Social Media ROI

Social Media = Positive ROI 

Companies that are widely engaged in SOCIAL MEDIA surpass their peers in both revenues and profits.  

300,000+ business have a presence on Facebook

Dell sold over 3,000,000 computers over Twitter.

Blendtec quintupled sales with “Will It Blend?” YouTube videos

 

37% of Generation Y were aware of the Ford Fiesta via Social Media before it even launched. 

What these statement speak LOUDLY is Social Media has given POSITIVE RESULTS with low overhead.  THAT speaks volumes by itself.  BUT marketing wants ROI’s drawn up on paper.  In today’s marketing….not happening presently.  Traditional marketing has lost it’s high dollar appeal, fueled by this economy, its generating a mass movement to Social Media Marketing.  Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI…old media was Pay to Play…do you think the majority of media dollars will reside there tomorrow?

WHAT ABOUT THE ROI’S?  

Good question…but shouldn’t we be answering:

“WHY ARE WE TRYING TO MEASURE SOCIAL MEDIA LIKE A TRADITIONAL CHANNEL?”

 

71% of companies plan to increase investments in social media by an average of 40% because:

1.  Low Cost Marketing
2.  Getting Traction
3.  We Have To Do It

Socialnomics blog states really well:  Social media touches every facet of business and it should be viewed more as an extension of good business ethics.  Which, if done properly, will harvest sales down the line.

ROI’S?  Most definitely Social Media is moving and keeping up with technology…Marketing – traditional marketing has just barely started moving in that direction,  realize that people have taken the power of conversations into their own hands. Most people become informed on whether a product or “brand” is worthwhile by opinions and comments from consumers via reviews, Social site, email, and twitter. 
Those can’t really be tracked as traditional ROI’s.  Mcdonalds says it plainly:  ”Our head of Social Media is the customer”

It’s a new era, with old value’s…at the speed of the internet = realtime: word of mouth. 

What’s your opinion?

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Web Presence

Smart Marketing: Marketing with Consumer NEEDS in mind.

A study about consumers shows that they have four universal needs.

Connection, Uniqueness, Comfort and Variety. These needs vary in importance for each individual and each person’s need can also shift resulting in trading off needs. Example: Connection during holidays might be very important to some….others might need comfort (family close by, familiar places, items, foods, fireplace, cozy items), others crave uniqueness (standing out in the crowd) while others yet might like variety or choices (visiting lots of friends/family, holiday shopping in lots of unordinary places).  Every consumer has a different order of needs at different times.  SMM provides all four of those needs all the time.  Where traditional marketing has only focused on the middle of the curve area…and not worked with consumer NEEDS.  This results in the consumer navigating through the world without the influence of marketing.

How can they do that?

Consumers have shifted their spending with an awareness using online reviews, social media sites, chats and emails from friends.  This puts the reins in their hands, helping them make informed decisions.  Meanwhile, marketing budgets have been shrinking making it harder for marketers to create awareness let alone interest in their products. With budget cuts tight, businesses and marketers need to lean to digital as opposed to traditional.  Smart Marketers will take that jump using digital to enhance the brand experience with current customers and acquire new ones through “word-of-mouth” marketing.

As 72% of consumers say prior experience has driven their brand loyalty, 58% of online adults say they trust online reviews MORE than any other medium except chat/emails from friends. For marketers to do more with less dollars, they will need to STOP focusing on gaining and spend more with current customers.  Those customers will be your “word-of-mouth” marketing campaign.  

Also use digital means to enhance how you connect with consumers making your brand responsive and connected to the consumers ever shifting needs.  

10 Things you can do:  

• use online reviews
• redesign your website with an interactive design or SEO friendly WordPress site allowing comments
• redirecting your marketing budget to SMM
• training your marketers with SMM  
• Use YouTube with video’s of one minute or less  
• Create a Facebook fan page
• Create a Squidoo ”how to” page
• Be an information source for your industry
• Build relationships
• remember, YOUR NOT THE FOCUS – the consumer is!

In this Recession people have moved toward comfort and connection.  Marketers and businesses MUST be reassuring and comforting to the consumer meeting their unique needs.

Bottom line – How available and helpful are you?

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Web Presence , business, Consumer Needs, Education, facebook, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, twitter, updates, YouTube

Internet Marketing is an interesting playing field…

…as the traditional marketing sector has also been affected by this recession.  With companies slashing their marketing budgets from traditional means such as Television, radio, newspaper ads, SMM and RM has increased 10 fold due to it’s affordability and outreach.  

The gas price inflation which in effect has kick-started this change, encouraged businesses to look for other vehicles or means to “get the word out”.  Places that were cost effective and budget friendly available but low-keyed in existence were:  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, blogs, ping, Youtube, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, Squidoo and countless others.   They were vehicles just waiting to be boarded and boarded they were.  

Twitter’s vertical climb was off the charts and couldn’t be harnessed because it was moving so fast.  Facebook’s social outreach created such a landing place for personal and businesses pages that it also has morphed into a communitywhich has blown itself off the charts with phenomenal growth.  Youtube went from being a fun place to upload personal video’s to a wide open advertising market, with phenomenal growth continuing as it has and is becoming a tool for businesses & marketer’s having a lower price tag than television.  (Consisting of someone shooting the video, processing it and uploading to their site, versus full blown production costs.)  

Video itself is ubiquitous – existing or being everywhere at the same time…constantly encountered.  It also has helped change the market field, as businesses are changing their vehicles from traditional means to places like-YouTube, Facebook,Hulu, Metacafe, Blip.tv,  which can host or provide links to user friendly self-help video’s, educational video’s, how to video’s and news-feeds.  

Networking has become a part of who we are.  

Businesses are reaching out to customer loyalty, which in turn creates “word of mouth” marketing in today’s world on an internet level.  This is where Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, YouTube and others have become so important to businesses.   People are talking in these places, talking to friends, relatives, and certain acquaintances/businesses.  If they like your product or service,they will talk about you, to you and connect with you.  

Online ratings and reviews are an amazing tool that affects consumer’s buying decisions, and consumers really are using this information to make those decisions.  Online companies have already realized this and business owners are now turning to this phenomenon as consumer’s are wanting to know how good the product is, how many people are liking the product and more.  The consumer has become very active in researching product information.  Businesses need to understand this.  

Studies show that the average person has around 250 friends, acquaintances, business connections, etc. within their network/social life.   Things to focus on - building relationships with your customer/client, not buddy buddy, but really listening to what they need, being helpful, finding the best deals and passing that on, being aware of what’s happening in your region.  Keeping in contact with your clients, even sending thoughtful cards to them.  These things will bring your customer/client back and open the door for ”word of mouth” marketing, whether it’s in person, Facebook, Twitter or others.  

The magic is this:  If one customer likes your product/service, then you have the potential of reaching 250 more through that one connection.  If you have 10 happy customers then you have the potential to reach 2500 connections, if you have 100 happy customers ….. well, you do the math

Have you changed your playing field yet?

If you’ve changed your marketing practices…leave a comment below and let us know how it’s helped…

If you NEED HELP to change your marketing practices…fill in the form below:  

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Text only. No markup allowed.

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Web Presence

Internet Marketing-Interactive Marketing

Internet Marketing…That’s the BIG buzz word lately.  You want to optimize? You want to create a niche market?  Are you branded?  Have you targeted your audience?  All these questions…and your head is spinning…

Where do I start?  How do I know what is effective?  Who knows how to get there most effectively?  

Taking the First Step

Before you develop your product, the best place to start is research…finding out exactly what people are interested in and want.  With the available technology, you have unlimited resources to create and market your product to a global community.  

Some great ideas that sell are:

• Internet services
• Information
• Software
• Private sites
• Interactive Marketing

So now what?

Ok..so you’ve researched, you have your information, you have a targeted audience…so where do you go from here?  

Step two would be -

Develop a great web site.  

What is a great web site?…what specifics do you need to know that will set you apart?  

Let’s start with a great web site.  A great web site targets your audience, it’s designed to sell your product, it specifically draws the visitor in to become your customer.  When you write your site, write specifically towards one person, identifying with that visitor’s need.  Whether it’s a solution, or how-to, or a help guide, write explaining why your product is their solution and explain how it can help them by solving their problems.  Great web sites are also SEO friendly…like WordPress sites.  These are equipped with title tags that can be easily customized for optimum rankings and branding purposes.  These along with permalink structure and header strategies are what can make you highly visible in search engine rankings.

Besides a great web site -

How can you be set apart from all the others?  

That is one of the top questions being asked by businesses.  Online businesses are growing by leaps and bounds.  To set yourself apart, you need to stay on top of marketing strategies.  

What are the ways to do that?

SMM - Social Media Marketing which includes Search Engine Optimization and Relationship Management.  It is a know fact that consumers feel a stronger connection and feel better served when they are able to interact with companies. 

Interactive Marketing - According to Forrester Research, Interactive Marketing is on the rise…it invitesmore efficient interactive tools: via search marketing, Display advertising, Email marketing,Social Media and (the new kid on the block) Mobile marketing.   It also includes:  consumer participation with “value-added benefit”, Service, Focus on meaning and making a positive impact.

Marketing…Internet Marketing, Relationship Marketing, SMM, Interactive Marketing… it all leads to this:

 ”the process of attracting, maintaining, and enhancing relationships with key individuals over time.”

I conclude with this great conclusion quoted from the University of Florida’s IFAS Extension:

“Relationship marketing is one of the most time-consuming, but most effective strategies for marketing Extension programs. Relationship marketing is a process, not a one-time event; clientele must understand that you are committed long-term and that they can depend on you to provide education.

To be effective, you must establish a relationship with the audience you are targeting by making a connection with them over time. In order to build a relationship, as with any other relationship in life, Extension needs to be constantly in touch with its audiences. By making a connection with diverse audiences, Extension can build strong community networks that promote the programs we marketbeyond the limited scope of small workshops and community meetings.“

How is your relationship building strategy working?

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Web Presence , business, Education, Marketing, Social Media, twitter, updates, YouTube

Social Media and…what is SEO?

What Social Media is and what SEO does to help businesses.  

As Social Media embraces a wide variety of formats, each format provides users with a personal preference appeal means to interact and share information.  

• Breaking News:  Places like Twitter, FaceBook and blogs give ordinary people the ability to share news and events before the news media even gets there.  Items like iphones and blackberries, laptops, along with these sites have increased the news sharing so much that online news or traditional news has almost become snail paced.  
• Information Distribution Center:  Depending on the format, Social media allows one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many communications.  Information can be distributed in multiple fashion, including Twitter updates,  RSS feeds, blogs and podcasts, postings on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Ning and YouTube.
• Building online communities around people, events and brands: Using tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace along with blogs, enables people to gather and participate with like-minded people.  
• Consumer input:  Enables user contribution serving as information filters by content sharing and ratings, using the strength of comments and submissions on Twitter, blogs and video sites, also known as wisdom of the crowds. 

Social Media has forever changed the traditional content marketplace making it readily available in a large variety of formats.  This way the individual or business can mold it into whatever their needs are, making this a very appealing change where companies are in charge of their own personalized media content.

So how does this tie in with SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization brings you to higher rankings in your Search engines like Google, Yahoo, ect.  As more and more businesses are launching web sites, blogs and venturing in the online arena, page rankings have become increasingly important.  How to get higher page rankings?   Have a clear and precise strategy using SEO and Social Media.  Why do I need both?  Because you can’t succeed at one without the other.  

If you venture the SEO path, great…so now your optimized and everything is in place.  So how do people find out about you?  Answer:  Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, StumbleUpon,  these are just a few examples of important avenues to use in Social Media.  One Tweet on Twitter can drive up your traffic.  As YouTube and Facebook have become daily routine for most people, an informational video clip of 2 min or less can broaden your traffic, along with increasing your page rankings.  So can a Facebook page or blog, inviting discussions, comments, and reviews/share your story places.  People are looking for quality, caring and real places.  

A great “quick to the point” read would be Ian Lurie’s article about You can’t Separate Social Media and SEO.

I also really like how Lee Odden states in his blog-”if you’re going to create it, why not optimize it?”His Social Media Readiness:  6 Questions is also a great information site and a must read.

Are your Social Media Strategies compounding results?

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Web Presence , business, Education, facebook, Marketing, Social Media, twitter, updates, YouTube

Marketing & Strategy

*Marketers need to get serious about social media — despite the recession — to innovate as a competitive advantage.

 

 

With power shifts continuing…marketing is morphing itself into a world that influences your brand, your product and your services.  Consumers have grabbed ahold of Social networks in such a frenzy that those networks have skyrocketed in growth five-fold.  Building Social Strategies is vital to businesses surviving in this crucial time. To be successful, marketers must use a strategic, systematic approach in setting up this process.

*Listed below are seven practical ways to be efficient in this strategy.

1. Socialize content.
2. Word of mouth with Twitter
3. Aggregate existing content.
4. Crowdsource your support.
5. Sponsor bloggers.
6. Sponsor events.
7. Let go with APIs.

*Additional things to do:

• Manage social media for the long term.
• Start small but plan for the long term.
• Accurately prove effectiveness through social application metrics.
• Measure based on objective
• Develop the right roles.
• Social media strategist and community manager
• Educate through social media supplements.  Like Procter & Gamble’s social media lab

*Courtesy of Forrester’s Research.

Filed under: 1, Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Web Presence , business, Education, facebook, linkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, twitter, updates, YouTube

Reccession Marketing?

What is Recession Marketing?  

Forbes has an informative article written about this..speaking about “Recessions offer what may be unprecedented opportunities to market in and environment of relatively less noise, as others cut back.”  They also warned that ad agencies would pressure clients to increase their budgets in the face of a downturn.  Basically speaking, if clients don’t spend, agencies don’t have business.  It’s definitely a good read…giving you some great pointers on where to increase and where to decrease.  

Forrester’s Research, talks about:

Three important steps to Recession Marketing.

1. What consumers want from brands
2. Prioritizing your marketing spend
3. Engaging today’s consumer online and offline

Peer opinions carry considerable weight, examples are as follows:

• Valued opinion of a friend who has used product.
• Reviews-consumer reviews are highly valued on whether to buy or use service. Many sites offer this consumer review/poll.
• Online reviews by editors of a content site.  Gives a footing to online sales.

Consumers are showing they want more control…by not trusting popup ads, rather trusting emails they have signed up for.  If you’ve been using those pesky popups…now is a good time to get rid of them!  Other trusted agenda’s are Brand Web sites, In-store ads, Consumer opinions posted online.  

With personal optimism declining, recession has been moving people toward comfort and connection showing thatconsumers are shopping less and researching more.  With the consumer expecting to have less to spend, marketers also have less to spend, meaning brand loyalty has become more important than ever.  Marketers must be able to provide comfort and reassurance while doing more to meet the consumers’ unique needs.

Digital marketing is seeing a lot more increase than offline marketing.  Places like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Web Site development and Blogs have increased rapidly while the high cost traditional methods of marketing such as radio and television have dwindled down to a crawl.

“Given your decreased budget, how is your spending affected in each of the following areas?”

Base: 45 marketing leadership CMOs who have had their 2009 marketing budget reduced

Lisa Bradner a Principle Analyst at Forrester Research showed statistics representing that 72% of consumers say prior experience drives their brand loyalty, along with 58% of online adults say they trust online reviews more than any other medium except emails from friends.  Those are pretty big numbers.  She also found that in a recession many marketers are leaning toward digital as opposed to traditional.

With budgets being tighter than ever, it has driven the need for tough choices and prioritization.  On that note…Smart marketers will take that leap not only to acquire new customers/clients, but to also enhance the brand experience with the old ones as well.

Filed under: Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Web Presence

What does SEO do for you?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is all about optimizing (making the best use of a resource).  It is about rearranging or rewriting data to improve efficiency and/or retrieval. SEO is BIG business as it improves your site to show up higher in search results, meaning more traffic and more business.

An SEO expert will analyze what search engines look at when they rank websites, then placing keywords in the right places, allowing the search engines do their work at the most efficient level.  Results? Higher rankings, increased traffic, better search results.

The majority of your web traffic is driven by major commercial search engines, like Google, Yahoo!, MSN & AskJeeves…so if your site cannot be found by these search engines, or your content isn’t able to be inputted in their databases, you are missing out on the incredible opportunities available via search on the internet.  Search engines are the primary method of navigation for the vast majority of Internet users.  Targeted visitors to a website can and will provide exposure, publicity, revenue, increasing traffic helping your business succeed.  SEO is a valuable investment whether it’s though time or finances that can have an exceptional rate of return for your business.

Search Engines technology is a continually evolving project looking to improve methods, along with crawling the web deeper to increase relevant results to internet users.  Additionally, SEO can help boost rankings where relevant content can be found so searchers will readily see it.  This being very important as the online environment has become increasingly competitive, with companies who do perform SEO have an advantage in visitors and customers.

Can I do this myself? or do I need to hire someone?  

There are some simple basics to put in place as it’s really not “rocket science”, it’s figuring out some keywords for your site, then putting those keywords in the right places.  Those places include – title bar(text that shows up at the top of your browser), headers, headlines and/or bold text on a page and meta data (helpful information in a page’s code that’s not visible in a browser).  This task can seem daunting to a lot of people so using a firm with good SEO experience would be advisable for those.

For those of you who DIY…Some great SEO tools to use.  SEOTOOLS  

How does your page rank?

Filed under: Social Media Stuff, Web Presence , business, Education, Marketing, Social Media, updates