There are several factors you should consider when selecting a social media channel. Target audience, product/service characteristics, amount of internal staffing/resources, time and technology savvy are just a few. Another one to consider is simply the volume of traffic and use of a social media channel.
Good place to get solid data is Hitwise. The latest data tracks everything from top 20 Websites (ranked by visits), top search engines by volume/visits to top 20 social networking websites. No suprise on the results, Facebook (for the week of 9/26/09) was the number one most visited social networking site at 41%. MySpace, YouTube, Tagged and Twitter round out the top five.
If you want to know where to focus your Internet marketing efforts this data can help! Enjoy!
What I got was a fantastic brainstorm on how they use social media to build their professional speaking, coaching and training business.
Incredibly generous with their insights, you can learn a lot by hearing how they market on a shoestring budget using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog, Podcasts and Email Newsletters.
There’s a lot of chatter about marketing and advertising, social media and seo programs… but what about PR? I just got off the phone with Carol Flammer, who is a Public Relations extraordinaire and Social Media smartypants! Carol is president of Flammer Relations, Inc., and managing partner of mRELEVANCE, LLC, an Internet Marketing, Social Media and Public Relations firm with offices in Atlanta and Chicago. She had so much great information to offer for all our “DIY-ers” out there, and I couldn’t wait to share it with you!
“PR is how you tell your company’s story. It could, and should be, the basis of your entire marketing program.”
So why is PR important to your company? PR is your on-going brand message. If you think about your social media efforts – like blogging – it can’t exist without stories! Your editorial calendar originates with your PR, and content is key! You don’t have to have a PR agency to start some simple PR efforts on your own, but there are some places where having an experienced PR agency or writer will make a big difference, and we’ll give you some of those pros and cons in just a bit. The key to having a successful PR campaign – either on your own, or with an agency – is that you have to be committed to it, just as much as you would be committed to your advertising campaign.
Carol shared with me that she gets approached by potential clients saying that they’d like to give it “one month to try it out”. Having a successful PR effort won’t happen in a month. To garner real results from PR efforts, you need to be open to using PR for 4-6 months. Public relations is an on-going effort.
Oh, the forgotten about “written word”. Carol says, “you can’t forget the power of the press release!” Print PR is much more measurable now because of the online community. You can easily measure results and tracking by having your releases turn up in online venues. Read more »
Hello there, it’s Kristen Weaver, your Roving Reporter back on duty!
School is back in session, and I was fired up for this morning’s Social Media seminar “Flip over the Flip and YouTube”, presented by Meredith and sponsored by WOAMTEC.
We started off the morning just getting everyone logged in and fed (because what’s a good day at school without a hearty breakfast?). I grabbed a blueberry bagel, banana and Orange Joice. Breakfast of champions, no?
Meredith begins our session talking about all the ways that using YouTube will help with your organic search optimization. So fascinating to me. I’ve used YouTube before, but only for videos of my cat (who wobbles). I was very excited to get it started for my photography business and open a new “channel” – but I had no idea how much it can help your ranking! Basically, Google owns YouTube, which means that when you tag your videos, Google will start to search and rank them as part of your business. We also got to hear a great testimonial of how this worked for a local company! I’m sooo on this!
This has been blasting the internet lately, and a perfect tie-in to my social media bootcamps, going on now. Incredible video with amazing statistics that you have to digest!
I can’t tell you the last time I was actually awake at 6am…. but this morning I woke up bright and early to get ready for Meredith Oliver’s new seminar as part of the WOAMTEC Social Media Bootcamp! Today’s session is on LinkedIn, and I’m looking forward to learning more about this powerful business networking tool.
My drive across town was an eclectic mix of old school Janet Jackson (Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty), The Ting Tings and Iron Maiden. Fashionably arriving about 40 minutes early (in true Kristen Weaver style), grabbed a blueberry bagel (from Via Panera), a banana and some orange juice – I’m set up, logged in and ready to learn about LinkedIn!
Meredith’s boot camps are really great because she does so much hands-on training. We all were able to bring our personal laptops to plug in and follow along. Because honestly, hands-on is one of the best ways to learn and become familiar with these new tools.
Ahh, Allen has arrived and decided to harass me about my upcoming housewarming party. If you don’t know Allen, he’s Meredith’s husband (aka Partner in Crime) and super-dad to Brady and Molly Oliver (Molly is the fabulous facebooking dog and infamous, in her own right).
8:30 am – Meredith just kicked off the lesson! Everyone is so attentive! She’s opening by asking everyone what new ideas they took with them following last week’s Facebook session and how they’ve used them. Lots of great accomplishments! Everyone’s been working on their Fan pages, linking and “being wild” – ok, well some of them got the message Read more »
Every day we have important business decisions to make, from how to deal with a demanding boss, tough clients and what to pick up for lunch. Being online is no different (well, maybe not the lunch part). Everyone will tell you what to do right in social media, but what about all the mistakes that are so simple to make? Let’s discuss ways that you can lose fans – and how to avoid them.
First of all, everyone likes an expert, but no one like a know-it-all. Remember to be humble, thank the people that have supported you and give credit where it’s due. Remember that being online isn’t always about YOU. Even in industries where your main objective is to market yourself – sounding like you’re a know-it-all can really turn people off from you, and that’s certainly not your goal.
So for instance, your blog should showcase the ways that you plan to service your customers, instead of only having photos of you and all of your accomplishments. Save that for the “About Me” section, where it’s perfectly acceptable to brag about all of your uber-cool awards. There’s a definite way to reach your customers, without putting them off and making you seem like your head is too big to fit through the door. Remember to make yourself seem approachable – even online. It’s important to balance your business sense with your common sense.Read more »
In my seminars and workshops, I frequently talk about the dramatic plunge in consumer confidence and how that impacts their willinging to buy your goods and services. I cite a study conducted by PR firm Edelman which studied “informed publics” between the ages of 25 to 64 and explored this group’s level of trust in four institutions: business, government, media and NGOs. Results reveal the lowest across-the-board levels of trust since the survey began ten years ago. What does this mean to you? Your consumers don’t trust you!
The solution I am proposing is to use social media to reestablish trust by allowing your raving fans to do the selling for you! Who do consumers trust? Each other! We naturally trust our neighbor’s referral over any type of formal advertising. Traditionally this has been called “word-of -mouth” marketing.
Here is the GREAT news. Social media is word-of-mouth networking on steriods. And, this is no longer just my supposition. Today eMarketer.com published a study that confirms online advertising trust is on the rise worldwide. “According to the “Global Online Consumer Survey” by Nielsen, 41% of worldwide Internet users trusted online advertising.” In fact, the study reveals the number one advertising tactic trusted by consumers is “recommendations from people I know”. You should definitely check out this fantastic article by eMarketer.com.
This strategy will require risk on your part. What if the reverse happens? What if someone says something negative? Can negative comments destroy all the trust you’ve worked to build up? Yes, if you don’t have a service recovery plan in place. You need a step by step plan in place to handle any negative posts. The plan should answer the following questions:
How fast will you respond?
What will your message be?
How will reassure your other online followers?
With a plan a place you can effectively handle negative posts. AND, get this….you can actually earn MORE trust by allowing an honest dialogue to take place, showing that you have a plan in place and that you take your customer’s concerns seriously. This is the mark of a trustworthy company.
But, let me quell your concerns about negative posts. I monitor a lot of “business” social media sites. I don’t see a lot of negative posts EXCEPT for the big “corporation” type companies. Why? No one wants to fire the first shot across the bow. I believe we are all thinking “If I start the negative avalanche it will eventually catch up to me!” We are afraid to say something negative about another business in fear someone else will do it to our business. Make sense? In fact, I mostly find social media pages for small businesses to be a sickening love fest of unrealistic proportions!
Start allowing your past, current and future customers to talk to each. They can sell you better than you ever will. Open up the dialogue and reap the rewards.
We practice what we preach! Please post a comment below and we invite you to disagree! And, we invite you to become a fan of the Internet Marketing Hotline on Facebook!
Today I had the pleasure to speak for the Altamonte Springs Woamtec Chapter and what lovely ladies! Their energy and enthusiam was contagious. Thank you for having me!
I shared with them my ”fab five”…my five favorite FREE online tools. As a busy power mom, I use these tools on a daily basis. I believe technology should make our lives easier not harder! If a technology tool doesn’t save me time and/or money it is off the list! Enjoy my list and I hope they make your life easier as well!
If you’re in business for yourself, I want you to stop everything you’re currently doing and follow these simple instructions.
1. Enter www.google.com (or try Bing, Yahoo, Ask…) in your address bar. Click Go.
2. In the search bar, type in some key words in your industry. How would people find you?
3. Where do you rank?
If you’re not on the first page of results, it’s time to re-evaluate your web content for keywords, metatags and possibly invest in a serious SEO program. I don’t want to get in to anything too technical for the purpose of this blog – but I did want to cover some of the basics and why these things are critical to the success of your company. Read more »
There are several factors you should consider when selecting a social media channel. Target audience, product/service characteristics, amount of internal staffing/resources, time and technology savvy are just a few. Another one to consider is simply the volume of traffic and use of a social media channel.
There’s a lot of chatter about marketing and advertising, social media and seo programs… but what about PR? I just got off the phone with Carol Flammer, who is a Public Relations extraordinaire and Social Media smartypants! Carol is president of Flammer Relations, Inc., and managing partner of 
Every day we have important business decisions to make, from how to deal with a demanding boss, tough clients and what to pick up for lunch. Being online is no different (well, maybe not the lunch part). Everyone will tell you what to do right in social media, but what about all the mistakes that are so simple to make? Let’s discuss ways that you can lose fans – and how to avoid them.
In my seminars and workshops, I frequently talk about the dramatic plunge in consumer confidence and how that impacts their willinging to buy your goods and services. I cite a study conducted by 
Today I had the pleasure to speak for the 
