Category: social media
Letting your brand’s content “run free” on social media by thinking beyond Facebook marketing will increase site traffic and revenues by 12.89%. So promised Michael Lazerow, founder and CEO of Buddy Media, speaking at the Mashable Media Summit 2011.
With 50% of the global population logging in daily and actioning 12 billion likes and comments per month, it is clearly essential to crack this immense platform. A whopping 94% of brands list Facebook as their top social media marketing priority – but what should they be doing to maximise traffic and revenue? Here is Lazerow’s recipe for breaking down the content barriers of social networks.
1. Set up and optimise your social presences
Use content to your advantage on Facebook, using it to crowdsource, offer free gifts and collect information. However, also focus on your content outside of Facebook. Your own websites and online stores are ultimately more important than your Facebook page.
2. Socialise all content to eliminate dead ends
A dead end occurs where a user does something then nothing happens. Small social hooks have the potential to drive a lot of traffic, so don’t waste them. For example, don’t run a poll on your website without also running a feed on Facebook. NFL did this and invited 43,336 votes. Also…think of Facebook’s Ticker as a free pay-per-click channel, sending free viral traffic to your website. More »
While small business owners use social media on a personal level, there is a significant gap between how much they believe social marketing impacts on business and actual levels of activity and investment.
A study of small business owners by Social Strategy found that 73% said they access social networks, yet 67% are waiting to invest in social media for business for a variety of reasons
Some of the obstacles specified include a fear of sharing sensitive information (cited by 51%); too many sites to manage (50%); and a fear of “information overload”.
However, 60% of the 343 respondents surveyed say that they do want to implement a social media strategy; they just don’t know where to start. It can be daunting for small companies without the weight of a well-known brand or TV campaign behind them, so Social Strategy offered three tips aimed specifically for small businesses taking their first steps beyond digital marketing into social:
1. Find your customers online
There’s a world beyond Facebook and Twitter online, where people, including potential customers, are already commenting, linking and sharing content.
2. Set up to listen
Establish feeds to extract relevant insights continually. Everything tells you something about what really matters to the people a business intends to serve. More »
There are only 44 days left until we pop the champagne, sing Auld Lang Syne (badly) and listen to Big Ben chime us in (or out) to 2012. Which gets us thinking…what is going to set the social media marketing agenda next year?
Here at Furlong PR, we are big believers in the pivotal role of expert content coupled with intelligent SEO on the bottom line. We have seen first-hand how content marketing can drive tangible results.
The gurus at Social Media Explorer (socialmediaexplorer.com) have already taken to their crystal balls, placing content marketing atop their social marketing trends for 2012.
So what’s new about content marketing? Social media pundits have been talking about this marketing discipline for years, but what has changed is buy-in at board level. Executives seem to have started to appreciate the positive impact that quality blog content, viral videos, white papers and the like can have on SEO and lead generation.
Content marketing requires quite a drastic rethink for many CMOs or CEO’s, in the sense that it asks brands to ‘be the media’ rather than feature ‘in the media’. The knee-jerk reaction has traditionally been that media=expensive=no thank you. But now that social media departments can begin to demonstrate the real business benefits of a strategy that incorporates content, budgets seem to be adapting to allow them to develop more sophisticated content strategies. More »
Last week Google+ unveiled its own take on brand and business pages: Google+ Pages. While Google may claim its network is not a Facebook competitor, its latest social marketing offer is a clear parallel to Facebook marketing tool, Facebook Pages. The question is, which brand page offers the most value to both users and advertisers?
Over at ReadWriteWeb.com, we found a comparison of Pages efforts from two leading luxury car companies: BMW and Mercedez-Benz. The verdict is that while Facebook has a first-mover advantage in terms of user numbers and its “comparatively advanced develop platform”, Zuckerberg and co. should not get too complacent just yet.
Engagement is the golden ticket to social marketing success. Let’s look at the BMW Pages as an example. Over on Facebook Pages, user numbers are high. BMW’s Facebook Page had 6.7 million fans as this article was written, compared to 394 BMW followers at Google+ (obviously, this is a fairly unfair comparison, given Google+’s recent entry to market).
Interactivity for BMW on Facebook is also high, with all fans invited to create their own customised BMW and to post to the BMW Page wall. BMW’s Google+ Page, still has a remarkably clean wall by comparison, since fans can’t post directly to it. There is less interaction, but on the plus side, the wall is clean and focused with little spam or irrelevant content. More »
Australian airline Qantas has been rapped for its ineffective social media response to the recent grounding of its fleet over a pay dispute.
Tweets posted by the company have been slammed as wooden, corporate and lacking in empathy, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Qantas will reimburse the difference between the cost of the new ticket (in same cabin of travel) and value of the refunded Qantas ticket,” read one remarkably concise tweet, failing to offer a human voice at a time of major chaos and upset for many customers.
Word has it that although Qantas generally demonstrates successful Twitter marketing, the social media team had been effectively “gagged” by senior Qantas staff with a corporate message to deliver, yet little experience of using Twitter.
In response, numerous Twitter accounts have surfaced with the sole aim of blasting Qantas, with chief executive Alan Joyce bearing the brunt of the flack. More »
“Most people are followers and providing social proof of popularity…can make people stop, engage and buy”. So says social media expert Jeff Bullas, and whether or not you agree, business is largely a popularity contest and this also applies to your business blog.
Picture this. You’re walking down the high street on a Saturday afternoon with your friend when hunger strikes. Two restaurants are coming up. One is crowded with diners filling their faces, windows steaming with the rising heat of plates of spaghetti bolognese. The other is empty, a bored-looking waitress drums her fingernails on the counter. Which one do you opt for?
You hit the bookshops next, searching for a Christmas present for your beloved. You skim the shelves, then pick up a book with a nice, catchy title. Splashed across the front are the words “bestseller” and numerous author and celebrity endorsements. Are you tempted?
Transfer this theory to the web, and think back to the last time you browsed blogs for your sector. Time is precious, and you only want to read something that’s worth it. Validation is key. Bullas calls this validation “social proof” – and urges you to provide it to attract users to your business blog above your competitors. More »
A Facebook push might not initially reach as many people as a direct mail campaign, but the potential to garner valuable customer information makes social media a major contender, and the US finance industry is starting to take social very seriously.
A report in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal highlighted a new Facebook marketing effort by New York bank J.P. Morgan Chase – part of a wider offline advertising campaign. The bank ran a sweepstake for Facebook users who ‘Like’ its new credit card’s page on the social network, offering a grand prize of $1 million.
While the industry has been broadly slow to adapt to social media marketing, financial companies are now harnessing sites like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, primarily to gather data on consumer spending habits. Once somebody ‘Likes’ a company on Facebook, that company then has access to that user’s profile – offering a mine of useful information (as well as plenty of useless social titterings).
“If you are going to like something and through that mechanism be open to ongoing communications that says something about you,” Chase’s Card Services General Manager Matt Kane said. “What liking me does is allows me to push more information to you, which is what I will do.” More »
Linking with a charitable cause via social channels can significantly drive engagement with a brand, according to an interesting report by Wavemetrix. With brands from AmEx to Dell to Nike embracing the trend of using social media to promote charitable causes, the research firm has discovered that the strategy is as likely to backfire as it is to succeed.
The biggest risk for brands tackling this approach seems to be coming across as self-serving. Step forward AmEx, whose recent “Be Inspired” charity push invited Twitter users to share their greatest inspirations, promising to donate 50p to the Prince’s Trust for every related tweet and retweet.
Wavemetrix analysis found that almost half of tweets generated by the campaign were negative, often critiquing the brand for lacking integrity. The severest posts were sarcastic and angry in tone, suggesting the potential damage that can come to a brand when a philanthropic effort backfires.
However, conducted correctly, the effects can be remarkably positive, as demonstrated by Estee Lauder’s new Breast Cancer Awareness tie-up. Using Facebook as a primary social marketing channel, the beauty brand set out to raise awareness of the 19th year of its Breast Cancer Awareness campaign, while linking the campaign to its “pink” product range. More »
Twitter marketing is still a relatively nascent art, but the platform is already claiming its place as a serious business tool. Not only is it an ideal channel for promoting offers, but also for expressing brand sentiment and executing efficient customer service.
Many companies are still tweaking their strategies to fine tune their messaging, and working to adapt to the plethora of new tools on the market. Here, adapted from her video interview with Social Media Examiner, are some especially useful insights from Onefourty founder, Hubspot inbound marketing expert and author of Twitter for Dummies, Laura Filton.
1. Twitter tools are advancing – make use of them
A first visit to Twitter.com can expose you to a bombarding amount of ‘stuff’. It would be madness not to maximise your experience by using some of the best tools on the market – such as CoTweet, HootSuite and MediaFunnel – combining them for efficiency and impact. Check out onefourty.com for expert and user reviews and ratings, as well as industry-specific advice on which Twitter tools will assist you in sorting the wheat from the chaff.
2. If you learn one thing about Twitter – it is to be useful…
…or as Laura condenses it to four words: listen, learn, care and serve. Keep your fundamental business principles in mind by constantly asking what problem do you serve, what impact do you make and – most importantly – why should people care? “Focus on content around that and you’re going to win,” she assures. More »
It’s always hard to live up to hype. But it seemed as though Google’s much-anticipated social network launch Google+ was about to.
Techies and social junkies got all fired up when Google+ first launched on an invite-only basis. The mystery and buzz was something akin to Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory opening up to a few lucky golden ticket holders. Speculation was rife – could Google+ be a serious competitor to Facebook?
In the initial days after launching publically on 20 Sept, traffic to Google+ soared 1200%. But things quickly started to look decidedly less rosy for the search giant.
Last week, blogger Michael Degusta posted the potentially embarrassing fact that only three of the 12 people on Google’s management team page have ever posted on Google+. When a product gets such low-level buy in from its own makers (even Google CEO Larry Page has only made a handful of public posts), you have to wonder why you should engage with it yourself. More »
