Creating Web Presence in Today's Business World

Power of Your Word

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.

Internet Marketing is an interesting playing field…

…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:

[easy-contact]

Social Media Management and Training – SMM

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 -

[easy-contact]

Marketing & Strategy

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.

1. Socialize content.
2. Word of mouth with Twitter
3. Aggregate existing content.
4. Crowdsource your support.
5. Sponsor bloggers.
6. Sponsor events.
7. 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.

Start creating your Brand…by broadcasting on Ustream

Custom Search

Do you need to put a full length seminar or conference online?  The answer is USTREAM.  Ustream.TV is a live interactive video broadcast platform that can enable you to quickly and easily setup and start broadcasting NOW.  This is an amazing tool to help empower businesses, schools, corporations, musicians, houses of worship, to creating engaging content thus furthering their brand.  Ustream has the ability to create your own channel and start broadcasting  within a few minutes.  

Things to broadcast?  Endless are the possibilities…

These are just a few ideas…Want to broadcast now?