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Introduction
           Everyone wants some “magic number” of what the ROI (return
           on investment) for social media marketing is supposed to
           be. Forget it. There’s no magic number, and anyone who
           says they have one is just pulling it out of a hat. The better
           question to ask is, “Are my social media efforts working?” It’s
           a qualitative issue, not quantitative. For the time being, forget
           “How much?” and try to be content with “How?”

           Honestly, the social media landscape is still developing; there
           are few experts in a field this immature. Even the best among
           us are following hunches, leveraging what we know from
           other arenas…or, in other words, experimenting. Remember,
           Facebook was run out of a dorm room at Harvard as recently
           as 2006, the same year Twitter was founded and only a year
           after YouTube’s creation.

           But that’s the way innovation happens: a few small changes
           here and there, then all of a sudden the center can’t hold and
           everything is shaken up. Violá! A breakthrough. Small, but a
           breakthrough nonetheless. Stack up enough of those small
           breakthroughs, and you’ve got innovation. It seems like we
           can almost watch social media marketing growing, like a plant
           in time-lapse photography. Things are happening fast, and the
           people who are succeeding with social media are leveraging
           the knowledge and skill developed through the experience of
           watching the Web grow from its infancy.




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                             1
Why Social Media Is Critical To Your
           Company’s Success
           There was a time when local merchants competed locally: your competitor was across the street or
           across town or across the railroad tracks, just one town away. Today, in the era of the Internet, your
           competition could be anywhere: across the country or across an ocean. To many customers, distance
           to your physical location—your brick-and-mortar store—is of no consequence. They locate what they
           want at the price they want to pay and (a few mouse clicks later) their shopping is done. No matter how
           far the order was transmitted, the product is delivered to the customer’s door within a matter of days.

           So what sets you apart from all the other small- to medium-sized businesses in the world your potential
           customer may be comparing you to? If you can’t answer that question, creatively and conclusively, you
           can bet your competitors can—and have.

           If there’s nothing unique about your business, and the way you do business (from the products or
           services you provide, to the breadth of your inventory, to the way you interact with your customers, to
           the ease of your ordering system, to the speed of your shipping, to the guarantee and return policies
           you offer), there’s another company out there that’s given a great deal of time and attention to these
           matters. And that’s where your potential customer is going to choose to do business, unless you can
           offer something better.

           This is where social media can be a boon to your business. It can morph you from a nameless, faceless
           company into a brand customers seek out. And they won’t just come to you with an order; they may,
           through their social interaction, provide priceless information about their wants and needs, their buying
           patterns, their likes and dislikes about your products and your business. And they, in turn, can share
           their feelings about your brand with seemingly countless numbers of Facebook friends, Twitter followers
           and YouTube devotees.

           If they’re going to be talking about you with those friends and followers, don’t you want what they say
           to be beneficial to you? It can be, but you have to meet them on a level playing field: you have to be a
           presence where they “hang out.” Increasingly, younger buyers (18-35) aren’t hanging out at the mall.
           They’re gathering together virtually, in online environments such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

           Like a generation of TV watchers who are more likely to get their news from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show
           than Brian Williams’ Nightly News, this group has staked out the online territory, and they’re waiting for
           you to show up. If you don’t have a presence there, you risk losing relevance. And an irrelevant brand
           quickly goes the way of Jordache jeans: hot once, but no more.

           Whether you’re a small or medium-sized business, or even an entrepreneur, your customers are using
           social media, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be, too. It costs almost nothing, it’s easy to get started,
           and it can have a terrific financial impact on your business. This report will show you how to get started,
           how to pick the right tools and find partners for the areas where you’ll need help.




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                         2
Just What Is This New Paradigm? Social
           Marketing Explained
           Let’s compare social media to its predecessor, traditional media. That includes television, newspapers,
           radio, magazines—even billboard advertising. They’re all one-way, static, broadcasting technologies.
           By “broadcasting” we mean “placed in front of a broad cross-section of media consumers, when only
           a small subsection of those consumers represent potential customers.” In this case, the opposite of
           broadcasting is “narrowcasting”: targeting potential customers through the media they’re most likely to
           be consuming, in the way they’re most likely to be open to your marketing message.

           Until the introduction of social media marketing, advertising messages were an interruption in the
           consumer’s activities. You’re reading a magazine, and you have to turn to another page to continue
           reading, because there’s an advertisement appearing on the next page. You’re watching your favorite sit-
           com, and after a big laugh or intriguing plot twist, you’re confronted by a louder, brighter, busier image:
           a commercial for toothpaste, or a tooth whitening “system,” or a denture cleanser, or denture adhesive,
           or mouthwash or breath mints or chewing gum. It happens almost 15 minutes out of every hour.

           You’re reading your local newspaper and you disagree strongly with today’s editorial. You can write a
           letter to the editor, but it will be days before your letter arrives, and days later before your opposing
           opinion has the possibility of being published among the other letters to the editor. That’s cold comfort
           when you were so worked up about your feelings immediately after reading that op-ed piece. Wouldn’t it
           be better if you could register your displeasure just as immediately, when the emotions were still strong?

           You’re listening to the radio and the popular morning drive-time host says something so outrageous
           you can hardly believe your ears. You feel compelled to pick up the phone and register your discontent,
           but what are the odds you’ll get through to a program listened to by millions of commuters? What if
           you could simply press a button: dial “1” to agree with the host, dial “2” to disagree. Now we’re getting
           closer to what social media marketing offers: among other things, the chance for instant feedback from
           consumers of that media.

           New Web technologies have made it easy for anyone to create and, most importantly, distribute their
           own content. For virtually nothing, a blog post, Facebook page, tweet or YouTube video can be produced
           quickly and viewed by a potential audience of millions.

           Business owners don’t have to pay magazine or newspaper publishers or radio and television distributors
           vast sums to place their marketing messages in among entertainment or editorial content. Today, even
           small business owners can create their own content and, if produced creatively and made interesting
           enough, viewers will flock to it. And more important than reaching those viewers is that they (the viewers)
           can spread that message to others.




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                       3
Through social media, the size of a business isn’t the metric that determines success: understanding the
           social media landscape and approaching it with creativity and cleverness will always overshadow a huge
           expenditure with no big idea behind it. Think of social media marketing as the “great equalizer.”

           Those familiar with the social media landscape have identified eight key social media platforms:

                          »    Blogs
                          »    Micro-blogs (Twitter, for example)
                          »    Social Networking Sites (Facebook, Linkedin)
                          »    Media Sharing Sites (YouTube, Flickr)
                          »    Social Bookmarking and Voting Sites (Digg, Reddit, Deliciouus)
                          »    Review Sites (Yelp, Epinions)
                          »    Forums
                          »    Virtual Worlds (Second Life)

           For our purposes, we’ll focus on three of the most popular and influential of those listed above: Facebook,
           Twitter and YouTube.




           How Social Media Has Matured (Becoming
           A Business-Building Powerhouse, Rather
           Than Spare Time Entertainment
           Let’s look at one example of how a small business in a small town, selling a commodity product, made a
           name for itself by leveraging nearly every aspect of social media’s unique appeal:

           The Pink Cake Box is a small specialty bakery in Denville, New Jersey. First, employees wrote a blog that
           included images of their cakes, and videos of the cake-making process, from design to decoration. They
           posted the photos to Flickr and the videos to the bakery’s YouTube channel. What happened?

           In a short time, this small bakery garnered more than 1,300 followers on Twitter and more than 1,400
           Facebook fans. Beyond these impressive numbers, this grassroots campaign led to exposure on the Food
           Network, the Rachel Ray show, and the TLC network’s “Ultimate Cake-Off.” Not bad for a neighborhood
           cake shop.

           Imagine what it would have cost to accomplish similar results through traditional advertising channels.
           Social media, used well, brought spectacular results with a budget of nearly zero. All it took was a little
           creative thinking, and there’s probably a good bit of that hovering around a successful cake shop. Does
           your own business have the creativity to undertake a similar social media campaign?




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                       4
Growing Past The Blog: Where To Focus
           Your Social Media Efforts
           If the idea of writing a blog is the first hurdle you face when considering embracing social media marketing,
           you’re already behind the curve. You need a blog, just like you need a business card, letterhead and a
           website: they’re part and parcel of being in business in the 21st century. If you don’t have a blog—or if
           you haven’t made a blog entry in months—now’s the time to wholeheartedly take that task on. Consider
           it part of your daily (or at least weekly) routine. Just as you set aside time to do your expense reports,
           to-do lists, payroll and other basic aspects of business, writing a blog entry is something you should be
           doing on a regular basis.

           What’s stopping you? Perhaps it’s an innate fear of writing. That’s understandable. Lots of people hate
           writing, and for most, their fears are based on not doing it well enough: getting a “C” on an essay in civics
           class probably did more to put you off the idea of writing than anything that’s happened before or since.
           But here’s the good news:

           A blog isn’t an essay. It’s not the Great American Novel. It’s not even a short story. It’s one side of a
           conversation with your customers. Chances are, if you’ve reached any level of success in business,
           you’re not afraid to talk to customers. Think of your blog as a transcribed conversation with a potential
           client. In fact, if it helps to speak into a tape recorder and transcribe your words later, that’s the best way
           for you to do it. Whatever it takes to get it done is the way to approach it.

           Your blog is an opportunity to share your personality—and the personality of your business or brand—
           with those who do (or may do) business with you. To find the bar you’re reaching for, it might help to check
           out your competitors’ websites. Read what they have to say in their blogs. If it’s done well, it’s probably
           presented in a very casual, almost spoken language style. And if, heaven forbid, your competitors don’t
           have blogs, then you’re in an ideal place to leapfrog over that competition by launching your own.

           Remember, people do business with people, not companies. How often have you found yourself in a
           retail environment, looking at the employees around you to decide whom you’d like to have help you with
           your purchase? This might happen unconsciously, so you may have to think about it next time you’re
           in that situation. Everyone behind a counter is going to charge you the same price for the items you’re
           purchasing. Obviously, the quality of the merchandise won’t change from one employee to the other. But
           you may have made subtle decisions about the store’s clerks, and chosen to approach one over all the
           other choices available to you.

           Your customers have the same liberty to make choices about who they’d like to do business with, as well.
           How you present yourself online is just as important as the things you’d do in a brick-and-mortar store
           to make your customers feel welcomed and appreciated. A blog is just one more tool to help your online
           customers feel just as welcomed as if they’d stepped through the doors of your retail store.

           With blogging and other social media marketing techniques, how can you measure their impact on your
           business? It’s not that easy. Remember, we said it was a qualitative rather than quantitative approach to
           marketing.

           Think about clever television advertisements you’ve seen, or campaigns that exist to build brand
           awareness. One such campaign is Target’s, where adults, children and even an occasional dog are seen
           dancing around the red Target logo. Target may be able to track an increase in brand awareness, and
           even overall sales, to these commercials. But it’s virtually impossible to trace sales to any one particular
           TV spot.




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                           5
When you walk into any Wal-Mart store, you’re usually greeted by someone offering you a shopping
           cart. While that greeter isn’t responsible for additional sales, it is true that shoppers with shopping carts
           (in general) buy more than shoppers with baskets, even if they didn’t intend to. So there is a business-
           building element to that practice. That’s not what we notice, though. We’re just a little bit happier because
           our initial experience of entering a Wal-Mart is seeing a smiling face and hearing a welcoming comment.

           Social media works the same way as the examples above: having, in most cases, only an indirect effect
           on sales.

           When we engage in social media and online social networking, we’re not likely to notice any immediate,
           traceable results. But (like the branding and customer service examples above), we don’t need to track
           it to understand its value. When companies undertake social media campaigns, they can’t view them
           as traditional marketing expenses with an ROI that shows up in a column of the balance sheet. Results
           won’t be seen immediately (and usually only after a very long time), and you probably won’t be able to
           pinpoint a single new sale or customer to a particular branding campaign.

           But social media is still vitally important to marketers in the 21st century. It provides a way for
           companies—large and small—to get out there and get noticed. It’s taking your brand to where the
           consumers are and creating a presence. Instead of forcing yourself on those consumers while they’re
           watching their favorite TV show, social media lets you actually “hang out” with them. Now you’re not the
           ad on the screen. You’re now the guy at the party holding a drink and telling stories your audience will
           find interesting and entertaining.



           Taking Up Residence On Twitter
           Twitter is a form of microblogging—blogging that limits the size of each “post” or message. Twitter
           messages, or “tweets,” can only contain 140 characters. This limitation has led users to create a set of
           protocols that are unique to Twitter, but similar to the abbreviations used in text messages and chat rooms.
           When Twitter was featured on Oprah in the first half of 2009, it took off, becoming more mainstream
           than other similar social media tools. Politicians, celebrities and other high-profile individuals use Twitter
           as a virtual press release forum, where the short messages are actually an advantage over wordier
           alternatives. There are more than 111 microblogging services in existence, but Twitter is far and away
           the most popular.

           Your businesses can probably take advantage of what Twitter offers. It’s easy to get started, requires
           very little time to keep your campaign going, and can serve as a rapid barometer of customer interest.
           For example, if you own a retail store, you can Twitter an announcement of an eight-hour sale that’s not
           advertised elsewhere, and you’ll soon see how broadly your presence on Twitter is followed.

           Remember the example of the radio host and the option of dialing a number to agree or disagree? Twitter
           offers this kind of feedback, where you can instantly gauge customer opinion. This function of Twitter
           has worked well on CNN, for example, where viewers can tweet their reaction to stories immediately. The
           feedback itself makes for interesting television, and it lets the news editors know what the audience is
           most interested in, and does so much more quickly and efficiently than other forms of audience polling.

           The reverse is also true: you can tweet your opinions on current affairs, competitors’ announcements
           or other business news to your Twitter followers, making you (if done right, which means tweeting with
           judicious frequency) a resource for your followers, while adding a personality to your brand.

           You’ll need an “avatar” (an image) to identify your tweets as coming from you. On most devices, this
           image is 48x48 pixels. A good quality headshot will work, as will your company logo, provided it’s legible
           in such a small size.




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                          6
You’ll also need a “handle” (Twitterspeak for user name) to accompany your account. Most Twitterers try
           to use their first and last names (@johndoe) as a handle, but this can be complicated with popular names,
           which have usually already been taken. Some users try to get around this by placing an underscore
           between their first and last names (@john_doe) or a number following their name (@johndoe1), but this,
           too, can be complicated—especially when you have to explain to each new Twitter follower that your
           name contains an underscore or is followed by a number.


           A Few Final Thoughts About Twitter And Twittering For Your Business

                1.   Twittering is a quick and easy way to introduce yourself to the social media landscape, and
                     promote yourself, your product or service, or your content.

                2.   Set up your account for the most advantageous following and tweeting, by using an optimized
                     bio and choosing a good avatar and memorable handle.

                3.   Follow (Twitterspeak for “connecting with”) people you already know, and see how they use
                     the service, for ideas on how you can best utilize Twitter as a business-building tool.

                4.   Search for people who tweet about things you’re interested and follow them. In other words,
                     get to know the Twitter universe or, as Twitterers say, the “Twittersphere”).

                5.   Don’t just tweet like a broadcaster. Twitter is a forum for two-way conversations. So engage
                     with other Twitterers.

                6.   Monitor the “Trending Topics” list (on the Twitter homepage) to see what’s new and
                     newsworthy in the Twittersphere.

                7.   Check out third-party software applications that help you manage your Twitter account from
                     your desktop or mobile device. HootSuite is a tool we use.



           Finding Fun And Profit On Facebook
                                                        Facebook is a social networking site where people can
                                                        connect with friends—those they know “offline” (or in
                                                        real life), or those who are online-only friends. Social
                                                        networking sites like Facebook can trace their history to the
                                                        bulletin board systems (BBSs) of the early online world of
                                                        the 1980s. These systems allowed users to log on—with
                                                        extremely slow connections back in those days—to share
                                                        software, data and private messages, as well as post to
                                                        public message boards. These BBSs were usually local,
                                                        since long-distance charges applied for connections, and
                                                        long distance calls were expensive back then.

           The one element common to all social networking sites are the user pages, known as “profiles.” On
           Facebook, your profile page can include photographs, as well as information about you: where you
           work, where you went to school, what your relationship status is, your interests, hobbies and contact
           information. You can link to other peoples’ profiles and allow other people to link to you. Since profile
           pages are about people, you should have a profile. Your company should have a page. Facebook does
           allow business users to create public profiles with many of the same features of user profiles. These
           pages allow other Facebook members to connect with that page, becoming “friends.” This company
           page can serve as the central location for integrating other parts of your social media campaign. Those
           with experience in creating Facebook pages for business urge new users to avoid trying to duplicate
           the company’s web site on Facebook. Instead, they suggest including content that can’t be obtained
           anywhere else, offering exclusive deals for Facebook fans only, and giving Facebook friends access to
           products before they are released to the general public. This gives other Facebook users reasons to
           become fans of your page, and generates a sense of excitement for those fans.


(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                      7
Facebook is the dominant player in the social networking site arena, and research has shown that the
           most quickly growing sector is users over 35 (not bad when you consider that Facebook was originally
           dominated by college students). If it hasn’t done so already, the 35-54 year old group will soon have
           more members than the 18-24 age group.

           A Few Final Thoughts About Facebook And Your Facebook Friends

                1.   Facebook allows you as a company (and as an individual) to build direct, personal relationships
                     with your customers.

                2.   You (as the owner or president of a company) should have a profile; your company should
                     have a page.

                3.   Your Facebook page needs tending to keep those relationships with your customers growing.
                     Offer frequent updates and interaction.

                4.   Get to know the unique features Facebook offers and use them to your benefit.

                5.   Don’t become a spammer (or seem like one) by using public or private messaging systems too
                     frequently or too commercially. Save these for communicating your “best stuff.”

                6.   Encourage your fans to create content on Facebook for you. Customer-created content is
                     always more convincing.

                7.   Allow your Facebook page to be a place where fans can interact with you and each other.

                8.   Offer unique content on Facebook that isn’t available anywhere else. This encourages your
                     customers to become Facebook friends for the latest information on sales, special offers and
                     other details of your business.


           You’re The Star On Youtube
           If you don’t know about YouTube, where have you been lately? It was started in 2005 by three PayPal
           employees, and is now the third most visited site on the Internet.

           YouTube is a media sharing site where users can create and upload multimedia content (sometimes
           called “user generated content” or UGC). Now that video cameras are easy to use and affordable, and
           even cell phones can shoot video, sites like YouTube have become very popular. Like Twitter, in a world
           of other similar technology, YouTube has risen to the top as the most successful media sharing site in
           the world.

           Marketers can now create videos and upload them to YouTube, where they have the potential to reach
           millions of viewers, and be embedded into the blogs and web sites of other YouTube users, so there’s no
           telling how far (or how fast) these videos can spread. It’s suggested that any content you create for your
           web site or blog should also be posted to YouTube, so others can make use of it, as well.

                                 Before you can upload content to YouTube, you’ll have to create a user account,
                                 or “channel.” Then you’ll need a user name (which can’t be changed) so experts
                                 suggest using your company name, wherever possible. If that’s not available, pick
                                 something short, unique and pronounceable: you’re going to be saying it a lot.
                                 This user name determines your YouTube URL, and will be invaluable in directing
                                 customers to your YouTube channel. Our YouTube channel is http://youtube.com/
                                 emarketed.




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                      8
Next, you’ll need a name for your channel. Again, it’s suggested that this be (or at least include) the
           company name or some collection of words that explain what your videos are about.

           There’s a field on the page for you to enter a description, and this is a great place to tell your audience
           more about you and your company, and include contact information, particularly your web site. You’ll
           also be asked to provide keywords for your videos, known as “tags.” Think very carefully about this step,
           and include all the words you think customers might use to find videos on your topic.

           How commercial can your videos be? It all depends. Like most social media site devotees, users of
           YouTube are sensitive to product pitches. Remember, watching an online video is a commitment of time
           during which the viewer can’t be doing anything else. So in creating your videos, be thoughtful in slanting
           your content to what’s important to the customer.

           There are always exceptions to the rules, and here’s where creativity counts: if your video’s commercial
           content is highly entertaining or valuable for the information it presents, the commercialism itself will
           likely be tolerated. While it’s true that you should appear to be providing a service to the viewer, it’s also
           just smart marketing to include a call to action or ask for the sale. Here again, creativity will serve you
           well in doing this in a manner that will be accepted by YouTubers.

           A phone number or web site address at the bottom of the screen, appearing throughout the video, will
           give people a means of contacting your company without taking time out to make a boldly commercial
           pitch. This contact information also has the advantage of going along with the video, should viewers want
           to embed it in their own website or blog, whereas a commercial message at the end of the video could
           simply be edited out. So don’t just allow embedding of your video; actively encourage it by providing the
           code necessary to do so.

           This is how videos “go viral,” and this is the kind of content distribution you want. In fact, you should
           be striving for this.

           YouTube also has an “honor roll” listing those videos that are most viewed, most commented on, most
           highly rated, and so forth. This list is your Holy Grail. To be on it drives more viewers to your video. So
           begin promoting your video as soon as you upload it. How?

           Through social media, of course. Post the video to your blog. Feature it on your Facebook page. Tweet
           about it. Send out an email to your targeted list. This is what social media marketing is all about.

           A Few Final Thoughts About YouTube And Your Company

                 1.   YouTube has made it possible (and easy) to produce and distribute multimedia content to a
                      potential audience of millions.

                 2.   You can leverage your existing video content by posting it to YouTube.

                 3.   Use tags (the names or labels for your videos) effectively. Always include as much information
                      as you possibly can.

                 4.   When it comes to video length, shorter is better. You’ll get better results producing more
                      videos that come in bite-sized pieces.

                 5.   Don’t just enable embedding of your video; actively encourage it by using open licensing and
                      embedding features provided by YouTube.

                 6.   Offer your YouTube “subscribers” information, products or services they can’t get anywhere
                      else. Create a sense of excitement about your YouTube page’s content.

                 7.   Motivate, inspire and encourage your subscribers to create their own, organic YouTube
                      content about your company and your brand.




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                          9
Building Your Brand With Social Media: A
           Case Study
           We’ve already discussed the Pink Box Bakery, and how a few relatively simple social media activities paid
           off extremely well for them. But was that a fluke? Can social media really build a brand? For the answer,
           we turn to Jason Schwartz, a consultant in the digital media industry (with clients like Island Def Jam
           and BET Interactive), who presented a paper on just this question at the highly influential 2007 South By
           Southwest (SXSW) interactive conference.

           The client was Campari’s Red Passion, a “status” alcoholic beverage and the basic ingredient of many
           exotic cocktails. The elements of the campaign included a:

                     »   Flash web site
                     »   MySpace profile
                     »   YouTube profile
                     »   Flickr account
                     »   Del.icio.us account

           The one piece of this plan that may be unfamiliar to you is Del.icio.us (pronounced “delicious”), which is
           a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks.

           The purpose of each profile or account was to drive traffic to Campari’s Flash web site. The result?

           »   170,000 page views—13.5% of them resulting from the social media sites
           »   3,000 “friends”
           »   2,500 comments (total from all sites)
           »   92,000 views (total from all sites)

           Was this campaign considered a success? According to Niccoló Magnani of MRM Worldwide (the
           distributor of Campari), “What I like is that we created a community of people with whom we can talk
           further about Red Passion.”

           And Jason Schwartz points out that social media sites are populated with people who are constantly
           describing and defining their preferences. While market researchers pay people to tell them what they
           like and dislike, as well as what sites they visit, social media sites make this same data available for free,
           which is extremely valuable to those of us who want to use social media to promote our companies, our
           products or our services.




(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                          10
Finding The Right Mix Of Social Media
           Outreach
           How much of your marketing budget should you be spending on social media marketing? How much
           of your time should you be investing in social media updates? There’s really no single answer to these
           questions, as each company has its own priorities.

           Realize that your primary investment in social media is the time it takes to set up and manage your
           various accounts with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. There’s virtually no out-of-pocket cost, other than
           video production for some companies. But YouTube users are accustomed to home video; they’re not
           expecting Hollywood-style special effects and stylish camera moves, so your idea of production may be
           more than what the market requires. In fact, there’s research to suggest that the more slickly produced
           the video, the less believable it’s seen to be. Remember, you’re competing with other video producers
           using their cell phones, not Steadi-cams.

           A better way to think of the “right” mix might be to view the situation from your customers’ point of view.
           Think of what your social media marketing efforts will offer them, and you might find the balance point
           becoming clearer. Here are some of the things strategic social media marketing on your part can bring
           your customers (and would be customers):


                1.   1. Regular updates: industry news and ideas in real time that could save your customers time
                     and money; announcements of local events that may be of interest; links to relevant articles,
                     blog posts, case studies and success stories; reviews of books, products and services.

                2.   Relevant Information: Industry articles; concise and value-packed blog posts; free “how to”
                     guides and research information; a list of your favorite restaurants near the convention center
                     for an upcoming trade show or conference; product and service reviews, along with client
                     testimonials.

                3.   Event Promotions: Remind your followers and fans about local networking meetings that may
                     not be widely advertised; important seminars and conferences relevant to individual needs;
                     learning opportunities delivered by experts, gurus and specialists—especially if you’re one of
                     them.

                4.   Monthly Newsletters: Branded, appropriately worded and timely newsletters targeted to
                     client categories by industry, area or interest; easy and automatic one-click subscribe and
                     unsubscribe features; inclusion of embedded photographs, images, videos and graphics.

                5.   Photographs, Videos and PowerPoint Slides: Powerful visuals with quick and easy-to-
                     understand presentations on business offerings, products and services; snapshots of happy
                     clients and fun events that clearly demonstrate success, enjoyment of your product, or changed
                     lives as a result of your service.

                6.   Social Bookmarking: Access to lists of favorite, relevant, useful and interesting web pages
                     gathered with clients’ needs in mind; one-stop shopping for industry information, research
                     and news.

                7.   Polls and Surveys: Continuous market research with questions asked and answers given in
                     real time; reports and analysis delivered at lightning speed compared to traditional surveys that
                     are out of date before they are completed; automatic conversion of responses to charts and
                     graphs with comments included.

                8.   Personal Introductions: Social media users are the new party planners. They go find people to
                     join their community, invite them in and offer them a rich source of free material and relevant
                     offerings. They introduce members to each other, making referrals and connections happen.
                     People join thriving social media networks and have instant access to trusted and influential
                     contacts, each with their own highly detailed profiles.


(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                       11
Granted, not every small-to-medium-sized business or entrepreneur is going to be able to accomplish
           all this. But as innovations continue to happen in the social media world, it will become easier and
           faster to tackle these sorts of services that represent real value to your customers. For the time being,
           think of what you can offer your clients with the time and energy you have to invest in your social
           media marketing efforts. Do just a little more than your competition, and you’ll draw new customers
           toward you like a magnet. Above all, remember that your social media efforts should be working
           together, presenting a cohesive image and message of who you are as a company, business owner or
           entrepreneur.



           Conclusion
           Are you ready to take the next step and bring your social media marketing efforts to the leading edge? If
           so, you’ll need a partner that understands the ins and outs of social media. Not some fly-by-night outfit,
           or a kid with a Twitter account and too much free time, but a company that’s dedicated to bringing its
           clients all the best the Internet has to offer, to help those clients succeed and get found on the Net.

           You need to get Emarketed.

           Emarketed is an innovative, experienced web marketing design services firm, offering a wide range of
           online marketing solutions. Whether you want a new web-based marketing campaign, a total web site
           makeover, or expert guidance to implement new strategies on your existing site, Emarketed can help. We
           are a Google Adwords Qualified Company as well as an Ambassador of Yahoo Search Marketing.

           Web design firms seem to be popping up everywhere, but choosing the one that fits your exact needs can
           be tricky. At Emarketed, our search engine friendly web design and expertise in organic SEO (including
           pay per click advertising) sets us apart from the crowd.

           Emarketed’s team of skilled writers and editors are there to support your keyword advertising promotion.
           We also have PPC specialists to oversee the pay per click campaigns we run for our clients. We continue
           to move and grow with the quickly changing times, incorporating new features such as website video
           marketing and mobile web design.

           If you’re looking for a web design firm to partner with that will focus on helping you grow your business
           online with measurable results, contact us at Emarketed. That’s what we love to do.

           You can reach us at (800) WEB-5421, or email your comments to info@emarketed.com.

           Thank You.

           Like what we had to say? Follow Us:

           Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/emarketed
           YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/emarketed
           Twitter: http://twitter.com/emarketed
           Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/emarketed

           We also offer copywriting services and can write an eBook or white paper for your business.
           Mention this code and save $200 on our copywriting services: #3142011




           Copyright © 2011 • Emarketed • All Rights Reserved

           Distribution without cost is encouraged, provided credit is given to Emarketed
           as the copyright holder and source of this information.



(800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com                                                                                      12

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Social Media Tips

  • 1.
  • 2. Introduction Everyone wants some “magic number” of what the ROI (return on investment) for social media marketing is supposed to be. Forget it. There’s no magic number, and anyone who says they have one is just pulling it out of a hat. The better question to ask is, “Are my social media efforts working?” It’s a qualitative issue, not quantitative. For the time being, forget “How much?” and try to be content with “How?” Honestly, the social media landscape is still developing; there are few experts in a field this immature. Even the best among us are following hunches, leveraging what we know from other arenas…or, in other words, experimenting. Remember, Facebook was run out of a dorm room at Harvard as recently as 2006, the same year Twitter was founded and only a year after YouTube’s creation. But that’s the way innovation happens: a few small changes here and there, then all of a sudden the center can’t hold and everything is shaken up. Violá! A breakthrough. Small, but a breakthrough nonetheless. Stack up enough of those small breakthroughs, and you’ve got innovation. It seems like we can almost watch social media marketing growing, like a plant in time-lapse photography. Things are happening fast, and the people who are succeeding with social media are leveraging the knowledge and skill developed through the experience of watching the Web grow from its infancy. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 1
  • 3. Why Social Media Is Critical To Your Company’s Success There was a time when local merchants competed locally: your competitor was across the street or across town or across the railroad tracks, just one town away. Today, in the era of the Internet, your competition could be anywhere: across the country or across an ocean. To many customers, distance to your physical location—your brick-and-mortar store—is of no consequence. They locate what they want at the price they want to pay and (a few mouse clicks later) their shopping is done. No matter how far the order was transmitted, the product is delivered to the customer’s door within a matter of days. So what sets you apart from all the other small- to medium-sized businesses in the world your potential customer may be comparing you to? If you can’t answer that question, creatively and conclusively, you can bet your competitors can—and have. If there’s nothing unique about your business, and the way you do business (from the products or services you provide, to the breadth of your inventory, to the way you interact with your customers, to the ease of your ordering system, to the speed of your shipping, to the guarantee and return policies you offer), there’s another company out there that’s given a great deal of time and attention to these matters. And that’s where your potential customer is going to choose to do business, unless you can offer something better. This is where social media can be a boon to your business. It can morph you from a nameless, faceless company into a brand customers seek out. And they won’t just come to you with an order; they may, through their social interaction, provide priceless information about their wants and needs, their buying patterns, their likes and dislikes about your products and your business. And they, in turn, can share their feelings about your brand with seemingly countless numbers of Facebook friends, Twitter followers and YouTube devotees. If they’re going to be talking about you with those friends and followers, don’t you want what they say to be beneficial to you? It can be, but you have to meet them on a level playing field: you have to be a presence where they “hang out.” Increasingly, younger buyers (18-35) aren’t hanging out at the mall. They’re gathering together virtually, in online environments such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Like a generation of TV watchers who are more likely to get their news from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show than Brian Williams’ Nightly News, this group has staked out the online territory, and they’re waiting for you to show up. If you don’t have a presence there, you risk losing relevance. And an irrelevant brand quickly goes the way of Jordache jeans: hot once, but no more. Whether you’re a small or medium-sized business, or even an entrepreneur, your customers are using social media, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be, too. It costs almost nothing, it’s easy to get started, and it can have a terrific financial impact on your business. This report will show you how to get started, how to pick the right tools and find partners for the areas where you’ll need help. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 2
  • 4. Just What Is This New Paradigm? Social Marketing Explained Let’s compare social media to its predecessor, traditional media. That includes television, newspapers, radio, magazines—even billboard advertising. They’re all one-way, static, broadcasting technologies. By “broadcasting” we mean “placed in front of a broad cross-section of media consumers, when only a small subsection of those consumers represent potential customers.” In this case, the opposite of broadcasting is “narrowcasting”: targeting potential customers through the media they’re most likely to be consuming, in the way they’re most likely to be open to your marketing message. Until the introduction of social media marketing, advertising messages were an interruption in the consumer’s activities. You’re reading a magazine, and you have to turn to another page to continue reading, because there’s an advertisement appearing on the next page. You’re watching your favorite sit- com, and after a big laugh or intriguing plot twist, you’re confronted by a louder, brighter, busier image: a commercial for toothpaste, or a tooth whitening “system,” or a denture cleanser, or denture adhesive, or mouthwash or breath mints or chewing gum. It happens almost 15 minutes out of every hour. You’re reading your local newspaper and you disagree strongly with today’s editorial. You can write a letter to the editor, but it will be days before your letter arrives, and days later before your opposing opinion has the possibility of being published among the other letters to the editor. That’s cold comfort when you were so worked up about your feelings immediately after reading that op-ed piece. Wouldn’t it be better if you could register your displeasure just as immediately, when the emotions were still strong? You’re listening to the radio and the popular morning drive-time host says something so outrageous you can hardly believe your ears. You feel compelled to pick up the phone and register your discontent, but what are the odds you’ll get through to a program listened to by millions of commuters? What if you could simply press a button: dial “1” to agree with the host, dial “2” to disagree. Now we’re getting closer to what social media marketing offers: among other things, the chance for instant feedback from consumers of that media. New Web technologies have made it easy for anyone to create and, most importantly, distribute their own content. For virtually nothing, a blog post, Facebook page, tweet or YouTube video can be produced quickly and viewed by a potential audience of millions. Business owners don’t have to pay magazine or newspaper publishers or radio and television distributors vast sums to place their marketing messages in among entertainment or editorial content. Today, even small business owners can create their own content and, if produced creatively and made interesting enough, viewers will flock to it. And more important than reaching those viewers is that they (the viewers) can spread that message to others. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 3
  • 5. Through social media, the size of a business isn’t the metric that determines success: understanding the social media landscape and approaching it with creativity and cleverness will always overshadow a huge expenditure with no big idea behind it. Think of social media marketing as the “great equalizer.” Those familiar with the social media landscape have identified eight key social media platforms: » Blogs » Micro-blogs (Twitter, for example) » Social Networking Sites (Facebook, Linkedin) » Media Sharing Sites (YouTube, Flickr) » Social Bookmarking and Voting Sites (Digg, Reddit, Deliciouus) » Review Sites (Yelp, Epinions) » Forums » Virtual Worlds (Second Life) For our purposes, we’ll focus on three of the most popular and influential of those listed above: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. How Social Media Has Matured (Becoming A Business-Building Powerhouse, Rather Than Spare Time Entertainment Let’s look at one example of how a small business in a small town, selling a commodity product, made a name for itself by leveraging nearly every aspect of social media’s unique appeal: The Pink Cake Box is a small specialty bakery in Denville, New Jersey. First, employees wrote a blog that included images of their cakes, and videos of the cake-making process, from design to decoration. They posted the photos to Flickr and the videos to the bakery’s YouTube channel. What happened? In a short time, this small bakery garnered more than 1,300 followers on Twitter and more than 1,400 Facebook fans. Beyond these impressive numbers, this grassroots campaign led to exposure on the Food Network, the Rachel Ray show, and the TLC network’s “Ultimate Cake-Off.” Not bad for a neighborhood cake shop. Imagine what it would have cost to accomplish similar results through traditional advertising channels. Social media, used well, brought spectacular results with a budget of nearly zero. All it took was a little creative thinking, and there’s probably a good bit of that hovering around a successful cake shop. Does your own business have the creativity to undertake a similar social media campaign? (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 4
  • 6. Growing Past The Blog: Where To Focus Your Social Media Efforts If the idea of writing a blog is the first hurdle you face when considering embracing social media marketing, you’re already behind the curve. You need a blog, just like you need a business card, letterhead and a website: they’re part and parcel of being in business in the 21st century. If you don’t have a blog—or if you haven’t made a blog entry in months—now’s the time to wholeheartedly take that task on. Consider it part of your daily (or at least weekly) routine. Just as you set aside time to do your expense reports, to-do lists, payroll and other basic aspects of business, writing a blog entry is something you should be doing on a regular basis. What’s stopping you? Perhaps it’s an innate fear of writing. That’s understandable. Lots of people hate writing, and for most, their fears are based on not doing it well enough: getting a “C” on an essay in civics class probably did more to put you off the idea of writing than anything that’s happened before or since. But here’s the good news: A blog isn’t an essay. It’s not the Great American Novel. It’s not even a short story. It’s one side of a conversation with your customers. Chances are, if you’ve reached any level of success in business, you’re not afraid to talk to customers. Think of your blog as a transcribed conversation with a potential client. In fact, if it helps to speak into a tape recorder and transcribe your words later, that’s the best way for you to do it. Whatever it takes to get it done is the way to approach it. Your blog is an opportunity to share your personality—and the personality of your business or brand— with those who do (or may do) business with you. To find the bar you’re reaching for, it might help to check out your competitors’ websites. Read what they have to say in their blogs. If it’s done well, it’s probably presented in a very casual, almost spoken language style. And if, heaven forbid, your competitors don’t have blogs, then you’re in an ideal place to leapfrog over that competition by launching your own. Remember, people do business with people, not companies. How often have you found yourself in a retail environment, looking at the employees around you to decide whom you’d like to have help you with your purchase? This might happen unconsciously, so you may have to think about it next time you’re in that situation. Everyone behind a counter is going to charge you the same price for the items you’re purchasing. Obviously, the quality of the merchandise won’t change from one employee to the other. But you may have made subtle decisions about the store’s clerks, and chosen to approach one over all the other choices available to you. Your customers have the same liberty to make choices about who they’d like to do business with, as well. How you present yourself online is just as important as the things you’d do in a brick-and-mortar store to make your customers feel welcomed and appreciated. A blog is just one more tool to help your online customers feel just as welcomed as if they’d stepped through the doors of your retail store. With blogging and other social media marketing techniques, how can you measure their impact on your business? It’s not that easy. Remember, we said it was a qualitative rather than quantitative approach to marketing. Think about clever television advertisements you’ve seen, or campaigns that exist to build brand awareness. One such campaign is Target’s, where adults, children and even an occasional dog are seen dancing around the red Target logo. Target may be able to track an increase in brand awareness, and even overall sales, to these commercials. But it’s virtually impossible to trace sales to any one particular TV spot. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 5
  • 7. When you walk into any Wal-Mart store, you’re usually greeted by someone offering you a shopping cart. While that greeter isn’t responsible for additional sales, it is true that shoppers with shopping carts (in general) buy more than shoppers with baskets, even if they didn’t intend to. So there is a business- building element to that practice. That’s not what we notice, though. We’re just a little bit happier because our initial experience of entering a Wal-Mart is seeing a smiling face and hearing a welcoming comment. Social media works the same way as the examples above: having, in most cases, only an indirect effect on sales. When we engage in social media and online social networking, we’re not likely to notice any immediate, traceable results. But (like the branding and customer service examples above), we don’t need to track it to understand its value. When companies undertake social media campaigns, they can’t view them as traditional marketing expenses with an ROI that shows up in a column of the balance sheet. Results won’t be seen immediately (and usually only after a very long time), and you probably won’t be able to pinpoint a single new sale or customer to a particular branding campaign. But social media is still vitally important to marketers in the 21st century. It provides a way for companies—large and small—to get out there and get noticed. It’s taking your brand to where the consumers are and creating a presence. Instead of forcing yourself on those consumers while they’re watching their favorite TV show, social media lets you actually “hang out” with them. Now you’re not the ad on the screen. You’re now the guy at the party holding a drink and telling stories your audience will find interesting and entertaining. Taking Up Residence On Twitter Twitter is a form of microblogging—blogging that limits the size of each “post” or message. Twitter messages, or “tweets,” can only contain 140 characters. This limitation has led users to create a set of protocols that are unique to Twitter, but similar to the abbreviations used in text messages and chat rooms. When Twitter was featured on Oprah in the first half of 2009, it took off, becoming more mainstream than other similar social media tools. Politicians, celebrities and other high-profile individuals use Twitter as a virtual press release forum, where the short messages are actually an advantage over wordier alternatives. There are more than 111 microblogging services in existence, but Twitter is far and away the most popular. Your businesses can probably take advantage of what Twitter offers. It’s easy to get started, requires very little time to keep your campaign going, and can serve as a rapid barometer of customer interest. For example, if you own a retail store, you can Twitter an announcement of an eight-hour sale that’s not advertised elsewhere, and you’ll soon see how broadly your presence on Twitter is followed. Remember the example of the radio host and the option of dialing a number to agree or disagree? Twitter offers this kind of feedback, where you can instantly gauge customer opinion. This function of Twitter has worked well on CNN, for example, where viewers can tweet their reaction to stories immediately. The feedback itself makes for interesting television, and it lets the news editors know what the audience is most interested in, and does so much more quickly and efficiently than other forms of audience polling. The reverse is also true: you can tweet your opinions on current affairs, competitors’ announcements or other business news to your Twitter followers, making you (if done right, which means tweeting with judicious frequency) a resource for your followers, while adding a personality to your brand. You’ll need an “avatar” (an image) to identify your tweets as coming from you. On most devices, this image is 48x48 pixels. A good quality headshot will work, as will your company logo, provided it’s legible in such a small size. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 6
  • 8. You’ll also need a “handle” (Twitterspeak for user name) to accompany your account. Most Twitterers try to use their first and last names (@johndoe) as a handle, but this can be complicated with popular names, which have usually already been taken. Some users try to get around this by placing an underscore between their first and last names (@john_doe) or a number following their name (@johndoe1), but this, too, can be complicated—especially when you have to explain to each new Twitter follower that your name contains an underscore or is followed by a number. A Few Final Thoughts About Twitter And Twittering For Your Business 1. Twittering is a quick and easy way to introduce yourself to the social media landscape, and promote yourself, your product or service, or your content. 2. Set up your account for the most advantageous following and tweeting, by using an optimized bio and choosing a good avatar and memorable handle. 3. Follow (Twitterspeak for “connecting with”) people you already know, and see how they use the service, for ideas on how you can best utilize Twitter as a business-building tool. 4. Search for people who tweet about things you’re interested and follow them. In other words, get to know the Twitter universe or, as Twitterers say, the “Twittersphere”). 5. Don’t just tweet like a broadcaster. Twitter is a forum for two-way conversations. So engage with other Twitterers. 6. Monitor the “Trending Topics” list (on the Twitter homepage) to see what’s new and newsworthy in the Twittersphere. 7. Check out third-party software applications that help you manage your Twitter account from your desktop or mobile device. HootSuite is a tool we use. Finding Fun And Profit On Facebook Facebook is a social networking site where people can connect with friends—those they know “offline” (or in real life), or those who are online-only friends. Social networking sites like Facebook can trace their history to the bulletin board systems (BBSs) of the early online world of the 1980s. These systems allowed users to log on—with extremely slow connections back in those days—to share software, data and private messages, as well as post to public message boards. These BBSs were usually local, since long-distance charges applied for connections, and long distance calls were expensive back then. The one element common to all social networking sites are the user pages, known as “profiles.” On Facebook, your profile page can include photographs, as well as information about you: where you work, where you went to school, what your relationship status is, your interests, hobbies and contact information. You can link to other peoples’ profiles and allow other people to link to you. Since profile pages are about people, you should have a profile. Your company should have a page. Facebook does allow business users to create public profiles with many of the same features of user profiles. These pages allow other Facebook members to connect with that page, becoming “friends.” This company page can serve as the central location for integrating other parts of your social media campaign. Those with experience in creating Facebook pages for business urge new users to avoid trying to duplicate the company’s web site on Facebook. Instead, they suggest including content that can’t be obtained anywhere else, offering exclusive deals for Facebook fans only, and giving Facebook friends access to products before they are released to the general public. This gives other Facebook users reasons to become fans of your page, and generates a sense of excitement for those fans. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 7
  • 9. Facebook is the dominant player in the social networking site arena, and research has shown that the most quickly growing sector is users over 35 (not bad when you consider that Facebook was originally dominated by college students). If it hasn’t done so already, the 35-54 year old group will soon have more members than the 18-24 age group. A Few Final Thoughts About Facebook And Your Facebook Friends 1. Facebook allows you as a company (and as an individual) to build direct, personal relationships with your customers. 2. You (as the owner or president of a company) should have a profile; your company should have a page. 3. Your Facebook page needs tending to keep those relationships with your customers growing. Offer frequent updates and interaction. 4. Get to know the unique features Facebook offers and use them to your benefit. 5. Don’t become a spammer (or seem like one) by using public or private messaging systems too frequently or too commercially. Save these for communicating your “best stuff.” 6. Encourage your fans to create content on Facebook for you. Customer-created content is always more convincing. 7. Allow your Facebook page to be a place where fans can interact with you and each other. 8. Offer unique content on Facebook that isn’t available anywhere else. This encourages your customers to become Facebook friends for the latest information on sales, special offers and other details of your business. You’re The Star On Youtube If you don’t know about YouTube, where have you been lately? It was started in 2005 by three PayPal employees, and is now the third most visited site on the Internet. YouTube is a media sharing site where users can create and upload multimedia content (sometimes called “user generated content” or UGC). Now that video cameras are easy to use and affordable, and even cell phones can shoot video, sites like YouTube have become very popular. Like Twitter, in a world of other similar technology, YouTube has risen to the top as the most successful media sharing site in the world. Marketers can now create videos and upload them to YouTube, where they have the potential to reach millions of viewers, and be embedded into the blogs and web sites of other YouTube users, so there’s no telling how far (or how fast) these videos can spread. It’s suggested that any content you create for your web site or blog should also be posted to YouTube, so others can make use of it, as well. Before you can upload content to YouTube, you’ll have to create a user account, or “channel.” Then you’ll need a user name (which can’t be changed) so experts suggest using your company name, wherever possible. If that’s not available, pick something short, unique and pronounceable: you’re going to be saying it a lot. This user name determines your YouTube URL, and will be invaluable in directing customers to your YouTube channel. Our YouTube channel is http://youtube.com/ emarketed. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 8
  • 10. Next, you’ll need a name for your channel. Again, it’s suggested that this be (or at least include) the company name or some collection of words that explain what your videos are about. There’s a field on the page for you to enter a description, and this is a great place to tell your audience more about you and your company, and include contact information, particularly your web site. You’ll also be asked to provide keywords for your videos, known as “tags.” Think very carefully about this step, and include all the words you think customers might use to find videos on your topic. How commercial can your videos be? It all depends. Like most social media site devotees, users of YouTube are sensitive to product pitches. Remember, watching an online video is a commitment of time during which the viewer can’t be doing anything else. So in creating your videos, be thoughtful in slanting your content to what’s important to the customer. There are always exceptions to the rules, and here’s where creativity counts: if your video’s commercial content is highly entertaining or valuable for the information it presents, the commercialism itself will likely be tolerated. While it’s true that you should appear to be providing a service to the viewer, it’s also just smart marketing to include a call to action or ask for the sale. Here again, creativity will serve you well in doing this in a manner that will be accepted by YouTubers. A phone number or web site address at the bottom of the screen, appearing throughout the video, will give people a means of contacting your company without taking time out to make a boldly commercial pitch. This contact information also has the advantage of going along with the video, should viewers want to embed it in their own website or blog, whereas a commercial message at the end of the video could simply be edited out. So don’t just allow embedding of your video; actively encourage it by providing the code necessary to do so. This is how videos “go viral,” and this is the kind of content distribution you want. In fact, you should be striving for this. YouTube also has an “honor roll” listing those videos that are most viewed, most commented on, most highly rated, and so forth. This list is your Holy Grail. To be on it drives more viewers to your video. So begin promoting your video as soon as you upload it. How? Through social media, of course. Post the video to your blog. Feature it on your Facebook page. Tweet about it. Send out an email to your targeted list. This is what social media marketing is all about. A Few Final Thoughts About YouTube And Your Company 1. YouTube has made it possible (and easy) to produce and distribute multimedia content to a potential audience of millions. 2. You can leverage your existing video content by posting it to YouTube. 3. Use tags (the names or labels for your videos) effectively. Always include as much information as you possibly can. 4. When it comes to video length, shorter is better. You’ll get better results producing more videos that come in bite-sized pieces. 5. Don’t just enable embedding of your video; actively encourage it by using open licensing and embedding features provided by YouTube. 6. Offer your YouTube “subscribers” information, products or services they can’t get anywhere else. Create a sense of excitement about your YouTube page’s content. 7. Motivate, inspire and encourage your subscribers to create their own, organic YouTube content about your company and your brand. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 9
  • 11. Building Your Brand With Social Media: A Case Study We’ve already discussed the Pink Box Bakery, and how a few relatively simple social media activities paid off extremely well for them. But was that a fluke? Can social media really build a brand? For the answer, we turn to Jason Schwartz, a consultant in the digital media industry (with clients like Island Def Jam and BET Interactive), who presented a paper on just this question at the highly influential 2007 South By Southwest (SXSW) interactive conference. The client was Campari’s Red Passion, a “status” alcoholic beverage and the basic ingredient of many exotic cocktails. The elements of the campaign included a: » Flash web site » MySpace profile » YouTube profile » Flickr account » Del.icio.us account The one piece of this plan that may be unfamiliar to you is Del.icio.us (pronounced “delicious”), which is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The purpose of each profile or account was to drive traffic to Campari’s Flash web site. The result? » 170,000 page views—13.5% of them resulting from the social media sites » 3,000 “friends” » 2,500 comments (total from all sites) » 92,000 views (total from all sites) Was this campaign considered a success? According to Niccoló Magnani of MRM Worldwide (the distributor of Campari), “What I like is that we created a community of people with whom we can talk further about Red Passion.” And Jason Schwartz points out that social media sites are populated with people who are constantly describing and defining their preferences. While market researchers pay people to tell them what they like and dislike, as well as what sites they visit, social media sites make this same data available for free, which is extremely valuable to those of us who want to use social media to promote our companies, our products or our services. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 10
  • 12. Finding The Right Mix Of Social Media Outreach How much of your marketing budget should you be spending on social media marketing? How much of your time should you be investing in social media updates? There’s really no single answer to these questions, as each company has its own priorities. Realize that your primary investment in social media is the time it takes to set up and manage your various accounts with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. There’s virtually no out-of-pocket cost, other than video production for some companies. But YouTube users are accustomed to home video; they’re not expecting Hollywood-style special effects and stylish camera moves, so your idea of production may be more than what the market requires. In fact, there’s research to suggest that the more slickly produced the video, the less believable it’s seen to be. Remember, you’re competing with other video producers using their cell phones, not Steadi-cams. A better way to think of the “right” mix might be to view the situation from your customers’ point of view. Think of what your social media marketing efforts will offer them, and you might find the balance point becoming clearer. Here are some of the things strategic social media marketing on your part can bring your customers (and would be customers): 1. 1. Regular updates: industry news and ideas in real time that could save your customers time and money; announcements of local events that may be of interest; links to relevant articles, blog posts, case studies and success stories; reviews of books, products and services. 2. Relevant Information: Industry articles; concise and value-packed blog posts; free “how to” guides and research information; a list of your favorite restaurants near the convention center for an upcoming trade show or conference; product and service reviews, along with client testimonials. 3. Event Promotions: Remind your followers and fans about local networking meetings that may not be widely advertised; important seminars and conferences relevant to individual needs; learning opportunities delivered by experts, gurus and specialists—especially if you’re one of them. 4. Monthly Newsletters: Branded, appropriately worded and timely newsletters targeted to client categories by industry, area or interest; easy and automatic one-click subscribe and unsubscribe features; inclusion of embedded photographs, images, videos and graphics. 5. Photographs, Videos and PowerPoint Slides: Powerful visuals with quick and easy-to- understand presentations on business offerings, products and services; snapshots of happy clients and fun events that clearly demonstrate success, enjoyment of your product, or changed lives as a result of your service. 6. Social Bookmarking: Access to lists of favorite, relevant, useful and interesting web pages gathered with clients’ needs in mind; one-stop shopping for industry information, research and news. 7. Polls and Surveys: Continuous market research with questions asked and answers given in real time; reports and analysis delivered at lightning speed compared to traditional surveys that are out of date before they are completed; automatic conversion of responses to charts and graphs with comments included. 8. Personal Introductions: Social media users are the new party planners. They go find people to join their community, invite them in and offer them a rich source of free material and relevant offerings. They introduce members to each other, making referrals and connections happen. People join thriving social media networks and have instant access to trusted and influential contacts, each with their own highly detailed profiles. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 11
  • 13. Granted, not every small-to-medium-sized business or entrepreneur is going to be able to accomplish all this. But as innovations continue to happen in the social media world, it will become easier and faster to tackle these sorts of services that represent real value to your customers. For the time being, think of what you can offer your clients with the time and energy you have to invest in your social media marketing efforts. Do just a little more than your competition, and you’ll draw new customers toward you like a magnet. Above all, remember that your social media efforts should be working together, presenting a cohesive image and message of who you are as a company, business owner or entrepreneur. Conclusion Are you ready to take the next step and bring your social media marketing efforts to the leading edge? If so, you’ll need a partner that understands the ins and outs of social media. Not some fly-by-night outfit, or a kid with a Twitter account and too much free time, but a company that’s dedicated to bringing its clients all the best the Internet has to offer, to help those clients succeed and get found on the Net. You need to get Emarketed. Emarketed is an innovative, experienced web marketing design services firm, offering a wide range of online marketing solutions. Whether you want a new web-based marketing campaign, a total web site makeover, or expert guidance to implement new strategies on your existing site, Emarketed can help. We are a Google Adwords Qualified Company as well as an Ambassador of Yahoo Search Marketing. Web design firms seem to be popping up everywhere, but choosing the one that fits your exact needs can be tricky. At Emarketed, our search engine friendly web design and expertise in organic SEO (including pay per click advertising) sets us apart from the crowd. Emarketed’s team of skilled writers and editors are there to support your keyword advertising promotion. We also have PPC specialists to oversee the pay per click campaigns we run for our clients. We continue to move and grow with the quickly changing times, incorporating new features such as website video marketing and mobile web design. If you’re looking for a web design firm to partner with that will focus on helping you grow your business online with measurable results, contact us at Emarketed. That’s what we love to do. You can reach us at (800) WEB-5421, or email your comments to info@emarketed.com. Thank You. Like what we had to say? Follow Us: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/emarketed YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/emarketed Twitter: http://twitter.com/emarketed Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/emarketed We also offer copywriting services and can write an eBook or white paper for your business. Mention this code and save $200 on our copywriting services: #3142011 Copyright © 2011 • Emarketed • All Rights Reserved Distribution without cost is encouraged, provided credit is given to Emarketed as the copyright holder and source of this information. (800) WEB-5421 | www.emarketed.com 12