Archive for Social media marketing

Facebook to big to ignore

May 13, 2010 at 12:43 pm · Filed under Social media marketing, Spotlight

I hear it all the time, do I really need to be on facebook. I want that to be for friends, not for business, I hate when I get bombarded with business while I am enjoying my “personal” time.

The answer is clear – YES you do and here is why!

Facebook is simply too big, with people spending on average 7 hours per month on facebook you can not ignore the opportunity to capture their attention. You can be sensitive about how you attract that attention, offer menu specials if you are a restaurant, offer coupons if you are a retail outlet, offer tips and trick if you are a service oriented business. But remind people you are around and that you have something they can use!

7 things you can do to utilize Facebook to market your business. http://bit.ly/9ZMA05

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Social media transforms resort marketing

January 7, 2010 at 10:37 am · Filed under Business strategies, Social media marketing

Colorado’s Vail Resorts makes a dramatic shift from print to social media. Fascinating. Hear it from their CEO, Rob Katz:  Vail Resorts Going Social

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Minutes a day to social media success

September 18, 2009 at 11:14 am · Filed under Business strategies, Social media marketing

by Nancy Ruspil, MGC

While you’re sipping that morning java or digging your way through emails, you could also be building the social media muscles of your business.

Here’s a sampling of the ways you could feed your social media strength, in just a few minutes a day.

5 min: Search for a business site on Facebook and see how they approach their page or group.

5 min: Create a Twitter account if you don’t already have one – it’s free and simple.

10 min: Review a few blogs related to your business. Subscribe to one that looks worthwhile.

10 min: Establish a Facebook page for your company. You can start simply and add a little each day.

10 min: Go to Twitter, review some interesting tweets, and add your own tweet.

10 min: Add a status update or an intriguing video to your business Facebook page.

20 min: Create a blog for your business – WordPress or Blogger are both easy, effective platforms.

20 min: Draft a blog post for your company. Choose a relevant topic that will be intriguing/valuable for your audience.

Craft your own approach. Modify the timing and topics according to your business plans, priorities, observations, etc.  The critical key is to stick with it consistently, and be patient about watching it take effect. If you’re dedicated, it will.

Where will you start? And when?


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Blog with bling

July 23, 2009 at 1:46 pm · Filed under Fight the cheese, Social media marketing

Ok, I wish we had invented this, we didn’t…but we are real tired of seeing the same standard blog settings, backgrounds, looks, etc. out there, so we are passing this short list of links on to offer you great, free options (or really cheap ones) for making your blog look better.

Of course you could always hire us to do a custom one : )  but if you want an upgraded look without much expense, start here. Happy blogging.

http://www.houseof3.com/blog-couture.html

For WordPress:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/

For Blogger:

http://www.eblogtemplates.com/

posted by Nattana Johnson, Owner, MGC

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Facebook groups vs pages

July 13, 2009 at 2:10 pm · Filed under Social media marketing, Technology - keeping up

Groups or Pages?

Both ‘Facebook Pages’ and ‘Facebook Groups’ have similar features and capabilities in promoting your event, business, services or organization. Either option will allow you to promote activities, host discussions, have a wall, have photos, profile info, discussion forums and have members, with that affiliation optionally displayed to a member’s ‘friends’ (creating a viral marketing effect). They are, however, slightly different:

Groups

You can create a Facebook group for just about anything. They can be used to promote a product, an event, a service or a business. They can be serious discussion forums, simple photo galleries, or video libraries. Groups are used primarily to communicate with other like-minded individuals, offering easy tools to send updates and messages to the entire group.

As the creator of a group, you gain control over which features of the group are enabled, and whether it is visible to all members of Facebook, or is closed and visible only to invited Facebook members. Facebook groups are never visible to non-Facebook users.

Groups – Pros

  • Facebook users are familiar with groups.
  • The group owner can send messages to group members.
  • Members can post on the wall, start discussions, post photos and events.
  • You can invite members of the group to events, and have RSVP guest lists.
  • They are marginally easier to set up and manage than pages.

Groups – Cons

  • Groups are visible only to Facebook members.
  • Groups cannot have extra applications added to them.
  • You generally have to visit a group regularly and to use the messaging feature to keep discussions flowing.

Pages

You can create a Facebook page for any business, organization or service. Unlike groups which have members, and which are only visible to logged-in Facebook users, most of a Facebook page can be visible on the wider internet to those without a Facebook account, and the page can have ‘fans’.

The major downfall of pages is that you can send updates to fans, but these will only be displayed on the side of a user’s homepage when they log in, rather than appearing in their in-box. This means they might slip thru the cracks more easily.

Pages – Pros

  • Can be visible on the wider internet to non-Facebook members (although only Facebook members can interact with them).
  • You can add applications, blog, RSS, another discussion board etc.
  • Facebook presents you with visitor statistics to let you know how many visitors your pages are getting.

Pages – Cons

  • ‘Updates’ sent to those who decide to be ‘fans’ of your page are lower-key than messages to group ‘members’.
  • Facebook users are less familiar with pages than they are with groups and pages can be harder to find for that reason.
  • Visitors still need to be a member of Facebook if they want to join in discussions on your page message board.

Bottom line is both are good options. We think of it this way. If you are a non-profit it might be better to be a group, or promoting events via groups might be a better fit simply because you can email your group members. If you are a business promoting a service or product, then pages might be a better long-term fit, so people can see your information even if they’re not Facebook members, and they can become fans.

Frankly, we think Facebook should offer the same services for both – and combine them – since it just confuses Facebook users as to what is a page and what is a group.

posted by Nattana Johnson, Owner, MGC

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What wikis can do for your business

July 2, 2009 at 1:48 pm · Filed under Business strategies, Social media marketing

Even if you know that “wiki” is the Hawaiian word for “fast,” you might not know exactly why or how a wiki can help your business. A wiki is a page or a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone with access to contribute or modify content. For a beautifully simple explanation of a wiki, check out this short-sweet video.

Here are a few benefits of a business wiki:

  • A wiki is a tool for internal documentation and project flow.
  • For a small office, a wiki can be like a file server, without need for a more complicated network.
  • Wikis promote collaboration – the more people use them, the more valuable they become for efficient interoffice communication.
  • Wikis streamline the exchange of information within any type of organization.

Remember that your wiki will require active use, like any online community. You need a person to be the overseer/manager of the wiki and to build awareness of it. Also remember that wikis take time to mature. Keep monitoring it and keep awareness going, and you’ll see the results.

posted by Nancy Ruspil, MGC

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Social marketing – It’s no small talk

June 30, 2009 at 11:06 am · Filed under Social media marketing

by Nancy Ruspil, MGC

Do the terms “social marketing” or “social media” flood your mind with images of cocktail parties and mindless chatter? Just remember: When used in connection with business, “social” is a good thing. A very good thing.

Social marketing for business is simply about companies and customers interacting in productive ways. In the past, businesses usually communicated to customers, in a primarily one-way relationship. Today businesses need to communicate with customers. It’s a continuous two-way relationship now, and a mutually beneficial conversation. And it’s done via social media.

Business blogs. Company communications on Twitter. Facebook business page updates. Company videos and podcasts. The list goes on, but you don’t need to do it all. The important thing is to realize the value of social media for your business, and to tap into that value.

Call it “new marketing” or “new media” if you’d rather. Same thing. Whatever you call it, just be sure to start using it – for the sake of your business.

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12 tips for business blogging

June 17, 2009 at 11:15 am · Filed under Business strategies, Social media marketing

by Nancy Ruspil, MGC

Now that so many of us are managing or considering a business blog, it’s prime time for helpful suggestions on doing it right. In a nutshell, here are some key points recommended by Chris Brogan, online marketing/PR expert and president of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency. For all the juicy details, check out his blog post, Basic Business Blogging Suggestions. Meanwhile, here’s the gist:

1. Above all else, be human. Write in first person – the human “I” or “We” – and write as if you’re talking to one real person, not a faceless mass.

2. Commenting is just as important. Read other related blogs and comment on posts that interest you.

3. Blogging policies. Your blogging rules should be as simple as your email policy. Too many restrictions will kill employee interest in blogging.

4. Does this tie to strategy at all? Your business blog has more requirements than a personal blog. Why did you start it? What’s the real goal? What are you hoping to do with it? What will you be measuring, and why?

5. Platforms aren’t that important. But consider whether yours is easy enough to be enjoyable. Does it have RSS capabilities? Tagging? Plug-ins and external codes?

6. Mix it up. Don’t write only about your company or product or you. Readers want your take on the industry, events, forces, etc. that might affect their relationship with you and your business. Share relevant information that reflects the world around us.

7. Don’t sell, but don’t be shy. Blogs can be suggestive, but they’re not about the hard sell. People won’t come back to your blog if it’s focused on selling. Show passion, interest and a flow of good information. Don’t pretend like you’re never selling, but keep the balance.

8. Build a workflow. Since you may not always be in the mood to blog, try keeping notes on topics/ideas that you can tap into when needed. Another good way to keep your blog flowing is to make blog reading a habit. Tools like Google Reader give you ongoing relevant sites and searches.

9. Link out. Readers pay attention to where you link. Instead of constantly linking to your own stuff, point out other great posts and give credit with the links.

10. Frequency is how often you have value to add. If your blogs are just monthly, traffic will be dismal. Try daily, or at least weekly. Don’t get frustrated if you can’t do daily blogging right away. Blogging takes practice, but it will begin to feel natural over time.

11. Pay attention to design. Have easy-to-use contact info on your blog. Put up a human “About” page. Readers know it’s about your company – they want to know about you, too. And be sure to build in all the social sharing tools, so people can bookmark sites, share with colleagues/friends, and easily offer information to others.

12. Encourage conversation. Ask questions of your readers. It’s a great way to tap into the expertise of people in your space. If there are no experts in the crowd, write your posts in a way that gives readers something to comment on. You won’t get many comments on a post that is too rock solid.

Have you started your business blog? If not, why not? If so, what have you discovered? Any tips you would add?


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The Twitter decision

June 5, 2009 at 9:54 am · Filed under Social media marketing, Technology - keeping up ·Tagged

Excerpted from To Twitter or Not to Twitter by Suze Bragg, Expert Business Source, February 25, 2009

In an article by Erick Schonfeld on TechCrunch, one businessperson mentioned that Twitter is “the quickest way to spread information virally to a wide scope of people attached in a lot of random ways.” Sounds enticing, but how exactly does it work? Can a small business use it successfully to reach their customers, and will their customers even care? The answer is yes, and it depends on what you tweet about.

To get started, keep in mind the following:

1. You can create more than one Twitter account. Companies like Zappos, CNN and Dell use multiple accounts to post different tweets. This way they can appeal to more people who have different interests.

2. When you set up your account, use your store name or company  name so people identify with your business instead of with you.

3. Figure out what you want to tweet about before you jump in (you have 140 characters or less per tweet).

4. When setting up your account, use your business email address, preferably one that already has your customers’ email addresses in the address book. Twitter can pull from your address book to find your customers who are already using Twitter – this helps create instant followers

5. Twitter is great if you have the time to keep it updated. Timely responses are what makes Twitter successful. I don’t recommend using Twitter if you don’t have the time or desire to use it often (daily is good, every other day works too).

6. It’s different from Facebook – you can post to Twitter and it feeds to your Facebook page or blog. You can even post to Twitter from your phone, so you can update anytime anywhere to keep your customers informed. (FYI: Facebook vs. Twitter: Twitter is short statements. Facebook is more robust, with different ways to communicate, along with the ability to post catalog images/product shots, etc. You cannot do that on Twitter, but you can use Facebook to post short statements and skip using Twitter altogether.)

7. And last but not least, promote it on your website, email and other marketing literature. The more people who follow you on Twitter, the better your sales conversion rate in your store/business. Finally, if you’re considering using Twitter, according to the same article by Erick Schonfeld, Abrams Research conducted a study of “over 200 social media leaders” to ask which social media site they’d recommend for business to pay for, if they had to. Twitter beat Facebook with more than 24% of the votes. If nothing else, it’s worth exploring to see if it fits into your overall marketing strategy.

posted by MGC

mgcmarkonly

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Dive into the social media sea

June 2, 2009 at 9:07 am · Filed under Social media marketing ·Tagged

by Nancy Ruspil, MGC

Recently we were in San Francisco for a fascinating conference on social media marketing, organized by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). Throughout every session, the theme continued: this is no trend. Social media marketing is here to stay – and if you’re not already on board, you’re already behind. In small businesses and large corporations, in small towns and big cities, marketing is a two-way relationship now more than ever. If you pay attention, it’s a productive and profitable conversation.

Customers and companies are communicating, responding and developing relationships through social networks and social media. The number of people now getting and sharing information digitally is staggering. In 2009 your business is expected to have a real face – a reliable company “friend” who notices what people write about your company, responds quickly, and sends out relevant updates and information to customers.

Your business is able to reach a critical audience in faster ways than ever before. You’re able to get instant feedback and awareness. Customers are empowered to know your company, and respond to your services. More than ever before, your brand and your reputation are shaped by the quality of your communication with your customers. As one industry expert put it, it’s time to put the “public” back into public relations.

Is social media marketing worth the time? Companies of all sizes are finding that it’s worth much more than time. Some are adding one or more staff focused solely on social media marketing strategies and activities. Even better, social media results are measurable.

Can your company manage this in-house? Only if you have an interested, informed employee who can devote considerable work hours to your social media realm. For many companies, this may not be possible – in that case, an outside social media consultant can become a vital branch of your support team.


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