In my daily internet travels I came across what I think is a perfect example of the differences between traditional marketing and the ever growing, every popular social media marketing.
From talking with people who own small businesses, they just are not getting the connection and importance of adding social media to their marketing portfolio. Even though you see Facebook and Twitter just about everywhere you look these days, the idea that it is simply a way for “young people to talk to their friends” or about “people sharing useless information like, I just finished breakfast” seems still very much a reality to so many.
Social media has become so popular that even large companies like Pepsi are choosing to spend their advertising budget on it rather than their typical legendary Superbowl commercials (read article: Pepsi to Skip Super Bowl Ads in Favor of $20M Social Media Campaign), therefore, doesn’t it stand to reason that we should all be looking at moving in this direction?
In this article by Bravemedia, they give an excellent example of how social media works and how it can change the way your business interacts with customers in a very powerful way.
If after this you can see how it will help your business, leave us a comment below and tell us about it!
ps. Very soon, we’ll be launching new services that will show you step-by-step how to create your own social media marketing portfolio and services for those that just don’t have time to do it all themselves…stay tuned!
I just finished watching a video by Tammy Kahn Fennel at the Traffic Rockstars Expo about her new Twitter software “MarketMe Tweet”. From watching her walk through of the software I was blown away by the amazing things you can do to market your business using Twitter.
A few of the features that stood out to me:
Unlimited Twitter Accounts
Unlimited Scheduled Tweets
Unique Branding Ability!
I couldn’t possibly do this software any justice myself simply because I am just learning how it works, so I’m going to let the tour do the job properly.
If you want to get traffic the right way using Twitter, then I suggest you check this out
Facebook has become the “place to be” with millions of users already using it and thousands more joining daily. It’s almost imperative that you include it as part of your marketing arsenal. But, in the past, it was difficult to separate your personal friends from your business contacts or clients. And, I’ll be honest, having all of my friends, family and business contacts viewing my profile together was what made me quite hesitant to use Facebook.
Great news…
Recently, Facebook has made it possible to separate your personal and business life. Now you can create individual pages for your business and keep your personal profile for friends and family only. You can now also communicate better with your business contacts (aka fans) by having the ability to send out messages to your entire fan base.
Watch this video
In this video, Ed Dale and Michelle MacPhearson explain how this new “paging” system works and how you can use it to better your own Facebook experience.
These days using social media should be a big part of marketing your business. But the time it takes can sometimes be extremely overwhelming. So much so, that many people actually stop it completely. While catching up on my tweets this week, 1 tweet in particular caught my eye and I just had to share it with you.
Robin Broitman of Interactive Insights Group has compiled a very large list of articles that offer great advice, tips and tools to help you be more productive and efficient when using social media.
I recommend bookmarking this post and reading a little bit everyday…after all, being such a comprehensive list, I don’t want you to get overwhelmed just trying to learn how not to be overwhelmed by social media:)
Ps. I found the image for this post linked to a very interesting article by Fred Cavazza entitled, “Social Media Landscape“, that breaks down the actual meaning of “Social Media” …another very interesting read.
Creating a blog is nothing that you need to be afraid of. There is no elaborate planning required either. However, there are a few things you would need to decide. Since these blogging service providers give you a lot of choice in terms of template and color themes, would be require to take those decisions yourself.
The following is a quick guide of what to think over before creating your blog:
• Theme: Determine what you would be writing about or the nature of the content that you would be sharing with your readers. This depends mainly on your interest. Topics blogging to the field of politics, poetry, arts, current affairs, or almost anything under the sun can be chosen. You can stick to one theme or you can choose to write about whatever concerns you on a day to day basis. Since it is your very own web journal, you can make it as flexible as possible in all aspects.
• Blogging Provider: Next you need to decide upon which blogging service provider you would like to use. This depends on the kind of reviews that you get about them from friends and acquaintances, or something about them that you may have read online. Otherwise, you can always try out something and find out if you like it. You can try out one of these popular sites: Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Typepad, Blogagotchi.com, Livejournal.com, JournalHome.com, TheDiary.org, Mindsay.com, Blog.com, Diaryland.com, Blogdrive.com, or Xanga.com.
• Templates: A wide range of templates will be made available on any blogging service you decide to start you blog. Select the one you most prefer or like.
• Freebies: The advantage with these blogging service providers is that they make your blogging experience as dynamic and interactive as possible. They enable you to install add-on features that include button, pictures, blog chalks, imoods, tagboards such as myshoutbox.com, guest maps, guestbooks, comment boxes for readers’ thoughts and views, etc.
• Additional Features: These interesting ones may not be free. By paying a price you can avail of them.
• Nature of Blog: You must determine who should read your blog-whether you want it to be read only by a select circle, or must it be open to all. This will depend upon the content, mainly.
• Layout: Again, there will be a wide range to choose from in terms of layout and color schemes.
• Content: You could pick up a specific theme and write about it consistently, or merely decide on any random topic as and when it interests you. You could try putting up content for a while and see the kind of response you get, and alter or modify it accordingly.
• Blogging Circle: Blogging is a great way to come in touch with people from across the globe. You can surf and visit other people’s blogs. Do not spam in their comment section, but write a genuine comment if you have something to say about a particular post.
• Skins: You can customize and personalize your blog as much as you want. Using software like Photoshop you can create your own skins and make your blog attractive as well as make it reflect you own personality.
• Publish: Finally when you are done selecting the setting and preferences, selecting a content to put up, you need to publish the content. Do not, however, forget to send the link to your blog to your friends and acquaintances so that they may come visit you.
Once you have started your blog, you will have noticed that it hardly takes fifteen minutes to do so. Maintain the blog is even easier. Here are a few tips that would help you successfully keep your blog going:
• Update: Update frequently otherwise visitors may stop coming to your blog. It will also give you more confidence to churn out more well worded posts in the future.
• Personalize: Even though you might be discussing general and universal themes, add your own personal touch to make things lighter and interesting.
• Theme: If you have a theme blog you can Google for other blogs of a similar kind and build you network.
• Spelling and Grammar: Make sure you proof read your posts. Spelling and grammatical errors can be a major put-off for many readers.
• Advertisements: You could play host to sites like Google AdSense and earn revenue by placing their links on your blog.
Courtesy for this article is unknown, if you are the author please please let me know:)
Here’s an interesting approach to social marketing, a plan even. I haven’t tried it simply because I just discovered this theory and thought you’d enjoy seeing how others approach the daunting task of social marketing.
5 Daily Social Media Builders In Less Than 10 Minutes (Total!)
I am sick of social media. Social this. Social that. Everyone asks me whether I ‘do social media’, and it’s hard to resist the urge to caper around like a lunatic yelling “Am I being social? Am I?! Then quick, call the media!!!!”
I hate the phrase, the concept and the need for sound bites and catchphrases that spawned it. Sigh.
But it’s still important, so I’ve developed a routine that lets me steadily build my credibility in various social media outlets. Remember, social media is partly based on reputation. Build your reputation by contributing to the community, and you’ll get better results when promoting yourself, too.
Here’s what you need to do these 5 steps:
* A Google account
* A Yahoo! account
* A Stumbleupon account and the toolbar
* A Facebook account (c’mon, you don’t have one?!)
* A Twitter account
These steps take a total of 10 minutes a day, because that’s all I can stand:
I found this neat site that will check various social networks, micro blogs and web 2.0 app urls (like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook) to see if your “usual” username is already registered.
