Posts Tagged ‘social media marketing’

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Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Keep Your Social Media Content Flowing in 2012

new years resolution for marketingAnd so it has begun.  Another year in the world of the wide web we call the Internet and while you may be cheating on your personal resolutions, it’s time to set your goals for social marketing in the New Year.  Certainly indulging in that one high calorie drink or irresistible chunk of chocolate and breaking your own vows to change is an event that you can usually counter with an extra trip to the gym, but when your social media marketing plan falls short of your 2012 social marketing resolutions, you may have missed an opportunity to connect that can’t be corrected. 

We talked in a previous post about the value of content in your social media marketing campaign and moving into the New Year the value of content has only grown more.  With search engine indexing changes the power of author authority and the credibility, share-ability and readability of the content you send out into the cyber world relates directly to your online success or failure.  For this reason, this year, you should add one more step to your social media marketing resolution for 2012 and resolve to plan out your Social Media Content for the whole year.

Now don’t go into a tizzy.  This isn’t to say that you should plan out every word you intend to share right here and now.  We all know that world events, personal challenges and the unstop-ability of the ever changing world around us will always lead to spontaneously insightful content generation, but it is for those moments that are without spectacular elements that you should be prepared in advance to conquer. 

In actuality there are other reasons to plan out your social media content distributions in advance.  Besides providing for consistent posting, planning your content ahead also helps you maintain a cohesive tone and even keeps you in line with your social marketing message.  In effect, planning your content in advance helps to keep your campaign on track.  There is also the appeal of knowing that you’ll have a variety of engaging content planned out for the year. 

Now the content that you supply in your social media marketing should also have some variety and setting out your schedule will help to set the tone for this approach.  Making plans for when to include 3rd party articles and links, when you will create a poll or trivia post, when you plan to add visuals like photos and videos and finally when you intend to share your own blogs, articles and company news will help to create the variety most of us seek in our social.  Another tip for keeping your posts and feeds fresh is to plan to repost items from previous months or years.  Not every post has to be news from today, especially when the things you post aren’t even relevant to your business, industry or neighborhood.

So planning ahead can save you from having a dull social existence this year and even next.  By planning out your social content and always choosing and writing content that is worth sharing you can meet all the goals of your social media marketing resolution and give your business the momentum to achieve social success this year.

No point in sharing your content when no one knows where to find you.  Make it part of your New Year plan to add the free Follow Me button from Social Follow so every visitor can find you on the social network that they hang out on.

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Monday, November 7th, 2011

Social Media Marketing aka Social Media Content Marketing

A lot of people know on some level that they should be using Facebook and Twitter to promote their business website, but just as many of those people have no clue how to promote their business on these mediums.  There is general corporate and small business confusion over the use of social media marketing platforms for business and this confusion needs to be dispelled before you’ll find social media marketing success.

A lot of people start their Twitter and Facebook adventures by posting links to their products and services thinking that this is the best way to get people interested in their business.  Many even search the social networking platforms for people talking about their product, services and brand and contacting them directly with information and links back to their website.  But is this really what your customers are looking for? Were they asking for your feedback on your own brand or were they looking for the opinions of their connections on your business or brand?

In the end, a lot of businesses end up doing more spamming than promoting on social media networks and this is where many of those same businesses start to feel that their social media marketing plan isn’t living up to all the hype.  Where many people are misguided is when they are first told that they should be using social networking platforms to promote their content, but they don’t have a clear understanding of what content they should actually be promoting. 

Content is still the king of the web, but only the most engaging and interesting content rules the kingdom.  The first question you need to ask yourself about your content is if it is a worthwhile read.  Did you provide information that will help someone make a decision or provide them with much needed information or did you spend 500 words of content talking only about your great product or service and what makes it so great and why you priced it as you did? Have all of your posts followed this self-promotional and salesy/spammy trend?

When making a lasting impression and an impression that keeps on impressing for days as it makes it way around the web, you need to have content that goes beyond you and your business.  You need great content that is about your industry, not just your business.  You want to share content that is funny, catching, inspiring, something, anything, but not promotional ALL of the time.  Promotional content does have its place for new product and service announcements and even to share customer success stories or fun and crazy adventures within your business, but the content that will go the distance will be the words that have no promotional value at all.  A true good read. 

Before you invest in someone to manage your social media accounts, consider hiring a good copywriter to make your social media worth managing.  Another great way to build better connections on social networking platforms is to make it easy for your website visitors to find you on the network they are part of.  Show off your social accounts without losing your brand by using the Follow Us button from SocialFollow from Studio98; all your social network connections in one low-key button that doesn’t take away from your website branding.

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Monday, September 19th, 2011

Social Media Marketing-Gotta Love the Numbers!

Nielsen Social Media Report 3Q 2011Really, social media is a total numbers game; isn’t it?  When you think about the measuring system of social media marketing success, it is all numbers.  The number of followers you have.  The number of tweets you’ve made.  The number of retweets you have.  The number of people you are following.   The number of friends you have.  The number of Likes you have received.  How many circles you’ve got going? It is all numbers.

When you look at the analytics side to social media marketing what do you find? NUMBERS! DIGITS! INTEGERS! Number of impressions.  Number of clicks through visits.  Number of conversions.  Sadly, the number of exits.  When it comes to social media marketing, the numbers matter which is why we love numbers and why we love groups like Nielsen who are always giving us more ways to strengthen our sweet love for the digits and the data they provide about the potential success and failure of our marketing endeavors. 

Just last week Nielsen published its Social Media Report for Q3 2011 and the numbers for social media are looking great for marketing success with social networking resting nicely as the number two way we (number lovers and non-number lovers alike) spend time online.  That’s right folks; social networking is the fun, fascinating past time of 4 out of 5 active Internet users in the United States.  What do these numbers mean to you? Well, you shouldn’t need to bust out the calculator to figure this one out, but just in case, we’ll give you the answer: 

You should probably decide if there is a place for your business identity in social media circles and take advantage of this opportunity to reach 80% of the country’s Internet Users.

If you are not sure that social media marketing is right for you, we posted some tips in a previous blog, Social Media Peer Pressure, about deciding if social media is really the right approach for your business.  Now, back to some more numbers.  The recent Nielsen Social Media Report also noted that 53% of active adult social networking users follow a brand (or several brands) as part of their social experience.  Also of note is that the over 55 generation have doubled their intake of social media content and 70% of adult social network users also shop online.  Oh the numbers couldn’t be better!

The numbers never lie! Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but the truth is that more people are finding mobile ways to stay connected with their social networks, which means more people are being social all the time and if you like to watch your numbers change, you should consider a social media marketing campaign and be where the people are…being.  Or perhaps it is time to crunch the numbers on your existing campaign to make improvements. 

A great step for going social is to get your free Follow Us button from SocialFollow.  Even better for the number lovers, the SocialFollow button comes with its own numbers and analytics allowing you to watch your button impressions as they happen.  Take a moment to look at your numbers and then take a moment to read over Nielsen’s report and start looking for better customer centric ways to build your numbers today!

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Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Come On! Everybody’s Doing It? Social Media Marketing Peer Pressure

Social Media Marketing BandwagonSocial media marketing is the new sexy when it comes to taking your business off the sidewalk and down the virtual main street. In every town across the nation a new social media marketing expert has popped up and knocked on doors to tell you why you should join the masses and get your social networking profiles generating bucks for the biz. But the question every good business owner still asks, or should be asking, is if going social is the right business decision for their company.

Is social media marketing right for every business? Should all companies jump on the social networking bandwagon and air all their company ways with the millions of people online? The answers to these questions are mixed and the truth for some businesses may be that the well beaten path isn’t the right path for delivering their message, while others will find exactly the outlet they’ve been looking for to expand their business and their connections in online social communities.

There is definitely no denying that social networking is fun and might we even call it hip. Everybody is online and a huge percentage of that everybody can be found on one social network or another giving credit of course to the big 4 (notice no longer a big 3) Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Literally, everybody IS doing it from old desktops, new laptops and mobile devices, getting too numerous to mention; people are online. So how can it not be beneficial for a business to get out there and gain a bit more exposure?

Well, if you are uncertain about giving into social marketing peer pressure the best first step for you would be to Google yourself. See what is showing up where and why. The next step would be to offer some kind of opt in to existing customers whether it is a piece of notebook paper on the wall of your shop or if it is an option available online. You need to see if your audience is spending time online. You need to figure out if your target audience, meaning your customer base, is using social networking platforms themselves and if your presence in the same arena would be of benefit to them and you.

While it may be hard to believe, largely because most social media marketing is free (all be it time consuming), there may also be the chance that your business has a great system in place already that offers a high return on investment and really takes priority over a new marketing avenue. If you feel this is the case, it would still be worth your while to get at least a Facebook fan page started as it is rather simple to maintain and can build as slowly or quickly as see fit with little interference in an existing system.

You have to be honest with yourself and ask if social media marketing will really help you achieve your business goals. Part of the sure to fail scenario in social networking is a lack of time investment. While it may be largely free to go social, you have to spend a lot of time making connections and establishing a good reputation. Social media marketing is like skinny jeans and if you have to do a major workout and eat like a bird to look good in your skinny jeans…well, then, skinny jeans may not be for you. If you don’t have the time and effort to invest in social networking, then stay out of the game until you do. There are lots of web2.0 listings ((Manta, YellowPages and more) you can use to your search marketing advantage without going into the social circles.

When it comes to keeping social media marketing sexy, the free SocialFollow button from Studio98 has got your look covered. If you should decide to give into peer pressure and hop on the very powerful social media marketing train, make sure you have the FollowMe button from SocialFollow on your website, blog and social profiles so your visitors can find you on in the social circle that they frequent most.

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Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Adding Sizzle to Your Summer Social Media Marketing Plan

In January and even late December we were bugging you to start evaluating your social media marketing plan for the New Year.  In spring we were reminding you to clean up your site and re-evaluate your social media marketing goals, but now the weather has turned to warm and the summer season calls for adding a bit more sizzle to your social media marketing plan.

Summer is that time of year where events and parties abound and things in life kind of pick up a bit.  The same is often true for brick and mortar businesses, except those specializing in snow shoes and shovels of course, but summer still brings this natural increase in activity both online and off.  Unfortunately though, even for the most well thought out social media marketing plans, engagement and conversions often hit a plateau and there is no better time to add new sizzle to your social scene than during the long days of summer.

The ways to sizzle and shine on the social platform will vary depending on the business you are in and the product or service you are promoting.  Introducing a new product or service is a great way to get the conversation moving as you ask your faithful followers what features they would like to see.  Don’t have any new products on the drawing board, how about offering a free eBook or adding a new helpful tool that followers old and new will find useful? Running a special promotion or big event is another sure way to attract a crowd.  How about hosting an online party in honor of customer appreciation with drawings for food and appetizers or offering gift cards to nationwide stores?

Even with all these great sizzling summer social ideas, the basics of social media marketing remain true; it shouldn’t be about marketing at all.  It should be about engagement.  The best marketing you can get is what you’ll find through stellar customer service and quality of products.  Social media marketing during any season is about building relationships, being transparent and being relevant.  Feed the people information, not sales pitches.  Don’t exist on giveaways and bribes alone; give content that is useful, necessary and free.  It’s not about building lists; it’s about making connections and respecting those connections.

Add some new sizzle to your summer social media marketing plan with a solid dose of simple summer honesty.  While you’re making things summery and simple, don’t forget to switch to the button that keeps your website about you and not about your social connections; the Follow Me Button from Social Follow, streamlining all your social networks into one simple button.

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Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Did Your Spring Cleaning Include Updating Your Buttons?

Spring Cleaning for Your WebsiteAs the weather warms up most of us are inspired to take to cleaning out our houses and airing out the winter’s dust. This is true of most brick and mortar businesses as well; when Spring arrives the store gets a solid once over and exterior sprucing. Yet, when it comes to the websites that we labor for months building and fine tuning, once they are complete they often sit untouched with the exception of adding more material. If you operate an online business or website, there is no better time than with the arrival of warmer weather to dive into your website and start some Spring Cleaning.

Our websites collect almost as much clutter, dust and unfinished projects as our homes and giving your site a good Spring scrub down can help restore loading speeds, give a fresh new look and just keep your online life a bit more organized. Depending on your skill level, you may be able to do some MySql and server side file maintenance cleaning, but even if you are only familiar with your website’s admin area, it is still the best place to hop in and start doing a bit of website maintenance.

Things you can do to update and clean out your website include:
1. Get rid of old drafts in content management system-If you haven’t posted them or finished them after 6 months it is likely that they’ve lost their thunder.
2. Update your information-This means all your information including contact email addresses, phone numbers, addresses and especially your site’s copyright information. Also if you host any forms on your site, make sure they are updated to the current year as well.
3. Update your content-Take a quick cruise through your site’s content and do some updating. At the same time take a glance at your analytics and see if you need to adjust your content keywords and just give your content a freshening up.
4. Review your photos and graphics-Many sites are constantly adding new media including photos and videos. Take some time to go through your site and be sure that your photos are up to date and that all of your media has quality alt tag attributes assigned to them.
5. Add the new features-While you are updating you might as well be adding any new features you have been itching to put up on your site.
6. Check your links-This means internal and outgoing. Make sure you are linking properly between the pages of your site and make sure that locations outside your site are working properly too. Also review your webmaster tools for broken links and errors on your site that can lower your search engine rankings.
7. End Construction Zones-Put an end to all unfinished projects. If you have maintenance pages up, it is time to finish the project or take them down.
8. GET RID OF THE CLUTTER-Take the time to step back and look at your website. Is it easy to identify your brand or marketing or are you a billboard for social media sites and affiliate marketing links? Clear the clutter and restore the image of your website to center attention back on you.
9. Update your social media button-Make sure that you have included all of your networks and that you have updated links to the correct pages within the social networks.

One of the best ways to remove the clutter and get your website looking clean and sharp is to replace bulky social media buttons with the sleek and sheik Follow Me button from Social Follow. The free Social Follow button from Studio98 keeps all of your social networks in one easy location allowing your online visitors to find you in the networks they are already a part of.

Plan your website cleaning for at least 2 times a year; once in Spring and once in the Fall. This will keep your website fresh and new for all who come to visit you.

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Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

The Social Networking Squeeze Job

It’s a classic case of the old bait and switch, but with a new web 2.0 twist.  Where once you got a flyer in the mailbox directing you to a store for the BIG deal of the day only to find that the deal wasn’t what you were expecting, today’s misdirected social networking tactics are rivaling those of the snail mail days.

There is definitely a place for building your brand with social media, but there is also a fine line that you can cross with your online presence.  None of your friends, fans or peeps wants to be the victim of yet another social squeeze job. So, what is the social squeeze job you may ask? It is publishing posts and tweets with great headlines that lead your friends and followers to your email list squeeze page and requiring them to cough up personal information to get to the link you originally posted; or worse yet, sending the unsuspecting fans of your brand to a completely unrelated page begging for a sale.

Nobody enjoys getting squeezed and the social squeeze is among the most annoying squeeze jobs in the book.  It is highly advisable to avoid misleading posts in an effort to build your email marketing list, unless of course you want your social networking pals to feel irritated, frustrated and even a little trapped by your brand.  It is unlikely they will be your friends for long though.  It is also worth your time to avoid generating posts that misdirect people to your sales lead page without ever revisiting your original link topic.

This isn’t to say that squeeze pages are bad.  Well, not all of them are bad.  A well constructed squeeze page that includes information that your visitors will find beneficial and answers a need is definitely a useful marketing tool.    The trick is to not be tricky about getting people to your page.  Make it worthwhile for people to click on your link and make them want to join your list.  A good opt-in page includes lots of details, answers to every question and it shouldn’t leave visitors feeling like their privacy is about to be violated.  Offering a coupon to all new newsletter subscribers or even the never tiring free eBook promise is better than offering a completely unrelated video clip at the cost of one’s email address.

Social media marketing is about building your brand and strengthening your customer loyalty.  It is about the open exchange of information and when you aren’t open or you play games with people’s trust it is going to have a negative effect on your business.  Avoid being part of the social squeeze job and share information with your followers freely, without requiring them to be on your email list or forcing them to your sales page.  They have already done you the favor of liking, fanning or tweeting with you, don’t scare them away with poor posting choices.

There are some things that you just shouldn’t do in the online social circle and using shocking headlines to drive traffic to your squeeze page is one of them, but getting found in different social networks is not.  The best way to let your customers and site visitors find you in their social circles is to add a social media button to your website and online profiles like the free FollowUs button from SocialFollow.  But the very best way to keep your followers is to avoid the social squeeze.

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Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Using Social Media to Expand the Reach of Your Nonprofit Organization

In a way, social media marketing has leveled the playing field for non-profit organizations.  Where once the not for profits didn’t have the funds to market big fund-raising campaigns, there is now this new source of totally free marketing that can skyrocket involvement and contributions.  A completely free way to raise awareness, organize communities and increase the donations.

Nonprofit organizations that utilize social media outlets to further their cause aren’t working harder or longer hours than their predecessors, they are simply working smarter.  There is something to be said for the transparency that social networking brings to organizations and it is that transparency that strengthens bonds with loyal participants and loyal donors, but it is your return loyalty on these platforms that really counts.  Engaging in conversations, involving your followers in organizational decisions and just drawing them in with great content, news and shared information creates a strong bond between organization and its most valuable asset, the people supporting the organization.  The good news is that this kind of interaction doesn’t require longs nights of pushing paper to achieve; in fact, most of this marketing for non profits is quite enjoyable and takes just moments out of the day.

The reach of social media is quickly outpacing traditional media with a far greater impact thanks to the speed of exchanges.  Social media is mobile for heaven’s sake.  Over 90% of people in the United States under the age of 45 have a mobile device or cell phone that connects to some social platform.  Nonprofits that utilize the right digital tools of emails, blogs and social networking sites that encourage interaction between people and their organization and people with people, can quickly draw attention to their efforts with little to no expense.

There is organizational planning that should be completed before you launch your nonprofit into the world of social media marketing.  Take the time to determine what individual in your organization will be handling the listening and communication on your platforms and just how much time they should devote there.  Discuss how they should respond to questions about policy, criticism and praise as well as discussing the importance of honesty and transparency for building trust and loyalty in the online social world.  Also take the time to discuss how you will evaluate the effectiveness of your social media marketing campaign. 

Once your nonprofit is ready to go live into the world of social media, go in with your story written clearly on your arm; or I guess your wall would be more appropriate.  Share your stories.  Build awareness about your organization.  Share successes in numbers.  Share failures in photos.  Whatever it takes to expose your nonprofit organization for the awesome not for profit organization it is, you should listen and share and then listen and share some more.

One common question that we get is how to get people to social networking profiles to use the awesome power of social media marketing to broadcast great nonprofit causes to the masses and our simple answer is, of course, the free SocialFollow button.  Adding the free SocialFollow button to your website allows your web visitors to find you around whatever social networking water cooler they frequent.  Building nonprofit awareness never got easier, cheaper or more effective than social media marketing.

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Monday, March 7th, 2011

Tips for the Socially Inept: Basic Rules of Networking Etiquette

It is the classic movie scene where the not so socially savvy character enters the room and does something absolutely ridiculous.  The reason it makes you laugh every time is because we have all had to overcome our own social inadequacies at one point or another; some before an audience and some in close company of family or friends.   If you are a person who is always finding your foot in your mouth and making corrective attempts to explain your words or actions, then you may want to familiarize yourself with the rules of social networking etiquette to avoid being the social incompetent and embarrassing your business or brand.

Social networking is a giant monster operated by people communicating and connecting to build relationships and communities in the virtual world.  Just as you have to give your neighbors and customers in the real world a certain level of respect and cordiality, a strong online community can only be built on the strongest of moral foundations.  With social networking, you don’t have the benefit of face to face contact and you have to be ready to relinquish some control over your image and let your online identity learn to stand on its own. 

When it comes to social networking etiquette there is one big rule you need to remember from the start.  Nobody likes to feel like they are being advertised to.  Therefore the biggest trick to great social media marketing is to create an environment where your online community can give feedback, express their creativity, give an opinion and get some value out of having a connection with you.  With proper social networking etiquette, you can achieve the most loyal customer base and best word of mouth advertising around.

Start by avoiding being a Fake.  Don’t establish an alter ego online; go into your social media marketing campaign as yourself.  Don’t try to deceive your followers, friends and fans.  Just act as human as human can be in the online sense of the word.  The more real and sincere you keep your postings the more receptive, interactive and loyal your fan base will become. 

Strike up conversations that aren’t about you, your business or your brand.  That’s right, share other people’s information.  Whether relaying a fund raiser for one of your followers or advertising the sale of another local business, it is good social networking etiquette to keep the flow of information moving.  Reach out to a new follower by questioning them about their own post and sparking more involvement from even more people.  Showing a genuine interest in what your followers have to say shows respect and you will achieve respect for your own expertise in return.

This brings us to the next rule of social networking etiquette; sharing your expertise at no extra charge and without strings attached.  Don’t send people to your website to blindly search for information or to your sales pitch page to turn them off completely.  Do your best to answer questions directly and with a real answer.  Show that you aren’t out to capture a conversion, but to show that you know what you are talking about when it comes to your industry. 

Pretty much the rules of the offline world apply to the online social networking realm as well.  Use your social media marketing plan to have fun with your brand, learn more about your customer base and just bring an innovative edge to your business.  The best way to let people know which social networks to find you on is to include a free FollowMe button from SocialFollow on your website, blog and pretty much anywhere online visitors may encounter your brand.  From there, keep it real and watch what social networking can do for you.

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