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I have enough friends… go make me money!

September 13, 2011

Tags: facebook, Social Media, Strategy, Twitter
Categories: Social Media, Social Networking, Strategy

Hands of businessmen holding money So you have followers and friends. Congratulations. But that’s only half the battle.

Now you have to engage your followers to take action and turn those 1,500 fans into 1,500 repeat customers.

Everyone says “engage,” but what does that actually mean? It means give someone a reason to act on your Facebook post.

Give them a reason to respond — usually it’s because they will get your feedback or feedback from fellow Facebook users.

Incentive goes a long way online.

Engage also means give people a reason to come back and don’t give them a reason to not come back.

Ever had a non-responsive run-of-the-mill waiter at a restaurant or bad food at a so-called great restaurant? How many times did you go back? The same is true for social media. If you give someone a great experience or at least are trying to give them an experience — heck if you even show them you’re paying attention, you’re ahead of most.

And remember, like you do with your current customers, treat your online friends or fans like actual people and not just their representation in zeros and ones — aka digital code.

While traditional coupons work, think of social media as a way to get to the forefront of your customer’s their mind and stay there.

Fast food chains don’t have to advertise to let you know they’re out there, part of why they advertise is to keep their brand and associated products, words, etc. in your head so when you get hungry you associate that feeling with their food.

Social media can work like that as well.

Just make sure you’re being yourself so your Facebook posts don’t come across as fake and contrived.

Want to Know More about Albany Marketing firm Burst Marketing?
Visit us at www.burstmarketing.net

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Misleading Social Media Advice

April 6, 2011

Tags: advice, marketers, Social Media
Categories: Social Media

These days, marketers are scrambling to be recognized as social media experts. They’re all giving out free advice on the subject, but it isn’t necessarily the best advice. Here are three pieces of advice you’ve probably heard, but should never, ever follow.

Inflate your stats. Social media should be more about sales and conversion rates than the number of people you “know” online. Your goal in using social media should be to drive traffic to your website. Use your stats to track your activities and conversion over time, but don’t expect your stats to encourage people to engage in your social media activities or calls to action.

Just jump in. Some suggest building your social media presence by just blindly beginning your activities. But, like any other marketing initiative, you need a plan. Examine the platforms you want to use so you’ll become familiar with the lingo and practices. Map out your goals for using social media, and then think of the best tactics to encourage conversion.

Post as much as possible. Don’t post everything that comes into your mind. Create messages that are relevant to your business. Participating less frequently with bigger impact information will create a higher ROI. Your readers won’t be as likely to listen to your important messages if you bombard them with useless, extraneous tidbits.

As we’ve mentioned, use social media as you would any other marketing tool. Approach its planning and use the same way you would an advertising or public relations campaign. Before you begin, know how to engage, utilize and maximize your efforts, and don’t inundate your readers or followers with items that won’t drive people to you website.

Want to Know More about Albany Marketing firm Burst Marketing?
Visit us at www.burstmarketing.net

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Babies strike it viral – just dumn luck?…Plus building your email list

April 4, 2011

Tags: email list, marketing tactics, Social Media, viral video
Categories: Marketing ROI, Social Media, Strategy, media mix

Last Tuesday, I heard some serious baby babble coming from the office next door. My colleague Jennifer was hysterical watching these twin babies having a “conversation.” In case you haven’t see the vid, it was absolutely a conversation.

The view counter read something over 7,000 views – plenty popular, right? In the next two days it got national play on GMA and was video of the day somewhere else. As of this morning the twins had a worldwide audience…with over 13 million views and counting.

Striking it viral is like catching lighting in a bottle. Like hitting Lotto. And there ain’t no strategy for winning the lottery.

It’s luck. Not a strategy.

For all those out there who are convinced they’ve got the approach to go viral. Who have completely bought into the thought that social media is a cheap, simple way to market your business – I’d like to offer a few simple words of discouragement:

No it’s not.

It’s not easy. It’s not cheap. (if your time is money)

Over the last year or so it seemed every Capital Region chamber, business and civic organization has had a presentation on Social Media marketing. They showed up in droves.

Was it interesting? Yeah. Have you built your list of friends and Linkedin contacts? Probably.

But, have you made any money with it?

I’d argue that the only thing that’s gone viral is social media itself. Facebook has a zillion members and is making money hand over fist. Are you?

Look, using social media as part of a well conceived, overall marketing strategy can make sense. Just don’t go thinking that every new friend you add brings you closer to hitting the lottery.

Got an opinion? Share it with us.

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Marketing chart of the week – building your email list

Email marketing strategies have matured and are no longer strictly about increasing the number of subscribers. Today, the priority lies in building a quality list of names.

A survey of more than 1,100 marketers to provided insight into the level of effectiveness of each list growth tactic used by their organization. Here are the results:

Chart - email list building

These results align well with content marketing strategies. Tactics that deliver value to the customer such as purchased products, downloaded material and webinars develop trusted relationships which enable customers to share email addresses and contact information. For this reason, company blogs and published articles have become an excellent method of capturing email addresses.

Expect to see growth in mobile capture in the coming year as marketers rank the effectiveness positively and the difficulty low.

Want to Know More about Albany Marketing firm Burst Marketing?
Visit us at www.burstmarketing.net

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Cool Facebook Facts

March 27, 2011

Tags: facebook, Social Media
Categories: Strategy

Facebook continues to fascinate. So we thought it wold be cool to share some of the facts we recently picked up on their press pages:

facebook_logo-300x300

People on Facebook

More than 500 million active users
50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
Average user has 130 friends
People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Activity on Facebook

There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.

Global Reach

More than 70 translations available on the site
About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application

Platform

Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites

Mobile

There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users
There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

Check out Burst Marketing on Facebook.

Want to Know More about Albany Marketing firm Burst Marketing?
Visit us at www.burstmarketing.net

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Social Media – How to Maximize Your Efforts

November 3, 2010

Tags: Blogs, marketing strategy, Social Media
Categories: Blogs, Social Media, Social Networking

The best social media sites differ for each company. You will need to find where your audience spends its time online and create a strategy that targets it. A good bet is using a combination of a blog, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Your demographic probably uses at least one of these platforms. They are the most popular social media platforms and are user friendly. Blogs in particular have a long “shelf life” on the Internet and can be archived and found through search engines.

Next, consider creating a social media policy or plan. Once you’ve identified the platforms, assess how much time you can devote to using them. If you only have 15 minutes a day, Twitter is probably your best option for keeping customers informed of news and updates. 30 minutes can allow for Facebook updates, such as pictures of events and products. If you have more than 30 minutes, consider crafting a blog post with interesting information about your company or helpful hints and techniques for your customers. You can create articles from your blog posts and add them to article submission sites to spread the word on your company beyond your followers and customers. Even one blog post a week can work wonders.

Here are some quick tips on making the most of your time:

It’s not about who posts the most. It’s about who stands out. Find a niche or an angle that makes you unique so you become a leading knowledge source.
Take five minutes to answer questions via social media. You will engage followers and potential customers, and show you care about questions and feedback.
Be sure all of your social media platforms work together. Keep your messages consistent and link back and forth between platforms. You’ll best maximize your time this way.

Keep these time-saving techniques in mind and use them to revamp your current social media actions.

Want to Know More about Albany Marketing firm Burst Marketing?
Visit us at www.burstmarketing.net

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Help: There’s an Emergency on Facebook!

September 13, 2009

Tags: avatar, communication, facebook, relationships, Social Media
Categories: Social Media

Last week two girls, ages 10 and 12, fell down a storm drain/sewer in Australia. They weren’t seriously hurt. (link to story)

But they were without any means to climb out and desperately needed help. Fortunately, one of the girls had a working cell phone with plenty of bars.

So, within minutes she pulled out her phone and…updated her status on Facebook. Her friends then called 000 (the Australian equivalent of 911) and help arrived soon thereafter.

You either admire the girls’ quick thinking and resourcefulness or you are recoiling in horror. If you’re like me – you’re simply left slack jawed.

Younger ‘Millennial’s’ have so adopted social media as a means to carry on regular dialogue with their friends that, at least in this case, they trust Facebook over calling 911 in a dire emergency.

The older you get of course, the more preposterous it seems.

But is it really?

Facebook is now beyond 250 million members and skyrocketing globally. Together with other social media, it is a standard mode of communication. Individuals, businesses, and government officials exploit the platform – finding new ways to use it every day.

Over the last 9 months, the number of users in the USA has grown 101%. But that’s nothing to Taiwan’s 1899%, the Philippines’ 1136% or Indonesia’s 879%.

The upside? Worldwide personal connectivity and the emergence of the true world marketplace. Going where no one has gone before.

The downside? It is growing as a standard of personal communication, taking the place of face to face and even voice to voice communication. Relationships are increasingly bound by skin deep connections rather than shared life experience.

In the virtual world of online gaming, Avatars ARE you in the community. They are not real – rather they are the perception you wish others to have of you in this alternate ‘reality.’

Is Social Media becoming an Avatar for personal relationships? A stand in for true friendship and professional bonds?

We may not like the answers to these questions, but we better figure out how to deal with their impact on our daily personal and professional lives. And take action.

Welcome to the continued evolution of society.

Posted by: Steve Banis

Want to Know More about Albany Marketing firm Burst Marketing?
Visit us at www.burstmarketing.net

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Start Slow To Become An Overnight Success

April 12, 2009

Tags: albany blogs, albany business development, albany leads, Albany marketing, Social Media
Categories: Brand/Reputation, Business Development, Customer Focus, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Management, Marketing Blueprint, Marketing ROI, Strategy

Recently, I’ve been running into some business owners who are starting to ask some really good questions.

There is opportunity now. But where? With whom?

I need to hang onto my customers What’s the best tack to take?

I’m determined to get aggressive. Where’s my best bang for my buck?

Last year’s questions might have been about branding, advertising, or how to go “viral”. Many wanted to talk about that. And agencies are only too happy to oblige as these are the highest margin products and services they sell.

Today it’s different. It will stay different.

The right questions to ask today are who, what, and what’s the return on that? For the most part, that means starting with the few and working outward.

Back on April 2nd, Seth Godin wrote a little about this approach. Begin with 10 utterly loyal clients, friends, associates, etc. and work from there. Start slowly and let it build.

Depending on your situation, the place to start is with your team, moving onto your key customers, and then finally to dedicated FOOs (friends of the organization).

Let your team in on the secret…you need them. They need you. You both have roles to play. Yours is to lead – provide vision, direction, tools, and resources. Theirs is to perform their jobs with gusto. Relate to customers better than ever. Spread the word with more sincerity and urgency. Share ideas.

Strength in numbers

Same with your customers. Not only do you want to keep your important customers happy, you also need them to know that you need their help to succeed with other customers as well. Testimonials, invitations to present within their circle of influence, and asking for their ideas is not only helpful, it can also be flattering.

FOOs can also be a fountain of good ideas. They have exposure to other industries, competitors, and can help you get a handle on things that might be working for others. Also, because they typically have no axe to grind, any referrals from them, even those that may not lead directly to business, may lead to something more concrete.

Bottom line? Yes, there is opportunity now. Yes, there are customers out there up for grabs. Most of the best ones seem to be laying low.

Now’s not the time for a big splash. Now’s the time to throw a bunch of pebbles into the water and make many little ripples. In time they’ll all connect to make a big wave.

Posted by: Steve Banis

Want to Know More about Albany Marketing firm Burst Marketing?
Visit us at www.burstmarketing.net

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It’s luck. Not a strategy.

No it’s not.

Marketing chart of the week – building your email list

But is it really?

‘it’s not how you say it, it’s what you say.’

Today it’s different. It will stay different.

Strength in numbers