Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Every day there are thousands of new blogs launched, but only a few get read by more than a several hundred people. What is it that makes the most successful blogs a success? There are many variables to that equation. One thing's for sure, the most successful blogs don't become a hit overnight. The most successful blogs require creativity, consistency, and just plain hard work.
A blog can be your company's hub for communicating with its' target audience. It is where ideas and opinions are exchanged. Think of it as your opportunity for gaining feedback directly from your customers on your products and services. A blog can be your vehicle to gain valuable insight into your customers' wants, needs and desires.
When used strategically, blogs can exponentially amplify the effectiveness of your offline advertising. Your blog is an integral part of your online presence and allows you to demonstrate thought leadership in your industry. Your blog is a platform that allows you to add value to your online community and be perceived as a trusted resource.
Successful blogging is just as much an art as it is a science. At Proteus Design Studio, we have put together a guide to building a successful blog. In the guide you'll find tips for creating useful content, strategies to maximize content distribution, and valuable resources for making social connections. Please share this information with anyone you know that may find it beneficial.
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Tags: amazing blogs, blog strategy, Blogging, business, creating, successful blogs
Posted in Blogs, Social Media Marketing, viral marketing, web strategy | 5 Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
 Having served in the Marine Corps for ten years as well as co-founding and operating a web strategy company, I offer a unique perspective on our military and its’ Web Strategy. The United States has the world’s second largest military, after the People's Liberation Army of China, and has troops deployed around the globe. With an “All Volunteer” military force of 1,454,515 people serving on active duty and an additional 848,000 people in the seven reserve components, I think most people would agree that the military’s recruiting mission is of an epic scale compared to other organizations.
Having one of the most challenging recruiting tasks of any organization in America requires nothing less than an exceptional marketing plan. The five branches of the military each have a distinct military mission and therefore recruit a little differently. More specifically, I would like to discuss why I feel the U.S. military is using the internet to market more effectively than almost any civilian corporation in the world.
Just like any other organization, it is first necessary to have a thorough understanding of the military’s mission or business plan, in order to develop an effective web strategy. Let’s take a brief look at each branch of our military to gain a better understanding of their role in providing our overall national security.
I will be discussing the Military Branches in order from largest to smallest.
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Tags: air force, army, coast guard, Conversation, Facebook, fanpage, marine corps, marketing, military, MySpace, navy, online advertising, social media, youtube channel
Posted in Social Media Marketing, internet marketing, web strategy | 5 Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
 Customers buy because of their perceived need. Most of the time, their perceived need is actually a want. Many companies fail to recognize this difference and therefore make costly mistakes by developing products and or services that don’t catch on. There are several factors that determine why customers buy a product or service from one source over others. The main factors are as follows:
Brand Awareness - Is your customer aware of your existence? They need to know about you as a source or option. Your location, whether it be brick and mortar or the first page of Google are important factors in determining your Brand Awareness and market penetration.
Product Features and Benefits - We are all customers. Have you ever compared features of a particular product or service? We all do it. A good example is when shopping for a Cell Phone Service Provider. We compare the features of various plans offered by the competing companies. Most importantly as customers though, we focus on the benefits. What will that cell phone do for me? Maybe it’s the security and peace of mind to know that I can call anytime or anywhere during an emergency? Or maybe it might make me feel good to know that my monthly bill will be a flat rate every month.
Product or Service Pricing - Let’s face it, there are customers that price shop. Then there are customers that are willing to pay more for what they perceive as a better value. Have you heard the term, “Getting the most for my money”?
Brand Reputation - what does your market think about your brand? Dominos Pizza recently learned that the majority of their market had the opinion that their product sucks. They learned specific details as to why their customers felt their product was inferior against their competitors. Dominos then used social media to their advantage by asking for customer input to develop a new and improved product.
Word of Mouth - What are your customers saying about your company, product or service? Results from studies have shown that a satisfied customer may share their buying experience with 1-3 people. On the other hand, if they had an unpleasant experience with your company, they are likely to share that information with 10 people. This is one of the reasons customer loyalty is so important. Social media and customer rating sites have made it extremely easy for customers to review and share their buying experience. Smart companies are learning these new marketing concepts and using them to their advantage.
The most successful companies today are leveraging their knowledge of the fore mentioned concepts with social media technologies. In my blog post titled, “Corporate Marketing– Simplifying the Social Media Challenge”, I discuss a simple and effective way for companies to approach their social media strategy.
Connect with me:
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Tags: Brand Awareness, branding, marketing, positioning, products, sales, social media, strategy
Posted in General, Social Media Marketing | 7 Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
In a previous post, How To: Create a Facebook Fan Page, I took you through the Fan page creation process. If you decided to create one you're probably asking yourself, "Ok, I have this fan page set up, now what do I do with it?" Well it's going to take some effort on your part to get the ball rolling, unless you happen to be a well known brand of course. As much as we all would love to have instant fans in the thousands, in this land of information overload, we are but a small glimmer in front of a big glowing sun.
So before you start inviting or suggesting your Fan Page to your Facebook and business connections, use the following methods to get the biggest bang out your invite. People will be more likely to join your page if they see there's an effort being made to stimulate their interest.
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As I'm sure you've heard before "content is king", especially relevant and engaging content. One of the fastest and easiest ways of producing content for your Fan Page is to feed your company blog to it. Of course, this will only work if you're company is posting to the blog at least 2 to 3 times a week, though more would be best. Your posts should be informative, helpful, conversational, and don't forget to bring a little of your company's personality into the mix!
There are different methods of connecting your blog to the Fan Page. It can be as simple as setting up your Fan Page Notes to Import your Blog, or you can use a 3rd Party RSS application. We use NetworkedBlogs to feed our blog which is much more robust than the Notes option. It's also a great way to find your Facebook friends' blogs, if they have it registered on NetworkedBlogs, as well as subscribe to some of your favorite bloggers.
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Create a "Landing Page" tab that will encourage people to join your Fan Page as well as give them a "Call to Action". The CTA should be something easy and non-intrusive. We use the Static FBML application to create custom Landing Page Tabs, it adds a box to your Page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced Page customization.
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Upload Images or Videos of your product(s) or service. If you are uploading videos, make sure they are short and to the point. The YouTube Box application is an excellent tool to publish and manage your videos from your YouTube profile if you already have one or are planning on creating one.
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 Place a Fan Page Badge on your company website and/or blog. Let your current visitors know that they can now interact with you via Facebook.
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Keep your fans engaged! They joined your page because they found it interesting, make sure they stay interested. Update your page with new content as often as you can and then let them know about it. Use the Insights tool to keep track of what works and what doesn't and then adjust as best as your company can.
I hope you find this post helpful in getting your Fan Page started and on the road to great success. As long as you're providing quality information you will begin to see an increase in your fan numbers. Just make sure that if a Fan posts a question or comment on your Wall or Discussion board you or someone at your company responds in a timely manner. After all that is why we're doing this in the first place 
Please feel free to share your experiences in the comment section below or if you have a suggestion to add to the list, I'd love to hear it! ![]()
Tags: facebook applications, facebook fan page, group, profile, social media, social networking
Posted in Social Media Marketing | 10 Comments »
Friday, January 8th, 2010
 Building a Brand with social media is a long term commitment and is time consuming. With that in mind, you need to have a strategy to leverage the support of your fans. The most successful companies are benefiting from their fans acting as evangelists. In order to do that, your fans need a reason to get excited about your brand. Here are some questions that may help you with that challenge.
What is different about my product or service? What will make my fans tell others about my product or service? What digital information or media can we produce for people to share that is useful, interesting, or humorous? How can we tie it in with our product or service? Who are our fans? What are their likes and dislikes? What are their fears and concerns? Can we solve a common problem amongst our fan population? What have I seen from other companies that I have liked and passed on? Why did I pass it on?
Can you think of more questions? Please comment with your thoughts and suggestions…
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Tags: brand management, celbrity status, celebrities, public relations, publicity, reputation management, rock bands, social media
Posted in Social Media Marketing | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
 Companies need a simple way to approach their social media strategy that doesn’t necessarily start with technology. It can be broken down into an easy, three pronged approach and here are our recommended components.
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Monitor: In most cases, companies dive into the social media mix by jamming their traditional mainstream media messages into a social media venue. It just doesn’t work that way. The two-way dynamic of social media requires a different, more delicate approach. Careful, unbiased listening skills are a necessary part of a successful social media strategy. In order for companies to start off on the right foot, they must have an open mind to discover new possibilities and insight that their customers and potential customers will invariably deliver.
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Engage: Companies have to take an active role in social media by engaging with their audience by providing thought leadership. This can be accomplished by participating in relevant conversations with key influencers in their industry. Their goal here is to make a positive impression with influential participants that are outside the company. The company ultimately needs to be perceived as the industry leader and a subject matter expert.
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Integrate: A company’s marketing efforts should be integrated with their traditional marketing channels such as seminars, trade-show events, radio, television and print advertising. Social media has always been a challenge to measure in terms of ROI. When possible, it is advisable to use social media technologies to drive traffic to channels that can be measured through analytics software. Also, it pays to have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution in place for tracking customers and managing prospects. Managing your company’s internet presence can and should be scalable.
Our simplified three pronged approach is not an end all, but provides an easily definable starting point that any company can begin to execute. What are your thoughts?
If you would like more information regarding internet marketing or social media, please contact our web design company. ![]()
Tags: marketing, Social Media Marketing, social media strategy
Posted in Social Media Marketing | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
People buy from sources they like and trust. How do you build these qualities into a website so people feel comfortable enough to buy? Here are seven proven tactics that are used on almost every successful website.
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Call to Action - Every successful website has a well defined call to action. This is a predetermined goal or action that we want our website visitors to take once they have arrived at our site. The website has to communicate these goals clearly and consistently. The following are good examples:
- Call today for a free consultation
- Start your free trial today
- Free delivery with every purchase over $120
Helpful Tip: Avoid choice overload; too many choices equals lower sales
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People Imagery - Include the “human element” on your website page design. Smiling faces communicate a sense of customer service as well as build trust. A well placed graphic of a person or people that is relevant to your industry helps build trust and confidence immediately.
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Credit Card Logos - Most businesses today take credit cards as payment even if their website is not a shopping cart. The logos of Visa/American Express placed at the top and bottom of a site instill buying confidence in your company.
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Contact information - such as a phone number needs to be placed at the top of the site. This again builds confidence on a subconscious level. People like to know that they can reach your company easily if there is an issue with a transaction.
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Guarantees, warranties, and cancelation policies - make sure the link to this information is visually noticeable on the homepage. This minimizes the level of risk perception in the buyers mind.
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Secure Checkout Logos - ensure that the secure payment logo or image is visible. Online shoppers look for this indication before using a credit card.
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Shipping Information - do your best to provide and link to an explanation of your policy regarding shipping and delivery. When appropriate use a graphic such as the UPS or FedEx log to establish brand familiarity and trust.
The art of converting website visitors to customers is a very complex science. No two websites are the same. It takes a lot of time and effort to get a website optimized for success. If you have any questions or would like additional information on how to increase the performance of your website, contact our web design company at www.proteusdesignstudio.com.
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Tags: internet marketing, website conversion, website optimization
Posted in Social Media Marketing, internet marketing | 10 Comments »
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The easiest and fastest way to become successful with Twitter is to be human. Make a real contribution to others. Share useful information that others can use. That’s what people really want. What they don’t want is to be sold to. Spend a short amount of time on Twitter and you will quickly see that a lot of people just don’t get it; there are tons of those types of people on Twitter. You can use this to your advantage to stand out from the crowd.
It’s simply about being transparent and being you. It’s about meeting people and being genuine. The best part is, it’s especially easy to use Twitter to find people you have common interests with. Just search for them using the keywords that best describe your interests.
Are you ready to get busy and build a nice stream of blog traffic? Just remember that in social media, meaningful content is king. The following is a list of actions of what you’ll need to do to see the first 100,000 blog visitors in 30 days and hopefully many more thereafter!
