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Social Media Marketing Best Practices - Online Marketing Blog
Social media and business blogging is about the reader/client/interested party, not about you or the business. The interaction and engagement through all the forms of new media is what businesses, both large and small, used to called customer service, market research, client relationship building, and all the other foundational things that go into good business. We now have new tools and a new playing field.
Adam Singer, Paul Isakson, Brad Smith @ IMS Minneapolis
Social Media advice is cheap and for the most part, you get what you pay for. Best practices social media marketing based on experience, well, that’s another thing entirely.
The Social Media Best Practices session at IMS Minneapolis earlier this week gave attendees access to first hand insights from the likes of: Brad Smith from Best Buy, Adam Singer from TopRank Online Marketing, Paul Isakson from Thinkers & Makers (formerly of Space150) and Bryan Person, founder of Social Media Breakfast.
Brad Smith, Director, Interactive Marketing & Emerging Media from Best Buy opened things up talking about a “new marketing reality”. Customers are out there, but they’re bombarded with messages. Customers are not listening to us (marketers & advertisers) anymore. Social media is all about communicating. Customers are listening to each other instead and tuning out marketing messages.
Each company’s journey in social media is different. If your social media consultant starts the meeting with suggestions about starting a Twitter account, leave the room. Treat social media like any other major undertaking with planning, understanding the marketplace, goals and objectives.
Tenents that support Best Buy Social Media Marketing:
- Deliver
- Blow you away
- Never leave you hanging
- Make a difference
- Make sure you know all we know
Brad makes the distinction of social media tools and the behaviors we seek to engage and influence. “I don’t use facebook, I participate. It’s a two way thing. You’re not half way into social media. When you’re in you’re in.”
Best Buy’s Social Media Marketing Mission:
To connect customers and employees with the Best Buy brand and each other through the right tools platforms and collaboration delivered when, where and how they want.
The focus is on the customer, not the company. “It’s not about what Best Buy wants customers to do, it’s about giving people the tools to connect with each other and employees whenever and however they want.”
Best Buy Social Media Guidelines:
- (Essentially don’t be stupid)
- Listen
- Be findable, think distributed
- It’s about people
- Enable creation
- Make it social
- Listen some more
- Be authentic
- Be transparent
- Keep it simple
- Make a commitment
Best Buy and Twitter – @Twelpforce
The thing that makes it work is that they didn’t start with a “Twitter strategy”. It was born of a customer need. Best Buy simply leveraged an asset they knew they had with a customer need. Customers needed advice and there are 150,000 Best Buy employees world wide that are already being helpful. Twitter proved to be an effective platform for that. 2,500 employees are signed up to work as part of @Twelpforce.Best Buy is also active with Community Forum, Best Buy IdeaX, a Facebook Fan page and other channels.
When Best Buy started their social journey with Facebook, Brad says they were overzealous and promoted commercial messages to the community. The community responded, “not to do that”. Customers want access to the brand, advice, tips exclusive access that others don’t get.
Best Buy Learnings From Their Social Media Experience:
- Listen first, talk second
- Its OK to fail
- The same social mores apply online as offline
- Customers don’t care about channels
- We have to be ready ro respond
- Customers will tell us and everyone else where our organization is broken. And expect a fix
- People are forgiving
Overall Best Buy is treating their social media experience as a journey and have learned the importance of listening instead of pushing. It’s an impressive example, not only of a very large brand finding value in a humble and transparent, customer focused social media effort, but one of true Minnesota ingenuity when it comes to new technology and marketplace innovation.
I did miss some of the bulleted items above because the presentation went by very quickly. If access to the PowerPoint presentations is made available, I’ll link to it from this post.
I’ll be adding observations on the presentations from Adam Singer and Paul Isakson separately.
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Viral growth trumps lots of faux followers
Seth Godin repeats and reinforces the theme "content is king"
Viral growth trumps lots of faux followers
Many brands and idea promoters are in a hurry to rack up as many Facebook fans and Twitter followers as they possibly can. Hundreds of thousands if possible.
A lot of these fans and followers are faux. Sunny day friends. In one experiment I did, 200,000 followers led to 25 clickthroughs. Ouch.
Check out the graph on the left. The curves represent different ideas and different starting points. If you start with 10,000 fans and have an idea that on average nets .8 new people per generation, that means that 10,000 people will pass it on to 8000 people, and then 6400 people, etc. That's yellow on the graph. Pretty soon, it dies out.
On the other hand, if you start with 100 people (99% less!) and the idea is twice as good (1.5 net passalong) it doesn't take long before you overtake the other plan. (the green). That's not even including the compounding of new people getting you people.
But wait! If your idea is just a little more viral, a 1.7 passalong, wow, huge results. Infinity, here we come. That's the purple (of course.)
A slightly better idea defeats a much bigger but disconnected user base every time.
The lesson: spend your time coming up with better ideas, not with more (faux) followers.
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Posted by Seth Godin on February 15, 2010 | Permalink
Use Marketing to Stay Strong in a Weak Economy
A key part of Magnetic Marketing is a good identification of your target market and creating your message for that niche. Email, snailmail, and social media are low cost ways to present your message, offers and solutions. Don't rely on old methods that worked one, two, five years ago. Now is the time you can leap ahead of the competition that is resting on its laurels or mired down in a victim attitude. Innovation in down times creates the dominant players of tomorrow.
Best wishes....
Use Marketing to Stay Strong in a Weak Economy
Shrewd business owners see opportunity in a down market.Today's companies face the challenge of marketing in an economic state of turbulence and uncertainty. The key to maintaining forward momentum in today's market is to resolve to be competitive and shift to an opportunistic mind-set. Rather than focusing on the turbulence, your company should leverage the dynamics of a down market and become an even stronger competitor. A weak economy can actually serve as an opportunity to evaluate your marketing and public relations initiatives so you can make them more effective and efficient.
In good times, it's easy to get into the proverbial marketing rut; some companies have been marketing themselves the same way for years, using the same old marketing plan year after year. But when you're forced to scrutinize every expenditure, suddenly a new zest for change can emerge.
Let this weak economy empower your company to find fresh, creative ways to remain visible, stand out as a distinctive brand and be the leader in your category--even on a smaller marketing budget.
The key to competing strong in a weak economy is to remain visible and project an image of strength and stability. Customers have a heightened sensitivity to any sign of weakness, so resist the urge to dramatically reduce your marketing activities.
To flourish in challenging times, you'll need to distill your marketing and public relations efforts into a powerful, concentrated mix that delivers a high level of visibility and impact on a limited budget.
If your company is looking for ways to do more with less, taking the following 10 steps can help you compete strong:
- Rethink your marketing strategy.
Rather than making random budget cuts to reduce your marketing costs, determine how much spending is feasible based on your current financial situation. Then create a new marketing strategy that optimizes every dollar and integrates your activities to gain the highest return for every effort. This approach will ensure you forge a cohesive, strategic plan that will enable you to remain visible and strongly compete on a reduced budget. - Evaluate your brand.
Now is the time to carefully evaluate your brand, the market and your competitors. You need to get a 360-degree view of your current situation and how your existing marketing activities align with the current market conditions. Review your marketing assets (such as your company's brochures and website) to determine if they are relevant to today's customers. Also look closely at your competitors to determine if your company stands out. - Target your marketing efforts.
When marketing on a limited budget, laser-focused targeting of your ideal customers is vital. Invest your time in creating a targeted customer database to use for direct marketing. You may not be able to afford broad advertising efforts, but that's OK because direct marketing (snail mail and e-mail) allows you to directly reach your customers in a more efficient and cost-effective way. - Message strategically.
In a highly competitive market, you need to stand out with messages that are relevant to the times. Evaluate your messaging to ensure it connects with customers. Keep in mind that their wants, needs and interests may have shifted with the economy. - Update your core marketing materials.
If your brochures, website and other materials are not relevant to today's customers, or if they blend in with those of competitors, make the investment to update your core materials. Many times, customers will visit your website or request information before calling your business. Be sure to make a good first impression to optimize every opportunity. - Integrate traditional methods with online tools.
Today's communication model is a two-way dialogue. Integrating traditional marketing tactics with web-based tools and social media can boost your response rates by engaging customers at a deeper level. In many cases, boosting exposure through online social networking adds very little cost. Direct marketing can be used to drive customers to microsites (small, three-to-five-page websites) that focus on generating leads. Empowering customer interaction with your company can add significant impact to your campaigns and boost exposure for those on limited budgets. - Generate media buzz.
Increase your media exposure by launching a public relations campaign. Distribute regular press releases to your industry or local media outlets. Submit applications to speak at events or conferences as a thought leader. If your advertising budget is limited, supplementing your media and industry exposure with public relations is a good idea. - Increase your network.
Network with other business owners and customers at industry or local events to increase awareness of your company and generate interest. Do not underestimate the power of word-of-mouth; it is a powerful, cost-effective marketing tool. - Forge partnerships.
Remember, people don't have to work for your company to work with you, and your peers are in the same boat as you are. Many companies cannot afford to hire extensive staff or experts when times are tough. Strategically partnering with complementary companies can provide you with new leads and expand your network without adding costs. Look for win-win partnerships that can help your business move forward and help you achieve your goals. - Optimize your existing customers.
Many companies spend all their energy trying to win over new customers when existing customers may be the quickest way to increase business. It is critical to maintain strong customer relationships to retain customers. Look for opportunities to upgrade and cross-sell to your existing customers since you already have a relationship with them.
Resolve to become a fierce competitor to win more of the business that's out there. It is possible to leapfrog the larger competitors in your line of business--not by spending more, but instead by shrewd opportunism. Take a look around--if your competitors have cut back on their marketing or gone dormant, you might have an unprecedented chance to overtake them. Make every marketing move strategic and calculated. Strong marketers will prevail.
Turning Leads Into Sales Opportunities
Here is a good primer on converting sales leads into sales. Remember TLC.... Traffic - Leads - Convert. This is about the "C". You need a systematic set of responses to your leads. Have a strategy that you follow and a set of tactics that are tailored to the type of lead and type of prospect you are responding to.
Make Money Online Using TLC Techniques
Tender loving care may seem like a funny term to give to a business, but it will actually spell the difference between a business success and a business failure. And the TLC system is not just all about love. It also stands for the things that will help you make a big list for your Internet marketing business.
TLC is mainly the three most important factors to mast money making online through Internet marketing. Know these, apply these and you will be well on your way to becoming an Internet marketing guru yourself.
T = TRAFFIC
Traffic generation is one of your best online allies. If you develop the knack for bringing visitors to your website, you will be able to market effectively. You must make your site viewed often by many people so that it will reach your target market and constantly regain exposure from them. You will stand a better chance at selling your products if you have good traffic.
Managing your traffic will also help you know your status in your business and what actions you must take to maintain and improve it. Traffic building is very difficult to self-study. Often, you will need a mentor to steer you in the right direction of building and managing site traffic. There are various ways of building traffic which can either be free or paid.
L = LEADS
Your leads are those visitors who like what they saw so much that they are willing to subscribe to you on a daily basis. Building your newsletter or email list that will keep your customers loyal and visiting your website is very important. You must have these leads to sell to if you really want your product to click. You may actually find your money working for you already, if you have painstakingly taken the time to build your list with both quality and quantity.
C = CONVERT LIST OF LEADS INTO BUYERS
Your prospects will cease to bring you income unless you get them to buy from you. This is a product of a relationship that you will have to give a lot of time and energy for. People will not buy from you unless they already trust you and have you established as as reliable person who can deliver his promises and go beyond the typical sales pitch.
Among many other things, you must go beyond the purely profit-oriented mindset and go for a win-win situation where your buyers will be able to benefit with high quality service while you get well compensated for it.
This comes from a Ning account of Joel Christopher, "The Master List Builder". he is a resident of San Antonio and you might run into him at a local networking event.
In Magnetic Marketing, it comes down to three things
In Magnetic Marketing, it comes down to three things. Identify and understand your target market. Tailor your message specifically for your targeted market. Use multiple media to deliver your message. The media that are growing exponentially in importance are the internet and Web 2.0 social media. Don't be left out!
