Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category

If BP can’t get anything done in the Gulf of Mexico, social media sure can.

Google “twitter oil spill” and up comes a TechCrunch article, “Central Command Turns to Twitter to Solve the Gulf Oil Spill” (followed by the words “Uh Oh,” relating to the fact that BP is looking for people with tech expertise via social media for ideas to stop the spill).

The article explains how a group of a dozen or so organizations including BP, the EPA, the U.S. Department of Interior, the Department of Defense, and OSHA have set up Deepwater Horizon Response to manage response operations. “In addition to a Web site for this effort,” the article notes, “there’s a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a Flickr account and a YouTube account.” All of these combined efforts are giving people worldwide a ton of information about the spill. The Twitter page alone has 7,843 followers.

How does this relate to your business? Realizing that the chance is nill that you’ll have to pull a PR/social media blitz the scope of BP’s within the lifetime of your business, the incident nevertheless highlights the power of the Internet and social media to get information out to large groups of people. You can, in essence, move mountains, whether you need to inform about a disruption in your business, a problem you’ve encountered with a product or service or another notable breach that affects you and your customers.

Say something does happen to your company that demands a bit of finesse; what if a figurative “oil spill” occurred and you suddenly found that you had to rely on social media marketing to clean up the mess?

Your company and what it stands for are emblazoned into a brand name; if your brand becomes tarnished there’s no better way to blunt the PR damage than through a social media marketing campaign. Use these Internet tools to explain, to inform and to mitigate, if not on a global basis, then on a local level. Customers are customers, whether they span the globe or take out their garbage on the next street.

Social media is fast becoming synonymous with information resource. Used effectively it can help you pave the way to better relations with customers.

In this new world of networking you need to ask yourself an important question: Are you being anti-social?

Funny, that hyphenated word used to carry a whole different meaning, as in people who engaged in behavior that was outside the norm. Shunning social media doesn’t place you outside the boundaries of generally accepted behavior but it does place you outside in the cold and away from an effective form of business marketing.

Embracing social media marketing is like giving your business a facelift. Dropping fifty pounds and buying a new wardrobe. Painting the living room. It’s all the same – it gives you a new perspective and once that’s understood, the sky’s the limit when it comes to how far you can take your marketing plan.

Changing from an old to new mindset is not always easy. In the 1920s the automobile blew past the horse and buggy; in the 1950s, TV edged out radio and in the 1990s the Internet flexed its muscle and overpowered everything and with each rumble of thunder there came a resistance that consistently sought to harken back to the “good old days.”

But by the early 2000s, the old method of advertising and marketing became the leisure suit of the industry – a hackneyed and tired piece of clothing best left to old disco movies.

So in establishing the new you and, in essence, establishing a new format for your marketing campaign and embracing social media, you might find that you’re having trouble adapting to a new world order. You might, in effect, find that you’re anti-social. If you do keep these points in mind:

1. It’s not as painful as you might think. Social media marketing is a few clicks into a world of interconnected relationships that can bring power and prestige to your business.
2. Social media marketing, via Facebook and Twitter, enables you to target your audience. Thus, you can bring additional leverage to your business, something that old forms of advertising and marketing could never deliver.
3. Marketing via the internet allows you to connect daily, hourly, minute by minute, in real time with consumers. An instantaneous flow of possibilities is at your fingertips.

So throw off the old tweeds and loafers and get a new look via social media marketing. Wear it well and see how your business grows.

Unlike any other source, Social Media sites have given organizations the opportunity to create their online image and in turn, build their brand image.  Social Media Marketing lends organizations the skills to develop relationships with clients, insight into the company, and global exposure to the essence of what their company is.

Why is this beneficial to a business? It is beneficial because it gives organizations the tools and resources to build the image of what they see their company as of today, and what they see their company as in the future.

Several tools used within Social Media that will help a company build their image include:

• The physical image of a companies brand like logos, pictures, and videos are tools used several times a day on social media sites to help build a companies image.  Unlike a website which is usually static everyday, Social Media sites such as twitter and facebook are updated several times a day driving a company image into the minds of their audience.

• Brand image can also be developed through words.  Status updates, blogs and tweets to name a few are ways a company can develop their brand image. Through stories and descriptions their audience will have a grand picture of what their product is and how it  benefits them.

• Communication will also help develop a company’s brand image.  The unique benefit of Social Media compared to other internet marketing tools is that it directly speaks to the audience and encourages feedback.  Through this feed back an organization can measure if their brand image is being conveyed correctly and what type of steps can be taken to ensure a strong brand image.

The combination of images, words and communication that Social Media Marketing has to offer is genius, it gives all the right ingredients an organization needs to build and maintain their online image.  Used correctly, Social Media can ensure a company’s brand image goals will be successful goals.

There is a clear difference between hunting and farming, have you ever thought about the distinctions in approaches for these two styles of obtaining food? Both of these methods provide food, however the two styles are much different from each other; mainly due to the time it takes to get the end result.  In hunting, almost directly after the prey has been killed the “hunter” can eat.  In farming much more time and effort is involved.  A seed must first be planted, a good environment for growth has to be established, the planted seed requires consistent water, nourishment and TLC. After a few weeks of this consistency the crops are ready to be harvested and then the farmer can eat.

Hunting can be compared to traditional marketing, while farming is much like social media marketing.  In traditional marketing take for instance telemarketing, within a matter of a few minutes you can tell if the client on the other end of the phone is interested in the products or services that are being pitched. Within a few moments after that, it is quite easy to know whether the deal is sealed not. Traditional marketing more often than not provides almost instant gratification. Social media marketing is much different, like farming or face to face networking; social media marketing requires time and consistency.

When utilizing social networks as a tool to promote a business it is important to treat the interaction on the platforms like you would if you were farming.

• First develop or plant a relationship with the network that is built.
• Secondly water those relationships consistently.
• Thirdly monitor their growth, to see if anything needs to be changed in the strategy

Then with patience and perseverance like farming, you will see the results of the harvesting. Eventually the crops will grow and business will begin to flourish because of the time that was spent with your network.

The purpose of this analogy is to show that the time frame to measure the success of a social media campaign is not set in stone, nor is it immediate.  The goal is to plant and water a seed for a lasting relationship with the network you build over time, which will create the opportunity for a successful partnership, if the time spent with that network is meaningful.  A successful partnership is the end result of participating in the conversation happening on social networks. Forming a relationship with your targeted network of decision maker’s, results in increased profits over time.

Every effort put into a social network profile whether it is interesting status updates, helpful information and insights, news and information on your industry, or feedback and interaction about your service will help your organization grow into the business you envisioned.  Social media marketing can help a business grow to the next level while creating the opportunity for more quality business relationships.

Social media marketing is set apart from other forms of communication online because of the ability for users to both give and take.  Friends, fans, and followers agree to participate in relationships via social media platforms, with the expectation that the communication will be a two way street.  While there is no proven method, with years of case studies, that guarantees the success of a social media marketing campaign; the following steps will help to make a social media marketing campaign a more successful exchange of communication.

Step 1: Let them know you’re alive!

Once you have added all of your contacts and networked with new friends, what is the next step?  Provide your readers with tangible information. Making your status updates relatable and writing about relevant topics and interesting one-liners, will help to gain more followers on a consistent basis. This is the key to making social media work for business. While your topics should relate to the industry with which you operate, they should also appeal to the audience you are looking to communicate to.  The object of a status updates is to grab a “friend’s” attention immediately and provoke thought and participation.

Step 2: Ask Questions.

One of the best ways to open up a two way conversation is to immediately involve your audience.  Facebook allows the ability for a business page to start discussion topics. These topics can be related to a product within a company for example if your company is a dental office ask users how they feel about going to the dentist, ask them on ways to improve their visit and invite topics that consumers love to debate and talk about.

Step 3: Lead by example!

A sure way to engage readers in the content you post to your social media sites is to participate in your network’s topics.  Post a simple “like” on a friend’s status update, or contribute in a discussion topic on someone else’s page. The more you participate in the conversation on other’s pages, the more traffic you will drive back to your page.

Our experience shows that an active social media profile includes communication both from the profile owner, the end user and the network in which they are involved.  Networking with your network is the best way to make a social media marketing campaign work. Social media can be applied to any type of industry as long as there are clear goals, a clear strategy and consistent communication.