Why Aren’t We Serious About Social Media?
Companies… if tuned in… are aware of the existence or need for social media. However, many don’t exactly know where to start or what to do. So instead of getting the best use out of the tool (and implementing a strategy) they makes excuses like “its annoying” and ignore the existence… doubting the endless possibilities for promotion and customer service. Then on the other end of the spectrum they hold social media on a pedestal thinking it will solve all their problems. Both ways of thinking are wrong. Lets address these two sides separately.
1. Social media is a quick fix
You should never think of social media as a quick fix solution. For one… social media is a tool to be used for an objective of an overall goal (be it marketing, PR, or customer service). There is no quick fix in life so what makes social media any different? In order to be successful in any… especially with social media… you must be patient. The pyramids weren’t built in a day and your social media goals won’t be met after a day of implementation. Yes, social media goals. When embarking in the world of social media it’s important to have a plan or strategy in mind. It is also important that the said plan integrates completely with your overall marketing plan. Don’t create accounts just to do it and then expect something from it. Think of social media as a relationship you must nurture… in order to experience maturity and development. Social media is not the answer to all your problems it’s simply a tool to be used among many.
2. Social media is annoying
It’s annoying? Sure, it can be. Especially if you have no control over it. The more energy you spend trying to understand and benefit from social media the less annoying it becomes. Think of social media as a younger sibling. Yes, your annoyed but you grow to like and love that pestering little kid. Quit fighting it and figure it out. I’m not saying it’s right for you or your business but I’m saying you should give it a chance. You shouldn’t dismiss something especially something with this much backing until you fully understand what it is.
Now that your embracing it (I hope) don’t take it all on your own or it will become annoying and overwhelming. Divide the task load up. Manage and prioritize your time online. In order to get the most out of a social media plan then you can’t be the only one who’s reading, writing, engaging, monitoring, tracking…the list goes on. Just don’t try and take on too much at one time. Stay committed to developing and building your brand on social media. Don’t give up too quickly. Finally,it’s not supposed to be a quick fix solution so have fun and a little faith doesn’t hurt.
Top 10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Exploding
Kait is a recent college graduate, newfound entrepreneur and working on her IMBA on her spare time. She is avidly unique and confronts life with precocity attributable to her coffee addiction. Her passions include running, writing, the mountains and social media marketing. Visit: KaitVinson.com or @TheRealKait
Top 10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Exploding:
There has been a lot of buzz recently about the future of marketing and social media. The emergence of social media networks and social media managers has been in astounding numbers. I did a little research as to why this was happening at such as rapid rate and this is what I found.
- Low-cost/high returns: Most social media networks are virtually free, allowing you to spread your message far and wide without incurring massive costs.
- The audience is limitless: Users of the internet visit billions of websites everyday which exponentially increases the likelihood that you will be seen. If Facebook were a country, it would be bigger than the United States.
- Target markets: It’s easy to target markets and achieve maximum results rather than the traditional shot in the dark marketing.
- Natural traffic: If people like something, they’ll not only visit it but share it, which increases traffic. Additionally, people often visit specific sites or topics in which they are interested thus improving the quality of traffic.
- More time is being spent on the internet, on both computers and phones: Online shopping for example has taken huge gouges out of traditional shopping means such as malls. Who would rather wait in lines during the holiday season than order from home?
- Better search engine results: The more references search engines pick up to sites the higher they are on result pages. Thus the more social media networks that are linked together provide better search results than without.
- It complements other efforts: Social media doesn’t eliminate needs for other marketing efforts but rather augments them. For instance, if a company lists their fan page or Twitter account on their billboards or website interested customers can stay updated easier and more frequently.
- Information & sharing is immediate: As soon as someone sends out a tweet, status update or blog post their entire network can see it instantaneously. This eliminates the traditional wait period of mailings, commercials, and even emails.
- It has viral potential: People tend to have their guard down more often when they are on their social media networks and thus it is easier for marketers to get their message through and share it to the masses.
- The next generation is the technology generation: There have been more technology advances in the past 10 years than in the previous 50 years. Technology is increasing at a doubling rate – double a dollar 20 times it becomes a million dollars – and people are becoming increasingly more accepting and reliant upon it.
HootSuite Offers New Features for Customer Interaction
There is no denying that the relationship between customers and business have changed due to the evolution of social media.. This evolution has created a new customer to business relationship. Customers aren’t only seeking interactions they are expecting it. However exciting this is, it’s difficult for a business to produce consistent communication and spread consistent themes. This in part is due to the overwhelmingly amount of social media channels. Hootsuite, a social media dashboard, has taken notice and is ready to help.
Hootsuite has recently added new tools for businesses to better serve their customers. These tools help businesses to offer assistance, provide information relevant to its audience and socially manage campaigns.
Are you looking to find out who in your network is most influential? Hootsuite allows you to filter columns by influence score. This will show which followers are ideal for campaign candidates or are a response priority. Essentially, you can learn which followers are most beneficial to maintain for your business reach.
Are you struggling with message overload? You can focus your columns by keywords. Simply type in words that center on what’s most relevant to you and remove all the unnecessary clutter. This tool is helpful when looking to track a topic or look for prospective clients. Wanting to get to know your audience better? Hootsuite offers an “insights” tab where you get access to your contact’s social profile links, images occupations and titles all in one view.
Now let’s say your problem is tech support. Well, don’t worry anymore. Your customer service conundrums are the least of your worries with the help of Zendesk, a help desk app.
Hootsuite also offers Team Collaboration tools that help users add extensive networks. This allows you to manage you network by showing your contacts on each network while allowing you to add more on one view. If your interested in this click the Owl, go to settings, then My Organizations.
Hootsuite aims to help businesses get their messages heard, monitor conversations and track results. Now, they are offering paid plans that grant premium users access to extra features. However, users in general still have access to 95% of all Hootsuite features. The paid plans are yet to be releases but will offer unlimited social networks, unlimited RSS feeds, advanced analytics and reports and also expedited support.
A Breakdown of Social and Mobile Application for Retail
We have heard the hell-fire-brimstone-preach-from-the-heavens marketing speak from every consultant on the face of the planet. Through all the conversations there are a couple of themes emerging from the direct-to-consumer conversations and mobile is one of them.
According to the Morgan Stanley Mobile Report of 2010 growth in the mobile Internet world is driven primarily by 3G adoption and the smartphone revolution. We are going to be experiencing record breaking growth where the mobile Internet marketing will be “at least 2x the size of the Desktop Internet market.”
Here are some additional stats from the Morgan Stanley report:
- 3G penetration is going to hit 20% globally in 2010
- Penetration rate is Western Europe will increase by 50%
- Mobile data traffic will increase by 4000% by 2014
What does this mean for the retail and direct-to-consumer world? It is time to start thinking about how your brand is selling, interacting, and communicating with the outside world. We are on the cusp of something revolutionary in the world of mobile computing. The iPad is just the starting point for a movement that will change the face of customer communication.
How do you utilize the tools that already exist for your benefit? Let’s look at the different social and mobile applications that will benefit your business.
Download the full report by clicking here > socialmediawhitepaper
6 Ways to Benefit from Gatorade’s Social Media Mission Control
What do the following 6 things have in common?
1.Track Media Performance
2.Monitor Sports Landscape
3.Tracks Sports Trends and Buzz
4.Track Brand Attributes
5.Monitor Online Discussion
6.Proactive Social Media Outreach
This is Gatorade’s Mission Control.
Why should you care? Well, this is the future. Everyday companies are spending more energy and time on creating social data. They are also mastering the art of tracking, monitoring and creating all things brand related. Gatorade has an impressive, to say the least, social media command center. After reading this post on Gatorade’s’ Social Media Command Center I became slightly more enthralled by what this company is doing. They have honed in on what makes their brand work…what influences athletes….what engages….and then how to monitor all of this on one command center.
Essentially this command center allows them to make informed marketing decisions. Where the rest of us are stuck waiting on progress reports they are able to be proactive throughout an entire campaign. If something isn’t working they can adjust it automatically. Gatorade is monitoring its brand on social media while giving VIP access to more athletes. Gatorade is gaining perspective on whether or not this strategy works. If deemed successful the company will apply this to other areas of business.
What can you learn?
Let’s face it. You may not have the capabilities to create a state of the ark command center. However, you do have the capabilities to sow what they reap.
1. Follow Gatorade’s progress to gain perspective on what consumers pay attention to.
2.You can monitor what’s being said by taking time out to listen. You may not have high tech gadgets but you can do what they are doing.
3. Focus on your brand. What do you bring to the table? Track, monitor and create for your brand in all ways possible.
4. See what’s going on in your industry. Research what consumers are saying, tweeting, blogging, trending all in regards to your industry.
5. Reach out to consumers on social meda. Make new friends, ask/answer questions, begin discussions….
6. Be Creative. Take risks and set your brand apart. Maybe the next post you read will be about your great achievements.
5 Reasons Why Whole Foods Knows Social Media
Thanks to Mike Heffner at Express Employment Professionals in Greenwood, Indiana for sending me this story on Whole Foods. Whole Foods is giving their managers and their employees the ability to make their own “brand” on social. This shows an extreme trust because Whole Foods is switching from a centralized to decentralized brand messaging model.
If you go to Whole Foods’ site and click “Facebook,” you see a hub page that lists not only the main Whole Foods account, but all the individual stores’ accounts. This is a smart move, for 5 reasons:
1. It says that Whole Foods trusts its people. The company empowers its managers to speak online about their favorite beers, store events, jobs, you name it.
2. Potential applicants get a genuine glimpse of their local store’s culture. Knowing the culture of the Company-with-a-capital-C is only half of the story; future employees also want to know what it’s really like to work for their neighborhood store.
3. Allows Whole Foods to become a community. By creating these pages Whole Foods has embraced the idea of creating a community. Where customers begin to think of their trip to Whole Foods as a community experience rather versus just a trip to the store.
4. Through empowering its managers it empowers its customers. How? Customers now come in anxious to try what’s being talked about online. This gives credibility to its employees and allows the customer to engage offline.
5. All the information is in one spot. Future employees or customers can search for Whole Foods and find all they need to know without having to extensively search. The research is done for you; all in one stop
Whole Foods serves as an example of good online branding. They have successfully blogged about their industry, set up social networks where people can engage directly and empowered their current employees.Whole Foods sets a tone for other stores to follow. In this day and age no industry is left out, which even means grocery stores. They have been innovative with their online quest and serve as a good reminder on what to do.
Do People Use Email and Facebook?
I was scanning over the latest news on Mashable.com and came across an article that really got me thinking. The article titled,What Do You Check First: Email or Facebook?, was based on a study from ExactTarget, email and social media marketing company located in Indianapolis, IN. The article gave some interesting insight into why people choose to either check their Facebook or Email first. The article began with this line “Where you start your digital day says a lot about you…” This first line is what got the wheels in my head turning. Essentially logging on has become a necessity in starting the day Where do we go first? Twitter, Facebook, Email?
The underlying question here is how do we prioritize? Furthermore, how do we prioritize the time spent on social media sites? For instance, if our morning begins with Facebook… what does that say about us? Are we fixated on our friends or updating our profiles? Is this our priority? I’m just wondering if priorities have taken a shift since the explosion of social media. Are we afraid of what will happen if we don’t check our sites immediately every morning?
This isn’t necessarily what’s so intriguing to me. It’s the fact that social media has now become such an integrated part of our morning routine. Much like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast would be. It is no longer an obsession or an addiction, it’s a healthy habit. Or is it?
Here’s one stat from the study that stood out to me
More than 50% of U.S. online consumers check their email before visiting other websites when they start the day.
Now the study was focused on brand interaction online and so forth….However, what does this statistic also show? That we are logging on in preparation for the day ahead. We are in a state of constant communication. Whether we are checking out the latest news, offering a digital good morning or sharing a story from last night.
We are tuned in at all times.
Separating Our Lives and Social Media. Is it Possible?
I’ve been thinking about our lives and social media. Since the two seem to be one in the same…
I got to thinking about the time before social media. Do you realize that most children to be born within the last five years will have their lives completely documented online? They will literally will have no idea what being “off-line” actually means… what it represents.
Let’s take a trip down my memory lane. I can distinctively remember when AIMchat was the obsession…When computers were a want versus a necessity…When only college kids were on Facebook…When e-mail was never going to work….The plug-in carphone (gasp!). The children of today’s generation will be brought up in a world full of advanced technology. They will never truly experience being turned off. (unless your Madonna’s kids who aren’t allowed to use the Internet) From the time they are newborns their parents post, share pictures and document their child’s life online. Our identities… the way people define us… are being determined by our online activities, profiles and what we share to others, which for many are mostly people we’ve never actually met. It’s funny I remember growing up and knowing all of my friends personally.
How interesting is to consider that theoretically 10 years ago the average person had 20 friends and now they have 200? Granted it’s all in how one defines a friend but some of the “friends” on my profile I have never once had a conversation with.
I’m just curious to know where people drawing the line…if they do. What constitutes as too much information? It’s something to chew on. If a child has had their life documented online before they even “know” who they are does it affect how they later define themselves? You can argue that posting a picture or a sharing a story is the same as showing everyone you know your child’s picture and so forth….however, in that case you at least see and know who you have shared this picture/story with…Essentially, our future of tomorrow will be able to track entire lives online. Can you imagine that?
When do we let our online presence rest and our real life exist? Do you ever actually separate the two? Or are you only relevant when your online?
7 Ways to Enhance Your Social Media Marketing Plan
After reading “Who’s Doing Social Media Well in the Travel Industry? Almost No One” I began thinking about what really makes a good social media plan work for any industry or person. I’ve decided to compare it to your basic health routine. In order to be healthy you must exercise and diet. Put your social media marketing plan in this perspective. It only works if you stick to it. Now lets get your new routine down. First there are somethings you have to do before starting any plan.
2. Be polite to existing communities and to your supporters. (friends/followers/following)
3. Listen then React which can essentially mean watch and learn whichever context works best for you.
4. Give value by providing relevant content and sharing others content.
We’ve got the basic fundamentals down now let’s make sure you have the meat and potatoes. No plan works without the right tools.
1. You have a Twitter account. Check. The Twitter account is to be held to a certain standard. So don’t stop and start. If you want real lasting results then be consistent. Don’t forget to update and reach out to your supporters. The point it to engage in a relationship to build loyal customers. A brand doesn’t develop without customers acknowledging it.
2. You’ve created a LinkedIn profile. Good. Is it fully completed? If the goal is to yield results then your profile should be completed to its fullest. Whether you are motivated to finish it or not. Just do it. (Nike had the right idea here)
3. Facebook. That’s not even a question. Who doesn’t have Facebook? Here is where you can indulge…a little. Facebook allows you to show a more personal side where Twitter is more focused on getting your message out. (not to be confused with SPAMMMING everyone) Upload photos, invite others to events, and post questions. Unlike Twitter there is no “limit” to what you can say but remember your profile gives insight to who you are and what you represent. Going along with our our diet metaphor…everything is good in moderation.
Now take a step back and define your goals. What is it you want to accomplish? How can these tools…if done correctly…help? Social is not something to be scared nor something to jump into. Have a goal in mind, plan your strategy, warm-up, get set and GO!
Social Media: Number One Tool for Lead Generation
We can all agree that social media is here to stay (at least for now)…but do we know why? Research indicates that many professionals implement social media to increase lead generation. In a new social media study, eMarketer stated:
“According to virtual events provider Unisfair, social media is the top emerging channel for lead gen among technology marketers surveyed in May 2010.”
The definition of lead generation alone is argument enough for using social media. Social media can and does make finding new customers so much easier…and fun. Not only can you find potential business demographically but you can base it off interest. This information will save you time, energy and money. A strong social media plan can introduce to potential customers that up until now you didn’t even realized existed.
This ever evolving concept of social media can have powerful effects for you (or your company). Are you familiar with Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? Hopefully, the answer is yes. These are all social media channels that are at the forefront for the lead generation. These channels give you valuable information for finding your brands lead generation. Most places, events people are going online and social media in all it’s many forms grants you exclusive access to it all. What is imporant to potentially new customers? What interests do they have? Do you have offer something that they could benefit from? Socail media has the power to answer these questions and more without ever having to leave your desk.
This may seem like shameless marketing tactic but it’s not about attacking potential leads with information..it’s about spending your time and energy on someone who would be interested in what you have to offer. Social media has literally created a bridge between the product and its consumers. Before it was a guessing game in determining future leads now we can eliminate most of that. So, it makes sense that social media has become a new wave for the future. You can connect with customers in a whole new way, monitor brand awareness, form relationships and find new customers. What’s not love?