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2010 Social Media Trends

Is Your Social Media Campaign Segmented?

photo via here::special thanx

Most companies would not implement the same marketing campaign to a 25-year old as they would to a 70 year old.  So why aren't companies exercising the same diligence when implementing a social media marketing campaign?

It can be said that one reason most company's marketing campaigns fail is because they segment customers by the age demographic instead of generation. Have you ever purchased media by the demo age 25-54 or 50 plus? Both of these demographics consist of three distinct generations ( Boomer, Generation X and the Echo Boomer) all of whom like different products and services and who are motivated to purchase for very different reasons.

Just like all of your company's marketing strategies, your social media marketing strategies should  provide a generational breakdown of your customer database as well as an analysis of your overall target markets. This process yields a solid plan of action by defining who your market is, how best to reach them, and how to craft a message specifically designed to increase conversions for each specific generation.  Understanding how generations, not just demographics, respond will assist you in successfully market the same product or service simultaneously to different generations (without alienating any one generation), by appealing to their mindset.


How to make it happen?  Get involved with your community.  Be transparent about your business/brand.  Learn all that you can about their business/brand. Learn what makes their generations unique, study their mindsets, and the influence they have on each other.

 Rock solid target market research has always proven to yield the information needed to effectively target generational mindsets and get you on the road to a successful social media campaign.

How much does generational research play into your company's marketing/advertising campaign?
Let's talk.

Does Your Landing Page Have Curb Appeal?

(pic via here::special thanx)

Visitors are great, but leads are better.  An effective landing page is essential to changing your 'Followers' to leads/clients.   It is the first point of contact for your potential clients.  Is your page's content a logical extension of the advertisement or link that initially brought potential clients to you site?  Is the page optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases (for indexing by search engines) ?  Does your page allow for interactions that a useful and pleasant experience for potential/actual clients?  Is it structured to appeal to your target audiences?


Information on your landing page should be relevant to the visitor.  If your landing page functions as reference type of page, then your marketing goals is to focus on lead generation and interaction with the visitor.  Effective landing pages meet the objective of the publisher with its success being measured by the revenue value of the advertising that is displayed on them.

Trying to persuade your visitor to respond and/or complete a transaction?  The goal of this type of landing page, referred to as transactional, is being the immediate or eventual sale of your product and/or service. 
If information is to be captured, the page will usually withhold information until some minimal amount of visitor information is provided, typically an email address and perhaps a name and telephone number as well – enough to "capture the lead" and add the prospect to a mailing list..


The overall goal of your landing page is to improve the percentage of visitors to your website that become sales leads and customers .  Frankly, to convert more visitors into sales leads or better still - clients.

Social Media Trip Ups

photo via here::special thanx

We've talked about some things that you have learned about your business presence on social media platforms.  With lots of  great "to do's",  it begs to ask, is there anything off limits?  Well, yea!  Here are some common mistakes to avoid when building your social media presence.  Oh. Yes.  These mistakes have been made by others, so they are - tried and true.

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  Using the same strategy on every site:: Every social networking site is different in its purpose and ultimately in how you should use it to promote your business brand. Because of these differences, you should  create a different strategy for each site you decide to engage in.  Your strategy should be customized to that each site’s specific rules and code of conduct.  Running a one-size-fits-all approach will limit your ability to be successful anywhere.
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  Fake Friending/Following/Linking:: aka Social Media Dilution.  You are selective and discreet in who you allow into your professional network.  In the best case scenerio of an effective networking event, there are a select number of contacts that do (and should) leave the event with your contact information.  This same practice should be exercised on the social media sites. Rock solid, quality relationships take precedent over meaningless accumulation of sheer quantity. Seek out the people who will be most vocal about you- those are your ambassadors. Then, reciprocity becomes the order for the day. Help them. Connect with them. Build real relationships. Put them in front of individuals/businesses/situations that will be advantageous to their business brand. This is how social media becomes powerful.  The reality of fake Friending/Following/Linking aren’t going to click your links, visit your site, purchase your products, or sing your business/brand praises. They actually won’t do anything for you. Be choosy with your online relationships.  It's your business.
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  Creating profiles everywhere:: claiming your username for the purpose of instantly securing your brand across social media sites is a definite 'do'.  Setting up a profile account on every social media community is a marketing strategy faux pas, not to mention, a total waste of your time.  Your business/brand presence should be front and center in the arenas where your users spend their time and energy, where they’re interacting most, and where your business brand will be most embraced.  Your visibility on these target sites will help to focus your efforts.
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  Not completing your profile::  a completed profile says that you are an active member of the community who is committed and genuinely become part of that network. A completed profile helps you attract like-minded businesses/members and gain some easy trust points- by letting those in the network that you are here to stay.  Tell and show people who you are. Yes, social media is where your customers are, but you have to give them a reason to want to engage with you. Put yourself out there in order to benefit from real conversations down the road.
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  Selling to everyone, immediately:: people are more likely to purchase from those that they know and trust.  If you immediately arrive into a social media community and start selling, no one is going to listen. You’re going to be ruled a spammer and you’ll not only receive a negative response, but you run the risk of permanently damaging your brand. Although direct marketing in social media communities is not impossible, to do so means that you have taken the time to learn about the community, to 'meet' the people and only offer your products/services when it makes sense.Most people do not want to be sold to.  Take the time to build trusting, reciprocal relationships.
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  Not measuring it:: before you get into social media, know why you’re there and what you plan to get out of it. What are you looking for? Increased buzz over a product? Better brand awareness? Blog subscribers? Traffic? How are you going to measure these goals? Whatever your metrics are, make sure you’ve identified them before you throw money into programs you’re not tracking.

These are just a few that I've seen.  What faux pas have you seen?  Let's talk about it....

   

Is it Working?

You've been finding 'friends' on Facebook, 'connecting' on LinkedIn and amassing 'followers' on your Blog.  Your 'tweets' have reached the four digit amount, taking backseat only to the five digit 'follower' list.

You've optimized up the ying-yang!: your profile, your labels, your backlinks, your comments....  And somewhere in the back of the forefront of your brain, you keep thinking, "When am I going to know that all of this is working"?

When you're questioning if all of this 'engaging' is paying off,  this is your 'success' barometer.    

Facebook can Help My NonProfit

As established in this post, the success of, both, nonprofits and social media marketing is rooted in an active community, and is consumer driven-production is very low.  Too often businesses equate effective use of social media marketing as setting up a Facebook page and other social media platforms and using them to 'talk' to each other.  Just as your other marketing plans utilize the basic marketing methodology-- business objective, audience, strategy, metric for measurement and the use of tactical methods.
Let's look at the use of some of these basic elements as they relate to the social media platform Facebook.

One of the beauties that Nonprofits have for using Facebook as a marketing tool is their unwavering support of willing, interested and actively involved community.  Nonprofits have solid contact information on which to build and have the capability to create, both, content and experiences that your audience finds talk worthy.  Being able to rely upon this audience to take an active interest and participation is the secret for Facebook success.

Establish your objective for your presence on Facebook.  Are you using it as an outreach to members (via use of  Facebook Group feature)?  Trying to reach the audience who are not yet Facebook users (use Facebook Business Pages - these pages can be viewed by those without a Facebook account)?  Facebook Groups are also useful in organizing community members; as well as, facilitating internal conversations.

Be certain to implement a measurement of goal success.  Are you looking to grow your group, increase conversations among community members and/or increase traffic to another site?  Be certain to have clearcut, measureable goals.

Refrain from the tempting practice of using Facebook as a direct response mechanism.  Facebook, like other social media platforms, should not be used as forums for direct advertising.  General rule of thumb with marketing to those who 'FAN' you on Facebook is that any marketing message sent to them should be sent through the Facebook inbox.  Contact with Facebook 'Fans' via email or other such avenues should be used when your organization has established a trust with that Fan.  At that point the Fan will usually request to be contacted by some other means (ie, phone, email, direct mail).

With society's shrinking attention span, be sure that your Facebook content is relevant, timely and 'digestible'.

One of the many reasons that Facebook is so useful is, it 'alerts' your community when you have made 'status' changes.  Take advantage of this feature.  Publicize new members (aka Fans) and relationships (ie, groups that your organization is actively following).  Post photos relevant to any campaigns that you may be airing.  Create a 'RSVP' page for your organizations events.  Useful information will be shared, not only with those in your 'community' but also with any/every one that you have authorized to view your Facebook page.

As you become increasingly familiar and comfortable with using Facebook for your Nonprofit, be certain that all of the group pages, fan pages and applications are interlinked.  Prominent navigation back to your main Facebook page reassures that your organization's brand message remains front and center of your audience.

How do you use Facebook for your business/organization?  What Facebook strategies have been successful for your business?  Let's talk about it...