Social Media Marketing - Opportunities & Challenges

Statistics on Social Media Marketing in First Quarter 2009

A survey by WebProNews of 900 marketers reveals that social media marketing strategy plays heavily into 2009's business growth equation:

• 88% indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes
• 72% have only been using social media marketing for a few months
• 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week
• 39% are using it for 10 hours a week
• 81% say the number-one benefit is generating exposure, followed by increasing traffic and building new business relationships
• Over 50% received an increase in search engine positioning

With the realm of Social Media Marketing evolving and growing quickly, compounded by many marketing firms are Social Media virgins, here is what the industry reported as the challenges these newcomers face:

• It seems that strategy is the most important part. What strategy should we use?

• What are the best practices -- the best tactics, sites and tools?

• How to identify and target your ideal audience.

• How to quantiy the additional exposure into tangible results and ROI.

• How do I get synergy between the different areas of Social Media Marketing?

Social Media marketing is still in its youth. That means there are enormous possibilities. While everyone's "mileage" may differ with no one cookie cutter formula that will fit all businesses, one thing is certain: our customers are already there, so we HAVE to be there, doing our best to reach them in a marketing medium that has credibility.

It is this very "trust-factor" of consulting the collective wisdom of individual opinions and reviews that means that prospects are best reached by those who UNDERSTAND them best. Most often that means their very peers. But a savvy company who is open to marketing communications at their customer's level, can quickly be positioned to receieve the lion's share of a niche in the marketplace.

For marketing-savvy Social Media, including Strategic Blogging, call Promise Productions Marketing Communications at 972-822-3587.

Social Media Gets Down To Business

Today's companies need to harness the advantage that a Social Media Campaign gives them. Looking at the benefits, they are too important to ignore:

1 • Elevates the Company's Web Site in page rank for searches -- be found by prospective new business opportunities.

2 • Builds Positive PR - people speaking well of your brand, your service, and their experience doing business with you.

3 • Gets your products and services in front of thousands of people who would otherwise not know about what your company offers.

4 • Creates a dynamic network of online buzz about what your company is currently up to.

Let's touch on each benefit.

First, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can only go so far, no matter how much money you throw at it. SEO is a popularity context with the search engines, but you can influence, but never determine, the final outcome Social Media Campaigns offer that additional way to build a mass of links (link popularity) that act like signposts pointing back to your company's main web site, thereby raising your page rank with Google and Yahoo.

SEO is a moving target because of constant changes in
(a) the market,
(b) your competitor's online actions, and
(c) the search engine's rules for page rank

That means the reality is that the SEO that worked 8 months ago is much less potent now. The moral is that:

• SEO needs to be refreshed every 6 months
• SEO needs to be augmented with ongoing boosts from Social Media Campaigns


Regarding the benefit of the Positive PR that Social Media can generate for your company: Word of mouth has moved online. Your prospects are already using social media to see what the "word on the street" is before taking action to trust their business to you. When they search, you want them to find positive reflections about your products and services.

See our past two blog posts for details on strategic ways to manage what people are saying about your brand -- and how to leverage it for positive cash flow.

When it comes to getting your company's products and services in front of thousands of potential customers: social media thrives on the buzz of the latest news. This "hot" information is designed to be spread through interconnected networks in the social media world.

When we orchestrate your social media campaign, we send your latest news out via RSS feeds to key hot spots where people already interested in learning about the things you offer come for information. Because our savvy social media marketing ripples out to benefit you by being found in the right place at the right time, you stand to profit.

Manage and Build Your BUZZ for profitable attention: for purposes of using social media for boosting your business, we will think of Buzz as the sum of all things being said online about your brand and your company. Social Media thrives on something interesting being said. At Promise Productions, we are marketers... communicators... we know how to engage your audience with a positive vision about your company.

Your strategic business blog, is an ideal component of your social media campaign that we use to spread your messages to multiple online networks that generate a social conversation about... you! The result is buzz in the right places. You'll like the results.

Conclusion:
Savvy companies appreciate the importance of managing their brand online. Promise Productions knows how to manage your brand online and influence the influencers. We understand marketing communications (in web sites, in Internet marketing, in Social Media, in Blogging) so we know how to create the right presence for your brand in the markets that count.

Put this to work for you by calling Promise Productions Marketing Communications at 972-822-3587.

Using Social Media for Positive PR

Refer to our previous post for an overview of how Social Media has changed the face of Public Relations. Because what the public sees on the Internet often makes up most of what they know about your business, managing your online image is very important.

An unhappy customer has access to the same Internet as your business does. And these days a happy customer tells 3 people, but an unhappy one can now use the Internet to tell 30,000 people! In addition to the need to maintain high customer service standards, you want to get the positive PR on your company our there on the world wide web.

As Lee Iacocca said "you can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere." Social Media is a great tool for getting your ideas "out there" to be responded to. Instead of just being at the mercy of what everyone else is saying online, our Social Media optimization services advocate using Social Media to your advantage is about creative persuasion (aka marketing) and getting across why your prospects should WANT to do business with your company. We call that "Marketing Communications" and it is how you attract the business success you want.

Here are the Top Five ways to use Social Media for beneficial PR.

1 • Instead of the happy customer just telling 3 other people, put them on your blog so the goodness can spread to all the areas your blog is broadcast to. Better yet, do a video feature on your website and blog (it does not have to be fancy, just real) so prospective customers can see and hear someone who appreciated the value of what your company offers.

2 • Blogs are great for positive PR for two basic reasons. First, you yourself write them so you control the content. (Or hire professionals like Promise Productions to ghost write your blog entries in a marketing-savvy way). Second, you can moderate any comments that outsiders make -- filtering out those who would devalue your content.


3 • Put your Press Releases on Your blog. These newsworthy announcements deserve the extra boost in awareness that your blog's (when properly setup) RSS feed can give it.

4 • Be your own publicist. A publicist is there to accentuate the positive spin on whatever their client does. Don't distort the facts, but feel free to utilize Social Media to announce donations made, how your employees volunteer at other charitable organizations, community involvement, to explain the positive motivations and intentions behind company actions, changes and so forth.

5 • Put positive PR out there on other blogs. Find complimentary blogs with common interests and leave a positive footprint there. Comments and testimonials, when done in a win-win fashion and not a self-serving, opportunistic style, can let readers of other blogs know what worked for you. Pay it forward. Think of this as a place to share your positive comments and testimonials.

For Strategic Blogging and Social Media Optimization services call Promise Productions at 972-822-3587.

Social Media Strategy For Positive Public Relations

Today, everyone gets their information online and does a reality-check against advertising hype by seeing what "the people" have to say through social media (Blogging, Facebook, Myspace, etc.)

Your customers and prospects are getting information about your company online before doing business with you. The days where there were just 12 channels on TV, a dozen radio stations in town, one newspaper per city and died with the 60s.

So isn't it time you managed your company's Image and Public Relations where your customers are -- Online and in Social Media. That is why businesses must replace their old PR approaches with ones that impact social media networks.

Public Relations is about creating a POSITIVE link between the company and the public. Public relations is all about creating and maintaining relationships. Relationships can be between an organization and the public, management and employees or business to business. Distrust of the polished News-anchor is at an all-time high. The public is now thoroughly into Social Media for trustworthy reports about your products and services.

Social media and SEO are constantly evolving, but thankfully, our team knows the latest features, strategies and networks that help distribute information, increase visibility and monitor results.

The days of constructing intricate press kits and snail mailing to editors at publications are gone. In fact, those very publication’s days are numbered. The ones that have survived are the ones that successfully transitioned their information where there readers are -- online.

With all the social media options out there, where do you start? The three main social media outlets to manage are — Bloggers, Facebook and Twitter.

Bloggers now have just about as much clout as the seasoned newspaper columnist. You cannot afford to dismiss blogging's ability to sway public opinion. As we know, customers feel better about a brand and will be more loyal if they believe the company cares about them.

NEGATIVE PR
There is a fly in Social Media's ointment: it is easier than ever to attract negative PR! It used to be that you had to have some credentials in the industry to launch a complaint that would stick.

But today there are a dozen major sites that readily accept any complaint against your company without verifying it. (RipOffReport, for example, along with a host of others) Sadly, these complaint sites make money by charging the business to "undo" the negative PR.

So while the little guy now has a voice (as he should) on the one hand, there is a scam going on and some honest businesses are getting hurt more than they should. Were this in the traditional days of PR and the mud slinging was being done in the newspaper, you could have protested under Libel, but as it is cast as "a customer's opinion" such hearsay is much harder to remove.

POSITIVE PR
This is all the more reason why now is the time for business to protect their well-earned reputation with positive PR. Stay tuned for our next blog post on utilizing Social Media for Positive PR and Optimum Search Engine Visibility.

Call the professionals at Promise Productions at 972-822-3587 for effective Internet Marketing, Web Site Visibility and Social Media Optimization.

Strategic Blogging & Social Media for Business Profits

Social Media is all the buzz today because nearly everyone online today uses it in some form or other. It is growing and developing rapidly and the excitement is warranted. Did you ever wonder if you could harness this giant wave to some degree to benefit your business? This blog post is about just that!

Social Media Grows Up
To start with, blogging and social media was not originally created as a means to advertising. (but it can be used for that purpose.... keep reading) Social Media originated as a place where the average Joe could share what he was passionate about and inasmuch as that included a product, service or company, he gave his personal "thumbs up" as it were.

The enormous mass of individuals now doing this daily, has given rise to serious attention by Web Site Developers, Search Engine Marketers, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimizers.

In fact, more progressive Marketing Communication firms such as Covenant Designs, now include Social Media and Strategic Blogging in their skillsets.

In short, Social Media means that word-of-mouth has firmly moved online. Individuals now consult the "community wisdom" of other people who have already experienced a product, company or service before they commit to action. Studies prove again and again that the opinions and messages on the Internet are the decisive determining factor over friends, coworkers and traditional authority figures. The idea is that this is a pool of unbiased individuals, and that many people "can't be wrong."

Although unassuming in concept, Social Media does something tremendous and priceless -- it bridges the TRUST GAP, thereby paving the way for prospects to sample YOUR product or service.

(for more about successfully bridging the confidence gap in your marketing, click here)

Businesses have an increasingly vested interest in promoting themselves in a cost-effective manner in this lean economy. Businesses should all be very aware and very concerned about managing their image -- their PR on the web.

You see, your official company web site is a formal presentation of your company. Your company blog, on the other hand, is where you get down on your customer's level to interact, share, and listen to THEM. Customers like that and will reward you with business for being EXTRA responsive to their needs. And we all know that no business will survive long without serving their customers where THEY live.

This does not mean that any old blog will do. It all revolves around smart strategy to setup, produce content and distribute your blog around cyberspace. That is where Promise Productions Strategic Blogging Services come in.

Social Media Strategy Tip:
Social Media can cut both ways -- customers can complain or endorse you -- fairly or unfairly, and now their opinion has a forum and a life of its own that spreads its influence. Just think, a rant on RipOffReport will hang around for 10 years even if you ended up making that customer happy later on.

It has become danerously easy for an individual to sling mud at your company for any reason and you not to even know it is hurting your sales! Obviously it pays more than ever to provide great customer service.

What a smart business does is implement a social media strategy for all kinds of GOOD PR to be spread around the Internet, and have that overwhelm any NEGATIVE PR that threatens to soil your company's image.

We market your business to make our best prospects like doing business with you and give you their thumbs up! Want to know more? Contact Promise Productions at 972-822-3587.

Why Every Business Needs a Blog and a Video

And the Market Exposure Promise Productions Can Give You


The Critical Need for Social Media for Your Business Website

Social Media has taken the Internet world by storm. A tidal wave has crashed upon all websites that exist. It may well be that the biggest change of 2008 preparing us for the new landscape of 2009 is this huge shift in the Internet: Social Media, Blogs and Video.

• Social Media: connecting, sharing, and marketing. Social Media (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) is designed to be shared, make connections between like minds and spread information, trends, and personal views better than if you had your own printing press!

• Blogging: a kind of social media, blogs are the cusp of "what's new" in products and services and announcements. Business Blogs are not personal diaries, but rather a customer-friendly way to share value and promote yourself. (learn about strategic business blogging)

• Video: Computer power, fast Internet, and today's software all make the most powerful form of communication aside from one-on-one available to your business – Video. What's more, the Internet now eagerly welcomes your business video in thousands of places. As if that was not enough, Social Media shares and spreads information in hours far beyond what all the TV Networks in the world. This gives your business video presentation ripple power!

These three giants have emerged on the scene and changed all the rules!

Last but not least, here is another significant rule-changer: Google recently announced a major shift in the way that web pages are ranked. Yahoo and MSN are already following suit. How high your business' web site appears in the list of results for your customer's search is increasingly determined by two new factors:

1• How MANY web sites link to yours and how GOOD (how reputable and popular) are those web sites.

2• Search Customization: what you get in your search results may not be what the business next door gets. Your results are now filtered and rearranged based on past internet history and personal preferences.

Since the search engines are how 85+ % of customers find the businesses they get products and services from, how does this change your Online Marketing? There are three vital opportunities for action:

1• You need to Re-SEO your web site. What worked 6 months ago is rapidly fading. You need fresh research to determine what 2009 customers are search ing for, make your site as friendly as possible using the current SEO best practices, and ADD to that landing pages for EACH significantly searched for term. That starts with smart online research and you can learn more about our research process here.

2• Start and Maintain a Business Blog: The web and especially Social Media thrives off of fresh information. Use your blog to create links back to your business web site. Use your blog to inform customers, educate them on the questions they ask as well as the questions they should be asking. Provide a place for comments and customer interaction. Spread your message with your blog's RSS feeds to other interested prospects and blogs. (get started)

3• Add Video Everywhere. Add videos to your web site to provide your information in a way that is as fun as it is informative. Add marketing videos to your Blog and to Social Media sites to reach prospects cost effectively you never could until now. Video gets shared. Video gets remembered. Video gets results.


These three actions address position your message to be received, heard and responded to. They also, when managed smartly, create a MASS of buzz about your company, creating relevant links back to your company web site and thereby boosting its visibility in search engines to your customers.

Promise Productions knows traditional and the new marketing. We provide online research to match your value presentation exactly to what your best prospects are already asking for. That translates into serious profits!

We provide strategic blogging and will even blog FOR your company so you know you are getting the most from your business blog. We know SEO and can design search engine friendly web sites from a marketing mindset. We provide cutting edge video solutions that drive your message home, educate, and motivate your audience to take specific actions. As all our promotion and visibility services are done in a strategic marketing way you can rest assured that you are not wasting your precious advertising budget.

Choose to excel in 2009 with smarter marketing communication -- call Promise Productions at 972-822-3587.  Get A Quote


For More Information:

• The Power of Integrating Your Marketing
• Strategic Blogging
• Effective Web Site Design
• Web Site Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Dallas Video Production
• Our Commitment to You

Word of Mouth Has Moved Online

If you've read our other entries, you see that Promise Productions offers multifaceted ways with the right visuals and right exposure to connect you with your best prospects for optimum growth.

Recently we've expanded our marketing communications with Strategic Blogging, and for good reasons:

1 • Strategic Blogging puts your products and services in front of a world of bloggers already interesting in learning about the categories and topics you deal in.

2 • Strategic Blogging the less formal presentation of useful information to customers increases your trust factor – paving the way for positive business relationships.

3 • Strategic Blogging is a powerful new tool for Search Engine Optimization as relevant links for key terms point back to your web site -- effectively raising its page rank.

4 • Strategic Blogging is designed to be Shared. Comments, blog directories and RSS feeds find their way to your prospects in places your website cannot access.

Now here's the 5th reason: Word Of Mouth Has Moved Online.

Everyone knows that a timely endorsement by a trusted source makes all the difference in which company your prospect chooses to get their business needs fulfilled. That is why, Social Media – of which Blogging is a key component – needs to be utilized in your company's marketing plan.

Blog readers learn about your business and other Bloggers spread it FOR you. That's right, engage a volunteer army of word-of-mouth through
(1) comments on blogs, and
(2) other bloggers responding to and point to your business' blog.

OK, that part about an "army" is an exaggeration -- UNLESS your blog is professionally promoted by a service like ours.

Your prospects want someone to speak their language. That is what they hear, trust and respond to.

Example: you want to know which of the many new video cameras to buy. Well you cannot just call up Sony itself and get a response. But all too often the local brick and mortar shop does not carry that exact model or your questions are about an upcoming model not on the shelves. The big box stores carry too many items to be an expert on any one of them. The big manufacturer does not talk to the individual customer one-on-one -- too bad for both parties.

Enter Social Media
With Social Media you can search for the inside scoop: the Blogs, a YouTube video, a enthusiast interested in the same thing, user groups, etc.. Now this arena of information provides two vital elements (and wait till we link this back to marketing!) --

(1) an individual in-the-know who will respond one-on-one to your specific needs

(2) a frank conversation without a salesy agenda getting in the way to spin the facts

OK, back to the speak-your-prospects-language part and how that turns into business GOLD...
Social Media is the new word-of-mouth with answers to just about anything. A person's physical network of friends, colleagues, associates and experts could NEVER be as big or well-informed as this.

Face it, your customers are turning in ever increasing numbers to Social Media to get a trusted answer on the product or service they want. These days, the casual word from an equal online who speaks their language is more trustworthy and powerful than the overly-expensive and overly-slick presentation from an ad agency or manufacturer.

Buyers are sick of being patronized. Today's customer is saying, "value my needs enough to tell me something REAL instead of something you think will make yourself a quick buck. When I see that you value me, I will value you enough to buy."

Blogging can do that – with honesty, integrity and strategy. The successful company in 2009's marketplace is responsive enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the individual customer because it understands that to value the customer is to value itself.

Want your quality product and service to receive its fair share of today's marketplace? Have something great that just needs the right visibility? Then call 972-822-3587 and ask how you can start a profitable business relationship with Promises Production.

Too Big To Fail

Can you believe it, there are companies out there who still embrace the notion that future security is tied to being too big to fail.

The dinosaurs were big. They failed to adapt and became, well, dinosaurs. Extinct.

If you look, you will find that ancient history and modern examples alike you will hear a similar story:

The Titanic ...
The Hindenberg ...
The USSR ...
General Motors ...

There is a common thread here: each of these was TOO big to respond fast enough to its environment.

One component of the scientific definition of life is responding to its environment. That applies to today's companies too. To fail to respond = corporate death.

Small is Beautiful
Let me say that better, RESPONSIVE is beautiful. Too many companies fail to interact with their customers and the unspoken message is that they are too important to live in their customer's worlds. I have news for you, there's no room in today's marketplace for a snooty aristocracy. The buyer has the power and wise companies seek to better serve their customers.

That goes way beyond a friendly voice at the front desk. It means communicating in the language of your best prospects in a marketing-savvy way. It means keeping your brand from becoming a dinosaur. It means responding to cost-effective Internet visibility strategies.

At Promise Productions, we have multiple strategies for re-engaging with your customers so they will WANT to engage with you. Call 972-822-3587 to learn more.

The New Language of Marketing 2.0

Why Your Business should utilize Social Media

Today's economy makes being up-to-date paramount. It makes responsiveness paramount. The companies that are failing today are doing so in part because they are too slow and bulky to adapt to what today's market and today's customer wants.

Whereas the company website tends to be more static, blogs are designed to be dynamic -- the latest scoop on what's new. Think of it like this:

• Your Web site makes a formal presentation of your product or service

• Your Blog is like they Q and A session after the presentation

Although the formal presentation is needed, it is not interactive in the way a blog can be. In reality, the Q and A portion is a vital way for your prospects learn more, get their questions and specific interests address and thereby -- get INVOLVED with your business.

Strategically used, a blog can promote your company's recent advancements, achievements, accomplishments and information in a way that is both less-formal and dynamic!

How Your Blog Can Make Marketing Proactive

(1) Blogs can receive immediate responses from your trade peers or prospects. Receiving both complaints and praise quickly can fine tune your sales cycle or your production cycle. Think of it like eavesdropping in on the water cooler discussion to know what people are really thinking.

Social Media is a new form of marketing communications to add to the mix.

In order to blog strategically, you need a marketing goal. Is your goal:
> to demonstrate customer responsiveness?
> to promote your website's page rank in Google and Yahoo?
> to inform on the latest and keep the company and your prospects aligned on the same page?

(2) Blogging allows you to be more personal. That creates a connectedness between any company and its clients. In a day of rare customer loyalty, blogging puts a more personal face on business for increased trust and repeat business. How important is that!

Marcus answers the top questions on utilizing Social Media for Marketing:

Q: What are the glaring No No's of a company blog?

(1) Not responding to comments. This undermines the very relatedness that your blog could have harnessed.

(2) Being inconsistent on posting. Blogs thrive on current information. Companies tend to get too wrapped up in the day-to-day and forget to blog, or worse, don't blog from a marketing context and the blog becomes aimless and haphazard.

Q: What is the easiest way to avoid those errors without investing a lot of precious time?

We encourage our clients to utilize a professional blogging service. After all, you want professional results don't you? Outsourcing your blog to Covenant Designs - a Marketing Communications firm - ensures that each blog entry serves your marketing goals. You get 4 blog entries per month, professionally written, like clockwork. (click here for more details on how this works)

You want your company blog to present your products and services in an interesting light. Take that one step further -- you want your blog to specifically revolve around the marketing terms and phrases that your customers are thinking about when they need products and services like yours. That way you are a natural fit to do business with.

Our marketing-savvy blog-for-you service does exactly that.

Q: What is the role of Social Media in The New Marketing?

Social Media (Blogging, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, etc.) is here to stay. Selling is a conversation and blogs foster a no-pressure way to converse about products, services and the ideas behind them. I am glad you asked about Social Media's growing role because this gets to the heart of the matter:

Today the two keys to the steady inflow of new clients and profits to most any company are TRUST and AWARENESS.

Social Media, and blogging in particular, provides the keys to unlock these treasure chests. Regarding Trust: the public has been fooled too many times by an overly-slick presentation that is short on delivery. Just because some company pays an obscene amount of money to an advertising agency to make black look like white does not mean it is so.

Your prospects need to know you are real. When done the right way, blogging demonstrates authenticity. And that makes your information have the right impact.

Regarding Awareness: it is the nature of blogs to be shared. Blogs are like open letters; they allow you to promote what you are passionate about and stand for. Like any good marketing communication, they spread because they contain value. Blogs are built to spread -- they are easily shared by other blogs, they can be searched in blog directories, they are increasingly found in the Internet Search Engines.

Social Media is a vital tool today because of the awareness it can generate. Your blog can have an RSS feed that makes distributing your message all the easier. All this and more with a professional blog, without the massive expenses of traditional media. What's not to like!

These and other rapidly-growing ways to promote your company blog become ways to promote the company itself. In truth, this is the most expanding and exciting aspect of social media... and it is rapidly overtaking even word-of-mouth in its effectiveness.

CONCLUSION

Social Media is a powerful new sales channel. We don't blog for the sake of blogging. At Covenant Designs, we believe in blogging to serve your prospects, and thereby serve yourself. Effective blogging is about understanding your prospects and how you can immerse your company into their conversation.

We blog to foster trust and awareness in your company. Marketing is about communicating your features and benefits. Communication is about listening, expressing and understanding. Marketing Communications is about helping your ideal customer WANT to do business with you.

NEXT ACTION

Start A Business Relationship with Promise Productions: call 972-822-3587.

Outsource Your Blogging to Promise Productions: click here.

Learn About Covenant Designs Marketing Communications:
> Our Commitment To You
> Our Creative Process
> Our Marketing Communications Approach