Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’
June 25th, 2010
The following is a great list of useful Social Media Tools available for your business needs. Most are free, others are pay ($$$).
RSS READERS: Help you know what’s going on in your niche, or in the world.
CONVERSATION TRACKERS: Help you stay on top of internet conversations.
BLOGS: Getting the word out free sites.
MONITORING SERVICES: Watching and giving you a complete platform to listen, measure and engage with your customers across the entire social web.
AUDIO EDITING: allows quick edits for video editing, mp3 editing
BLOG STATS: Keeping track of your website stats
VIDEO: Great Advertising and Marketing
LISTENING TOOLS, CONVERSATIONS AND MICRO-BLOGGING: Tools to help you listen to what’s happening around the world in your niche along with help you manage searches and other platforms and also networking your SM platforms updating several at once.
RSS FEED MANAGEMENT
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April 8th, 2010
Facebook and Twitter are no longer just your social networking site for family and friends.
They have in fact, become the most powerful social business networking tools around, besides LinkedIn. You can give a whole new boost to your business using these two very effective, important social networking tools. They are the best thing because of the real time interaction offered by them allowing you to interact with people namely your client/customers.
With the marketing landscape changing so rapidly, businesses are slowly venturing out trying to incorporate either Twitter or Facebook for their marketing fields. Most seem to reach the 1st step, then stand there uncertain of what to do, what to say, or who to put in charge of SM marketing. Others are standing back and watching to see how it’s value is going to play out.
One of my favorite things about Twitter is it’s real-time value. For the past year and a half…I have gotten the news before the news stations have. Not only that…but it’s REAL PEOPLE not spiced up news, and it’s from different parts of the globe. This gives you such a WORLD WIDE view that to look at the news anymore from one station….is like watching a 1 dimensional movie…BORING!
Twitter conversation has become very informative and quick. If your not sure about the news…..check twitter. You can usually find a healthy stream of information about the same topic. Need opinions on something? Check Twitter… using hashtags and lists…
Want to know how a new product will be accepted…ask opinions ask questions on Twitter. Your audience can be worldwide.
So back to using Twitter…Once you’ve set up your profile, or company profile:
Here’s some valuable steps in launching your Twitter presence amongst real-time tweeters…and how it’ll help YOU.
- Add a picture. People want to see YOU or your BRAND.
- Talk about other people’s interests..showing that your HUMAN.
- Point out interesting things in your world…not just about YOU.
- Share helpful links to things in your community.
- Be careful DON’T get stuck just tweeting about YOU.
- Add a few others from your company… like @HomeDepotdeals, LionelAtDell.
Need some idea’s what to tweet about? Here’s a few to get you started.
- When promoting a new blog post, don’t just dump a link… ask a question with the link.
- Ask questions on Twitter… people LOVE giving their opinion.
- Follow interesting people..then see who they follow and add some more from their lists.
- Tweet about other’s interests…someone who has an interest in photography and used twitpix to post a picture…
- Retweet an idea or link that was of interest..
- Promote others that are of interest…they will appreciate it and tweet back or promote you.
REMEMBER….
- You don’t have to read every tweet.
- or reply every @reply…
- Use direct messages for 1 to 1 conversations…that pertain to you and there’s no value to putting it up on a twitter stream..
Useful tools…
- Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Twhirl make your Twitter lists and searches much easier…
February 15th, 2010
Well, we’re only 6 weeks into 2010 and WOW!
…lot’s of great things starting to take shape!….
First we have Apple announce the long awaited tablet… iPad.
Lots of controversy on that one. From questions to jokes to reality thoughts and ideas. For Marketing and Social Media this will be a winner. Very simple and straight forward, yet mobile and large enough to portray great visuals. No small screen, no clumsy laptop, but a very simple and straight forward tablet to use for presentations, shows, sales pitches, venues and networking. Stepping forward into space age.
Next, we have Facebook updating and changing it’s look…
Again, questions, complaints, jokes, comments, all because technology is evolving and moving forward. Facebooks changes are more organized, user friendly and “aero-dymanic” setting the stage for more business use and versatility. On it’s “heels” so to speak, we have Google launch it’s newest attempt at Social Media….“GoogleBuzz”.
Google buzz is suppose to be a handy tool..
“Buzz lets you share updates, photos, links, and pretty much anything else you’d like with your Gmail contacts; it’s an easy way to follow your friends, too. When you click Buzz in your Gmail account, you’ll see the stream of posts from people you’re following, and a box for you to post your updates,” courtesy of googlesystem. But what Google didn’t review was privacy issue’s. Anonymous Comment on Google Buzz: Basically any one you connect with via Buzz gets a full list and access to everyone you ever email or connect with using any of Google services, Facebook or Twitter if you have a public Google profile!!!
2 days later… we have additional updates concerning Google’s tweak on Buzz privacy settings.. Google announced some changes to Google Buzz late Thursday that show it has belatedly recognized the backlash over privacy concerns with the new service.
Summary so far? Jeremiah Owyang states it very well:
Executive Summary:
Brands Must Stay Focused On Where Customers Already Are
Google’s entrance causes media havoc but web strategists should stay focused. Find out where customers already are through developing data around consumer behavior called socialgraphics. Facebook continues to demonstrate a sophisticated marketplace for consumers and brands to mix about, however don’t discount MySpace’s active consumer base –but only if your customers are already there. Continue to monitor Twitter and respond if customers are tweeting –but they’ve yet to indicate sophistication to help marketers, instead rely on third party tools and agencies to respond.
Bottom line…Are you focused? Are your strategies in place?
December 2nd, 2009
Have you noticed how fast word gets around? How there’s no waiting for the news…it seems like everyone knows? Have you noticed how your buying habits have changed? Yet it doesn’t seem so different…
The marketing landscape has been flipped upside down. Retailers, companies, businesses, buying and selling are all scrambling because of YOUR WORD.
Didn’t know you had that much power did you?
Looking at 2007, 2008, 2009 and getting ready to head into 2010, we’ve seen the shift changing right before our very eyes. We’ve watched the housing industry drop into an almost endless abyss, we’ve watch gigantic car companies plummet right behind them. We’ve also watched and heard retailers groaning from the east coast to the west. But in the middle of all that earthquake shattering chaos…we’ve watched other companies rise and increase. What do they have that you don’t?
The Power of Your Word.
What? I don’t get it you say? Well let’s look at some amazing short stories.
- Amazon…very large company. Offers alot of great deals and value. But here’s the secret. They also offer “the power of your word” – RATiNGS & REViEWS. What a consumer says about a product or service.
- Netflix – Simple yet straight forward. Great movies all the time at your convenience with GREAT customer service and RATiNGS. Seriously how likely are you to watch something with a 1 star rating?
- Overstock.com – GREAT values, great selections, Great shipping, and GREAT REViEWS. What the customer thinks about the item. WOW…the Power of Your Word! Will you buy an item with a negative review? More than likely the answer is NO!
This all started back when EBay made sure to inform people about sellers and buyers. If you wanted to make sure you bought from a reputable dealer….you checked his or her feedback/ratings for any negative feedback or problems other customers might have experienced. Before all this rating and review…most of us relied on the “commercials”, “ads”, “salesperson” and before that…it was “word of mouth” what our “friends”, or “friends friend” had to say about something. Today, it’s similar – “old world values” but “New World technology”. Just visit Facebook or Twitter ask and see what your “friends” say about an item or service. We could go on and on but you get the idea.
Advertising and sales has reached a crossroad.
Today’s consumer has the last word about what they think. With cell phones platforms changing rapidly to interactive means of talking, shopping and doing business, it’s up to you to either listen or risk falling into that deep abyss groaning. Social Media has emerged as the conversation platform of consumers. Social sites have “listened” to the consumer and answered. Internet Marketing is continuing to climb vertically, Mobile marketing is on the rise as are video marketing sites
.
It’s up to you to tune in to what’s being said….or tune out.
November 18th, 2009
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. THATspeaks 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:
- Low Cost Marketing
- Getting Traction
- 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. Enjoy this video by Socialnomics. It gives you a simple straightforward ROI explanation…
Social Media ROI: Socialnomics
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 be tracked as traditional ROI’s. So quit trying. Think OUT OF THE BOX!
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?
November 16th, 2009
Consumers 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, others crave uniqueness (standing out in the crowd) while others yet might like variety or choices (visiting lots of friends/family).
Marketing has only focused on the middle of the curve area…and not worked with consumer NEEDS. So the consumer navigates 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, 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:
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?
October 26th, 2009
…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”. Vehicles or means that were 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 community which 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. 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, to family, to friends, to neighbors 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, online with 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 in the comment field below and let us know how it’s helped…
If you NEED HELP to change your marketing practices…fill in the contact form below:
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September 24th, 2009
REALTIME Social Media MARKETING
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the future of marketing and advertising in REALTIME.
SMM (Social media marketing) predicted to grow at an annual rate of 34 percent – faster than any other form of online marketing and double the average growth rate of 17 percent for all online mediums…Social Media Marketing Management integrated with your traditional marketing starts to develop your digital “word-of-mouth” brand awareness (Fans/followers spread your message). Informs in realtime, with relevant up-to-date information. This creates realtime web presence when partnered with Social Media Marketing.
- Social Media 101 - Realtime SM Training – basic training course helping employees understand the hows, whys and where to engage in socialmedia…Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
- Social Media Train-the-Trainer 201 – course introduces more complete tools and helpful tips to help ‘Make Conversations’, ‘How to Listen’, authorized to train fellow employee’s along with strategy building from the ground up…how to design your social media campaigns, action plans and organizing your time effectively in SM.
- SMM Management - set objectives, updates, targeting audiences, polls, event promotions
- Basic SEO - optimize and site reevaluation, rewebbing.
- Branding Monitoring - market research, what works-what doesn’t,
- Mobile Marketing - mobile twitter updates, facebook updates, mobile marketing strategies
SMM Training – Seminar’s: Provides Realtime training by Targeting Online Searching, Marketing information, Problem-solving and getting results.
Contact for pricing based on needs -
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September 22nd, 2009
Recapping 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?
August 13th, 2009
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.
- Socialize content.
- Word of mouth with Twitter
- Aggregate existing content.
- Crowdsource your support.
- Sponsor bloggers.
- Sponsor events.
- 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.
