Social media is a crucial marketing tool to help you make connections, rapidly build your business’ online platform and get your message out. Just about every business should be using social media in some capacity. Social media sites allow you to interact with clients, customers, competitors, critics, employees, prospects and referral sources. Continue reading “Getting Started with Social Media”
Tag: social media
“If You Build It,” They Won’t Necessarily Come…2/3
Now that your website is up, you can now turn to putting together some marketing materials. Using your logo, set up and print business cards with your website, e-mail and other contact information on them. You’ll also need to set up letterhead, but more and more businesses are using Word documents and color laser printers to print letters as needed. Continue reading ““If You Build It,” They Won’t Necessarily Come…2/3”
Free Whitepaper: Social Media For Non-Profit Organizations
Before the rise of social media, most non-profit organizations needed to either buy expensive advertising or receive media coverage to attract the attention of their target audience and spread awareness about their mission. The Web, however, acts as a great equalizer and offers tremendous potential for non-profit organizations to build a community that believes in its mission. Continue reading “Free Whitepaper: Social Media For Non-Profit Organizations”
Using Social Media To Drive Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Social media can be a great way to take your message directly to your target audience. Using various social media tools, you can build your online profile and reputation, create more backlinks and drive people back to your Web site. Continue reading “Using Social Media To Drive Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”
Making The Most Of Your Facebook Page
Every business today needs to take its message where its customers are. Facebook, one of the largest social media networks with over 350 million active users, has grown beyond its role in personal networking and emerged as a powerful marketing tool for businesses. Facebook “fan” pages are now an essential branding tool for all organizations, helping businesses or non-profit organizations of all sizes interact and engage directly with customers or the community in a way that’s least interruptive. Continue reading “Making The Most Of Your Facebook Page”
Making The Most Of Your Twitter Profile
Over the past year, Twitter has emerged as one of the most popular social media tools to be used by individuals and companies, evolving as an important tool in brand marketing. Cable service provider Comcast uses Twitter to engage directly with its customers and solve customer complaints in real time. Besides direct brand engagement and customer service, companies like Dell have directly generated over $3 million in sales through Twitter, offering exclusive discounts and deals to their “followers.” Continue reading “Making The Most Of Your Twitter Profile”
Making The Most Of Your Blog
In 2008, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research conducted a study, which established that fast-growing small businesses are adopting social media at a faster rate than larger corporations. This may largely be due to the fact that for small businesses, social media can be a useful communications channel, allowing them to directly engage in a conversation with their customers and obtain feedback. Continue reading “Making The Most Of Your Blog”
Whose Brand Is It Anyway? A brand is defined by its customers
Imagine this scenario: Your company decides to rebrand its logo by changing its font. No big deal, right?
Wrong. Or at least not if you are IKEA. Last week, a Swedish resident was reading an IKEA print advertisement in a local newspaper when he noticed the IKEA typeface looked different. He sent out a message over Twitter and learned from IKEA’s advertising agency that IKEA had recently adopted a new font. As Time magazine reported in its recent article, very soon customers from Tokyo to Dublin to Melbourne were tweeting about how they thought the new font was “just plain ugly” and how disgusted they were with the font change. The IKEA font issue soon became a trending topic on Twitter, with fans across the globe talking about it, drawing even more tweets than Senator Edward Kennedy. Continue reading “Whose Brand Is It Anyway? A brand is defined by its customers”
A Quick Guide to the Social Media Toolbox
Facebook, MySpace, Xing, Twitter, wikis, LinkedIn, Plaxo, podcasts, blogs, Digg, YouTube, FlickR, RSS, StumbleUpon…the list is endless. If the vast array of social media tools available leaves you scratching your head in confusion, you are not alone. Cutting through the social media clutter and making sense of it all can be difficult, but it is important to remember that social media tools are, in the end, just that – tools meant to achieve an objective. Once you have identified your business and communication goals, your target audience, and a communication and marketing strategy to reach that audience, the last step is to select the tools that best help you achieve these goals and reach your audience most effectively. Continue reading “A Quick Guide to the Social Media Toolbox”
How Small Businesses Can Tap Into Social Media
Search for “Will It Blend” on Google and the top result will throw up Blendtec, a Utah-based company that manufactures a $399 heavy-duty blender. George Wright, Blendtec’s marketing director, conceived the idea of creating a video series where the company’s founder attempts to blend various unusual items (a hockey stick, cubic zirconia and even an Apple iPhone) to demonstrate the sheer power of the blender. The videos, which cost a few hundred dollars, were posted on free social media sites like YouTube and Digg, generating six million downloads and 10,000 comments in just a week. Following the first few videos, sales at Blendtec went up by 20 percent, followed by appearances on national television shows. Continue reading “How Small Businesses Can Tap Into Social Media”