Why Is Social Media So Popular?

We use social media in our daily activities. Whether we are sending a text message to a friend, answering a Facebook message, asking about a recipe on a food forum, or looking for a job on Linkedin. We are always using social media.  But why is social media so important? Why is it so popular? Who cares that we are on  different digital platforms and constantly uploading our own content and reading content of other users? 

The following figures will give you an insight on why social media has become so important for companies and individuals: 

Facebook boasts over 171 million unique visitors compared to Google, the most popular Web search engine, which  exceeds 174 million unique visitors.  YouTube, a video sharing website, is the second largest search engine with 153 million unique visitors and where over  two billion videos are downloaded each day.  There are over 156 million blogs in existence. Tumblr is the 8^th largest site in the U.S. Social Networks and Blogs category.  Nearly 40 % of social media users access social media content from their mobile phones. Americans spend  more time on Facebook than on any other website. 

These figures are astounding.  Social media has a powerful influence on consumer behavior and on purchase decisions.  In fact, 60 percent of people who use three or more digital means of research for product purchases learned about a specific brand or retailer from a social networking site. Furthermore, 70 percent of  social networkers shop online. 

The audience now decides and expresses freely the value of a company’s products and services.  Companies worldwide want to know how to better tap into this huge market.  These companies are aware that to stay competitive  they have to not only become “social” but understand how to harness the power that social media marketing  can have.

Social Media Marketing: Protecting Your Image, Your Brand

It is difficult not to notice the posts or comments on the many digital platforms that are out there nowadays from those trying to push or preserve their brand identity. Whether it is through Facebook, Twitter, forums or text messages, users of social media do not realize the effects that their words can have on their audience.

While a short and personable comment by a well known and charming designer can have a very positive ROC (Return on Conversation), comments by others may not. Instead comments can backfire. Let's face it, we are not all as charming as Christopher Bailey of Burberry or as interesting as Gianna Frida of Gucci.

So how then can we build our brand or our image through social media? Here, it all depends on what you truly believe makes your brand, product or service better.  What is it about your product or service that you believe is superior to the competition? Maybe it is the after sale service you provide or maybe it is the attention to every detail and showing the client that he / she is important. Perhaps the quality is based on your gentle approach and not your aggressive behavior to get the sale. Maybe your company and staff are avid supporters of a charity that you feel strongly about.

Not many people realize that in social media marketing, "how you are read" is even more important than "what is read."  Poor grammar, aggressive remarks will not do anything to help build your brand. There is nothing worse than reading something that obviously was neither edited nor proofread before publishing. Conversations between you and others regarding appointments, etc are boring and do not help in building your brand. Unless you are a famous designer setting up an appointment for a catwalk, stay away from publicly posting these types of comments.

If you have nothing interesting to say, than don't post anything. Put yourself in your audience's shoes and what would be interesting for them to read. Is there an item on sale today? Is there a new, cool product you are working on? Did you read an article on something that could spark a discussion about a complimentary product or service? Can your audience benefit from your comment or post?

Social media marketing, if used properly, can offer enormous benefits for your brand that will ultimately lead to sales. Good luck.

SIMPLE TIPS ON WRITING INTERESTING & VALUABLE ONLINE CONTENT

The thought of writing valuable content sometimes can be so overwhelming that many of us decide we just cannot do it on a regular basis. Here are a few tips to making it easier:

1. Do use information that you already are an expert in.  You don't have to spend hours and hours researching before writing valuable content. You know your product or business more than anyone else and already possess the information people are looking for.

2. Don't assume the information you are  giving is common sense and everyone knows it already! It may be common sense for you but not for the majority of your audience. Do write about the basics.

3. Chances are that what is interesting for you is interesting or of value to others.

4. You may be an expert in your field but your audience is not so remember to use easy to understand terms.

5. Be generous about offering information. Don't hold back.

6. Keep content short and to the point. If you can get the message across using less words, do so.

7. Keep in mind where your content is being published online and who your audience is accordingly : a wall post on Facebook, a blog post, a tweet, etc.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy: Small & Large Acts of Kindness by Luxury Companies

Consumers are looking at what companies are doing with regard to social responsiblity. They are looking beyond donations and want to know how the companies are getting involved with the environment and society around them. This is especially prevalent with luxury consumers. A luxury brand's corporate social responsiblity makes a huge impact on the consumers choice to purchase its goods. What luxury brands are doing what in terms of CSR?

Luxury brand Louis Vuitton has a program with SOS Children's Villages called Parnership for Children's Futures. The partnership helps children who are orphaned, abandoned or whose families are unable to care for them. Worldwide, SOS Children's Villages cares for over 78,000 children and young people in 500 children's villages.

Bulgari works with Save The Children organization and has been raising millions to help children worldwide.  Gucci partners with the United Nations Childrens Fund and has environmentally friendly packaging.  Burberry has its own Burberry Foundation, which helps young people realize their creative dreams. Burberry also partners with 17 charity groups in Asia, America and in Europe.  Giorgio Armani has supported the following charities: American Foundation for AIDS, Global Fun, UNICEF, and RED to name a few.

Now more than ever consumers are scrutinizing what their favorite luxury brands are doing for others. There is and there will be an increasing social pressure to become more charitable, generous and attentive to society and the environment. The pressure is on and rightly so.

Discussing Corporate Responsibility: Burberry President Angela Ahrendts and Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey at Annual Vendor Conference, London.

CAN YOU CARRY OUT YOUR OWN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ACTIVITIES?

Whether you have a small business or a large company, the question most asked nowadays is if you or your staff can carry out your own social media marketing activities or do you need to hire a consultant.

The answer is largely dependent on what you want to get out of social media marketing and what you can put into it, in terms of time and money.

As anything else, the more time and attention you devote to something, the greater the chances of it growing and developing. You know your product or service more than anyone else but can you devote a lot of time to digital marketing activities?  How much time? I would say you should be able to devote at least 1-2 quality hours daily. This means time devoted to research (staying informed of what is new in your sector, product but also in terms of viral marketing), writing valuable content, contributing to forums or groups and associations and answering questions. It is not easy nor is it fast. It requires hard work and consistency. It requires putting together a strategy with goals, implementing your strategy, measuring what you are doing  and then tweaking and retweaking until you are getting the results you want.
Without a doubt, if you do decide to hire a consultant or agency, you will still have a major role especially because you know your product more than anyone else. You will be working with your consultant and giving him/her the input he/she needs to carry through.  Make sure that the consultant is not just offering you a list of things to be done.  Every product and service is different and the consultant has to understand this. Most importantly, ensure  that the consultant is doing the research to know who your audience is and where your audience is. Good luck.

Understanding Your Online Audience

Your audience online is changing? Are you? Do you really know who your target market is and more importantly, do you know what it wants? Often times we spend and waste time "talking" to an audience that is not our potential consumer. Have you thought about how many of your Facebook fans or followers would actually be interested in your product or service? For example if your content or wall posts on Facebook is geared toward sales in sporting equipment and most of your Facebook followers or friends are elderly people who rarely get out to ski, you are definitely not going to get the results you are looking for. Another example is you own an expensive wellness spa but your followers are all college students that have little to no disposable income. Perhaps you are the CEO of a trendy swim trunk company and your followers are friends that purchase maybe one pair of swim trunks every year. You need to do some reaching out to find an audience that really "fits" your product. You need to find out who your evangelists are and you need to cater to them.

What forums do you actively participate in? Are you offering interesting and valuable information in these forums or are you just trying to make a fast sell? The same holds true for online associations, groups and clubs. You need to find the people that are truly interested in the same product or service you provide.

Understanding your audience takes a lot of research and does not happen overnight. The payoff however is great. The engagement between you and your audience will be a natural consequence and that engagement will lead to future sales.

TIPS ON USING FACEBOOK

DON'T use Facebook for a fastsell. People don't want to be marketed to and it is a quick turn off. If you have a repair shop or store don't post "Get our gift certificates now." This type of marketing via social media is not effective.

DO offer valuable information for your audience and then mention your product or service. It is much more effective. In other words if you have a shoe repair shop or dry cleaning business, tell your audience how to get rid of stains on your shoes or clothes. Then you can tell them about your gift certificates.

DON'T just copy what your competitor is doing. What works for them may not necessarily work for you. Just because Burberry's Christopher Bailey is "talking" to his fans about the brand on its Facebook page and has fantastic results in engagement does not mean Gucci's Frida Giannini will have the same type of success. There are a lot of different factors in play and duplicating exactly the same thing that the competitor is doing, especially for a luxury brand, is like copying another brand's designs. Not good.

DO research what the competition is doing via social media and then find creative ways to make your strategy even better.

DO engage the audience offering interesting information. No one wants to read that you are attending a staff meeting to discuss delivery schedules. Boring.

DON'T  be wordy.  People don't have time to read lengthy posts.

DO provide accurate information and use proper grammar.

DO find an audience that can actually utilize your information.

Managing Luxury Brand Online Content

Managing your  online brand  content can be as common sense as proofreading the grammar and punctuation on all your material to setting and managing the overall tone of the brand throughout all digital platforms.It is surprising how much material gets published without anyone reviewing and editing the content. It is even more surprising how many errors get published even though content was reviewed and edited!

Luxury brands in particular have to be extremely careful and prudent in not only what is written about their products but how it is written. Building and managing the overall tone of a luxury brand is extremely difficult. Typically content is reviewed many times before being published. The tone of the company has to match its message. The personality of the content writer should not come out in his / her writing but rather the personality of the company and brand should be a natural consequence. Luxury brands usually have a subdued tone. Typically, one would not find sarcasism, humor or aggression in luxury brand content. Also as for any content, grammar and punctuation should be precise and there should not be any errors in information given.

Now more than ever branded content is created with mobile devices in mind. What does this mean? It signifies that content should be to the point, not wordy, interesting and valuable. The average person has literally seconds to read and digest the material and decide if it is valuable enough to pass on to others or to utilize. Consumers don't want to be advertised to or pushed to purchase. Rather consumers and fans of brands do enjoy feeling a part of the "brand" family. Burberry for example invited fans on Facebook to ask questions directly to its Chief Creative Director, Christopher Bailey. Mr. Bailey then answered questions live via Facebook, addressing fans by their names. It was a huge success. Gucci, just recently did the exact same thing with its Creative Director, Ms.Frida Giannini.

Everyone and anyone who represents the company and who publishes content has to be onboard and strictly supporting the corporate tone and message. The social media strategy is no longer "owned" by the marketing department and therefore anyone in the company can adversely affect the luxury brand's social media strategy. Not only should there be training sessions to aid employees on how to use new social media tools, but those who represent the company online should publish content that is consistent with the overall corporate tone and message.

Engagement & Perceived Value Through Social Media Marketing

When you think about how to engage an audience, you have to first focus on the message you want to get across. Toms shoes focuses on their message of helping children. Zappos focuses on their superior services and the value of people, both their own staff and their customers. 

Apple focuses on selling superior products to their fans. Apple fans are not just repeat consumers but feel they are a part of something bigger. They feel a sense of belonging to the Apple family. The focus of Burberry is to provide high quality  luxury products. Burberry fans feel a connection to the historic brand that other luxury brands cannot seem to replicate.

There is no formula in building an affinity through social media with your customers. It takes hard work, committment and real engagement. The message has to be clear and real. How is your brand, product, service perceived? What can you do to change the perception? Consumers are looking for increased value.  You neeed to raise your brand's perceived value. For example, you may have a wonderful product but consumers are asking, what have you done for the environment, charities, non profit organizations,etc.

What do your customers value? Is it price, quality, availability, after sale service, etc? What is the most important parameters for your clients? For a dry cleaner it may be extending your hours to accommodate your clients. For a Doctor it may be returning phone calls personally. For a new brand of footwear it may be comfort and style.

Once you know what your customers value you can take steps to reach your audience through social media marketing. You may announce through Facebook your new extended hours or the fact that you personally return all calls. Once you have the perceived value down you need to express it.

Social Media Marketing - Finding Your Audience

The first step in social media marketing is identifying your product or service. If you have done your homework and a business plan, you should already have a clear definition of what you are selling, whether it be legal services, shoe repairs, leather handbags or cooking classes. If you cannot put in simple words what your business is, then you need to go back and work on your business plan. This is key to continuing.

The next step and all so equally important is defining who your audience, consumer, potential customer is. It sounds like a clichè but you really have to think outside the box and research this point fully. For instance, you may have an eyeglass store in a small town and think your potential customer is the average person who needs eye glasses. Well this may not be the case. In fact if you do your research, you will find out that when people get their prescriptions filled by eye doctors, they usually ask the eye doctor to recommend where to buy the glasses. So in this case your leads are coming from eye doctors and not the average person who walks into your store.

Another example could be a cooking school who wants to promote its gourmet cooking classes for children. This cooking school's audience is not the children but their parents and not just any parents but parents from a specific income level that can afford these type of classes. One would waste resources of time and money trying to engage all children or all parents in this instance. A better step would be to find through blogs and forums for instance parents who enroll their children in other classes (sports, music, dance, etc) in your area.

Why is it so important to know exactly who your audience is? If you don't know exactly who it is, you will not be able to locate the audience in social media communities. The average Joe does not "hang out" in the same social media communities as Dr.X, the eye doctor.Once you know who these people are and where they are, you can create content that is specific to that target audience.

What Luxury Brands Should Be Doing Now With Social Media Marketing

I write a lot about luxury brands mostly because I reside partially in Italy, am surrounded by fashion everyday, work with luxury brands and ... am a fan myself of some of the beautifully made, high quality items with the designer labels. I am only human.

I also have a passion for social media because I like people and I am always curious about consumer behavior and personalities. I have written about what some of the luxury brands are doing with social media and have even listed the top brands. However I am shocked that more steps have not been taken by even the giants. I see a lot of copying eachother. One brand (Burberry) does acoustics on their FB page and another luxury brand (Bulgari)    does the BZero1 video.  One brand is doing events on FB (Dolce & Gabbana) and almost instantaneously its competitor is doing events as well on FB. Where is the creativity? Where is the wanting to really outreach to its fans making them feel special and a part of their "family?" There seems to be a lot of fear especially with the luxury brands in doing something that won't be fitting to the image. Instead I believe the more human the brands look, the more they will gain a feeling of affinity with its fans. I am really surprised that luxury brands have not already done the following but maybe after reading this post they will ;) :

1) Build forums where inside staff answers questions.

2) Build blogs where brand designers actually give advice how to wear particular items, what styles look best on what body build, upcoming trends,etc.

3) Use blogs where the sourcing or manufacturers that the luxury brands use around the world show and discuss what goes into making an item. The general audience has no idea what fine handcrafted work goes into making a leather handbag or boots or sweater, etc.

4) Use same blogs as in n.2 above to get the manufacturers on board, make them feel part of the brand "family" as well.

5)  Build social network where consumers not just upload their picture wearing the brand item but the consumer gives some more detailed info of where the consumer is going, his/her profession, etc. This is what personalizes it. I love Burberry's social networking site  http://www.artofthetrench.com/ . I would however enhance it in the detail's section. On this site, fans are encouraged to upload their pictures wearing their Burberry trench coats and include their name and location. To personalize it more it would be better to have   "Anna, a journalist in London, late for work."rather than just "Anna photographed in London."

6) Link everything to a "How do I get this look" idea to the brand's ecommerce site.

Come on luxury brands, catch up!

Burberry, Social Media and Sales

If you are interested in social media and fashion you don't have to look far to see how Burberry has had a tremendous boost in sales due also to its extraordinary efforts in social media. I took a trip to our favorite outlet in Tuscany (Leccio Reggello Florence) Italy to The Mall on Saturday and found to my amazement the Burberry Store was cram packed with buying fans. With cash in hand (the outlet only takes cash or debit cards), hundreds of people were in line paying for outer wear, coats, trenches, rainboots, umbrellas, scarves  of every type and color, handbags, wallets, shoes. Is this because of the affinity people have with the brand? Is it because of its social media brilliant presence and engagement?

Before entering the store on a freezing Saturday afternoon (the Mall is outdoors), we strolled passed Valentino, Gucci, Ferragamo surprised to see mostly vacant stores with salespeople twirling their thumbs. Instead at the Burberry store, you could hardly get through and had to hold on for dear life to those items you wanted to purchase for fear they would be snapped away. Men, women, children of different nationalities looking through items to purchase, standing in lines, trying to look in mirrors without being trampled on....this was the scene at the Burberry store in (Leccio Reggello) Florence Italy last Saturday.

Myself? I ran away happily with a new delicious Burberry trench in hand. My husband? A beautiful new Burberry winter coat. Thanks Burberry. You made my birthday.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN ITALY

In any industry you really have to know a culture well to be successful in a foreign market. I have to say I am putting to use pretty much everything I learned during my Graduate studies of International Marketing and Consumer Behavior when working with the Italian market. However social media marketing complicates things even more. Let's take Italy for instance:

Social media networking is alive and well in Italy. It has been embraced by not only teenagers but also men and women of all ages, demographic groups, income levels, professionals, and non professionals. It has been embraced on a friendship use primarily. It is a great place to post photos, make arrangements to see eachother, stay in touch with friends, lovers, etc. Even the majority of businesses while on Facebook for instance or MySpace are still not taking advantage of their full business generating potential.

Most of the brick and mortar businesses owned by couples whose children are now old enough to use the Internet are utilizing social networking. The same is true for large, medium and small family owned companies.  In house someone (usually the child of the owner who is old enough to understand Internet) mostly sets up the business profile page and then sends it out to the family's friends and friends of friends and that's about as far as it goes. They wonder why they are not getting any increased income from the social network. They did not do any research to even find out if that social network is appropriate for their business. In Italy, it is the standard to follow a fad and social media is a part of that ideology. Many Italian business owners join a network because everyone else is on it and therefore it must be the new "it" thing like buying the latest Gucci handbag.

Is this changing? There is not a lot of education being diffused in Italy on how social media can really be utilized to create increased engagement and revenue. You receive a lot of blank stares from business people when you talk about return on conversation, sharing valuable content, etc. Italians are social by nature but with people they already know. It is not like an average Italian person to strike up a conversation with a total stranger and the virtual world is no different. Even Italian business people have a difficult time networking in the traditional sense. It is just not part of their culture. They usually will converse with someone if they have already been introduced and even then the conversation is not so free flowing.

So how will social media pan out in Italy?Great, fantastic on a friendship use level. With regard to business and aside from the Italian giants like Buitoni, Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, etc I believe Italian businesses have a long way to go! Comments??

SOCIAL MEDIA: LUXURY BRANDS & CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

A female affluent consumer walks into a Saks' shoe department. She tries on several luxury brand shoes and then has to decide between two designer brands. The prices are the same. The look, heel, color are all the same. The shoe's comfort is the same. What is the deciding factor?

Another female affluent consumer is internet savvy and has no problem purchasing luxury items online. She is a keen follower or fan of two luxury brands. She is also an evangelist of both brands. She is in the market to buy luxury brand shoes and must decide between the two. The prices are the same. The look, heel, color are all the same. She has owned both brands before and is satisfied with the quality and comfort of both. What is the deciding factor?

How is social media and digital platforms affecting consumer behavior with luxury brands? There is a lot of  information, research, studies on how these are changing the way consumers purchase. Does the female affluent consumer feel an affinity toward one luxury brand in particular because she is a "fan" of that brand? Does she purchase luxury brand X instead of Y because X has done a better job with its digital presence? Is she more apt to buy brand X because she saw today an image on X's facebook page of actress Angelina Jolie wearing X shoes? What exactly is the deciding factor that pushes the consumer to purchase X rather than Y and what then can luxury brands do to harness these changes in consumer behavior?


Below is the 2010 Luxury Lab Index which ranks the top luxury brands according to digital excellence:

http://www.l2thinktank.com/luxury2010digitaliq/luxury2010digitaliq.pdf

Top Ten Luxury Brands with the highest digital IQ (as ranked by Luxury Lab):

1. Coach

2. Ralph Lauren

3. Louis Vuitton

4. Gucci

5. Hugo Boss

6. Burberry

7. Dolce & Gabbana

8. Giorgio Armani

9. Swarovski

10. Tiffany

According to L2 Founder Scott Galloway,
"... 2010 has been a seminal year for the luxury industry, some brands have put the weight of their organization behind digital, while others have stood still and have been left behind.”  “The ‘it’ product in luxury is not a handbag or watch, but innovative social media programs.”

REPORT FINDINGS:

• "Traffic to brand sites from Facebook more than doubled in 2010, growing from 3.4 percent to 7.1 percent with 73 percent of luxury brands registering the social media giant as a top eight source of traffic. Traffic from Twitter and YouTube decreased.
• Brand sites with social sharing recorded annual traffic growth of 42 percent versus 18 percent for brands without social sharing suggesting the increasing importance of social media optimization.
• Digital competence leads to more site traffic. The 21 brands that increased their Digital IQ demonstrated annual traffic growth of 52 percent versus traffic growth of just 8 percent for brands that registered IQ decreases.
• The 39 brands that sell online boast a Digital IQ of 117 versus an average IQ of 79 for the 33 brands that are not e-commerce-enabled.
• Only half of brands engage in email marketing, only two in five are purchasing search terms and only 10% have mobile sites. "

What Is Social Media Marketing?

More and more people are asking  "What Is Social Media Marketing? What is all the excitement about? What happened to traditional Marketing activities and how are they changing? What can I do with my business to really promote my product or service? What can I do right now for my business?

Social Media defined from Wikipedia encyclopedia:

"Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein also define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Businesses also refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value."

The buzz around social media marketing is based on the fact that it is the consumer's influence that is either promoting or killing the product or service.  It is no longer a PR firm, a banner or blatant advertisement.  Traditional marketing activities have changed.

The main problem with social media marketing from a business perspective is that it can be incredibly time-consuming and the ROI is difficult to measure. It is based on Return on Conversation. Social media marketing campaigns are not one time deals. They need to be nurtured over time.  Even small businesses and organizations however can truly benefit from social media.

The first suggestion I give anyone who wants to start with social media activities is to begin to listen and research where their audience is. Get comfortable with social networks that have to do with your product.  Visit forums and message boards. Read blogs. Read tweets. Join groups. Have an active and real interest in these. Do your research.  Look at what your competitors are doing. Look at what companies of your complimentary services or products are doing. Are they on Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin? Are they tweeting? Do they have blogs? What are they saying and better yet, what are their clients saying or complaining about?

The second suggestion I give  is to really keep a clean, detailed and updated databank of your clients. Your satisfied customers will be your first step to outreaching to new potential clients. They will provide the word of mouth you will need as a jumpstart.

Luxury Brands & Social Media Marketing

Burberry acquires 3 million fans on Facebook and has a social network Art of the Trench that is truly engaging. Jimmy Choo runs with its treasure hunt on Foursquare and Louis Vuitton partners with Foursquare to offer a designer badge. Tiffany wears its Engagement Ring iPhone app.  DKNY is doing fashionably well on Twitter.  It is especially exciting for marketing professionals to watch what is going on with social media and luxury brands. Who would have thought that something so exclusive, so closed doors, so v.i.p. as luxury brands would utilize social media to not only get "in touch" with their present followers but to acquire new fans and thus consumers? It is fantastic to see what some of these companies are doing to really harness the power of social media.

Forbes recently wrote that according to a Forrester Research Survey, "in 2008 only one third of international luxury firms actively sold online, yet 8 out of 10 affluent consumers actively used the internet to research and purchase luxury goods on a daily basis."  Another survey shows how these numbers are growing. EMarketer published in 2007 in   "Affluent Internet Users: How The Rich Live Online" that these users will grow from 43.7 million in 2006 to 57.1 million in 2011.  So we know that the affluent purchase more and more online on a daily basis so why aren't more luxury brands taking advantage of this?

This is astounding and signifies that those few luxury brands that are embracing the internet have an extreme advantage over their competitors who refuse to budge. What else can luxury brand designers do to remain at the cutting edge of social media and attract a new generation of luxury consumers?

1. Research

• Study the trends and behavior of  online visitors and customers to identify new opportunities 
• Find creative ways to increase consumer engagement with the brand and product online

 2. Social Media, Mobile & SEO

• Work with in house departments and third party firms to define and execute the mobile strategy 
• Maintain total brand consistency throughout all digital platforms while building  brand awareness, engagement, purchase intent, repeat purchase and brand advocacy
• Direct search engine marketing and optimization
• Utilize digital platforms, stores and third parties to increase e-mail address acquisition 

3.  Ecommerce

• Identify innovative ways to enhance consumer interactions with the brand and product through Ecommerce and especially via mobile devices.

 4. Follow up 

• Analyze performance and tweak and retweak according to results.  Remeasure.

    

Who Said What? Social Media Marketing & How To Monitor What Is Being Said About You

There are a multitude of sites where consumers can comunicate their extreme happiness about you, your product, your service or express their utter disgust and disappointment. With Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums, Yelp, Pissedconsumer and many others, consumers can build your business up or shut your doors down.  Unanswered complaints or questions about a product for instance can turn potential clients away or disappoint a company's loyal fan or avangelist.

More and more companies are using tools to not only monitor what is being said about them online but also to gather information about the competition, the industry, related products and services. It is not just about defending your product or company but it could help create new opportunities. These tools tell you where your audience is and that is the starting point for engagement.

The most basic of these tools is Google Alerts, which is free to use and sends you an email when a keyword you select appears on the internet in an online discussion. It will tell you what was said, who said it and give you a link to go to for the comment.  If you have many keywords, many brands, many retail stores to keep track of, then you will be better off with a more sophisticated service which provides more detailed information including the influencers of your brand or product.  These can tell you whether a comment is negative, positive and which needs to be addressed.  The following are some of the more sophisticated tools companies are using in social media marketing monitoring:

Viralheat
Trackur
Radian6
Visible Technologies

"My Business is on Facebook and Twitter. Now What?"

It has happened to all of us. We get a profile up for our business on one of the social networking communities like Facebook or Myspace and on a microblog like Twitter and write some posts  on our wall or do some tweeting. We then suggest the page to our friends and even get some “likes” and some followers or fans. We wait a few weeks, maybe months and then boom. Silence. No interaction. No activity. No engagement and definitely no leads. What happened? What went wrong? We ask ourselves, “Why isn’t social media working for my business”?

Once research has been done on the product or service and it has been established that the best social media for the business is social networking through Facebook, then you can take the steps to really harness the power that it can provide.  You also have to establish who your audience is. Is it businesses (B2B) or is it the consumer (B2C)? Or both? Consider the following:

1. The most important thing to remember with social networks is that people do not want to be marketed to so do not try to pitch your product or service at the community on your Facebook business page.

2. Do find groups or associations on Facebook that you have similar interests in as your business and /or start a discussion in that area. You can do this directly on your Facebook business profile.

3. Do share information, suggestions, opportunities that have to do with your industry and not your product. Give away free information that your audience can actually use and be thankful for. Make your content real, interesting, and valuable.

4. Do share your passion for your industry by posting upcoming events having to do with your industry and interesting articles, links, videos, pictures having to do with your industry.

5. Do share and show with your own podcasts, videos or pictures and text what you and your company has done for the society as in charities. Show also how your business has succeeded in a difficult job. For instance you and your staff went over and beyond the call of duty to get the product ready for delivery. Utilize Facebook's video feature. See Nick O'Neil's post : http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/11/how-to-get-thousands-of-facebook-fans-with-a-single-video/.

6. Do make sure your blog, FB, Twitter are all linked so your audience can easily exchange and share information with one another.

7. Always reply to comments and be thankful even for the negative comments. Make sure you address them. Ask the audience for their comments, questions, insight and answer them.

8. Educate your staff and get them onboard. They are what make your company real.

10. Get fans to tag photos you have posted.

11.Utilize your physical office, store or place of business to promote your Facebook page with a laptop present or print media and get clients to become fans instantly (ideally from their mobiles).

12.Sign posts on other walls

13.Use the Share button

14.Suggest your business profile on Facebook to Friends

15. Place widgets on your website or blog. By placing the Like Box on your website, you are encouraging your audience to become a fan of your facebook page.

These are just a few of the many ways you can proactively encourage engagement on your Facebook business page.

Part II- Social Media Marketing Strategy & Defining Your Goals

You need to set specific goals and include them in your social media strategy.  Different types of social media require different types of goals. Goals should be measurable. A starting point for defining goals for social networking sites for instance would be to consider the metrics that apply to them. Here metrics include: number of fans or likes, number of comments, number of discussions started, how much time visitors stay on your site, traffic, number of photos added by friends, and how many times you have been tagged by others.

For example a goal may be to have a 15% increase in fans in 3 months on your social networking site or a similar increase in comments on your blog. If you are not reaching your desired goal, you may need to modify that goal and try a new approach. Perhaps your audience is not using social networking sites but is more present in forums or message boards. Perhaps you need to give more time to the social networking site or perhaps the tactic for engagement is wrong altogether.

Perhaps your goal is simply to turn around the negativity caused by problems with your product or your customer service. Perhaps your goal is to just get out there and get noticed. You have a new product and need exposure.

The more detailed your goals are, the more likely you will achieve them.  Most importantly, how will the achievement of these goals translate to saving money or making money?

Social Media Marketing For Your Business- "Where Do I Begin?"

This will be the first part of a multi part post on steps to take in social media marketing. The first thing that many people tell me is that they have no idea how social media works and do not know where to begin.

The best advice I can give anyone who really wants to harness the power that social media can offer for their business is to listen to the conversations that are taking place regarding similar products, services or industries as their own. Let's take a step back. Here are some of the main types of social media:

Social Networking- Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin
Social Sharing- YouTube, Flickr
Blogs
Microblogging- Twitter
Social Bookmarking- Delicious, Diigo
Social Events- Eventful, Upcoming
Social News  sites- Digg, Reddit
Forums and Message boards
Wikis

How does one find those social media communities best connected to their product or service? Here the most obvious would be to do a google search or similar search engine search. You will quickly see the top listings for your industry, product, service, etc. You will find blogs, forums, discussion groups. You should also do a Twitter search and a Facebook and Myspace search. Here the point is to find where these conversations are taking place. Your particular product or similar product may be present in the form of blogs and on Twitter and not have a significant presence on Facebook or Myspace.

After you have done substantial listening, you can actually join in on the conversations, being honest with who you are and what you are interested in learning and more importantly, sharing. Do not make the mistake of trying to pitch your product or idea to the community because chances are you will be kicked out. Social media communities do not want to be marketed to. Good luck!