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An Unfair Advantage of Print in the Marketing Mix

admin — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:00:32 +0000

Marketing has evolved toward a complex route since the advent of the computer and the Internet. Today, most marketers consider print as the non-traditional way, and the traditional way becomes the digital avenue with blogging, article directories, social media, search, etc.

Traditional or non-traditional, this is the best opportune time for businesses to build brand in print, as local businesses are the focus for highest growing sector of online advertisement. The reason is easy to understand. Community newspapers are the trusted source for content and has the power to reach the local buyers in the way that media companies outside of the communities. While national digital media companies are spending money to build local presence, community papers already have an existing infrastructure of sales and content distribution channel with a long built trusted brand. According to Havas Worldwide research, 61% of the consumers are looking for businesses to be more active in their local communities.

Take for instance the case of TD Ameritrade’s ThinkMoney. Majority of its customers’ buying behavior is still influenced by the printed magazine. Another magazine, ChiefContentOfficer, is also doing well in the print market.

What makes them do well…

- Direct response layout and design

- Stimulating and instructive information and content

- Compelling contents awaited by followers that include traders

- The opportunity given by print for new questions and discoveries

- The continued enjoyable experience of followers that they look forward to the next thing, as mentioned by the marketing executives of ChiefContentOfficer.

The “Non-traditional” Marketing Stays

The death of TV was predicted a long time ago. But see where that medium is now. Models have even been upgraded to flat screen, LCD and LED. In the same manner, the death of printed media is predicted. On n the contrary, it is bound to stay. Why? The print media serves a different purpose and used differently by consumers. Surveys say that marketers continue to patronage the print media for these reasons

The print avenue continues to keep the interests flowing in the community, especially amidst the world cluttered with so many social media channels.
The print media provides the familiarity of layout and design for consumers.
The customer has a high recall and retention rate.
Costs can be contained.
The print media is like fashion that comes and goes away but comes back again, a sure pattern that has been going on ever since; hence, it is guaranteed to stay.
Customers turn to print media when there is a need to ask questions.
People are more thrilled to be featured on print, which remains to be regarded with more credibility compared with what’s featured on the web.
Print media provides a different experience to consume content as it allows people to step back, relax and be away from email, computer screen, and pushed advertisements.

The Marketing of Today

The efficiency by which the present traditional marketing medium such as email, social networking sites and the rest of what the technology has ushered in cannot be questioned. However, because people can reach almost anyone in an instant wherever they may be in the world, some people find the need to detach from it once in a while.

Given this fact, marketing executives may welcome the freedom from the all-encompassing, all-reaching online means. But then again, it is also here to stay and therefore, the new marketing mix composed of print and online avenues should be embraced and maximized to their full advantage. It may look like there is an unfair advantage of print in the marketing mix, having pointed out the reasons why it continues to play an important role cannot be denied.

Social Media Revamps Marketing Basics

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 18:54:26 +0000

Social Media Revamps Marketing Basics, The Fifth “P”
Have you observed how so many things have been changing since the advent of the social media? What used to be the norm is now redefined because of the more advanced ways businesses and targeted markets now interact.

The Change in Marketing

The basics of marketing used to be a straightforward theory and anyone who was successful in it knows them, the 4 Ps

Product – this is the very core why there is a need for marketing: to sell a product.

Price – there ought to be strategic pricing of a product.

Placement – this is essential in the success of reaching a product’s target market.

Promotion – is how a business makes its presence felt.

Learning the basics of marketing always began with this and has been effective since the 1960’s until recently. This used to be regarded as something changeable and may be mixed in a controlled manner to deliver business success.

In a report by Purdue University, the Four P’s of Marketing was said to be “a variable that you control”. Today, however, social media has changed the combination or mix of this idea, and it is no longer as simple as it has been re-defined where “variable” has more importance over “control”.

Social Media has added the fifth “P” in the mix, and that’s People. People has played an important role in marketing and drastically shifted the control from the businesses to the consumers.

Let’s take a look at how social media affects the four Ps before we dive into the People as its own

Social Media and Product

Product and its development cycle has been redefined in a way that businesses now take marketing campaigns and place them on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Marketing analysts and companies are using social media for product development and how it is being marketed and launched.

Feedback and hands-on customer information has direct impact on customer service and product definition. This impact is another form of what we’ve known as “focus” group. Social media is even better than traditional focus group since it’s working with existing customer base and not skewed by the bias or subjective list of questions. This helps companies to get customers involved in product development and enhancement of the product lifecycle.

Social Media and Pricing

In determining how price elasticity can affect customer-buying behavior, it can be tested over social media. How customers would react to the product and its price can be quickly determined at online shopping sites. Many consumer line of products have been introduced via this medium before scaling out. Not only does it help determine the product’s viability in the market, it’s the best place to hear customers’ comparison of competitor’s products.

The buying power now belongs to the customers, and therefore, their behavior, reaction and comments can directly help manufacturers to strategically and quickly formulate when and how to apply price changes, discounts and promotional coupons.

Social Media and Placement

Placement is one of the P’s that has been impacted the most. It plays a vital role in the availability of the product and its distribution to reach the targeted audience. People are now so much into convenience of online shopping 24×7 availability. First, online search changes the way online the products and services get found. Now, social media lets the consumers (people) recommend and share in a more active role taking over as a distribution channel. Placement is no longer just an online store but placed on the social networks allowing consumers to get other consumers opinion of the products and services. With the search and social media online impact, businesses has to place products or services at the top search results PLUS shared by friends.

Interactive marketing has driven placement over popular social sites such as Pinterest, Foursquare or Yelp. Successful marketers strategize product placement with knowledge of the targeted consumers and for better connection and relevancy.

Social media has changed the way products and services reach, get recommended and distributed to their targeted audience. These distribution channels must offer interactivity to include the buyer talk in the mix.

Social Media and Promotion

While not as utilized as the other Ps in Marketing where social media directly impacts, the importance of promotion in branding is essential, and it needs to be restructured. Typically, it incorporates the 4 Ps (product, price and placement) with the message it conveys to its targeted audience. Social media adds a layer of relevant content to connect with its audience.

An effective promotion educates a buyer about the product, its price and its placement. This is where a promotional plan gets tailored according to customers’ behavior, reaction and comments can work well in the success of a product.

Conclusion: The Impact of The Fifth P
Social media has given the microphone to the consumers and amplified their voices quickly across the market. The fifth “P” is People that heavily impacts on how the marketing basics get practiced today. This is how social media expands and reshape the basics of marketing by integrate “people” at the top of mind in strategic and execution plan.

Consider the number of followers social networking sites have – millions for Facebook, millions for Twitter and millions more for other sites – these are the number of real people that represent the real market who are the current and potential buyers. The product and services can grab attention and generated quality leads from these channels or get lost in the new world of overloaded information. Marketing success demands monitoring of the social networks and use the information to formulate the competitive plan, go to market plan, new product launch, business brand, etc.

Social media has taken the traditional concept and raised the marketing bar and demands with the new role of the People.

Newspaper 2.0–The Social Newspaper

admin — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 07:59:12 +0000

For the past several years now, people have been claiming that the internet edition of the newspaper is ‘Newspaper 2.0.’ So if we follow that train of thought, moving the newspaper to a mobile device is now ‘Newspaper 3.0?’ Look folks, moving the print edition newspaper onto another medium is not a revelation. It doesn’t justify announcing a next-generation leap–especially when that move resulted in nothing less than cannibalizing the newspaper’s bread-and-butter legacy edition, cutting deep into their revenue base, and putting their sustainability in question.

Newspaper 1.0 is something we’re all very familiar with. Print technology and content management systems have improved dramatically since the inception of the newspaper, but the newspaper industry as a whole with its subscription/advertising business model has not changed since the 1700’s. The newspaper industry enjoyed a fat monopoly until radio arrived in 1906. Radio commercials hit the airwaves in 1922, followed by radio news in 1938. Television debuted in 1936, followed by television commercials in 1940, and television news broadcasts in 1948. But the newspaper industry stuck to their guns, finding ways to share market and even work side-by-side with their new local market competitors. When the internet came along, the old-world newspaper just figured they would embrace this new medium by pushing their print edition online. Newspaper 2.0? I don’t think so. If anything, the online and mobile editions are at best ‘Newspaper 1.5.’ The only thing that’s changed with 1.5 is that the newspaper now competes with a plethora of free information available on the web, as well as their own pay-for print edition.

The future of newspapers has been widely debated as the industry has faced down soaring newsprint prices, slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising and precipitous drops in circulation. In recent years the number of newspapers slated for closure, bankruptcy or severe cutbacks has risen—especially in the United States, where the industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001. Revenue has plunged while competition from internet media has squeezed older print publishers.

Newspaper 2.0 signifies a shift in the newspaper business model–the dawn of a new age for the newspaper industry. Newspaper 2.0 is designed to take the newspaper industry to new heights– making it the center of the local community and serving as the public go-to destination for local information and communication. Newspaper 2.0 is The Social Newspaper. Newspaper 2.0 transforms the legacy newspaper into a local super-communications medium, using an online platform as its primary medium, engaging the local community in a continuous online conversation, aggregating locally relevant content from external social media feeds, and then channeling newsworthy community and professional journalistic content out to the traditional print vehicle. In 2.0 the newspaper model shifts—its role, how it generates revenue, and how it serves the local community.

We’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts, ideas, and comments on The Social Newspaper!

10 Strategic Changes the Newspapers Must Make to Reinvent Themselves

admin — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 05:59:53 +0000

In recent posts I pointed out many of the challenges the newspaper industry is facing:

Subscription and advertising revenues are on the decline
Attempts to move to the internet have had lackluster results
Operations have been cut to bare bones
Analysts have for the most part abandoned the industry

In the recent PEW report State of the News Media 2011

“…newspapers suffered continued revenue declines last year—an unmistakable sign that the structural economic problems facing newspapers are more severe than those of other media. When the final tallies are in, we estimate 1,000 to 1,500 more newsroom jobs will have been lost—meaning newspaper newsrooms are 30% smaller than in 2000.”

According to an article from the American Press Institute:

“The newspaper industry is at a strategic inflection point – a period of disruptive changes that threaten its current way of doing business with no clear future path. The threats come from many directions but are manifesting themselves in the form of declining circulation, rising costs and downward revenue pressure. These trends show no sign of reversing themselves.The industry’s very survival is dependent on its ability to reframe completely the way it does business, and find new ways to attract and keep customers.”The war against the newspaper industry is mounting—as are new-media competitors focused on local market share. The threat is real and the competitors are unrelenting. But all is not lost! There is still time to be disruptive and thrive—that is if the newspaper industry does not let their legacy business model stand in the way of seizing new opportunities.

The following are the 10 strategic changes the newspapers must make to reinvent themselves:
1. Flip the Model. Print is dead—well, not yet, and not entirely. The digital world has changed the way information is distributed and consumed. It’s time that the newspaper industry think outside of the ‘legacy’ box. Creative and innovative solutions will happen when the newspaper moves their online business to the center of the business model and their traditional print vehicle is used to enhance the online strategy. Only then will the newspaper be able to formulate strategies that generate new and sustainable streams of revenue.
2. Flip the Focus. The newspaper continues to focus on creating content and then pushing it to readers and subscribers. In today’s world of hyper-information, content is increasingly omnidirectional–a trend that will not go away anytime soon. In order to thrive again, the newspaper needs to shift their focus and mindset to incorporate local conversations and community engagement into their content strategy. Ultimately, the newspaper must reposition themselves as the local central resource and destination for information and community engagement.
3. Leverage Assets. In Sun Tzu’s classic The Art of War, he tells us that to be successful requires careful strategy and expert perception, superior subtlety and technique, and skillful application of your assets and attributes. It’s no longer simply about excellence in journalism or the ability to produce and deliver information. Newspapers need to recognize is that their biggest assets and unfair competitive advantage are their trusted brand and their relationships in their local market. They must use these long-earned assets to build a barrier of entry for the new-media giants who continue to chip away at local market-share.
4. Engage the Community. Professional journalism is respected and appreciated but no longer the only source of news and information in the local community. People today want access to real and raw content (stories, conversations, commentary, pictures, etc.), generated by people in their own local communities. Content today is as much about the local conversation as it is professional journalism. Local newspapers are best positioned to create a quality hybrid content model—where professional and community-generated content co-exist. Local content that peaks interest online can greatly enhance the local print edition experience. In the end, the newspaper industry may even realize an increase in print sales and readership because of renewed interest.
5. Make it Live. Real-time communication is becoming an ever-increasing part of our online daily routine. The newspaper cannot expect to drive continuous interest from a static online publication that accompanies a static print publication. A real-time component generates curiosity and encourages community engagement to increase online hang-time, which directly translates into increased advertising revenue. It’s vital that the newspaper, as part of its overall strategy, includes a social component where local residents can engage and interact in real-time conversations.
6. Bring It to the People. People are getting a large (and ever-increasing) percentage of their information from a myriad of online social media destinations. As a local and central information resource, the newspaper needs to extend their offering by driving localized external social media content into their local online destination. The most popular and interesting social media content can be published back into the print edition. This strategy will further promote the newspaper’s new role as the ‘local information resource.’ Rather than searching across multiple social media sites for interesting content, the community can simply turn to the newspaper’s local online destination—a venerable one-stop shop for local social media content.
7. Make it Viral. Social destinations are the most successful destinations on the web today. People connect with others who share similar interests and experiences. Connecting and sharing with others creates a viral effect and fosters local relationships within organizations, neighborhoods, schools, shops, clubs, etc. People ‘want’ a local social destination, where they can connect and communicate with others in their local community. Local newspapers are part of the fabric of the community and the most obvious choice to offer such an online local social destination.
8. Create New Revenue Models. Newspapers are already uniquely positioned for dominance in local markets. Now it’s time for the newspaper to optimize revenue by fully-utilizing its in-house sales force, adopting performance-driven models, and extending advertising packages with new and innovative local ad cross-platform models. In addition, newspapers need to position themselves to swiftly capitalize on emerging revenue models as they appear. Offering a full range of advertising packages and models gives every local advertiser the opportunity to participate regardless of budgetary constraints.
9. Engage and Invigorate Local Business. Local businesses are a vital component of the local community. The newspaper has an opportunity to help local businesses extend beyond their business boundaries to become a ‘resource’ for the community. Using the newspaper’s new ‘local marketing platform’, local businesses can become part of the local conversation—informing, educating, and entertaining their community–building trust and retention. The local advertising model shifts, creating a win-win solution for everyone in the community.
10. Act Now! Time is NOT the newspaper’s friend. The newspaper industry has a ‘window’ of opportunity, but that window is narrowing. Staying the course is no longer an option as new-media competitors dig deeper into local markets. The newspaper industry needs to act fast, leveraging their assets to create barriers for new-media companies. Change is hard, and scary–especially in a business that hasn’t fundamentally changed in over 300 years (Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick is said to be the first newspaper published in America, printed in Boston on September 25, 1690), but change they must. Change is no longer a nice-to-do, but a ‘must-do.’

Any ideas you’d like to share? Comments are encouraged!

STOP PATCH IN ITS TRACKS—BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

admin — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 05:20:07 +0000

It’s no secret that Patch wants to put a stake through the heart of the newspaper industry. This equates to nothing less than an invasion by a huge corporation whose objective is to eliminate the local newspaper, implant their local advertising platform, and suck dollars out of small towns.

“Paul Hoffman from EditorsWebLog.org asks, “Will local competitors be able to withstand this huge corporation’s invasion or will they fold?”
Patch recently told Bloomberg that as they move forward, they will become “a lot more social.” The writing is on the wall. Publishers no longer have the luxury of time and cannot afford to ‘bet the bank’ on guesswork, bad decisions, experimentation, or lengthy and expensive development projects. The very best option is to partner with a company who has a real and immediate solution—a solution that allows the publishers to focus valuable money and resources where it makes the biggest impact—on sales and marketing.

“Tim Armstrong, CEO of Patch lays out their basis for success, “It’s not about who’s local or who’s from out of town, it’s who’s better at serving consumers, both the audience and the advertisers.”

GET PATCH GUARD

In order to beat Patch, the publishers must move quickly, with a sound and innovative solution that will secure their local investment and not put their online business in further jeopardy. The solution needs to embrace social media and capture local community conversations before Patch can get there. TotalPaas gives publishers a leap forward with their own local and monetizable geo-social networking solution. With TotalPaas, publishers can focus their energy and resources on serving consumers and generating revenue.

NO FEES. No startup costs, no service fees, and no recurring fees– NONE, ZERO, NADA.
NO WAITING. Turnkey platform with flexible portal design modules ready to launch within a week.
NO DEVELOPMENT. TotalPaas has a trained and qualified staff of engineers that innovate to meet industry demands.
NO HOSTING HEADACHES. Managed hosting with high security and failover protection!
BUILT-IN SEO & SMO. No need to pay the extra SEO and SMO service with a dynamic platform built for backlinks.
COMMUNITY-MINDED MARKETING PLAYBOOK. TotalPaas offers a unique grassroots approach to local social marketing that drives new sales leads from local conversations and interactions.

10 BENEFITS OF PARTNERING WITH TOTALPAAS

1. WIN-WIN. If the publisher doesn’t get paid, TotalPaas doesn’t get paid. True partnerships mean that everyone is ‘all-in’ and that everyone has an equally vested interest in the success of the site.

2. ADS THAT WORK. CPM-based ad models are confusing and inneffective at local levels. TotalPaas’ patent-pending distance-based ad model is designed for local business– simple and effective.

3. SELF-DRIVEN REVENUE. With TotalPaas, local businesses have the power to generate and manage their own subscriptions and ads. Advertising contracts are automatically charged on a recurring monthly basis.

4. ARMED SALES STAFF. Provide sales staff with new and competitive online sales options to easily win over local businesses that are being bombarded with daily calls from competitors.

5. INCREASED HANG TIME. Social platform continuously engages citizens and businesses in local conversations, drives up hang time and results in opportunities for higher ad performance.

6. POWER IN NUMBERS. Be a part of a local advertising network across multiple-publishers and attract regional and national advertisers.

7. OWN YOUR USER DATA. With user behavioral data, you can demand the highest local ad dollars through highly relevant and effective ad campaigns.

8. COMMUNITY MARKETING PROGRAM. TotalPaas participates in developing your grassroot community marketing program to jump start the market launch and drive leads with local engagement.

9. BETTER TOGETHER. Join together in a network of like-minded people helping each other in a TotalPaas community support forum for building a strong pre-sales and post-sales knowledge base for all partners.

10. FORMULATED FOR SUCCESS. TotalPaas provides a comprehensive solution, formulated for success. Throughout the lifecycle of the partnership, TotalPaas is there for each and every partner, providing guidance and support to ensure that the program is optimized for success.

Hyperlocal Social Media Marketing

admin — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 05:43:11 +0000

The Internet has changed the world as we once knew it. Traditional small businesses were able to open their doors to their community and be on their merry way to a long and happy successful future. Times have changed and we no longer have that automatic dedicated sense of loyalty to community businesses or do we? In fact, millions of dollars are spent on products bought online where the buyer and seller never even see each other or take part in the transaction at the same time. The reality is that you have to be constantly connecting with your local customers if you want them to come into your business and buy from you.

You Need More Than a Website and a Blog

Build a web site and the customers will come has taken a completely different direction in today’s business world and for any business to simply have a website and a blog is just not enough. Today you need to build an online brand and to integrate social media into your marketing strategy. The major concern for most businesses is managing the content, keeping it current and running the necessary promotions to attract customers. Sites such as twitter and Facebook are very popular and they can drive huge traffic to your business site, but they take time to update and keep up, time that most small business owners do not have. While it may seem like a burden to update the company website, write blog posts, and then post to twitter and other social media sites. However, in order to get the most out of your community, it is necessary in today’s market place. But is it enough to just use these social media tools and hope for the best?

For small community based businesses it really seems like a waste of time to use large international social media sites, but the fact is they are becoming increasingly hyperlocal, meaning they are able to provide and show advertisements that are targeted to the users. Ads do provide value when they have meaning to the viewer. But a local community needs much more than just local advertising, it needs local news and it needs local people to engage with eachother and local businesses. So is there dedicated sense of loyalty to community businesses? The answer is yes if local business know how to properly engage local community customers. Is it enough to just use these social media tools and hope for the best? Absolutely, NO! Just depending on the current social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, and dozen of other popular tools out there will not resolve the dilema that is plaguing the social media and local business community. You need to go beyond these tools and become integrated in a hyperlocal social media marketing ecosystem.

Benefits of Hyperlocal Social Media Marketing

TotalPass provides a hyperlocal social media marketing platform developed for local communities, small businesses, online businesses, newspaper publishers and local TV networks. The TotalPaas platform allows a very simple way for local communities and local businesses to focus on the essentials that create a fully functional hyperlocal community. The goal is to engage vistors to your website and have them become subscribers, focused viewers, and users together with a common interest in building and supporting the community as a whole. Growing and fostering a community increases hang time, the amount of time individuals spend on your website and also increases brand loyalty, which leads to lifetime of loyal customers who will buy from you more often.

The TotalPass hyperlocal marketing platform allows you to manage your total online business presents from one place. TotalPass offers many services including proven marketing methods to reach out to similar communities and drive traffic to your site, service that allows you to focus on your job instead of technical problems, and content that encourages users to post, share, and discuss with each other to grow the community and loyalty.

TotalPass also offers many hyperlocal focused web applications. PortalPass takes search results to the hyperlocal level by sorting the most relevant information for your community. Analytics provide scalable results so you can see what needs to be improved and what is doing well. Widgets allow web users to customize their own dashboard by dragging and dropping the information that is useful to them. Other applications include a hyperlocal ad server, personal bookmark, classifieds, news, activities, and events, and groups and discussions.

TotalPaas has leveled the playing field by bringing the same powerful technologies of the large news media affiliates to the smaller social community sites. They have the functionality to support national news and local information relevant to smaller communities while incorporating relevant advertising at a local level. TotalPaas aggregates all types of media and user behaviors. It connects every local business ad to the targeted consumer at the highest level of relevancy across location, interest and demographics. TotalPaas builds solid solutions for its business partners to capture the untapped revenue opportunities with their online presence.

Social Marketing: Taking the First Steps

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:40:58 +0000

The world of hyperlocal news is abuzz with talk about social media. Organizations that want to make the most out of online marketing have to give careful consideration to today’s top social networking sites. Initially, many businesses had a hard time taking social media seriously; today, those who don’t are at risk of falling behind the competition. More than likely, you don’t need to be convinced about the importance of hyperlocal social media; chances are, though, that you need a little direction about how to begin. The following information can help.

The First Steps

So, what are the first steps in incorporating social media into your overall marketing scheme? First, you need to understand the value that social media holds for your business. Do a little research using the keywords and hashtags that relate to your industry; compare and contrast your results on various social networking websites. This will give you an initial glimpse into what’s happening in social media as it relates to your business – and might just surprise you. After all, a recent study by NetProspex revealed that 43% of the 100,000 business people they surveyed use LinkedIn.

Track Down Your Customers

Next, you need to figure out which social networking sites your customers frequent. You’re not going to want to waste your time with Facebook, for instance, if an insignificant number of prospective customers “hang out” there. Before you can implement an effective hyperlocal social media platform, you need to get a handle on where to find your current customers – and those who you’d like to turn into customers.

Is It Worth Your Time?

After figuring out where your customers and prospective customers are, you need to confirm whether or not your business should have social networking profiles. More than likely, it will make sense to do so.

Target Socially-Connected Individuals

If you decide to go ahead and engage in a hyperlocal social media website, you should identify the people who are the most socially connected. These folks will have oodles of “followers,” “friends” and connections. They’re the ones who will be able to spread your message quickly, efficiently and authoritatively.

From there, the sky is the limit when it comes to social marketing. Remember that getting personal is the name of the game when it comes to social networking. Engage your customers and communicate with them; the returns can be absolutely phenomenal!

Ways Users are Changing the Face of Publishing

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:34:46 +0000

It started with music, but has been slowly spreading to other industries. The digital takeover shows no signs of slowing. All businesses and industries go through changes, but what makes this time different is the force behind the change. This time, users are driving publishers to change how they do business, or face being shut down. Consumers, or users, have more power than ever before. With the click of a button, users can now purchase, upload, and instantly enjoy music, information, news, and books.

Take, for example, the music industry. Thanks in large part to the popularity of Apple’s iTunes and iPod, music has gone digital. Record labels tried everything to stop it from happening, but the users had made up their minds. They no longer wanted to buy CDs, records, or tapes, they wanted MP3 players and digital content. Instead of the record labels being in charge, the users had taken over. As time has passed, new benefits emerged. Users and musicians can connect and collaborate like never before. Social media gave musicians a powerful platform to promote their music and image while giving fans an outlet for sharing their opinions and fan art. Users are able to become much more involved in the music and culture than ever before.

Users become their own publishers online. Anyone with a video mode on their cell phone can take a quick video, upload it to their computer, edit it with easy to use video editing software, and then upload it to any of the thousands of websites they choose. There are entire websites that are full of information, videos, and games created by users. Promotion is even easier. With the click of a button, posts and links can be shared on countless social media sites where thousands or even millions of people will be exposed to them.

Mobile devices such as cell phone, iPads and tablets, and digital book readers have been changing the way users find information including news, weather, and sports. As the sale of traditional print newspapers continues to slow, the industry has been finding ways of embracing the transition. They realize users are much more receptive to targeted ads and hyperlocal news, now made possible on digital devices.

The book publishers are still trying to figure out the best way to approach the transition from hard copy to digital. Clearly, it is beneficial for them to create and distribute digital copies due to the money and time that is saved by not having to print the books. However, there is still some concern over the pricing. Some ebook reader manufactures and publishers want to charge the same amount for the digital copy as they do for the hard copy. Others, such as Amazon and the Kindle, charge a much smaller fee for digital books. Users will once again be the deciding factor. It will be up to them to decided which device they want to buy and what price they want to pay for the digital books.

Search Engine and Social Media Marketing: Great Brand-Building Strategies

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:31:44 +0000

One very basic marketing concept revolves around brand building. In order to create and maintain a positive image with your customers and prospective customers, you need to develop a solid brand. There are many different ways to go about brand building, and the Internet has made it easier than ever to do so. If you’re not already using the Internet to enhance your company’s image, you’re missing out on many topnotch possibilities. Social media and search engines, especially, present some very useful ways to enhance a brand-building campaign.

Brand Building Through Search Engines

Search engines are the backbones of the Internet. Most people rely on them as a part of their daily online experience. When done correctly, search engine optimization and other techniques can be used to create associations between your organization and certain strategically chosen keywords. This can be beneficial in a couple of ways. First, it allows people to quickly and easily find your organization online – all they need to do is plug a few relevant keywords into a search engine. Second, it can bring new customers into the fold, allowing the right people to find you.

How Social Media Comes into Play

Since a huge percentage of people maintain profiles on social media websites, they are excellent places to cultivate your company’s brand and image. Unlike in the past, a company’s image hinges on the public’s opinion about it – and that opinion is driven by consumers, not advertisers. In other words, social media has put consumers back in the driver’s seat when it comes to brand building. By plugging into social media, you can keep an eye on what consumers are saying about your brand, perform damage control and interact with users in a concrete way.

Making it Happen

There are many great strategies for performing effective brand building through search engines and social media. Content is king, and continually updated content is essential. You should also strive to provide engaging content that draws users in with ease. Interaction is also crucial – provide forums or comment sections where people can provide feedback that you can respond to in meaningful ways. Finally, be transparent about your social media campaign and promote it whenever possible. In the end, you’ll be able to take control of your company’s image and build your brand on your own terms.

Why Many Brands will Leave Facebook

admin — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:27:50 +0000

In a move that went largely unnoticed, Facebook recently debuted a revised version of the Community Pages feature. When users search for many popular brands, the first result that they’ll get – and the one that most of them will ultimately land on – will be the brand’s Community Page. This page will simply cull information from Wikipedia; the actual brand or organization will have no control over how the page is designed. In the event of erroneous or misleading information, the brand will have to make changes to its Wikipedia entry – a feat that is often easier said than done. The bottom line of this latest Facebook debacle is that many brands will choose to steer clear of the social networking site altogether.

Widespread Confusion Abounds About Brand Identity

Many Facebook users will be blissfully unaware that they’re not actually visiting an authorized page that’s been set up by the brand that they’ve been looking up. When they’re presented with the Wikipedia-slash-Community page, they’re often going to think that they’re on the official Facebook page for the brand in question. This can lead to aggravation and annoyance, especially since Community Pages don’t have walls that users can use to post comments and questions. Ultimately, many people will be left with bad tastes in their mouths about the brands that they’ve been searching for on Facebook – and many brands will be reluctant to participate on the site at all.

Advice for Promoting Your Brand on Facebook

If you don’t plan on pulling your brand from Facebook, there are some steps that you should take in order to maintain its image. Make sure that your privacy policy is clearly displayed on your brand’s official Facebook page. Avoid using black hat techniques, like paying for “likes,” in order to spread the word about your brand on social networking website. Carefully and continuously monitor your brand’s Wikipedia entry so that potential problems can be nipped in the bud. Communicate openly and honestly with your customers, and use a marketing strategy that is as transparent and above-board as possible. In the end, your brand will come out ahead.