Category: Social Media

Social Media Strategy – Why Should You Have One?

Imagine a whole network of people orbiting around your business, getting included in the processes and feedback of your ideas, providing free advertising for you through the phenomenon of word-of-mouth, making your company into a familiar brand. Now, it won’t always work like this, but the opportunity is there. You can make a dent in your visibility and increase the stretch of your marketing campaign’s arms by reaching the largest amount of customers possible through the various platforms of social media – a reach that is incomparable to what you have been doing before.

Social Media Strategies – Why Should I Have One?

Well… it’s the next big thing, doncha know? It really is. Social media is currently unavoidable and is causing a storm in the marketing world. You can either stay in the dark ages or you can get with the times, and judging by the very real and impressive results some companies are getting, we would recommend the latter.

But there’s no point jumping on the bandwagon in a keeping up with the Jones’ kind of way. One of the reasons many strategies fail is because a company gets impatient, doesn’t take the time to think objectively about what they want to achieve and how they intend on doing it, then quickly lose focus when they don’t get the results they expect. Others become a little too obsessed with their Twitter interactions and forget about the actual work… As Buddha suggests, “Take the middle path.”

A good social media strategy requires a lot of thought and planning – you need to think about your goals, you need to include your entire company when embarking on this relatively new route to market, you need to prepare content and set aside time to put your aims into practice.

Because we all like a good list of top tips, let’s put it like this:

#1 – Social media is a MASSIVE opportunity for building your brand. Massive. MaHOOsive. Imagine a whole network of people orbiting around your business, getting included in the processes and feedback of your ideas, providing free advertising for you through the phenomenon of word-of-mouth, making your company into a familiar brand. Now, it won’t always work like this, but the opportunity is there. You can make a dent in your visibility and increase the stretch of your marketing campaign’s arms by reaching the largest amount of customers possible through the various platforms of social media – a reach that is incomparable to what you have been doing before.

#2 – Social media has a place for everyone. Where do you belong? Well try out Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, Scribd or a gazillion more of the social media platforms out there. Have a good browse, there are many subject specific niche sites which may focus your results more effectively, such as Hugg (ahhh) for environmental issues, Kirsty for fashion and design, Sphinn for search and interactive marketers, Tweako for guides and tutorials and Autospies for, you guessed it, everything automotive. And there is a ton more if you just look – some are not very well publicised, some are not very active, but hey, it’s up to you to find the best forum for your content.

#3 – Social media is a cheaper alternative to traditional advertising. It takes narry a penny to set up accounts for email, a blog, or any of the sites listed in #2. It takes man power and man hours to manage, but very little, if anything, to maintain. There are tools to help things work more smoothly and integrate all your different areas of networking which charge for services, but it is possible to run a social media campaign for next to nothing. You are reaching your targeted demographic (and beyond) for the price of your broadband…

#4 – Social media allows you to see what your clients are saying about you. It’s no secret that posting certain opinions on social media sites has got people into trouble with bosses, spouses, friends and the law, but a bit of honesty is extremely healthy for marketing. People hang up the minute they realise there’s a market researcher calling, yet they’ll freely publicise their opinions on products and services online. In fact, most people jump at the chance to give their two pennies’ worth. As long as you respond to bad feedback in a productive and professional way, you can use this information to increase your offerings based on cold hard facts, and end up giving your customers exactly what they want.

#5 – Social media makes us all equal. Social media has a great levelling power. If you’re a little local business, trying to branch out into the big bad world of the web – great, you can achieve much wider popularity than just advertising in your home town, doing what you do best, providing great personalised services. If you’re a fat cat company, struggling with a public face like a blank wall – great, you can interact with your customers on a personal level, make yourselves accessible and friendly and show the world you’re not just a corporate suit. The fact that everyone from your little niece to your doddery granny is getting online and getting involved with social media means that everyone has a voice, and everyone has an opportunity to be friends. Ah, isn’t that nice? Now go sell yourself.

Ikroh is a Search Engine Optimisation company that is 100% ethical and hugely passionate about our clients and their success online. We work as a close knit team on a one to one level with all of our clients – an uncommon strength in the web marketing field.

We offer a complete range of internet marketing services, including SEO, Pay Per Click advertising, Web Audits and Social Media.

www.ikroh.com


Quantcast


Smash your competitors by 1 week social media strategy

These are obsolete questions because everybody is now well familiar with the term social media networking and how businesses are being flourished all over the globe. With cost-effective, striking and focused social media networking, companies had brought great revival on virtual world as well as offline world because it directly affected traditional marketing styles. People now prefer online social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace, Friendster etc for the promotions of their goods and services and creating burly bond with the local as well as global world.

What is social media? Why we need social media? What it does for businesses? What benefits can we get from it? Is it worth using? bla bla bla.

These are obsolete questions because everybody is now well familiar with the term social media networking and how businesses are being flourished all over the globe. With cost-effective, striking and focused social media networking, companies had brought great revival on virtual world as well as offline world because it directly affected traditional marketing styles. People now prefer online social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace, Friendster etc for the promotions of their goods and services and creating burly bond with the local as well as global world.

I insist you to go everywhere where you think your audience is. Do not stick to single network. If you are on Facebook, try digging out Twitter too and interact with your Facebook fans there as well. It will be an attraction for new fans or followers seeing you interacting so pleasantly with people. In short, we all know it; now let’s find some smart ways to smash your competitors in a very less time. Say, a week time and your business will be able to develop a remarkable position on different social media networks.

Start blogging

Create your brand’s official blog in the first place without delaying a second. When you will have your official blog and link it to your Facebook profile with customized options available, it will automatically establish your credibility when they will see you actively working on your blog, sharing news and information and being buddy-buddy with the blogger world. Atleast a week time you will require and you would be able to have quality blog, stuffed with interesting and informative content.

Let me remind you one thing, it’s not outer appearance of your blog theme only that would insist them to come back. It will be quality of your content. Your blog theme matters a lot though.

A week dedicated to customer service

Customer service is a great part of social media networking. It’s all about human business, how you treat your niche, how you solve their problems, how you listen them and come up with some solutions. You have to maintain a win-win situation. Neither can you let down your customers, nor the grace and dignity of your business.

Ask them what problems they face, and give some smart solutions. Listening is most important and justification is even more.

Fulfill your corporate social responsibility

It is the best way to serve your society or community as well in the cover of your business’ success. You can start a virtual corporate social responsibility program on social media networks like Facebook, twitter, Bebo etc. Spread about it on your blogs as well. There are hell lots of issues that need awareness, and all you need to have some time to talk about them.

It will bring good-will for your brand in the hearts of your niche, because of the positive image you show. It is less expensive and most influencing. Time is the cost.

This is a week social media strategy program, feel the difference after a week. You will get more energy for your business, more people in your business and more good wishes for your business.

For further details please feel free to visit our web site http://www.socialfactory.net


Quantcast


Fear of Social Media: See no evil

What’s stopping you from including social media in your marketing plan? Is it a fear of the unknown? Many companies often react this way. It’s a common human reaction to things that are considered new or unfamiliar. Moving your brand into a space that enables direct conversation and engagement with your consumers can be a scary idea for many businesses. How would you react if customer sentiment turns negative?

Here are some pointers on how to manage unexpected or negative comments and why you need be there to respond:

Listen – as with all marketing, listening is the first step to understanding your customers. Listen to what is being said about your brand.
Have a plan – it’s important to consider how you will respond to different situations, this will avoid feeling shocked or unprepared when comments appear. You should build hypothetical response scenarios into your social media strategy.
Stay calm – seeing negative comments can insight panic, try to stay level headed and think carefully about the best way to respond.
Get your facts straight – make sure that your response is accurate and truthful, you’ll only have a backlash to deal with if you are found to be hiding facts.
Be transparent – this shows that you believe in your brand and will openly respond to critics. Mag Nation did this well recently when they openly posted a negative comment, that had been directed at them, with their response and then tweeted it out to their followers.
Be true to your brand – don’t change your voice. If your brand has a particular personality, maintain this in your response. Why suddenly change to a corporate, dry tone and confuse fans and followers?

Be true to your brand – don’t change your voice. If your brand has a particular personality, maintain this in your response. Why suddenly change to a corporate, dry tone and confuse fans and followers?

Even if you are scared of social media at first, keep in mind that it will get easier with time and experience. It is also important to remember that it is better for your brand to be aware of comments, both good and bad, to ensure you get a chance to respond to them. Being scared of what people may say doesn’t stop them saying it, it just means that you are choosing to ignore it. As previously mentioned Mag Nation’s recent response was handled well and met with positive comments from their readers. See Mag Nation’s full response here.

Do you have any examples of well executed responses?

I am a Social Media Coordinator at Daemon Group, a Sydney based integrated communications agency specialising in brand, employee to business communications, marketing and digital. I love the endless development and opportunities within the social media world. Working within this industry keeps me motivated, challenged and inspired.


Quantcast


How Social Media Is Helping the Hyundai Motor Company

“Finding important and relevant information is not easy when you are unfamiliar with how to perform certain modifications,” said a Hyundai spokesperson. “Having a forum and website where answers to important questions are laid out for you, would help with modifying your Hyundai to its highest potential.”

Building Better Cars and Better Customer Relations.

Hyundai has been getting a lot of attention these days as a company that cares about its customers and part of this success can be credited to social media marketing. By integrating a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy with social media along with their traditional marketing, Hyundai has branded itself as an altruistic company that really does care about its’ customers. In fact – Hyundai has jumped ahead of every other car manufacturer in the critical customer satisfaction index (CSI) category. Here are a few examples how Hyundai is applying their social media marketing strategy in key parts of their business and how it is paying off.

Promotion

Hyundai’s Assurance Program began in early 2009 when the economy was at its worst and unemployment was rising rapidly. The Hyundai Assurance Program promised that if you got laid off from your job, you could return your car and not even have to worry about honoring the rest of the note payable. The promotion was innovative but coming from a major car corporation was it believable? The attention the campaign received from the press and from many blogs and websites was skeptical.

Hyundai began promoting the idea on Facebook and Twitter. They asked everyone to buzz and tweet about it and people responded with enthusiasm. The idea of social networking for business exposure is not new but the strategy was extraordinary because it laid the groundwork for the campaign and gave it credibility. It was a brilliant way to market a promotion that really did work. Sharing this information on Facebook and Twitter turned out to be a big plus for the car company’s marketing campaign.

Hyundai sales are up 6.2 percent through November 2009. This marks the eleventh consecutive month of year-over-year gains in retail market share by Hyundai. The Hyundai Assurance Program is without doubt one of the reasons their sales have increased this year while other car manufacturers have floundered.

Corporate Responsibility

Zafar Brooks, Director of Government Relations and Diversity Outreach at Hyundai, has a refreshing perspective on the value of social media when combined with corporate outreach programs. The Hyundai “Hope on Wheels” program fights pediatric cancer by funding cancer research programs across the country. Brooks understands the importance of authenticity and relevance in social media outreach, particularly on behalf of corporate charitable programs.

He said: “Consumers are more sophisticated now — corporate social responsibility programs are no longer something that is ‘nice’ to do, but it’s expected of the company,” noted Brooks. “Simultaneously, consumers will smell-out what is not authentic — Hope on Wheels isn’t advertised, but is part of the news we share with our brand loyalists,” he said. “It is a part of our story because it is a part of who we are and what we are about. Social media should be authentic and organic.”

Mr. Brooks added, “Brand leaders must align themselves with a cause that is consistent with corporate values so they can illustrate their relevancy. Leadership has to establish the priorities around which we stand and make it part of our messaging point.”

Brooks concluded: “All social media should link together with a common objective to develop a program based on who we want to talk to about what we want to accomplish. Social media outreach must be part of a cohesive approach. Consumers will smell-out what is not authentic!”

Aftermarket

Hyundai Aftermarket recently announced the launch of a new social media campaign. The goal was to give Hyundai owners a new way of finding content on the internet about modifying their vehicles. The interactive social media campaign involves additional features being built into the Hyundai forum that owners can use effectively to get the word out about what they are doing to make their cars stand out from the rest. Twitter accounts and Facebook “Fan Pages” have been built so that owners can follow live updated news feeds about Hyundai Aftermarket as well.

“Finding important and relevant information is not easy when you are unfamiliar with how to perform certain modifications,” said a Hyundai spokesperson. “Having a forum and website where answers to important questions are laid out for you, would help with modifying your Hyundai to its highest potential.”

While the site has been branded as the “web’s most premier Hyundai forum” and currently is the oldest Hyundai forum on the internet, it has been designed for both the amateur and professional car enthusiast in mind. The site is built on the principle of being very easy going and helpful to anyone who may or may not know a lot about Hyundai’s. Users register for free and can partake in discussions about Hyundai Accents, Tiburons, Elantra’s, Sonata’s, Santa Fe’s and the all new Hyundai Genesis.

In addition to providing great technical content, hyundaiaftermarket provides great off topic discussions ranging in everything from technology to music & movies to even food and health/nutrition.

Sofia Sapojnikova
Vesta Digital
IntelBuilder Social Media Platform
http://www.vestadigital.com


Quantcast


7 Steps To Leverage Social Media For Increasing Web Site Traffic

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. have become popular among the internet marketers. Most marketers hawk their websites, blog, affiliate links, list building URLs, etc. all day long to drive traffic to their web sites. Not only it is annoying to the network members, but also the effectiveness of such a strategy is yet to be proven.

However, you cannot ignore this emerging medium. You need to embrace it using a different mindset. If you follow the seven guidelines discussed below, you will be able to increase traffic to your site from these social media sites without exposing yourself as a self-centered marketer who will do anything to cash in on every opportunity.

1. Create a profile page at each site and detail your interests, expertise, blogs, and websites in your profile. In Twitter, you are limited by text space and the number of URLs you can use in your bio. Facebook has more flexibility and you can pull your blog RSS into the Facebook notes.

Social network sites are pull medium where the old push marketing fails miserably. Your goal should be to pull people to your profile page by regularly posting valuable and interesting contents from other sites. You can post your blog article in Twitter occasionally but don’t submit every blog post your create.

2. The old school marketing relies on four Ps – price, product, placement, and promotion. The social media adds another dimension and one more P to the marketing philosophy and it is the participation.

You need to participate in the conversion and at the same time encourage others to participate. If you want to build a community that will trust you, you need to participate by providing expert opinions and valuable information. You need to help others when somebody has a question. Even if don’t know the answer, find it out by spending sometime on the Web.

You also need to draw others in the discussions by asking questions, giving controversial opinions, raising interesting issues that affect your niche. Passively posting your URL all over the place will not bring traffic to your site. Only concerted efforts to position yourself as a knowledgeable person in your niche will result in more visitors to your site.

3. To position yourself as an expert in your niche, you need to create contents that are fresh, interesting, and valuable to your readers. You also have to discover high quality contents in your niche for sharing with others. Subscribe to a few dozen blogs and scan them everyday for high quality contents so that you can share it with others in your network.

4. You cannot hide yourself in the social media world. If you are a fake, people will discover it fast and you will lose trust and traffic. So, be authentic, transparent and humble in all your conversations. If you make a mistake, admit it and move on.

5. To establish your credibility and expertise, you should read a wide variety of topics in your niche and explain them to others in the form of blog post, ebooks, white papers, etc. Give it all for free without any strings attached. Encourage others to distribute your materials.

If you are not sharing some valuable information, somebody else will share it. You cannot hide any information. It is better to be the first mover than wondering how did everybody find it out.

6. Be prepared to change your mind set. The old school mindset for driving traffic is posting you site links everywhere. The social media mind set is establishing yourself as an expert and sharing your knowledge. Once people know that you are a good resource for solutions to their problems, they will come to your site and you can monetize your site in different ways.

If you are wondering how you are going to make money if you give every thing for free than you need to understand this new medium before you jump into the bandwagon by posting your URLs every hour. Your goal is to drive traffic to your site. Your site may monetize using a variety of methods like, third party advertisement, selling tutorials, affiliate marketing, selling memberships, etc.

7. Social media is a marketing tool set that you leverage to drive traffic to your web site. For leveraging this new medium, you need to establish yourself as a good community member first. Don’t be farcical like Walmart who paid to Jim and Laura to blog around the country in Walmart parking lots capturing stories of Walmart employees and how they loved to work at Walmart.

You may enjoy a short-lived traffic boost to your site, but it will not last longer. When the truth is exposed, it will be a public relation nightmare for you or your brand. Build your brand by telling the truth. There is nothing wrong if you are sponsored by a corporation, just reveal the truth.

Post free classifieds and free ads for all your free online marketing needs. Build links and traffic using free social media link building tool created by Dr. Deepak Dutta

Fighting Recession With Social Media – Part 1

Should StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Twitter, or other social media applications going to be your only source of market research? Of course not, but social media offers an abundance of honest conversation from which business can gather a wide range of vital information.

As budgets are drying up entrepreneurs are turning, yet again, to technology, social media comes to the rescue. Words such as YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn would have been considered typos not too recently have become part of our corporate success dictionary. Social media offers companies inexpensive ways to improve their customer service, ramp up their customer service, learn more about their market, reduce their expenses, and more.

Improve your customer service

Having a conversation with your customers through social media is a new business skill. In an effort to improve its public image, Dell has made a conscious effort to connect with its customers through various social media channels such as blogs, forums, and various third-party websites. Dell had to appreciate that customers talked about their products online, and the company was forced to become part of the conversation. With a little help from their social media friend Dell managed to make improvements to its Latitude laptop. Note: It was a Dell laptop that exploded into flames at a conference in Japan.

Social media is the great equalizer as the story of Jeff Jarvis, an unhappy Dell customer, shows. Jarvis took on this giant of a company using his own blog. He managed to create awareness about customer concerns that had reached an international audience. Initially, Dell had ignored the blog voicing Jarvis’ concerns until his blog became the outlet for public conversation of customer issues. His blog, the BuzzMachine, has become the focus of Dell’s mistakes, poor customer service and flawed products.

The blogosphere doesn’t create the problems it simply brings them to light, and it makes it possible for business to address the issues at hand. Now, the CEOs of companies don’t have to take customer service managers word for it, they can learn about customer issues directly from the source. Some might argue that somehow this is a bad thing. On the contrary, with social media, companies and consumers can realize problems that need to be addressed. Customer engagement through social media could only hurt a company in the long run that is not interested in positive change. Instead of creating a problem social media brings a new level of efficiency to the corporate world.

Do more research

Market research is no longer a luxury only large companies can afford. Social media is the market research alternative for small and mid-size businesses that don’t have money to burn. Especially in a recession, market research is an essential part of a winning corporate strategy. Using social media, companies can carry out their own market research, and the best part is that it’s free.

Search for the topic of your choice on StumbleUpon and learn what people say. One of the greatest aspects of StumbleUpon is that marketers can easily find websites related to their market that they would never find on their own. Businesses can use this website to get instant feedback. The community is continually engaged providing constant opinion that result in a better product. A company might be developing new packaging for a product and get instant criticism from the online community. Something that might have taken weeks and months using traditional methods can be done in a matter of days or even hours. This method is not only fast, but it is also free.

LinkedIn, the social media outlet for grownups, is a rich and dynamic database, which can be searched, mined, and yield insightful and useful information to you and your business. Through its “Answers” feature LinkedIn serves as a valuable market research tool because it enables users to ask questions on virtually any topic, and expect to get answers quickly from the community. Executives can ask questions about products, services, trends, or any topic that might be useful to gain a better insight into their market. You can use the search feature to find people by industry, job title, company, or geographical location. The search results include vital corporate information.

Twitter, a micro blogging service, with its millions of users, offers a world of market intelligence for your business. Twitter is the killer app for marketers that are dying to become the fly on the wall as they are given the opportunity to listen in on public conversations about their market, social issues, products, services, or industry trends. Twitter provides near-real time intelligence on virtually any market.

Should StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Twitter, or other social media applications going to be your only source of market research? Of course not, but social media offers an abundance of honest conversation from which business can gather a wide range of vital information.

Social Media ? Your Brand Reputation Depends on Doing It Right

Blogs, play a major role in influencing the purchasing decision amongst women in particular, and in a recent survey in the US, 85% of regular female blog readers said they were influenced to make a purchase as a result of a review or comment posted on a blog. So with that in mind, if you’re the company that gets it right, you have a good chance of getting the sale, but what happens if you are on the receiving end of a negative review or comment. How do you protect your brand and how should you respond?

As part of any social media strategy, it’s very important that the impact of social media on brand building and  the impact blogs have on the purchasing decisions of consumers is considered and factored into your strategy.

A social media strategy is not just about Facebook and Twitter, which is what some so called “experts” will have you believe, it is and should always be treated as a Corporate Communications Strategy for your business.

Blogs, play a major role in influencing the purchasing decision amongst women in particular, and in a recent survey in the US, 85% of regular female blog readers said they were influenced to make a purchase as a result of a review or comment posted on a blog.  So with that in mind, if you’re the company that gets it right, you have a good chance of getting the sale, but what happens if you are on the receiving end of a negative review or comment. How do you protect your brand and how should you respond?

Your customers can now read, listen, discuss and research their purchasing decisions and you need to work harder at customer service than ever before, if you are finding negative or damaging reviews about you,your brand or service then use this as a wake up call. The world of social media networks, business review sites and blogs has provided the disgruntled consumer with a voice.

Every employee in your company is now responsible for your brands reputation, and when you as a company, start to live up to your reputation, it becomes a lot easier to manage your brand effectively on line.

If you do find a negative review on any of the sites, resist the temptation to respond defensively and do  not allow any of your staff to respond, you could put the Streisand effect in motion.

What can be used to deliver a negative can also be used to promote a positive, so use it wisely.

Remember it’s very hard to remove a negative comment or search engine result once it hits the web.

Mike Andrew owns and operates an Internet Marketing Consultancy on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Visit Mike’s web site at www.mikeandrewconsulting.com

Tips for getting social media marketing right

As more businesses invest more time and money into social media marketing (SMM), it’s important to understand not only the benefits but also the processes for planning and implementing a successful SMM campaign to maximise return on investment.

Businesses are embracing social media and social media marketing as part of their broader marketing strategies far more readily these days. This is encouraging to see, especially among corporates who are typically resistant to change and frequently have trouble adapting rather time-consuming and cumbersome bureaucratic processes to the relatively fast pace of the online environment.

Of course, there are challenges other than administration to overcome when it comes to social media. For a start, social media is about conversations and personalities. You are vying for your users’ attention – so if you don’t engage them with a really great personality or brand that they personally want to endorse – you’re going to get lost in the din and are losing out on potential “ambassadors”.

Social media has made the marketing maxim of telling believable stories even more important. One-way, push marketing communication is on its way out. This is now an attention economy, and in a world where time-starved customers are bombarded with marketing messages it’s hard to get through. Now that consumers can choose what they look at, do they want to look at and engage with you?

This buy-in is key to engaging with customers. Many would say that getting this kind of subscription comes down to authenticity and networking. This is true. However, to really get the most bang for your buck, the loop also needs to be closed when it comes to social media marketing and strategies need to be cleverly integrated across channels to create a ‘through-the-line’ approach that works.

This is the reason that many social media marketing campaigns are unsuccessful or not as effective as they could be. There needs to be not only follow-through, but also a cleverly integrated approach.

The easiest way to achieve this is by having a clear idea of where you want to go with your campaign – as well as define what your measurables are going to be before you start. It’s sometimes hard in some social media to predict exactly what will happen, as conversations tend to follow an organic flow. You can’t really force this. However, a clever social media marketer will be able to steer and lead conversations in such a way that they remain natural and unobtrusive.

Many web development and marketing companies now offer social media marketing as one of their services. While there are plenty of agencies and consultancies that do legitimately specialise in and have experience within the field, there are many who don’t. There are a number of common pit-falls – and where most fall short is in there execution and maintenance of these campaigns. It’s not just a case of creating a Facebook group and forgetting about it. The social media elements that one chooses to use need to be managed and maintained and relationships with customers need to be cultivated and grown.

What are the core factors in executing a successful social media marketing campaign?

First of all, decide what your story is. This is still at the core of effective marketing. Make sure it’s credible and one that your target market subscribe to. Make sure that you remain authentic.

Second, ensure that your goals and metrics are well defined. You need to have an idea of where you want to go with this campaign and how you intend to measure your success.

These two decisions will affect your third consideration – which is where you are going to find this audience. If you know who you’re trying to reach through social media – you’ll better be able to identify where they are online.

Finally, you need to be honest about whether your business is ready to be involved and invested. The process of social media marketing takes time and effort. You can’t just put up a Facebook fan page and create a Twitter account and call that a social media strategy. You need to ensure that you are invested. If you are not “socialising” though interaction and involvement with your community, you are not really present.

In this way, you will be able to listen to, respond to and influence your audience. When deciding to embark on a social media marketing strategy, it’s worth ensuring that whoever you choose to implement the campaign has the experience and foresight necessary to execute it fully and effectively.

AlterSage is an online marketing company based in Cape Town, South Africa. AlterSage specialises in creating and implementing bespoke online strategies for a range of clients from around the world. Services include social media marketing, pay per click campaign management and search engine optimisation.


Quantcast


Social Media For Small Business Local DFW

With 2010 finally here and staring us in the face, every small business needs to acknowledge the 100 pound elephant in the room, and his name is social media.  Many Small Businesses have the same questions circling in their heads…”how do we deal with social media, what are our social media strategies and is it right for my business? Should we ignore it and hope it goes away like another passing fad like Cherry Coke or Members Only jackets?”  It’s time for small business to start utilizing social media’s benefits and incorporate it into their daily lives as a small business public relations strategy. Social media is exactly what the small business needs. The small businesses who embrace social media first will be the ones who have an advantage over their competition 5 years down the road.

How is Social Media going to benefit my business?

Small businesses would love to have the public relations team that most Fortune 500 companies have. What small businesses don’t realize is that social media has a lot of the same benefits as a high retainer Advertising agency/PR firm. Social media provides an outlet for small businesses to transmit and share news, events, press releases, success stories, and other business-related information in real-time.

Some of the core benefits are:

Real-time communication to your customers Instant feedback on a product/service Raising brand awareness Lead Generation Drive website traffic Virtual focus groups Search engine optimization links

Outline your objectives

Social media websites are a dime a dozen. There seems to be a new social media website popping up every day. Some websites are more niche specific while others are broader.  Choosing the right social media platform to spend your valuable time can be frustrating. Before small businesses start subscribing to the thousands of social media websites out there, they first need to outline what their goals are for a social media strategy. Most objectives align with social media’s core benefits but some small businesses look for different goals.

Some common small business social media goals include:

Brand perception Competitive analysis Customer Service / Support Networking Everyone else is doing it

Once a small business outlines its objectives, it can then decide which social media platform is right for their business.

Which social media websites are the best for my business?

Some of the more popular social media websites are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, Digg, and many others. LinkedIn is great for networking while Digg is great for bookmarking websites you find interesting on the Internet. Twitter is great for announcing what your company is working on and Flickr is great at sharing recent corporate outing photographs. Anything that you would want to share with your customers, there is a social media website that will meet your needs.

One of the more commonly known social media websites is Facebook. And it recently made news that small businesses need to pay attention to. ComScore just released its November 2009 Media Metrix data, which shows an important milestone recently reached by Facebook, which is 100 million monthly U.S. visitors. Those numbers put Facebook in the same group as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft websites when talking about website traffic volume.  That is a staggering metric that illustrates that social media is not a passing fad but rather a strategic public relations tool for the small business.

Time commitment

One school of thought in deciding which social media platform to spend your time promoting your company is to determine where your target demographic spends their social media time.  By default, most people/companies are either on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or are starting to develop a strategy for creating their own web page. Time is valuable so choosing wisely is a critical element in launching an effective social media strategy. The more active you are within a social media community, the more you will get out of it. If a small business gets into the rhythm of posting and communicating within their social media websites on a daily basis then it becomes routine. The more your communicate and become a valuable member within a community, the greater the return on investment.

New Years Resolution

Start your 2010 Marketing Strategy on the right foot!  Small businesses need to incorporate social media into their marketing plan and measure their results.  I bet you find your original skepticism and preconceived notions on social media not to be true, and you will quickly see that sharing information in real-time is only going to benefit your business and its bottom line

You can see how you can use this information in the local DFW area.

Michael Delpierre is President and Chief Marketing Officer of Conversion Pipeline, a Washington D.C. area based Strategic Marketing Communications firm. For more information please visit: http://www.conversionpipeline.com


Quantcast


Social Media Marketing Success Stories

Businesses everywhere are slowly but surely learning how to harness the power of social media for their branding efforts. Marketing with social media is a powerful strategy, but it is a process that requires time and patience. How are some of the big corporations doing? After a lot of experimentation, speculation and consternation – progress is being made. We put together a list of some well-known companies and their recent social media campaigns. Here are several Fortune 500 corporations that are successfully leveraging social media to their advantage:

Coca Cola

Coca-Cola made their social media debut a few years ago. They created a new office of “Digital Communications and Social Media” because they felt social media was the way to go. They still feel this way.

Clyde Tuggle, Coke’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Productivity said: “Mass media is declining in importance. Our future success depends on our continued ability to connect people to our brands and our company all around the world, one person at a time. Our new office of digital communications and social media will help us become even more comfortable and effective in these new spaces.”

Coca Cola began their social media efforts with CokeTag – a “personal, customizable widget for individuals, bands, bloggers, artists, and companies to share links to content they want to promote and drive traffic to anywhere on the Web.” A widget as a marketing tool is pretty original thinking by itself.

This January Coca-Cola launched “Expedition 206” on social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Three “happiness” ambassadors began an international journey to all 206 countries where Coca-Cola is sold. Their mission is to seek out “what makes people happy” around the world. Throughout the journey, these “happiness” ambassadors will share their blog posts, tweets, videos, interviews and pictures so people can follow their adventures along the way. 


Ford Motor Company

Ford has been on the forefront of social media marketing ever since it hired Scott Monty back in 2008. Monty spearheaded Ford’s social media strategy with a promise to “create content, set it free, and allow anyone who is interested to be able to share it on any of the major platforms, on a global basis.” It has been working well.

Their recent Ford Fiesta Movement social media campaign was impressive. It was a grassroots campaign that promoted the new Fiesta model by placing it in the hands of 100 social “agents” and having them promote it through Twitter, blogs, video, and events. They generated 4.3 million YouTube views, 500,000 + Flickr views, 3 million + Twitter impressions and 50,000 potential customers – and 97% of them don’t own a Ford. They did this all without spending a dollar on traditional media.
Not only has Ford faired the recession better than the other American automakers, but they are also winning the buzz war on social media sites as well.

Nabisco Triscuit Crackers

This year Triscuit Crackers is teaming up with a nonprofit organization called Urban Farming to create 50 community-based home farms throughout the country. Nabisco – a subsidiary of Kraft Foods – has rarely ventured into social media – and never in an altruistic way like this.

The “home farming” campaign has a website that includes tools to advise visitors which vegetables and herbs are best to plant based on where they live. The campaign is being supported by PR, print ads, banner ads on gardening, women’s general interest sites, labeling on the boxes that sends customers to the website, blogs, Twitter and community forums. Another tool they developed enables users to find nearby community farms, and add their own home farms to a map. Forums and sharing tools are prominently displayed.
They also include free basil and dill herb seed cards on four million boxes of Triscuit original and reduced-fat varieties.

Pepsi

Pepsi launched their Pepsi Refresh Project in January and it has been a refreshing change from traditional soft drink advertising. Users submitted thousands of ideas to Pepsi on ways to “refresh” their communities and thereby making them a better place. There were 32 Pepsi Refresh Grant recipients selected in the month of January and up to $1.3 million will be awarded. There are 2 grants at the $250,000 level, 10 grants at the $50,000 level, 10 grants at the $25,000 level and 10 grants at the $5,000 level every month for 10 months. The winners for January will be announced this week.

The Pepsi Refresh Project also held a celebrity challenge on their Facebook fan page. In this contest Demi Moore beat Kevin Bacon and Pepsi awarded $250,000 to support Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) and $100,000 to SixDegrees.org, an organization that distributes thousands of $20 SixDegree.org Good Cards to recipients so they can support a charity of their choice.

Vesta Digital

Writer: Dan Chambers

http://www.vestadigital.com


Quantcast