ROI and Twitter

The question everyone asks is how do I use Twitter to increase my ROI and make money?  The great news is that the social media world is very new and your innovative ideas can work for you.  Read on to see what we know so far.

The simplest thing to do is share your offers.  Give people something of value that shows that you are a leader in your industry. Something as simple as a whitepaper that may help your potential future customer is a great idea.

Another great indirect way to generate leads is to create a blog and tweet links to all of your posts.  This is a wonderful way to direct people to your blog and create new relationships.

Integrating hashtags into your marketing campaign is a great way to get the word out about a product or service.  Follow the trending topics and see if you can align your band with that topic.   That way you can tweet to anyone that is looking for tweets for that hashtag.

Creating a landing page is the ideal way to measure leads from Twitter.  In order to track where the leads are coming from (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), you'll need to find marketing software that will do that for you. 

I personally use bitly.com to shorten my links to fit within the 140 characters and measure how many clicks my links get.  This is not as thorough as the paid marketing software programs, but it's a good start.  Also, TwitterCounter allows you to see your follower growth over time.

At the end of the day, social media is all about engagement.  Almost everything I read and have seen stresses great content and engagement.  Build trust with by showing that you are the leader in your industry and the ROI will follow.  Good luck! 

Men are from Google+, women are from Pinterest

Everyone has questions about Google+.  Some people love it, some people hate it, and other don’t even want to bother with it.  So what is a social media person to do?

There are many great features to Google+.  One of the coolest features is the "Hangouts" feature where you can facilitate group video chat.   Another interesting fact about Google+ is that it is predominately male, as opposed to Pinterest, which is predominately female.  So if you are a marketer who wants to connect with males, Google+ is a great site to understand. 

I will be attending a 2 day training next week called Google+ photographer’s conference in order to better understand how one can utilize Google+.  Once I attend the conference, I will share with you all the tips and tricks that I pick up.

Here’s a little more about the conference I’m attending:

Scott Kelby is bringing Google+ photographers together for a history making conference to help photographers refine their photography skills, grow their online brand, and get the most out of Google+.

This conference brings together some of the biggest photographers on Google+, some of the best instructors of photography and some of the geniuses of social media. You’ll learn from these a-list instructors during two jam-packed days of photo walks, live photo shoots, one-on-one portfolio reviews, panel discussions and photography workshops.

Is your boss watching you?

I have been reading many articles about how more and more potential employers are looking on social networking sites to recruit for available positions.  The Society for Human Resource Management released a study which revealed that more than half of companies are using social networking sites to recruit. 

So is this good or bad news? Well, in my opinion, it depends on how you are branding yourself.  If you are active on sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and have strategically represented yourself in a way where potential employers would be impressed by what they see, then that is good news. 

The bad news? That comes when you don’t take control of your social presence.  If you have public photos, comments, updates, etc. that you would not want an employer to see, learn the privacy settings on the social networking sites that you use.  Whenever posting something publically ask yourself “would I hire a person who posts similar posts?” 

It is also a good idea to Google yourself.  Be sure to look past the first page of Google search to see what else comes up.  You could be surprised (and not all surprises are good).

In conclusion, be smart and protect yourself.  You have seen many ads for safe sex, maybe it’s time to practice safe net.

Real Simple is the first print publication to reach 100,000 followers. So what? Why should I care?

This past week, I read an interesting article in AdAge about how Real Simple became the first print publication to reach 100,000 followers on Pinterest.

Now, if you don’t know what Pinterest is, you should.  Pinterest a pinboard-style social photo sharing website which allows users to create and manage  images  such as hobbies and interests.  Ok, with that said, why should you care?

First of all, in January of this year, comScore reported the site had 11.7 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark.  What makes this site even more interesting to marketers is that most of the users are female.

If you are attempting to convey your message to females, you should get on to Pinterest and start pinning.  You can pin photos and videos that not only represent your brand, but that you find of interest that align with your brand. 

If you’re already using Facebook or Twitter, don’t stop.  Pinterest is  an additional way to use visuals to reach and engage your audience.  RealSimple.com General Manager Shannon King characterizes Pinterest as "bite-sized, visual and digestible."  I completely agree.

9 Tips: Boost Your Business With Pinterest

I just finished reading a simple article on Inc.com as to how to boost your business with Pinterest.  I love Pinterest and thought I would share this article.  My favorite tip is to launch a daily pin theme, check it out:

6. Launch a daily pin theme
Sevenly has created a daily pin to promote its brand. The idea is to come up with a catchy slogan that is tied to the organization's charity work and memorable enough so that the images get re-pinned. The daily themed pins usually lead to repeat visitors. Sevenly also posts a weekly custom-designed t-shirt, which is often re-pinned by other Pinterest users. Bonus: They come back often looking for the new one.

Here is the link to the full article:  http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/9-tips-boost-your-business-pinterest.html

Social Media marketing Industry Report 2012

 Hi Everyone,

I just read the report below regarding industry trends and found some of the numbers to be very interesting.  Although it is not surprising, Google+ ranked high on the social networking site that most marketers want to learn more about. That is one of the networks I definitely will be digging deep in to this year. 

YouTube is another giant that marketers will give attention to this year.  This is again not a surprise given the power video can have in relaying one's message.

There are also some interesting numbers related to time spent per week on SM marketing that are worth checking out.  

Check out the link below and let me know your thoughts.  Is there anything that surprised you in the report or were all the findings predictable?

 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2012.pdf?9d7bd4

A Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics 5

 Here is an article about the latest version of Google Analytics.  I hope you find this helpful!

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/google-analytics-5/

Corporate Social Media Predictions for 2012

I recently stumbled upon an article that Useful Social Media wrote about what corporations think will occur in  social media this year.

I cut and pasted the article below (I downloaded the PDF from their site, sorry I don't have the link), but here are some points I thought were the most interesting:

Walgreens predicts that Get Glue will be in the top 3 of Social Media sites.

Gamification is going to be vital in the overall social media plan. 

Companies will start integrating Social analytics in their business plan.

Enjoy!

We here at Useful Social Media are always looking for the latest corporate
social media best practices. That is why we have recently conducted a survey
of social media corporate practitioners to create our ‘top 10 social media
predications for 2012’.

We often see Social Media predictions from the “pros” or “gurus” in the social
media space, yet it’s rare to hear from corporate practitioners who are on the
front lines of corporate social media daily. Being that 60% of large corporations
in the US have at least one employee working exclusively on social media, we
wanted to create a platform for these corporates to share their future outlook.

eBay Sudha Jamthe Social Media Specialist, Social Commerce
Social data and Analytics will offer business intelligence: Businesses will begin to
appreciate social data better. I think companies will begin to see the value of social
analytics and begin integrating it with business data. There will be hiring in social metrics
jobs and metrics will become an integral part of marketing jobs.

Mercedes-Benz Melissa Newell Social Media Specialist
2012 will be the year for brands to go beyond the basic campaign and determine how
social media not only adds value to their company, but how it adds value for their
customers. Communication in social channels allow customers to build stronger emotional
connections with brands. Social media will start to be the focus of the customer journey
and move people up the fan ladder, from being a casual follower to a loyal customer.

24 Hour Fitness Franck Ardourel Senior Director of Online Marketing
The CONSUMER 3.0 is entitled to technology, and “gamification” will become an important
component of a new social media platform to entertain consumers. Additionally, The
SMARTPHONE and SOCIAL MEDIA will be the center of gravity of a consumer’s digital life

Ring Central Baochi Nguyen Vice President Social Media & Community
Service-oriented businesses across various industries will increasingly evaluate and
budget for social CRM platforms as the volume of customer service communications
increases through social media channels. Many of these organizations have reached an
inflection point in customer data management and need to integrate the customer cases
and interactions from social channels into a centralized CRM system.

Walgreens Adam Kmiec Head of Social Media
The 3 social platforms I’m doubling down on are Get Glue, Pinterest and Google+. They
have the right intersection of features, natural consumer behavior, and simplicity to
generate scale and enterprise adoption.

Adobe Maria Poveromo Director of Social Media
Social media is maturing – it’s no longer the awkward teenager it once was…it now
needs to prove its value (ie: get a job) and drive business forward. I think we’ll see the
role of content becoming increasingly important this year. As well as the importance of
influencers (how to court and nurture). So if last year was the year of ROI (although this
continues to be important) 2012 is the year for content and influencers.

AVG Technologies Jill Hunley Vice President of Global Social Media
and Online Engagement
Social media has forever changed the landscape of marketing. Consumer decisionmaking
is earned through recommendations from loyalists / advocates of the brand. In
2012 I believe we will see an even more dramatic shift from traditional marketing methods
to advocacy-driven methods through social referrals and recommendations.
For corporate social media case studies and best
practice, head to www.usefulsocialmedia.com
and follow us on Twitter at @usefulsocial

Thomson Reuters Jen McClure Director Social Media
The term “social business” will become more ubiquitous as organizations of all types and
sizes start to think of social technologies more strategically as business tools, not just
marketing channels. And then it will eventually become a meaningless phrase as we come
to realize that all business is, at its core, social

Boeing Todd Blecher Communications/Social Media Director
The one thing I would like to see in 2012 is organizations more fully integrating content
efforts in marketing, sales, public relations, public affairs, and community relations. Those
functions directly impact the organization’s most important asset, its reputation. If those
entities come together to develop content that truly resonates with various communities,
I believe the organization would realize tremendous benefits.

Cars.com Sharon Knitter Senior Director of Mobile
I think one of the biggest trends will be a further segmentation of Social. Is it about
connecting with Friends, is it about creating inspiration boards and filing things you find
on the web (such as with Pinterest), is it about writing reviews about the products you love
(and the ones you don’t love)? I think it will be interesting to see if people really want one
site that does it all.