Who Will You Find On a Social Network?
If your brand is not maintaining a strong presence on the major social networks at a bare minimum, your brand is missing great opportunities to achieve greater success. The majority of online Americans used social media in 2012, according to the Pew Center’s Internet & American Life Project published last week. 67% of all Internet users are using at least one social media site (including 71% of women), and amongst those 18-29, 83% use. The Pew report measured social media activity on 5 social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr). Certainly there’s some overlap, as there are many people Read More
If Multi-Channel Marketing Efforts Are Good Enough for an Icon, They Are Good Enough For You
For brands, it is vital to be everywhere that your potential target market is. It doesn’t matter how big the brand is, nor do past brand achievements. Not resting on laurels is a key component of an iconic global brand. Take for instance the Barbie brand, owned by Mattel. Barbie can claim the following achievements. 99% global brand awareness The typical American girl owns 10 Barbie dolls Annual sales are around $1.6 Billion The Barbie brand is valued at $2 Billion, making it the world’s most valuable toy brand Just from those two very simple marketing statistics, one might easily Read More
5 Things You Need to Know About Twitter #Hashtags
Nearly every marketer uses Twitter – and the vast majority of us also use Twitter hashtags – the letters that follow the pound or number sign (#) in a tweet. But here are five things you might not know about using Twitter hashtags that could help you boost your Twitter results dramatically. For example, did you know that Twitter didn’t invent hashtags? Users invented Twitter hashtags. Google employee Chris Messina is credited as the “hashtag Godfather” for an August, 2007 tweet in which he suggested using the pound sign as a way to organize groups on Twitter. His original idea was that like Read More
Studies say LinkedIn Beats Twitter, Ad Spending Shifts
Several year-end studies point out a gap in lead generation performance among social media sites plus significant changes ahead for social media advertisers and the websites that rely on social advertising revenue. According to a new study published in the Media Bistro blog, 91% of business to business marketers use Twitter, but LinkedIn generates twice as many leads. Facebook ranked #2 in terms of leads, followed by company blogs, the story reports, while Twitter came in fourth. The survey results arrived at the same time that two different companies announced new lead generation tools for LinkedIn. One, according to the Digital Journal, Read More
5 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid
If there are any marketers out there who don’t have social media marketing on their 2012 marketing plan, they’re a definite minority. Nearly everyone agrees that it’s among the most cost-effective tools available to us. But there are five common social media mistakes that can be quite costly – so make sure that you plan now to avoid them in 2012. Posting sporadically or inconsistently. Social media, like blogging, is a marathon – not a sprint. Even if your very first blog post or tweet gets tons of clicks, there’s no guarantee that the next one will do the same. Measurable Read More
Baiting Your Hook for Retweets
Any avid fisherman will tell you that to catch anything, you need the right bait. Twitter is a lot like fishing: to get noticed by the mass of fish swimming by in the Twitter stream, you need the right bait. Step one is deciding what you want to catch. Are you angling for retweets, clicks, or followers? If it’s followers you’re after, you need to dangle attractive bait over time, and you need to tailor your bait specifically to your audience by using the words and phrases that attract them. Clicks, of course, depend on giving someone just enough information Read More
Trick or Tweet: 7 Social Media Horror Stories
Yes, it’s Halloween in the Twitterverse (and the rest of the social media world) — and to make sure that it’s all treats, and no tricks that can come back to haunt you, here’s a list of Halloween “don’ts” for marketers that make sense all year round. Don’t let personal comments (or prejudices) ruin your relationship with a big client or prospective client. Consider what happened to this PR firm when one of its executives tweeted a negative comment about the home town of the founder of one of the agency’s largest clients. Don’t let customer service complaints take over Read More
Social Media Is NOT Free
Ever been in a meeting with a senior executive who says, “So why is your budget this big? I thought we were relying on Twitter and Facebook and all that social media stuff more. And that’s free.” There’s a widespread myth out there that social media is free. It isn’t. For a social media marketing campaign you need people, time, and technology – all limited, non-renewable resources in most marketing departments. In fact, maybe the executive who poses a question about social media being free doesn’t understand that there is a near 100% overlap between the items that go into the marketing budget and the resources that Read More
Basic Google+ Cheat Sheet
Less than a month after it launched in late June, Google+ had over 25 million registered users — a milestone that took Twitter 29 months, and Facebook 3 years to reach. Have you tried it yet? Or are you waiting to see whether it’s a useful tool for multi-channel marketing? If you haven’t made up your mind yet, here are the absolute basics that marketers need to know. What is Google+? It’s not exactly a social network — it’s a sharing network where people create contact circles. Here’s how Shimrit Ben-Yair, Google’s product manager for the product describes it. “Google+ Circles solve Read More
How Engaged Are Your Customers?
Jasmine is a mixed-breed dog adopted from the Las Vegas dog pound. She’s a great dog. That’s her in the photo — patiently enduring being posed with a catalog of high-end dog beds while wearing a pair of silly eye glasses. Most of the time, she did what she was asked, (which was to look directly at the camera) but every now and again she couldn’t resist looking over at her trainer to see if it was time to go home yet. Jasmine was giving her attention to the humans around her — but she wasn’t engaged with what was happening. She was Read More
