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Your Top Social Media Marketing Questions Answered

August 11, 2010 By 4 Comments
social media questions

It’s always nice to get email from readers. Many of you ask social media marketing questions, and I’ve noticed there are several questions that come up again and again. I thought a blog post would be the perfect place to answer the most common questions that I am asked.

Here are your top, burning questions about social media marketing:

1. How can I make the best use of social media platforms?

When making the decision to start engaging in social media, you’ll first need a well thought out strategy and plan. You are about to brand yourself and build a business identity. It’s better to do it right the first time, then trying to backpedal later on down the road.

Questions to ask yourself include: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: social media questions

Social Media Will Change Your Business

August 10, 2010 By 1 Comment
social media

Social media has truly put the power of a business’ survival in the hands of the consumer. Social media has become a trusted source of information sharing; it’s today’s word of mouth platform. Retail businesses used to have a motto that said, “If you make a customer happy they’ll tell two friends, if you make them angry, they’ll tell 20.” With the power of social media, the numbers just multiplied by hundreds.

There’s no denying that social media platforms are here to stay, and ever emerging. Most companies have either taken the social media plunge, or have a plan of action in the works.

Here’s a look at some larger companies that are using the power of social media, and how.

Companies That Use the Social Web Well [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Success, Social Media for Business Tagged With: social media for business

Is Your Business Blog Ready for Social Media Promotion?

August 7, 2010 By 2 Comments
social media

ball 300x230 Is Your Business Blog Ready for Social Media Promotion?Promoting your new business blog through social media platforms is vital to your blog’s success. But, before you start Tweeting your posts to the world, be sure you’ve got it ‘web traffic ready’. Here is a list of essential factors to have in place before you begin your marketing efforts:

Does your blog header make it easy for new readers to understand what your blog is about? Your business name should be prominently placed in your header along with a possible tagline. Upon reading the name and tagline, there should be no question in your reader’s mind as to what your site is about or who the target market is.

Do the article titles and general layout of your homepage draw immediate interest? Blog visitors, and web users in general, skim and scan quickly over web pages and sites. You have to get the attention of your web visitor in the first 5 seconds of their visit. Before beginning your promotional efforts, be sure that your home page has a clear, inviting presence. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Media for Business

Social Media 101: Create an Immediate Buzz With a New Business Blog

August 5, 2010 By 3 Comments
create a business buzz

buzz copy 188x300 Social Media 101: Create an Immediate Buzz With a New Business Blog

Creating a blog for your business is one of the best ways to increase your online presence and create a social media buzz. Now that you’ve got it set up, you may be wondering, “What’s next?…How do I get people to visit my new blog?”

Creating a Buzz

Optimizing your site so that it will rank with the search engines is critical, but it won’t get you the fast traffic you are looking for. Just like any product or service you may offer, you’re going to have to promote your blog.

There are plenty of ways to do this, more than you may think. Driving viral traffic to your business blog isn’t as difficult as it may seem. Here is a quick rundown of ideas that should get you on the right track: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media for Business Tagged With: business blog, creating a buzz, social media

Business Success: Measuring and Improving Your Social Media Engagement

July 30, 2010 By 2 Comments
social media success

There are several wasocial media success 189x300 Business Success: Measuring and Improving Your Social Media Engagementys to measure your social media progress. One of the most important measurements is to look at how many people actually did something with your message, your blog post, your Tweet, your link, or whatever else you were sharing at the time. This is called “measuring your engagement.”

When You Speak, Do People Listen?

Measuring engagement is important because it gives you some insight into how powerful your online presence really is. If you are actively connecting with others online in a positive way, you should notice an increase in those who regularly follow your Tweets, your blog posts, your Facebook status updates, etc.

How Do You Measure Engagement?

Measuring the direct action that was taken as a result of your social networking is fairly easy when you know what to look for. Here are a few simple tools and tips that will help you to quickly analyze the success or failure of your social media strategies: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Success Tagged With: measuring success

Using Social Media for Lead Generation

July 30, 2010 By 6 Comments
social media for your business

social media for your business 300x231 Using Social Media for Lead GenerationWhat’s the top emerging channel for lead generation, according to the Unisfair Marketing Survey? Social Media.

According to the May 2010 survey, marketers are beginning to rely more heavily on social media to supply them with a source of new, potential clients than ever before.

In another study, conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies, found that 79% of Twitter followers and 60% of Facebook fans are more likely to recommend the brands that they follow in their social networking circles. Not only are they more likely to suggest these brands to others, but they are also much more likely to purchase the brands themselves.

What is this Social Media Phenomenon?

It’s all about making connections, building brand awareness, and developing a trust and credibility factor among your followers. If you are engaging others through social media avenues in a positive way, you will inevitably develop a following who will recommend you to others.

According to Josh Mendelsohn, Vice President at Chadwich Martin Bailey, “Social Media is an extremely important and relatively low cost touch point that has a direct impact on sales and positive word of mouth. Companies not actively engaging are missing a huge opportunity and are saying something to consumers, either intentionally or unintentionally, about how willing they are to engage on consumers’ terms.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media for Business Tagged With: lead generation

Brick-and-Mortar Businesses: Are You Harnessing the Power of YELP?

July 26, 2010 By 1 Comment
yelp

yelp Brick and Mortar Businesses: Are You Harnessing the Power of YELP?Now that smart phones are being used as ‘information retrieval portals’, it’s more important than ever for your brick-and-mortar business to use the power of social media.  People in urban areas use Yelp to decide on a new restaurant, where to buy clothes, and what area hot spot to visit for entertainment.

Traditional word of mouth or printed yellow pages ads have given way to honest (and sometimes brutal) review sites, such as Yelp which appear on online city searches. It’s time to learn to harness the power of this type of social media marketing. Whether you’ve received a positive or a negative review, you can work either one to your advantage and set yourself head and shoulders above your competition.

What is Yelp?

According to the Wikipedia definition: Yelp, Inc. is a  Web 2.0 company that operates a social networking, user review, and local search web site of the same name. Yelp, an independent company started by a couple of former Paypal employees, currently has more than 31 million monthly unique visitors. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media for Business Tagged With: Yelp

Why Social Media Has Changed Marketing… Forever.

May 15, 2010 By 1 Comment

When I started to type the title of this post I originally wrote; “Why Social Media Will Change Marketing Forever”.  I quickly found my way to the backspace button and updated the “will change” to the more accurate choice of words; “has changed”.   How about you, are you sold on that yet?

If not, let me share a quick story that I believe illustrates the point very clearly.

Thanksgiving week, 6 years ago, I moved from Miami, FL up to Greensboro, NC on a new company assignment.  Now Greensboro is a great little town but frankly, I hadn’t ever looked it up on a map, let alone visit the quaint city.  When I arrived I can honestly say I didn’t know one single person within a 1.5 hour radius.

About one month after moving to Greensboro, I came down with a really bad chest cold.  It was very memorable, because it was as bad a cold as I can remember and breathing didn’t come easy.  At the prodding of several colleagues, I decided to see a doctor.


Doctor “who?”

Yeah, not knowing a doctor meant I had to find one.  Tell me if you would have done the same about 5 years ago.

  • I went into my health care provider and looked for doctor’s that were in my plan
  • I went to Google and looked them up to “check them out” via their website
  • The site that passed the most professional, and credible influence on me, I called and eventually visited

Sure, 5 years ago some may still have used the Yellow Pages, but I must believe that the above is more representative of common practice, right?

Here’s Where You Will See the Paradigm Shift that Social Media Has Made

About 3 months ago, my wife and I relocated to Connecticut.  We’re expecting a little girl in a few weeks from now, but finding a doctor for her here in Connecticut was one of the first things we tackled.

Similar to my strategy 5 years ago, I started with my health care provider network doctor, but our next step was a little bit different.  Strike that… a lot different!  Yes, we went to Google to do a search, but with an entirely different reason in mind.


Can you guess that reason?

Absolutely!  We wanted to see what “others” had to say about these doctors.  My friend, here within lies the great social media marketing transition.  It used to be that having a professional website was enough.  It demonstrated credibility and professionalism.  That doctor, via their website, was the most convincing voice as to whether they would see my health care dollars.

Today, the website is a must, and it should be professional, but you know what?  That’s no longer the deal maker.  In fact, you could have the most brilliant website with amazing technology on it, but if I find several negative reviews about that doctor, that is in fact more influential.

Complete strangers all of the sudden, through the common bond of being a patient, are the voice of reasoning for me.  Now with sites like Facebook, Yelp, and countless professional blogs, businesses are more and more transparent, whether they like it or not.

Social media has changed the coined phrase of “buyer beware” into “seller beware”.

Smart business owners MUST conform, or will be completely passed by.  Social media sites are personalizing search results and network recommendations, so traditional advertising will continue to lose visibility and traction.  Start to look at the numbers we’re talking and there is simply no denying it…  Social Media has changed marketing forever.

Can you relate and what’s your take?

Best,
Will

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Media for Business
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