how social and electronic media can help your company’s marketing strategy
TRANSCRIPT
How social and electronic media can help your company’s marketing
strategy
Staying In Touch With Staying In Touch With Your Customers Your Customers
You’ve got the sale, now what?
You can hope that you built your relationship strong enough so that they think of you next time or…
Trade Shows Radio Advertising Telemarketing Yellow Pages Print direct mail Expensive
Advertisements for magazines/Newspapers
Business Cards Sample Send-outs Stagnant Websites
E-Mail E-Newsletters Mobile Website Social Media
Facebook Twitter Blogging Four Square/Places
(Social Check in Applications for Cell Phones/Facebook)
Mobile Advertising YouTube QR Codes Mobile Commerce Mobile Applications
…the list only gets bigger and bigger as newer technologies are developed
Constant Contact
Digg
Blogs
Communicate more with your customers. It’s supposed to be a dialogue not a monologue.
Most mass emails from companies are ‘do not reply’. We’re sending mixed messages. We say ‘We want to talk to you, but we don’t want to hear back from you. Unless you want to place an order, and if so click here.’
-Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social techonology, June, 2009
Constant Contact offers a free 60 day trial with a limited number of email addresses permitted. This is great for a test run to see how your first few newsletters do.
They offer monthly plans which include 100s of templates, free customer support, exportable reports, unlimited emails, built in anti-spam.
• 0-500 email addresses -$15• 501-2500 email addresses-$30• 2501-5000 email addresses -
$50As well as prepay monthly plans in 6 or 12 month increments for when you’ve settled into your newsletter routine.
*SMM involves promoting content in various ways to social media users, in an attempt to increase traffic and exposure. SMM can involve developing content that targets social media users, building a network of other users, requesting votes from others, and anything else that involves getting votes and traffic from social media websites.
*This is where your customers are spending their time online.
*Online PR
*Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Benefits
*Blogging *A blog, short for weblog, is a simple website
format that allows anyone with basic Internet skills to publish content to a website. *Some blog authors use the tool to share their
daily experiences with their family and the world. Some bloggers write about a particular topic of interest like politics, crafts, or dogs. *Many companies use the blog format to maintain
a “news and events” section to the website. They have a familiar reverse-chronological format that makes them simple to follow.
*Enable users to “bookmark” or “favorite” content they’ve seen on the web.These platforms are social because the users’ friends and connections are able to see what new bookmarks havebeen added. Similar to learning what books your friends are reading, your online friends in a social bookmarknetwork filter more of the Internet than you could on your own, only listing the best, theoretically the most relevant and popular.
*The more popular services also aggregate all users’ suggestions into categories, allowing you to see the most popular articles in a variety of topics, as voted on by the entire community.
*The benefit to the users of these services is that they’re exposed to relevant content that they may have never found alone. Using the efforts of many online to find the best content and ensure it’s read - crowdsourcing the wisdom of your connections.
*There are also networks built around sharing particular forms of media online. The largest of these are YouTube for video andFlickr for photos. These services enable simplified sharing of their content.
*The services also increase the photos’ or videos’ exposure by making is more accessible to those searching for it.
*Any video content can be shared via YouTube - video tours of products, educational footage, employee and customer events, industry news, product reviews, etc.
*Find your mavens - YouTube users can subscribe to your “channel” so they’re notified when you upload new videos
*Syndication - YouTube enables easy “posting” of your videos to other services, like Facebook orMySpace, and also makes its simple for anyone interested to embed your video in their blog or website.
*Conversation - If you choose to allow it, YouTube enables viewers of your videos to post commentsabout them. What better place for a customer endorsement than right below a video of the product?
*Engage your mavens – Flickr gives anyone interested access to high resolution photos. Give your mavens more detail with better photography.
*Personality – Social technologies are about being social. Photos of employees and events can help communicate the personality of your organization to your consumers. When people feel connected,there’s a better chance they’ll become your evangelist.
*Conversation – If you choose to allow it, Flickr enables viewers of your photos to post comments about them. What better place for a customer endorsement than right below a photo of the product?
*Syndication – Flickr integrates nicely with Facebook. There are several tools available to make your Flickr photos available on your blog, or on anyone else’s blog for that matter.
*Social networks enable their users to maintain connections with the people they chose. Each service varies a bit in its format, but the purpose of all of them is to keep people connected by sharing updates made by their connections.
*Micro-blogging is exactly what the name implies. It’s a web log built consisting of very small entries.
*The most popular microblogging service, Twitter, limits entries to 140 characters. This seemingly trivial ability to send mass short messages to anyone who’s interested in listening has made a tremendous impact over the last 24months (Tunisia, reform in the Middle East)
*A recent investment in Twitter values it at over $1 Billion.
*Because Twitter is an opt-in service, meaning those who receive your messages (your “followers”) must specifically request to receive them, your messages are going to interested people.
*They want your information, and they’reeager to share it with others when they have it. Twitter enables your mavens, and everyone else, to receive the latest information you want to share
Great for finding top notch candidates when
recruiting. Start a
community group around the space
your customer does business
The “professional’ Facebook
Join national groups to find out what
others are doing in your industry
Users can only link to you if they
personally know you;
Friends, Colleagues, Classmates, etc
Instant access to referrals and connections.
There are 629,982,480 Global Facebook users
Ways to present on Facebook
*Individually with a ‘Profile’
*As an Organization with a ‘Page’
*Privately though a ‘Group’
Communication on Facebook*Status Updates (what do you want to share?)*Messages*Instant Messaging*Photo Uploads*Video Demonstrations (YouTube/Flickr)*Wall Posts*Link Sharing*Surveys*Polls
• Facebook is classified as a Social network; those who socialize together in real life and web life
• Daily interaction isn’t required
• Variety of profile options• Applications are user
friendly-you can write and post limitless content
• Twitter likes to call its self an Information network, sharing the knowledge of industry experts, politicians, musicians, authors, celebrities, personalities, brands and interests
• Frequent daily interaction is the norm
• One standard profile for all users
• “Tweet” is the communication method – a small 140 character bit of information, ONLY
Twitter has the largest division of wealthy users with 27% earning over $75k
*Share information, gather market intelligence and insights, and build relationships with people who care about your company.
*Update followers on new products, breaking news in your field, promotions, events etc.
*Use to show your organization’s personality.
*In the medical field medical professionals can seek real time advice from fellow professionals with a diagnosis
Digg is a place for people to discover and share other entity’s content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the
best stuff as voted on by their use
What Digg is really good for is developing traffic to your sites, whether it’s your website, blogsite, social site etc. By ‘Digging’ a post or commenting, your icon is now on that article and others can see that you ‘Digged’ (Dugg?) it. They can choose to follow you from that. If you get a lot of Diggs your post can end up on the homepage of the website where it’s potential to reach viewers is limitless.
*Digg is great for sharing articles, attracting traffic to your other sites and it is pretty easy to interact.
*You aren’t required to produce your own content so there’s a huge time saving element to its use.
*If you have the time to blog then you should definitely use this site to gain more viewers to your site…where you can then have advertising to earn more for your efforts.
For Companies, resistance to social media is futile.Millions of people are creating content for the social Web. Your competitors are already there.Your customers have been there for a long time.If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to be.
-Business Week, Feb. 19, 2009
For Companies, resistance to social media is futile.Millions of people are creating content for the social Web. Your competitors are already there.Your customers have been there for a long time.If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to be.
-Business Week, Feb. 19, 2009
*Brainstorm with leaders at your company to see which platform will work best for your marketing goals
*Develop a strategy as to what you will share, how you want your organization to be presented, when you want to launch and who will develop material
*Execute!
* It’s easier than you think to join these social sites. Most of them have their sign up right on their homepage. Membership is FREE!
* After you create your login user name (which almost all social sites require before letting you have full access), you will be directed on how to upload your current contacts from multiple different logins.
* This means that you can add your Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL etc. contacts right from the beginning.
*Make sure your profile reflects your personality but remember to be professional. Even if you have privacy settings or limited profile viewing, it’s still the internet and nothing is ever truly deleted. Don’t be a Weiner!
* Spend some time getting used to the site and seeing all it has to offer.
* Join groups or pages of interest.
* Leave comments, Likes, Diggs, and spread your footprint.
• Be consistent. Send out a monthly newsletter, not just one every couple of months when you have time for it
• Make social media a priority not a burden
• Develop topics that are relevant and interesting enough so people look forward to your e-mails, posts, tweets etc.
• Connect with your customers before trying to sell them anything.
• Become an Industry expert in your field. You’ll develop a following of people who trust your advice.
What is the difference between SMM and Social Media Optimization?The term Social Media Optimization usually doesn’t include the act of promoting content through such methods as requesting votes. SMO involves creating the right content and setting a website up to be friendly to social media users, but doesn’t go as far in terms of promoting the content.
How many social media sites should I use?While there are hundreds, if not thousands, of social media sites out there, it’s impossible to use them all. Generally, it’s more effective to use a small number (I recommend 2 to 5) actively, and if you want to have accounts at other sites that you use occasionally, that’s fine. Part of being a successful social media user involves building a profile and a reputation at the site, it is much more realistic to achieve this when you’re using a small number of sites consistently.
How can a network help me with social media marketing?Other users who are a part of your network will be more likely to vote for your content or your submissions when they see them. People like helping others that they know and like, so being well-connected can lead to a lot of other users that are eager and willing to help you. Additionally, many social media users request votes for their submissions or for their content. In this case, having a large network of other users can lead to more votes.
How much time should I spend on social media sites?This depends on what you want to accomplish. If your main purpose with social media is to promote a website or blog you should limit the time you spend. Other activities like content development and site management should not be sacrificed because of the time you spend on social media sites. Generally, you may need to use social media sites a little bit more at first in order to get familiar with the site, its users, and to build a profile. But later you should be able to cut back on the amount of time that you spend, but still be active on a regular basis.
There are so many different social media sites, how can I keep up?You’ll never be able to keep up with all of them, so don’t try to. Instead, find a few that you like and that are well-suited to the type of content that you want to promote, and just focus on them. You may want to use other sites occasionally, but dedicate most of your time and effort with social media to a few specific sites. This way you’ll get better results with the sites that are most relevant, rather than spreading yourself too thin and getting poor results with all social media sites.
How much traffic can I expect to get from social media?The amount of traffic you can get is all over the place. You may get nothing, or you may get 100,000 plus visitors. Generally, major social media sites are capable of sending several thousand visitors, while smaller social media sites may send a few hundred or less. While this traffic is significant, it’s not the end of the story. Pages that draw a lot of inbound links are also likely to rank well in search engines, which can lead to tons of on-going traffic as well.
Http://healthcarebloglaw.blogspot.com/2009/01/medical-uses-of-twitter-twitter-consult.html
http://www.hitecshow.org/social-networking-and-the-medical-field.html
http://traffikd.com/smm/faq/