Fifty-eight percent of companies are currently engaged in social networks like Facebook, microblogs like Twitter, and sharing multimedia on platforms such as YouTube – but research from the Harvard Business Review Analytics Services report “The New Conversation: Taking Social Media from Talk to Action” [Report PDF; sponsored by SAS] finds that much of the investment in social is future-oriented.

In the slides that follow, we’ll dive into this research, showing how most companies really use social media – and what the most effective users do differently.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-companies-are-still-clueless-about-social-media-2011-5#ixzz1NsgRt5PQ

The report says that Social Media works best when there are real people, “What does social media need to really work? Social media works best when there are real people, with genuine intentions and quality content, behind every profile, tweet and tag.”

According to professors Peter Kollock and Marc Smith motivations for contributing to online communities do not rely on altruistic behavior on the part of the contributor they depend on these four pillars (Wikipedia articles: Virtual community, Egoboo and Sense of community).

Anticipated Reciprocity. A person is motivated to contribute valuable information to the group in the expectation that one will receive useful help and information in return.

Increased Recognition. Recognition is important to online contributors. Individuals generally want recognition for their contributions.

Sense of efficacy. Individuals may contribute valuable information because the act results in a sense that they have had some effect on this environment.

Communion. People are fairly social beings and it motivates many people to receive direct responses to their contributions.

Besides going through the different network the report also presents the dos and don’ts of social media and tips on how to use social media to cultivate leads using Facebook Marketing and Twitter Marketing.

Check out the Slideshare presentation below or download the Social Media Playbook yourself on their website.

Read more: http://socialmediapathways.com/facebook-marketing/facebook-marketing-eloqua/#ixzz1Gor4HhVq

Source: http://socialmediapathways.com/facebook-marketing/facebook-marketing-eloqua/

Is social media a fad? Maybe for Charlie Sheen, but when used effectively, Tricia White, Senior Business Advisor of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center, said it can help your business grow and connect with customers.

White spoke at last Tuesday’s Stoughton Chamber of Commerce March meeting, held at the Stoughton YMCA, and said social media represented a “fundamental shift in how we communicate.”

She said businesses, at minimal costs, can use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, LinkedIn, and even Myspace and e-newsletters as a way to build your company’s brand, market your company and better connect and build relationships with your customers.

“It’s not about you, it’s about the customer,” White said. “It’s how we make it easier for the client base.”

And, social media networks, White said, allow businesses to share information and gather customer feedback.

A social media presence can also improve your company’s presence on the web, otherwise known as search engine optimization (SEO).

To further increase your SEO, White suggested immediately registering for an account on Google and to utilize three of their basic tools: Google Alerts, Google Maps and Google Analytics. These features will allow business owners to monitor and track what is being said and written about their company, list their company on Google Maps and Places and track how people are finding your website on the internet.

Facebook and Twitter allow for business to consumer contact and are effective tools in building relationships with the consumer, according to White. Facebook provides additional advertising opportunities while Twitter can provide followers with real-time updates.

YouTube provides businesses the opportunity to upload and share videos and share information about their company.

White said blogs are like a diary of your website and company and help to further increase the conversation between the business and the consumer. Blogs can also be used to help cross-promote events and even your company’s website itself.

As for Myspace, White said, “you may not want to be on Myspace, but if you’re customers are, you should be,” noting it is still an effective tool for musicians and artists.

With any network, she said it was important to consider if your target audience was there and using that medium.

White said a good place to start expanding your social media footprint was LinkedIn, a place to post your resume online, brand your business and connect with other businesses and individuals.

The most important thing to keep in mind, White said, is to “be smart about the things you do and say” when using social media. Don’t provide inappropriate information, whether it is business secrets or offensive/lewd comments or pictures.

She suggested making a distinction between your fan pages and personal pages on websites like Facebook and Twitter. Use a headshot for your personal page, but use your company’s logo for your business fan page. This way a consumer (or friend) can “differentiate who is talking to me.”

White said that while social media grows overnight, building a personal network using social media can take time.

For more information visit http://www.msbdc.org/semass/video/ and click on the presentation for “Marketing Strategies Using Social Media.”

Source: http://stoughton.patch.com/articles/using-social-media-as-a-marketing-tool

And now that we’re into the third month of 2011, it’s time to start the prognosticating once again, led by none other than the New York Times. Of course, it’s not the platform that’s under scrutiny as much as the users, the younger contingent of which are simply too unfocused and undisciplined to be able to focus on long-form content. We recently covered something of this when we discussed the changes in Facebook’s messaging system and its lack of subject line.

Another way to look at this is to separate the message from the medium, as Om Malik does on GigaOm. His contention is that it’s the content that matters, and the platforms are simply the ways we connect with each other. But Malik won’t have us count blogging out – there’s still plenty of room left for long-form content.

Julie Roehm parses out the numbers from the Pew Internet and American Life study that were mentioned in the New York Times article, finding that there’s a great disparity in how different generations consume content and that the older we get, the more likely we are to spend time on longer form content.

Where will this lead us? Are we doomed to sound bites, tweets and trite self-absorbed updates for the foreseeable future? Do we need to force-fit blogs to become more snack-sized as we Tumblrize the world?

For the marketers among us, we need to be prepared for all eventualities in this scenario. Which means the need to cater to the attention-starved while still supporting more in-depth content that conveys a deeper meaning with more context. For example, this would mean creating catchy headlines and could entice views of blog posts or videos. It would also mean creating shareable and embeddable pieces of content within those other formats – content that can live on its own and effectively convey your message.

The bottom line is that as content creators, we face more choices than ever in how we need to convey our stories. Consumers’ preferences are more fickle than ever, so we need to prepare for their changing tastes while unraveling the Gordian Knot of how to engage them more fully.

What’s your plan?

Source:http://www.scottmonty.com/

Hey kids – do you like marketing? How about coffee? Yeah, me too!

So you’ll want to listen to this week’s episode of the Marketing Over Coffee podcast. Host John Wall spent the full episode chit chatting with me about my bookmicroMARKETING: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small.In just over 30 minutes, I talk about 7 shifts every marketer must understand to succeed in social media, share my thoughts on how a big company like Samsung and a cool chick like Natasha Wescoat have used micromarketing approaches (even if they didn’t know it at the time) to rock the web, the problem with big agencies, and the Dachis Groupacquisition of Powered.

To listen, visit the Marketing Over Coffee site or click here to link directly to a Quicktime audio file.

P.S. Not into audio? Or even if you are – be sure to check out my written conversation with Ann Handley for American Express OPEN Forum.

Source: http://gregverdino.typepad.com/

What is significant is that this heralds a major shift in the way big companies try to sell us things. Procter & Gamble makes and sells everything from Tide detergent to Pampers diapers and invented the soap opera as a medium for peddling its wares.

The first soap opera was “The Guiding Light.” It started as a live daily drama on radio in 1937 and was a vehicle for P&G commercials. “The Guiding Light” moved to television in the early 1950s and joined a host of other serialized dramas as a staple of daytime television. Most of them — a total of 20 — were created by or for P&G. It was brilliant marketing. The soap operas targeted and hooked the most desirable demographic in television viewing — the Great American Housewife, the person who went to the supermarket and bought all those P&G products.

The soaps had a long and glorious run, but by the 1990s producers began to see the audiences declining. Why? Several factors. One of the most important was the decline in the number of women available to stay at home and watch. I find this a little ironic because a growing number of women were leaving the house to find work in order to afford all the things television ads persuaded them they had to buy. The popularity of cable channels and Oprah-style talk shows also cut into the ratings of soaps.

When “As the World Turns” ended a 54-year-run this past September, it marked the end of the programs created by P&G, the company that gave the shows their moniker — “soap opera.”

That’s all interesting history, but the truly intriguing thing is where P&G plans to put the money it won’t devote to soaps. Certainly, we’re still going to see P&G commercials on TV, but the company will now target social media — YouTube, Facebook, et al.

P&G has already had success in that arena. Its “Smell Like a Man, Man” ads featuring a hunky ex-football player became a phenom on YouTube, drawing tens of millions of viewers and breathing new sales life into the venerable P&G product Old Spice aftershave. An iPhone application for P&G’s Always feminine products that allows women to track menstrual cycles and ask experts questions.

Why spend huge amounts of money on expensive TV ads that use a shotgun approach to reaching potential product buyers when you can reach them one-on-one at a lower price?

If a mega-advertiser like Procter & Gamble is making such a major shift in strategy, others are sure to follow. That could dramatically change the landscape of not only advertising, but the program content it supports. I have no idea what that change will ultimately be, but I’m sure it will be a far cry from the era when my grandma sat on the couch an wept at “The Edge of Night.”

source: http://m.timesrecordnews.com/news/2010/dec/11/soap-operas-are-out-social-media-is-in-for/

Social Media Marketing – The new marketing wave

Agencies can help
Not surprisingly (given that I work for a PR agency), I sit in the camp that says that agencies have a significant role to play for many companies. For sure, companies can do some or all of these things themselves, but there’s no reason agencies can’t help without compromising the company’s efforts.

Here are 15 different activities an agency can undertake — legitimately and effectively — to help companies engage in social media.

Getting started
1. Baseline audits

One of the first steps in any communications initiative should be an online audit to both understand the current environment and to set a baseline for measuring results of future activities.

2. Audience research

Alongside an initial audit, learning to understand your target audiences is a foundational piece of a communications strategy, be it online or offline.

3. Corporate policies

Whether your company is engaged in social media or not, it is important to set boundaries around social media. If you are engaging in proactive outreach online, it becomes a somewhat more involved process covering more areas (for a quick start, check out this ebook on corporate social media policies)

4. Workflow processes

What happens when you spot an issue? When someone asks a question? When someone discusses your company with other people? When someone criticizes you? Who is involved in the response? What will you (and won’t you) respond to?

These are the kinds of questions you need to consider before the occasion arises, and which experienced agencies have encountered often enough to help you answer.

5. Social media training

While it doesn’t take much expertise to send a tweet, the norms of communicating in social media channels can require education and explanation. Social media can require a bit of a departure from the way companies have traditionally communicated. It doesn’t mean anarchy, but traditional “messaging” approaches don’t fly so well in these informal channels. Agencies can help to transfer the necessary knowledge around this to clients new to the social media realm.

6. Social media scoping

You don’t need to be everywhere online. An agency can help to scope-out the right places for your company to establish a presence online.

Strategic planning
7. Strategic development

Agencies can bring together a wide variety of communications experiences and expertise that make them well placed to assist with or lead the strategic development process for social media for their clients.

8. Campaign ideas

Right now my perspective of the ideal approach to social media is a foundational long-term strategypaired with well thought-out campaigns that provide spikes in attention and engagement. As above, agencies can bring together creative minds to design those campaigns.

9. Campaign extension

Unfortunately, PR is still often at a point where it is called-in last minute to support other initiatives, whether it’s announcing something that’s already decided or supporting a marketing/advertising program. At those points, it can be difficult to come up with anything effective that benefits the organization. Agencies aren’t a silver bullet, but again they can contribute ideas.

Execution
10. Ongoing monitoring

Monitoring can be very resource-intensive, especially if your company has a significant footprint online or in peoples’ minds. Agencies are well placed to help deal with this pressure.

11. Online engagement

This is one area that I’ll rarely recommend the agency take on. It’s a lot of work and requires a thorough understanding of the online environment, but it’s something that (in most cases) should be done in-house. It allows for shorter approvals processes (important in a fast-moving conversation) and a more authentic voice.

Still, sometimes companies either can’t or aren’t ready to take this on. It may be resource issues, uncertainty over the medium, trust issues or a variety of other legitimate reasons, but there are times when an agency can undertake this work, as long as it’s transparent. It’s not ideal, but it’s possible, with the goal that, over time, the company will in-source this work.

Regardless, agencies can help to advise companies on their outreach — be it advice wording and norms or on whether in fact to engage or not with specific people.

12. Influencer outreach

I used to call this “blogger outreach” but online influencers are so much broader than just bloggers nowadays. Just as agencies undertake media relations activities in traditional public relations, so they can also reach out to online influencers in the new form PR has taken.

13. Issues management

If your company is interesting and matters to people, they will talk about you. That talk won’t always be positive. Sometimes it’s something you’ve done; sometimes it’s something about your product; sometimes it’s “news.” The list goes on. Regardless, monitoring for issues, identifying them early and coming up with suitable responses isn’t easy.

Full-service
14. Design and creative

More often than not, you’ll need some kind of design work done for your social media properties. Maybe it’s a Twitter background; maybe it’s a Facebook page or YouTube channel design; maybe it’s something more involved such as a stand-alone site. Either way, a full-service agency can help if you don’t have the in-house resources to undertake this work.

15. Development

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube are tremendously powerful sites, and they may well be where your audience hangs out. Still, there are times when they just may not suffice, or where you want to build on top of the platform they provide — Facebook or mobile apps, for example.

What do you think? Are there other areas I’m missing?

source: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/142863

In the old days of the web (two or three years ago), pretty much all a business had to do in order to sell products on the web was hang out their shingle: put up a website, add ecommerce, and watch the orders roll in.

Now the internet is a very different environment, with an evolving emphasis on “real time” in search and interaction. This real time nature demands a new model for dealing with your website, a content strategy. This content strategy is proactive, rather than reactive. Rather than responding to new situations and demands, a company must be out in front of developments, publishing new, current content on a regular basis.

Without a strategy, it is impossible to get ahead. Search engines today respond to constant updates and fresh content. Marketing yourself on Facebook, Twitter and the like is impossible without a stream of new information and ideas emanating from within your company. That’s why a forward-looking plan is absolutely essential.

Here are some of the components that make up a sound content strategy:

Blog
A blog that is hosted on your own website that integrates your static web content with constantly updated news, information and insights about your company and products will go a long way toward achieving content freshness. It also provides an avenue for customer feedback via comments, and gives search engines a steady supply of new content and pages to spider, helping bump up your site in search results.

Mission
Before beginning your blog and online content strategy, you must have a mission. What is the purpose of your site? What is your blog going to cover? How will you ensure that all content you produced is relevant and useful to your audience of current and prospective customers?

Your mission must include more than just information about products. It should provide critical news and insights into your industry, how-to guides, and other content that will keep people coming back time and again. By ensuring that your content keeps within this mission, you will provide timely information that is timely and relevant.

Search Engine Optimization
A website and blog without search engine optimization (SEO) is like a publisher releasing a book but not making it available to libraries and bookstores. How will anyone find out about this timely, useful content and you and your industry if it’s not searchable? Part of your content strategy must include SEO tactics like the use of keywords, categories, properly labeled images and file names.

Social Media
Beyond SEO, you can proactively share information with the general public by utilizing social media. A basic Facebook fan page and Twitter account will allow you to instantly push out all your content updates, news and announcements. Customers should begin to “follow” or “like” your updates, subscribing to them so they are the first to know when you’ve got something new to say.

Source:  http://www.xemion.com/guide/what-is-content-strategy/

Relief. That is what I felt when I found this article. How many times do clients push their web designer to help them create a money generating website. Web designers are not necessarily marketers, but online marketers can easily be web designers, of course with the right set of employees.

When looking to build a new website, many business owners mistakenly think that a gorgeous new site is the answer. While aesthetically pleasing design is certainly important, it is only one component of a good overall online strategy.

You must first establish who your target is, and then what you want them to do. In other words, who is my demographic, and what business problem am I solving. Your fantastic new site may be pretty, but if it doesn’t address these two questions first and foremost, you have just wasted your money.

It is therefore crucial that you work with your designer to establish design guidelines that answer these questions. If your web design company isn’t experienced with basic marketing principles, you need to call in help. If you don’t have a marketing department, bring in a consultant to work with you and your designer on the project.

Second, a house is just a building, but a home is full of things and people. An effective website looks nice and works well, but more importantly it has great content. The content, the pure words on your site, is what provides value to current and potential customers. The content on your site establishes a tone that should also be reflected in the design, and not vice versa.

There are many great web designers out there without a clue in terms of marketing. That’s not necessarily a reason not to work with them, though. If their eye for aesthetics and good, usable design is what you want, but they don’t a clue how to market your product, bring in reinforcements early in the process. You and your designer will be glad you did.

Source:  http://www.xemion.com/guide/web-designers-are-not-necessarily-marketers/