Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

Twitter is a great tool to help drive interested readers to your blog. Here are 3 Twitter tips that will help you establish yourself and grow your community on your blog.

1 – Retweet your followers: If one of your followers posts something you think is funny or interesting…retweet it for them. They’ll most likely see that and thank you…exposing your content to more people. Remember, Twitter’s not just about you.

2 – Post articles from other writers: Whatever your passion is…write about it on your blog. But also, post articles from other sources with similar content. This lets your followers know that you’re genuine about your passion and not just looking to push your own message out to them.

3 – Answer questions: Monitor your community and try to answer your followers’ questions. If you don’t know the answer to one…maybe someone else does. Find out and respond. This helps build your reputation and credibility, which can lead to more followers and the likelihood that your posts will get retweeted…hence, extending the reach of your message.

For more information, or to get help with your social media strategy, CONTACT US!

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While some companies have banned the use of social websites altogether, many still allow employees access in the workplace to sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

The question is, “Are you being careful with what you post?” There are some legendary stories out there of people who have totally dissed their bosses on Facebook, only to discover that the boss was actually watching. Not smart.

Here’s a list of things you can do to stay safe and not run the risk of being incredibly embarrassed…or fired, some of which are pretty much common sense.

1 – Don’t post any comments or status updates that may bring your company/employer into disrepute.
2 - Don’t use social networks in any way to attack or abuse colleagues or competitors.
3 – Don’t post direct references to any business-related activities regarding your company/employer.
4 – Don’t post personal stuff during work hours. Do that away from the office.
5 – Only post positive work-related comments and information.

Remember, posts are time-stamped, so if you call in sick and decide to post a picture of yourself having lunch with your friends or shopping at the mall….you’re only asking for trouble.

Be careful out there. The boss might be watching!

For more information or to get help with your social media strategy, CONTACT US!

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By: Scott Dickson

It would be very easy to come up with more than 5 reasons why your business should be utilizing social media.

Here are 5 significant reasons to consider…

1 – Establish yourself as an expert – Blog about your business and share tips and advice to help you stand apart as the expert in your field. Share those blog posts on your Facebook page and Twitter profile and your audience will come to you with questions.

2 – Word of Mouth – Your potential customers are talking to their friends and family about their purchases. If your fans and follwers trust you they’ll tell others…increasing the chances they’ll buy from you.

3 – Build Relationships – The audience you develop through social media will be more loyal and feel more connected to your business. Communicate with them on a personal level and some may become ambassadors or even evangelists for your business.

4 – Increase Website Traffic – Once you develop a sizable audience and begin posting links to products, pages, blog posts, etc. you should see an increase in traffic to your site. Measure the analytics closely and record the metrics on a monthly basis.

5 – Search Engine Optimization – Google indexes content on Facebook pages, Twitter profiles and other social sites. This creates links back to your site, which should increase your search engine rankings and bring you more business!

For more information or to get help with your social media strategy, CONTACT US!

Visit: DicksonInteractive.com

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By: Scott Dickson

While the internet changed the way consumers shop for products, social media is also having a profound effect on the way consumers research and plan purchases. 

Wesbites like InsiderPages.com, Epinions.com and Yelp.com give people access to consumer reviews, which empowers them with information they need before they decide to go to a restaurant, for instance. 

But, with social media…people can have actual discussions online before they purchase. 

Case in point…below is a brief conversation on Facebook where someone is interested in potentially switching from cable to DirecTV. This is an actual thread pulled straight from Facebook. The names have been changed to protect the innocent… 

JOE: TWC wants mo’ money but since the converter box came in the door our cable has been icky. May look into #DirectTV.
Mon at 8:40pm • Comment •LikeUnlike • View Feedback (11) Hide Feedback (11)

Diane
I’m feeling the same way
Mon at 9:02pm

Sam 
Don’t do Dish Network. We did that and it never worked in the rain.
Mon at 9:26pm • Delete

Mary
I love DirecTV … we got it this summer after TWC made me mad one too many times. Before you sign up, let me or someone else with DirecTV know — they have a promotion right now where both people get $10 off a month for 10 months if you give them my (or someone else’s) account number when signing up. The DVR functionality alone was worth it — and we pay a lot less each month and will even after it goes up after the first year.
Mon at 10:56pm

Jane
We are considering moving away from TWC. This input from others is helpful.
Tue at 8:17am

Sam
How does DirecTV work during wind, rain and storms? Does it stay on? I know folks who have had issues with it.
Tue at 8:42am • Delete

Danny
Heavy rain and forget it, no tv. Still, I really like the info button – esp for movies – tells the actors, director, yr made, and synopsis.
Tue at 9:07am

Danny
Joe, I can give you a $100 coupon, if you want to go w/ Directv
Tue at 9:08am

Chris
DirecTV is good — we’ve had it for a few months now. It’s only had brief blips of non-service in bad rain/storms. (knock wood!) Plus I really like their customer service.
Tue at 9:16am

Matt
We switched last month and love it so far. No major problems so far even in the rain. Wife doesn’t love the dish in the back yard, but it’s not that bad.
Tue at 10:48am

Mary
Even with a really heavy storm a couple months ago, we had no blips or loss of TV, which used to happen at the drop of a hat with TWC!
Tue at 11:59am

Sam
wow…i’m sold…..joe – directv owes you!
Tue at 12:53pm • Delete

So, here’s the takeaway…

If you’re a business owner and you haven’t gotten started with social media marketing, then it’s time to take the plunge. Scared of opening yourself up online? Scared some people may talk about you? Well, guess what…they’re talking about you anyway…whether it’s on Facebook or in the grocery store.

Why not take the new media seriously and learn how to monitor your reputation and use these tools to your advantage? Not to mention it will change your entire perception of how you should be marketing your business.

To learn more, CONTACT US.

Visit: DicksonInteractive.com

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By: Scott Dickson
www.DicksonInteractive.com

According to a recent media study conducted by the Council for Research Excellence, advertisers need to keep traditional media in their marketing mix…for now.

While it’s true, there is phenomenal growth online with the explosion of Social Media…overall reach is still dominated by broadcast television with radio coming in second. The most notable development in this research is that the web has surpassed newspapers and magazines as the third best way to reach the masses with your message.

The study produced numbers based on the following key “advertising-based” media platforms:

• Television had the highest reach & daily usage among users (95.3%)
• Broadcast radio (77.3%)
• Web/Internet [excluding use of email] (63.7%)
• Newspapers (34.6%)
• Magazines (26.5%)

The print medium is dying. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing anyone can do about it. It’s not going to die today, but it’s hard to believe that it will be around in its current form ten years from now. Real growth amongst these platforms is only happening on the internet and the difference here is with engagement.

Think of engagement this way. Can you email a TV spot to a friend? No, but you can send a YouTube video link to your buddy via email or share it through Facebook and other forms of Social Media.

Did the newspaper ask your permission to send you that load of inserts in the Sunday paper? (Tell the truth…do you really look at every one of those?) No, they didn’t ask. But if you follow the independent, local furniture store on Twitter…you’ve given them permission to communicate with you.

Therefore, as an advertiser, the audience on your blog, fans of your Facebook page and followers on Twitter are incredibly valuable to you.  They want your marketing message. Don’t just spam them with discounts, etc. Engage them socially.

So, yes….traditional media still has the reach. Keep it in your mix. But, spend the time and make the effort to build a loyal audience online. The landscape will continue to change. Everybody’s getting in the boat. Don’t get left on the beach.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Visit: DicksonInteractive.com

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Source: 10e20.com
by Rebecca Kelley

When I spoke about Facebook marketing strategies at SMX East, someone asked the panel of speakers this question: “If you had to do only one to help your business, would you start a blog or focus on social networking?” The answer, I feel, is not necessarily a black or white issue. Obviously, if you can handle running a blog and social networking, the easy answer is “both,” but there are situations where one is more suitable than the other.

Why You Should Blog

Adding a blog to your site can be beneficial to your business in a multitude of ways, a few of which I’ll highlight below:

• It builds unique content. By posting new entries on a regular basis (daily, weekly, etc), you’re creating new, unique content for your site. You’ll get more pages indexed, meaning popular posts can pull in some good search traffic and other posts can rank for long tail search terms.
• It’s a great launchpad for linkbait and viral content. If you’re developing linkbait or viral content for your site, a blog is a great, easy way for you to launch the content. Deploying a piece of content via an active blog makes it seem less orchestrated/intentional than if you were to set up a separate page just for a list.
• It’s a good brand builder. Giving your company a voice via the blog can make your business stand out among the competition. If you provide really helpful information and stand out as an industry leader, your blog will become a valuable resource. Also, establishing a personality on the blog will create emotional ties to the reader and you can develop positive relationships with your audience (which can lead to sales!). You can also use the blog to address any reputation management issues and share company news with the public.

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The Internet Marketing Center Team

Today we’re going to tell you about 8 free sites that’ll help you explode your traffic…

AND get a better search engine ranking…

AND build a name for yourself as an expert in your field…

AND maintain better customer relations…

AND get new ideas for growing your business!

The sites we’re talking about are the ‘Net’s most popular social media sites. They’re online gathering places where people meet to share information and build relationships with each other. They’re also great places to meet potential customers and business partners.

… Plus, you can also build up a huge network of loyal customers who will do a lot of your advertising for you simply by raving about your product to all their friends and family. (And as you probably know, word-of-mouth advertising from a trusted source is the most effective kind of advertising you can get.)

And if some of these loyal customers start linking to your site from their sites, that can help you get a serious boost in the search engine rankings.

Here are the top 8 social media sites you need to know about: >

• Facebook: The world’s biggest social networking site. Members go to find other people who share the same interests or activities. You can build your own online profile and share different types of information with each other, such as pictures, videos, blog entries, links to other sites, and music clips.

  A good marketing strategy is to create a Facebook “Fan Page” for your business and encourage your customers to join. Then you can easily alert them whenever you have updates to share about your business.

• Twitter: A “micro-blogging” social network site. Members send each other short text-based posts of up to 140 characters. When you find members whose “tweets” you like, you can subscribe to their feed and be updated whenever they send a new message.

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It’s fundamental – focus on your website.

You thought this Blog post was going to tell you that you’re missing the boat because your company is not on Twitter or blogging. Wrong. Maybe the problem is that you have not created an iPhone app yet, or that you don’t even know if there is a Facebook page set-up for the brands, products and services that you sell. Wrong again.

All of the attention you think you should be spending on online marketing in the many digital channels and platforms will bring your company zero return if you don’t have a website that is not only nice and easy-to-use, but findable through all of the search engines (yes, that includes Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!).

It’s time to get back to basics. It’s almost laughable to think that some companies don’t have a serious, robust and up-to-date website in 2009. No matter what you do – and this include business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) – everyone, at every level of any organization, always goes online to see just who they are doing business with. This could be potential customers, clients, vendors, consultants and more. As each day passes, we’re seeing just how significant a website is to the overall business strategy of all companies.

Here’s a scenario: you’re having lunch with a business colleague who recommends a new laptop for you to check out. Do you run down to Best Buy? Do you call your IT department and have them fax you over a spec sheet? No and no.

You do what everyone does: you check it out online.

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