media sites. Doing so can generate ideas not only for new social media posts, but new directions for product lines or services.

These are just a few of the common social media marketing mistakes that businesses make as we all learn about this new form of digital communication. Accept the fact that you too will make some mistakes as you learn about social media, but the important thing to remember is that your business won't benefit from the amazing marketing potential of social media if you don't give it a try.

4 Simple Ways To Spread The Word With Social Media

Sarita Harbour — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:01:00 GMT

Remember the days when satisfied customers would tell their friends and neighbors what a good job you did over a coffee or the backyard fence? In today's technology driven world, more and more word of mouth referrals come through social media communication.

People share their approval and disapproval of recent purchases or consumer experiences through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or other social media platforms. As a small business owner, you can use these sites to inexpensively promote your own business, and let the vast online community spread the word through social media magic.

Promote Great Content With Share Buttons

The most important thing to remember when planning a social media business campaign is that content is king. Don't tweet or post links to website articles and pages that contain out-dated or incorrect information, and double-check all posts for grammar and spelling mistakes. Great content should be useful, timely, and pertinent to your business and the interests and lifestyle of your target market.

Make it easy for readers to share your content with friends and followers by including social media share buttons with every blog post and on all pages of your website. Display social media follow buttons on your homepage as well. Instead of the traditional call-to-action text that often accompanies these buttons, such as "Like us on Facebook," or "Follow us on Twitter", give visitors to your site a reason to take these actions. "Get the latest discount coupons here" with a link to your Facebook merchant page gives readers an action to take as well as a reason to visit your Facebook page.

Post Infographics, Slideshows, Videos and Images on Your Social Media Sites

Words aren't the only thing shared on social media sites. Shared images and videos are on the rise, especially through Facebook and Pinterest. Women in particular love to share images of food, home decor, and crafts. Brainstorm ways you can create videos or slideshows your readers will want to share. Tutorials or how-to videos are popular, especially in the do-it-yourself home improvement categories. Step-by-step cooking, baking, crafting and gardening slideshows or videos are another good way to spread the word about your business.

An infographic presents facts, statistics, timelines, and other information in a visually appealing combination of text and graphics. This is a good way to provide numbers-based information your readers can bookmark and share with others.

Time Your Tweets for Maximum Exposure

Studies show there really are best times of the day and week to post updates on Twitter. According to social media experts, tweets sent out midweek or on weekends receive the most exposure, while daily tweets sent out at noon and six in the evening have the best chance of being seen.

For busy entrepreneurs who don't have time to send out tweets at the lunch hour or during dinner, a social media management app such as Hootsuite or buffer is a useful tool. Load up your account (or buffer) with tweets for the next day or week according to your preferred schedule. Both apps have a free version as well as a paid version offering more options, and can manage your Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and select other social media accounts in addition to twitter.

Create a Facebook Community

Facebook is a good place for many businesses to establish a social media presence. Setting up a Facebook merchant page is simple, easy and free. Once your Facebook merchant page is up and running, post links to your website and other sites your followers may be interested in. The key to Facebook success for businesses is to develop an entire Facebook community around your brand.

Don't limit your Facebook business use to posting. Create interactions with readers as part of your social media marketing strategy. Using polls, quizzes, contests and time-limited giveaways. Ask members of your community to post favorite pictures, stories and uses for your product. The more engaged your Facebook followers become, the more likely they are to spread the word to their Facebook friends.

Ensure your Facebook account is connected to your other social media accounts as well as your business website. Incorporate a Facebook widget showing Likes and Comments into a sidebar on your homepage.

No matter which social media platforms you use in your online marketing plan, encourage followers by offering solutions to likely problems instead of commanding readers to follow you. Experiment with different social media sites, types and timing of posts to discover the combination that works best to promote your business online.

Tweet For Success With These Simple Tricks

Stephen Moore — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:58:00 GMT

Twitter can help you and your business.

I struggled to understand Twitter when I first starting using the microblogging service. Perhaps the most interesting part of Twitter was the access you could gain to high level influencers.

This post is going to outline how business professionals and owners successfully use Twitter.

As a constant stream of communication, Twitter allows you to post updates that your network can see. When you follow someone, you will be able to see their updates. When someone follows you, they will see your updates. All of the updates of every user are stored by Twitter and can be searched using Twitter search.

One key to Twitter success is to develop a Twitter plan. Part of your plan needs to be to ensuring a continual and regular stream of content. Using a mind map and grouping tweets in categories will help ensure your tweets are logical and original. Next, time your tweets using a service like Hootsuite and ensure they are evenly distributed throughout the day.

Twitter is also useful because it helps you connect with influencers. Follow and interact with important vendors, industry analysts and experts. Connecting with these people and offering interesting content will turn you into a valuable resource and keep you top of mind.

There are many ways to use Twitter for business, but we can generally group Twitter tactics into four groups: direct, indirect, internal and listening.

Direct

Some companies will use Twitter as a direct channel into the consciousness of their consumers. Many companies simply use Twitter as an extension of their corporate blogs where they post updates like accomplishments and announcements. This could easily sound like the easiest way to get involved using Twitter, but you need to be cautious using Twitter so directly.

Being too promotional or self-serving will likely backfire on Twitter because users like companies and business professionals to offer a personal touch.

Indirect

If a company doesn’t use direct Twitter strategies, they can take an indirect approach.

Where the direct approach involves your company Tweeting directly, the indirect approach has the companies’ employees tweeting. The theory behind this method is that the company will benefit as each employee builds their personal reputation. Having well-connected employees tweet can present the image of having influential, thought leading employees/

Internal

Twitter can be used for internal corporate communication if users protect their tweets. This is a very risky approach, especially if your company’s information is confidential. There are other, more secure, microblogging services for internal communication.

Listening

If you aren’t comfortable with tweeting, you can always use Twitter for listening. Using Twitter search or other software you can listen to what’s being said about your business, your employees, your competition and your industry. Carefully listening to Twitter buzz can offer an early warning signal for problems that are just beginning.

Social media expert Chris Brogan says, “Most people who see Twitter the first time either flat-out ‘get it,’ or they say, ‘why bother?’ Here’s what people miss. They believe one should read every single update that rolls across your screen of choice. Don’t. Just let it roll past like a stream.”

You need to take his advice.

Strategic Planning Is Key To Your Social Media Campaign

Jennifer Young — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:43:00 GMT

If you conduct a poll of 100 small businesses and ask them what a social media campaign is, you are likely to get 100 different answers. Owners on one end of the spectrum will simply say that a social media campaign is signing up for a Facebook account and posting a couple of comments to let individuals know about upcoming sales, events and products. Owners on the opposite end of the spectrum will answer that social media campaigns are highly involved processes requiring the help of a consultant.

Both owners are correct. Social media campaigns are as simple or as complex as you want based on the resources you have available and the goals that you want to meet. Every business owner that wants to carry out a social media campaign should use strategic planning methods to guarantee that their campaign complements their business goals and structure. The term strategic planning seems scary, but it isn't. It is as simple as who, what, when, where and why...

Why?

This is the basic question that needs answered during the strategic planning process. Why do you want to start a social media campaign? Is the goal of the campaign to advertise a business that is just starting or struggling to grow? Are you trying to advertise a new product to gain marketing momentum or do you just want an online presence? Look for examples of other business that have conducted a social media campaign for the same purpose. Evaluate whether the campaign was successful and if not, why it wasn't. Share your information with your staff. If they know what the goal of the campaign is and how it has helped other businesses, they will be more likely to take part in the social media campaign. If you don't have the assistance of your staff, your campaign will not succeed.

Who?

This part of the strategic planning process has two distinct parts. The first part is to decide who your audience is. You must research their basic demographics and the best way to give them pertinent information. For example, if your audience is school age children, you would want to use simple language and a higher proportion of graphics to keep their interest. The second part is deciding who in your business will be responsible for the day-to-day execution of your campaign. Delegate the task to one person or a team of people. Determine if your staff has the time and knowledge to successfully carry out the campaign. Inform the staff of their accountability for the success and/or failure of the campaign.

When?

Answering the question of when to carry out your social media campaign is as simple as setting goals and developing strategies. If you want to advertise a new product that will be released in the fall, the best thing to do is to start advertising in advance of the release. Share teasers from the product specifications. Post videos of simple tasks being executed with the product. Release preliminary feedback from testing groups. Determine what you want to do and how you can do it.

Where?

Evaluate the available social media networks. Each network caters to a specific audience. LinkedIn is for professionals who are looking to make networking connections. Twitter is a short form network which allows individuals to post one sentence thoughts. Facebook was originally a network for maintaining friendships, but it has evolved to include business promotion. There are a number of other networks available that may be pertinent to your specific business. Evaluate each network and decide which one or ones would be valuable in meeting your business goals. Once you choose the networks on which to carry out your campaign, do not allow yourself to be limited. If another network proves to be more valuable, do not be afraid to expand your network membership or switch your campaign to a new platform.

What?

The last step in your planning process is the ongoing maintenance of your campaign. Social media networking isn't just about posting information for others to read. It is a virtual form of a conversation. A verbal conversation can not occur without two participants. It is the same with any social media campaign. Post the information that you think your audience needs or will appreciate. Once your initial postings are completed, your goal will be to build momentum by speaking to your audience and providing them with expanded details.

Are You A Social Media Newbie? 7 Tips For Getting Started

G. Dino — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:41:00 GMT

Social media has grown to such intimidating proportions that it's understandably challenging for businesses and marketers that are new to the game. If you're a social media newbie, here are 7 tips to help get you off the ground:

Strategize

Social media marketing is a crucial and significant part of your company's entire marketing and branding effort and a business process of its own. If you intend to succeed in social media, you need a strategy.

Craft your social media strategy around a specific, realistic objective - something concrete, measurable, and obtainable, such as increasing conversion rate through social channels by X%. You then have to choose in which social networks to interact with your target market and apply a specific consumer-level strategy.

For instance, HubSpot research indicates that Google+ is ideal for a strategy that revolves around organic search and markets to a technologically-savvy male demographic that does not spend much time in the site. Pinterest, on the other hand, attracts more female users who spend an average 100 minutes browsing boards, and is perfect for referral traffic.

Optimize

Methods of social media optimization may not be as refined as the technical aspects of search engine optimization, but there are ways to optimize your social endeavors. Each social networking platform offers its own advertising program and business page or profile options. When it comes to optimizing social ads, the task is similar to tweaking paid search campaigns. In optimizing business profiles and pages, there are varied tips and tricks for different social networking sites.

Facebook Fan pages, for instance, can easily reach three levels of consumers: the fans themselves, their friends, and whoever can access their Facebook Timeline and view their activities. From here, it is only a matter of optimizing social content to draw in as much of this three-tiered audience as possible.

Listen

As social media marketing continues to evolve, so too does the information and the analytics companies can glean from it. Today, data that comprises what is typically called "social intelligence" is what businesses should be after, as it can serve as an effective road map to understanding social consumer behavior and ecommerce patterns for your target market.

If you're not listening in on social interactions regarding your brand - conversations, comments, shares, and blogs - you're missing out on actionable data.

Engage

Research by Reevoo shows that in the new sales process, social engagement can account for as much as 177% increases in conversion rates. Your conversion rates almost triple when you have effective social content that consumers interact with and engage.

This is why social engagement is a powerful medium of marketing and ecommerce. Engage your audience, especially when you're just getting started with social media.

Measure

Measuring social data gathered through listening and engagement completes the cycle, and also restarts it anew. Social media is a constantly shifting industry, and the consumers within it are also a crowd that can be loyal one moment and fickle the next. To be consistently successful in your social campaigns, you need to listen, engage, measure, and from analysis of measured data, tweak your efforts and then repeat the cycle.

Listen, engage, measure, repeat. Measuring campaign performance tells you your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

Research

Social media is an ever-changing landscape of networking, shares, and trends dictated by two major power players: the brands and the consumers. This means that tactics you employ in your social efforts today might not be so effective a few months from now. You need to consistently research the industry, your market, and your consumers to figure out the right time to perform the right move.

According to the Wall Street Journal online, Procter & Gamble wants to shave $10 billion off of its expenses by 2016, and $1 billion of that will come from their marketing budget - cost cuts achieved through researching where they can spend more efficiently, such as low-cost digital marketing like social media. How much can you save or gain through proper social media research?

Outsource

It is plain to see that social media is not limited to setting up social profiles, but is indeed an entire business process that demands significant investments in time, effort, and human resources. Small to mid-level businesses typically don't have the capability to keep abreast of the developments of social media while employing a cost-effective strategy. Outsource what you do not have the time, resources, or expertise to manage soundly.

Social media marketing can be a lucrative venture for those who know how. Now, you have enough wisdom to get started!

10 Essential Tips For Local Marketing With Social Media

Rachel Terry — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:08:00 GMT

Social media lets you spread your influence far and wide, but many businesses cater to local customers. How can you use social media to reach your local market?

1. Create a location-based blog. A location-based blog will land you hits by consumers who are looking for products and services in your area. Include social media links at the end of each post to encourage others to link your blog to their social media accounts. When writing your posts, use SEO keywords to attract local traffic. A coffee shop in Madison should include the keywords "coffee shop" and "Madison" in each post. You can get more specific by including neighborhood and street names in your posts.

2. Offer specials on Foursquare. Millions of users check in to Foursquare every day, and if your business has a special offer, you'll capture a larger share of the market. Vary your Foursquare offers to reach different kinds of consumers. Try "buy one get one" deals, discount offers, special treatments ("Check in on foursquare and get an exclusive invitation to Friday's cooking class), and punchcard rewards ("free haircut on your sixth visit").

3. Follow local discussions on Twitter. Follow local discussion on Twitter to get dialed in to the happenings in your local area. See who is following local companies in your industry, and follow their discussions. You can also try Bing's Twitter maps app to see Tweets sent from your area.

4. Offer social media incentives. It's not easy to put a dollar value on your web presence, but some businesses are offering discounts to customers who help with social media marketing. For example, Austin's Face to Face Spa offers discounts to customers who "like" them on Facebook and post recommendations.

5. Launch your mobile website. Social media is often used on the go, and if you have a mobile website with links from social media, potential customers are more likely to visit your business while they're out and about. Spend the time and money necessary to create a mobile website that is truly helpful to those who are not at home.

6. Monitor reviews. One of the greatest business benefits of social media is being able to read what people say about you. If you monitor reviews of your business on social media, you can engage in meaningful conversation with those who have given you poor reviews. By addressing their concerns, you can turn nay-sayers into loyalists who will improve your image and give you repeat business.

7. Be consistent. One of the biggest social media mistakes (and unfortunately, the easiest mistake to make) is being inconsistent. When you're all fired up about marketing, it's easy to spend an hour or so every day monitoring Facebook and Google+, coming up with Foursquare special offers, and posting locale-specific blog posts. But when business is hectic and overwhelming, social media seems to be the first thing people abandon.

8. Create an editorial calendar. An editorial will do several things to keep you on track. First, it will help you to assign specific social media tasks to certain days, freeing you up from trying to remember when the last time was that you posted to Facebook. It will also allow you to easily delegate social media marketing tasks to other people ("You take care of all scheduled Twitter tasks, and I'll handle LinkedIn."). Just follow your calendar, and stay on top.

8. Post local pics on Pinterest. If women buy your products and services, you can't afford to ignore Pinterest, and if you're trying to reach women in your local community, you can reach them by posting local pictures on Pinterest. Brush up on your photography skills, and take photos of the customers in your deli, the scenes in your local park, or the interior design you just created for a prominent client. Always link back to your blog from Pinterest.

9. Listen. You can spend all your time posting and enlarging your social media presence, but social media is also valuable for listening. Listen to what locals are saying. What do they want? How can your business fill that need?

10. Hold a local contest. Advertise your local contest on every social media outlet your subscribe to. Holding a contest can help you bridge from virtual to physical contact with potential consumers. If you have a veterinary hospital, hold a dog show for locals. Tutoring? Hold an essay contest. Meet your customers face-to-face, and let them get to know you, your products, and services.

The 5 Fundamentals Of Social Media Marketing

Karen Fabiane — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:46:00 GMT

Social media marketing has grown considerably in the years since its introduction and shows no signs of slowing down. Expansion should continue through the longer-term, as new markets on social media develop, especially among people under age 35, who frequently live much of their lives online.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)/Point of Sale (POS)
Search engine optimization (SEO) and point of sale (POS) technologies add a distinct marketing component to IT mobility. Texting, tweeting and otherwise interacting online leads not only to meeting others, exchanging experiences and ideas, but also to scheduling events and similar activities that can lead to sales. A growing number of firms have responded to these developments and vigorously seek more comprehensive integration of SEO and social media marketing.

Marketing Strategy
Many users of social media are well-educated and informed consumers. Well-conceived social media marketing develops marketing efforts of interest to targeted market segments, offering them the option of making intelligent choices from among competitors. Social media marketing needs to position products to fulfill the criteria or perceptions of targeted consumers.

Marketing strategy is best realized from competitive analysis, providing an acute understanding of competitors, by determining their strengths and weaknesses; these are conceived in terms of opportunities or threats to your product positioning. Social media accelerates evaluation of consumption factors and needs to be addressed by marketing strategy; services, products and benefits must be made somehow necessary to the target market, distinct and differentiated from competitors.

Content Marketing
Since it trades in communication, content marketing is an integral component of the social media marketing strategy. To successfully market content, organizations need to convey reliable information to consumers in the belief they will respond positively by purchasing goods and services offered them. With content marketing, the message is ongoing and persistent but does not involve the standard (and often tiresome) "sales-pitch." Rather, content provides information useful to the prospective customer, in the belief that she or he will ultimately appreciate the appeal to their intelligence and become loyal customers.

Social media marketing is exceptionally compatible with content marketing strategies. Each social media participant can provide opinions and ideas about content, in an arena that extends well beyond the common-place range of real-time acquaintances to a much wider base of online friends and prospective consumers. The secret of successful social media marketing is:

providing consumers a unique online incident, an encounter that piques their intelligence, potentially stimulating online communication about the experience, the essence of social media.
the result can be affirmative assessment as reviews circulate through the social media vehicle, leading to...
endorsements from media-users that may stimulate new business

Even where consumers have a less than exemplary response to the marketing experience, the nature of social media is such that they'll tell you, generating the opportunity to refine your content to something better responsive to their expectations and desires marketing. More than this, social media marketing campaigns are relatively inexpensive compared to traditional methodologies; adjustment of content is similarly less costly, offering them firm financial advantages.

Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing strategy requires accurate identification of target consumers. The reality is: If the target market doesn't perceive the image, it doesn't exist, there are no products, services or benefits – images, benefits, and product differentiation are solely the perception of the consumer. Persona analysis thoroughly evaluates the demo- and psychographic attributes of targeted consumers, allowing for creation of content that effectively engages their interest.

Social media analytics evaluate your content in comparison to competitors, prioritizing your differentiation goals in such content-areas as attachment and sentiment messages to ensure your unique position in the digital marketplace. Also important are selecting appropriate social media channels for marketing, to determine the comments subscribers make about your content and their overall interest in it.

Content Marketing Tips
Content for social media marketing needs to emphasize or apply:

use of appropriate analytical tools to define market
focus on consumers' key performance indicators
consumer benefits such as utility and novelty
credibility in delivering the promised products/services
unique aspects of product in comparison to competitors

Improving customer communications is a vital component of social marketing media solutions. To rise to the challenge of socially networked and mobile consumers, marketers need to understand methods of catching their attention long enough to interest them in their products. Appropriately-conceived and executed content marketing is a reliable means of establishing closer online relationships with this consumer base.

4 Must-Have Components Of A Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy

Karen Neal — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:24:00 GMT

Social media is no longer just a plaything for persons who have idle time or just teenagers with gossip to share. Social media has become a powerhouse for driving traffic to business websites, building brand awareness, and generating tangible leads and sales.

How has social media become so effective? Plainly, it’s all in the numbers. Literally hundreds of millions of people every day visit Facebook, Twitter, and other emerging sites such as Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and more. Even YouTube can be part of the social media family. People go to these sites to connect with friends, share opinions and facts, and pick up new information.

For example, a friend may post “Had the best sushi ever at this local restaurant.” Their friends now have an “authoritative” and trust worthy endorsement and referral to a sushi restaurant. The odds are, next time one of those friends wants sushi, they will go there.

Businesses must develop an effective social media marketing strategy as part of their overall marketing plan. While there are a few “traditional” components to social media marketing strategy, many of the tactics can be considered unique to this new channel. Of course, you need an overall marketing goal for your social media campaigns. And you need a budget, and a means to measure return on investment. All of these are very doable in a social media marketing strategy.

However, you should also consider these components as an important part of your social media arsenal:

Always apply SEO – Search engine optimization (SEO) is just as applicable in social media as it is in regular web marketing strategies. Use the right keywords and phrases in order to maximize your social media impact.
Share and share alike – through content curation (sharing of links while in turn allowing others to share your posts) is vital in social media. Use links to relevant sites while also allowing your site to be shared.
Follow up – every fan, every visitor, every person who responds to your social media post should have some type of reply. Even negative posts should be handled graciously and tactfully in order to keep your brand reputation intact.
Etiquette – social media in particular has a set of behaviors that can make or break your social media marketing strategy. Pay close attention to the number of posts or broadcasts that you send and keep a healthy balance so you will not be deemed “spam.” Develop a social media policy that includes recommended responses to various issues so that you know the right way to handle them before they even occur.

You social media marketing strategy gives you a great opportunity to build loyalty and encourage referrals for your business. With the right plan in place, social media can deliver even more business to your door.