Social Media Marketing | Direct Marketing

Thumbs Up for Thursday Tips

On 02.18.10, In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Uncategorized, social media marketing, By jennifer

Feeling a bit all over the place today, so here we go! Take the time today to look at some little things that you might not otherwise consider:

No More “Batch and Blast”
I saw this tip as it applies to email marketing, but you can apply it to different platforms. Twitter, Facebook, and even blogging. Have you ever wondered why you constantly get postcards and junk from your local real estate agent? They often use this batch and blast method because it’s cost efficient and effective. Just think of it, the commission they make from one sale makes their direct mailing costs very minuscule. Sure… social media marketing is free, but you really are paying a cost if you blast your followers with self-promotion. No matter how you choose to carry out your campaign, think of it as a continuous process.

Copying Competitors and Copycats
Google alerts is a great way to keep an eye out for your reputation, but have you thought about using it to watch your competitors? This article does a great job of compiling a variety of different ways you can stay in the know. Have you dealt with plagiarism in the past? You might have a piece of content that people love to steal. You can check by searching a certain phrase in parenthesis or checking CopyScape. We’ve had 3 different “companies” steal content on our video marketing page and reported them to Google as soon as we found out.

Google Webmaster Tools for Your WordPress
Did you know that you can use Webmaster Tools to get insight about your WordPress? The WordPress dashboard already allows you to see how many visitors you get and who’s linking to you. Once you verify ownership of your WordPress account with Webmaster Tools, you’ll see where your blog ranks in search engine results along with relevant keywords. You’ll also be able to see any crawl errors and other useful diagnostics. Best of all, this tool doesn’t cost anything. Feel free to add all your blogs/sites and master Webmaster Central today.

Tagged with: email • google • marketing objectives

Start Your Facebook Ad Campaign

On 02.15.10, In Pay-Per-Click, Uncategorized, social media marketing, By jennifer

Currently, waiting for Twitter’s fail whale to disappear…

Anyways, I’ve been thinking about Facebook advertising lately. Have you ever used it for your business? It can even be a pretty effective way to get new fans to your Fan page and more. When you start your Facebook ad campaign, you can either set a maximum price per click (CPC) or per impression (CPM ). You will also be prompted to set a daily budget, which Facebook will not go over (unlike Google). Facebook is going to roll out a beta version of ad conversion tracking. The service will allow you to calculate the ROI of your ad campaigns. Really excited for this to make its way to my account so I can try it out!

The key in direct marketing is choosing your target audience, and with Facebook ads, you can do just that. There are 11 different criteria that you can use to your advantage. Don’t hesitate to take your time to think of the relevant users you want. Did you know that you can target users on their birthday? You can also target a specific radius within cities and even users who have a certain interest or activity. Facebook coupons come up frequently, so make sure to check. I just got a $50 credit and it’s a great way for small businesses or individuals to test their ads.

Some more interesting-reads for advertising on Facebook:

10 Rules for Advertising on Facebook
Facebook Ads Best Practices
Facebook Advertising – An Opportunity for Deep Targeting at Very Low Cost
25 Bad Facebook Ads
Is the big Facebook advertising experiment working?

Is the big Facebook advertising experiment working?

Tagged with: Facebook ads • marketing goals • PPC advertising • social media marketing

The (Near) Future of Music

On 12.17.09, In Uncategorized, relationship marketing, social media marketing, By jennifer

Innovation Breeds Revolution

What happens when the Apple giant acquires online music streaming services offered by Lala? Some observers think that this will change the future of how consumers will obtain their music. Gone are the days of a need for tangible objects to hold our music…
From vinyl, 8-tracks, to cassettes and eventually CDs, consumers have always been looking for a more convenient way to store and listen to their music. Lala technology allows users to stream their favorite music over an internet connection. With similar sites, like Last.fm and Pandora, there’s no longer a need for physical CDs or even storage space.

What Does This Mean for the Music Industry?

Since the early days of Napster, the music industry has been scrambling to regain their past vigor. They claim losses of album sales due to internet downloading. But the internet and music streams may be a place where the music industry can regain their momentum. Trendsetters will want to investigate this new potential, so that they don’t get left behind. And you can bet that this is exactly what Apple’s strategy is. Surely, they don’t intend for the Lala technology to cannibalize their iTunes market, but they realize the powerful potential. For now, some experts believe that it is a long way before a majority of users switch to solely streaming their music online. Internet and wi-fi connections are still problematic, even with smart phones. For now, this is a viable market to keep your eye on.

Consumers are Still Key

Music and music fans will always exist. You won’t get anywhere if you blame your failures on consumers. Internet music streaming may frighten some artists, but others have begun to embrace it for novel ways to promote themselves. For example, solo artist, Beck, has always been known for his unique techniques for marketing his music. His 2006 album, The Information, came with a CD cover that fans could personalize by using accompanying stickers and other artwork. Recently, Beck has launched several websites where he releases exclusive new recordings, interesting interviews, and just plain weird videos. This is an easy way to keep in touch with your fan base and keep them up to date with the latest news. So, whether it is an interactive MySpace or entertaining Twitter account, there are many ways musicians can supplement their online presences and embrace technological upgrades. Internet music streaming may seem new today but it’s just a matter of time before something new comes out. Maintaining your consumer base will help you, regardless of the change to come.

Tagged with: marketing objectives • social media marketing

The Importance of Video

On 08.03.09, In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), online viral marketing, social bookmarking, social media marketing, video marketing, By jennifer

From video resumes to the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment, YouTube allows virtually anyone to gain visibility online. But, have you ever wondered how popular Youtube videos make money? Before you grab your video camera, it’s important to understand how this is possible and the work that needs to be done. Also, make sure to check up video marketing tips and tools. Many people may have the misconception that uploading a video will be guaranteed success. In reality, it can require meticulous planning and work.

So, just how do popular YouTube videos make money? The most obvious answer is that they can act as links that drive traffic to your website. Like updates on Twitter or being featured on social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, your website can benefit from exposure to a huge Internet audience. Video is a growing trend and you can use your creativity to help your site rank higher in search results. From product placement to running affiliate ads on your videos, there are many ways to monetize your YouTube efforts. Just like any other social media campaign, videos are a great utility in promoting your website.

Many have found that video blogs are catching on because you can easily promote yourself, your company, and your brand. Embeddable videos are user-friendly because they are easy to access and share. A popular video can help you gain leverage that you might not get otherwise from using standard PPC ads or SEO. The next time you see a viral video that you like, analyze some of their techniques and see how it can help you in your efforts. Do you have any videos that you’d like to share?

Tagged with: emarketed • online marketing • SEO • social media marketing • video marketing • viral marketing

Facebook vs. Twitter

On 07.29.09, In advertisements, online viral marketing, social media marketing, By jennifer

When it comes to Facebook marketing and Twitter advertising, which do you prefer? Both have advantages and disadvantages and social media marketing is still in its early stages of development. Users may have trouble keeping up with all the new changes as marketers struggle to find an effective strategy. An analysis from Compete, shows that Facebook is in the lead, but is Twitter a threat? I believe that Twitter and Facebook are strong competitors that and can be strongly beneficial when properly utilized.

People like to use Facebook because they can keep in touch with old friends and easily meet new ones. However, with Twitter, individuals and companies can build a strong following and promote their awareness of their brand. It is important to keep up on changes with both of these giants because it is hard to tell which has more potential. Taking it up a notch, viral marketing is also becoming prevalent on these social networking sites. For example on Twitter, Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a “popularity” contest and won! This may be a victory for Kutcher and embarrassing for CNN, but both parties certainly gained more followers. How are some pros and cons of both Facebook and Twitter:

Facebook
+ Rapidly growing number of users
+ Potential to use third party applications for advertising
+ Some report using Facebook messaging more than email to connect with real friends
- Takes time to learn how to navigate
- Requires testing and research to realize long term benefits
- Numerous applications and features could clutter your message

Twitter
+ Easy to use, navigate and use to promote or share anything
+ Cost advantageous in comparison to Facebook (for the time being)
+ More people can be exposed to your message without any formal confirmation or even logging in
- Limited to 140 character for each update
- Potential for abuse by spammers
- Too early to tell how effective it is in advertising

Tagged with: emarketed • facebook • facebook advertising • online marketing • twitter • video marketing

PPC on Facebook

On 07.27.09, In Pay-Per-Click, social media marketing, By jennifer

In the growing age of social media, researchers are scrambling to study how effective advertising on social sites really are. Research by SEO and paid search PPC firms find that users do spend time clicking paid ads on social networking sites. Some studies show that users look at the paid ads before clicking on the actual search results. In a recent study, 65% of participants clicked on sponsored ads during the first ten seconds of their search. But what does it mean and how are these studies useful?

These results are surprising and shows that social media has changed the way people normally search online. Traditionally, users look at search engine results starting at the top left hand side of the page and move downwards to the right. The first few search results that appear at the top or near the top of the page are most likely to be clicked. But this isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to search results on social networking sites. Users typically pay more attention to pay per click advertising before they scroll down to look at the fourth or fifth search engine result.

Since this is a growing online trend, it means that more research needs to be done in order to effectively understand how users respond to advertising patterns on social media sites. Facebook advertising can be a helpful tool for your company but you need to keep some things in mind:

Do your research and perform an updated analysis on competitors and consumers. The more you know about how they behave, the better.
Tests, tests, and more tests. Testing your ads will help you differentiate the winners and losers.
Keeping track before and after an ad campaign. It is important to take notes on how much traffic you’re receiving before and after a campaign. Without numbers, it is impossible to quantify whether your efforts have been successful. If the results aren’t as good as you’d like, your notes will help you learn from mistakes

Tagged with: emarketed • facebook advertising • pay per click advertising • Pay-Per-Click • PPC • PPC advertising • social media marketing

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