Social Media continues to rise in popularity and is an important part of a business strategy today. Many companies have experienced growth as a result of utilizing social media outlets effectively. Many company’s ask why should I blog ? Why should we utilize Facebook ? Why Twitter?. The answer is very simple, the top 4 applications that are found via the search engine Google are :

1. Company Blog
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. Linkedin
5. You Tube

This is one of the many reasons why it is absolutely beneficial to take advantage of these networks.

The most important aspect of these media outlets is for companies to understand that EACH platform has a separate strategy. Is it a best practice for a company to update their blog, facebook and twitter with all of the same information ? The answer is NO. There must be a strategy in place for each platform. If a company shared the same information on each platform there would be no purpose for a client or customer to do visit a company’s Facebook Fan page and twitter and blog. With all the information being the same, there would be no call to action driving the reader to each of these locations. One thing we do want to get across is that you do want all the information to be relevent to each other. Have the same overall message but you want to differentiate.

The purpose of a company blog is similar to Facebook in terms of interaction. You want to develop and create a following, a readership in which your readers respond to your posts and become engaged in your topics. Many good and credible blogs are “Mommybloggers“, companies have hired them for : product trials, product feedback and just their overall opinion. These Mommybloggers have created great relationships and popular followings. They have build trust and are very credible within their spheres.

The purpose of Facebook is to become interactive with your clients or customers. Have them leave a testimonial on your Fan page. If you have a Fan page that is increasingly interactive with your clients or customers then you know you are doing a good job. You also want to make sure you are bringing in relevant content and information from outside sources. Using the Link button is the correct way to do this. It adds credibility to your page.

The purpose of Twitter is to provide 140 character information shout outs. It is also used find people within your sphere, follow them and learn from them and in turn they will follow you.

In a nut shell, the purpose of social media is to become interactive and share information with your potential clients and customers. Just remember that it is very important to develop a 30,60,90 day marketing plan for each platform. Yes, they are simple application to use, but also require time and a successful strategy.

Below are some of the most common mistakes that businesses and people make when it comes to social media networking. Try to avoid all of these.

1. Setting up a blog, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter page and then not providing updates. Would you send out a blank newsletter to your customers ??

2. Thinking I understand social media and I can just do it myself. It may be more cost-effective or time-effective to delegate certain social media responsibilities to a company that specializes in it or for someone else to handle.

3. Forgetting that social media is about creating interaction with your clients or customers, not just about sending out information.

4. Clicking onto a site for “business” and then getting distracted by other information or friend updates.

5. Spending too much time on sites you enjoy and not fully evaluating whether that particular site is the most effective one for your time and efforts.

So many companies and products are reviewed online by opinions of their customers. Today, more than ever people are posting their personal opinions. They are posting them – Positive and Negative.  Services like Yelp make it easy for people to review personal experiences of other customers.  Yelp has shifted the way testimonials are viewed. They are right in front of you, at the click of a mouse. You can read whether or not a restaurant has excellent, good or bad service and the quality of their food.  You can even get a full understanding of a restaurants atmosphere just by reading the reviews posted by other people that have been there.

If you are planning a vacation, Trip Advisor is a company that allows all reviews to be posted right on the site.  If you want to understand what a hotel is like in Venice or if a hotel has a view of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, just click on Trip Advisor. They will let you know.  They even reveal the date and time of the most recent posts so that you can see if it is out dated.  I recently went on a trip to St. Thomas and I reviewed two hotels that I was debating on staying at.  I ended up picking the Ritz Carlton based on reward points, etc. but my point here is that the reviews were right on target.  They even instructed me which side of the hotel had the best view of the ocean, which side had be renovated and what restaurants where best to eat at off of the resort.  It was a phenomenal experience and I am so grateful that I was able to read the reviews before hand.

So my point is here, for companies.  Hug your customer- you may never know what review they might post.

Now more than ever, company marketers are challenged with improving performance with fewer resources and shifting marketing budgets from traditional to digital tactics like SEO and social media. There are significant benefits from combining search engine optimization and social media marketing tactics ranging from increased social network discovery via search to the ability to attract links for improved SEO.

Implementing a social media marketing program without optimizing content is leaving money on the table. Useful social content (blog, video, images, audio) that cannot be discovered via search is a lost opportunity to reach an audience that is looking.

1. Find the Audience:
Understand their behaviors, preferences, methods of publishing, and sharing.
Most companies that are involved with the social web in the channels where their customers spend time have a good sense of where to start. Get involved.
2. Define your objectives:
Objectives are often driven by marketing or sales, and SEO has long been directly accountable to substantial improvements in web sales. Social media is not direct marketing. The role of SEO in a social media effort is to directly influence discovery of social communities or content via search.
3. Establish a game plan:
The game plan for reaching objectives in a combined SEO and social media effort will often focus on content and interaction, since it is content that people discover and share. Whether a keyword-focused strategy for reaching goals means publishing new content or creating an opportunity for consumer-generated content, it must involve proactive promotion and easy sharing ability.
4. Creating a strategic mix:
The strategic mix for a social media marketing effort is based on doing the homework of finding where the desired audience spends its time interacting with and sharing content. Much of the content creation and promotion for a social media marketing effort happens within the strategic mix and optimizing content for keywords.
5. Measure your goals:
Leveraging both social media monitoring services as well as web analytics can provide marketers with the insight to improve results. Marketers can use specific measurement tools to monitor the effect of their social web participation as well as the search engine performance of SEO efforts.

Extend the value of your investment. By involving SEO insight in a social media marketing effort and vice versa, marketers, public relations and advertisers can extend the value of their investment. Well optimized social media content marketing efforts can attract new network participants via search and help increase sales.Advertisers and companies that fund social media campaigns can continue to realize the traffic benefit from optimized interactive content long after the campaign has ended.

Search Engine Optimization

I recently read the book titled Accidental Billionaire:The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, from the author of the book ” Bringing Down the House,” Ben Mezrich. I am not sure if just because both of these ideas started in the heart of Boston but these two stories I find to be very intriguing.

I wanted to touch on the founding story of Facebook and recommend it as an interesting read for all of you who are interested in understanding social media and how it was started. The concept and idea is so simple, which is one of the reasons why social networking and media have changed lives and companies today.

If you are interested and have some time, I would recommend reading this book.

Accidental Billionaire

Check out Boston Web Creative’s latest e-commerce site…. KAI NATION !

Many companies and individuals think that once you have a website setup and uploaded to the internet, the customers will automatically follow. One of the key aspects and potentially the hardest part of understanding e-commerce is; how do you find your customers and how do your customers find you ?? In most cases this seems like a simple answer, but it takes strategic implementation, a targeted marketing plan and focus.

Having a website is only the first step in creating your business – increasing traffic and visitors to your site should be the next priority. These services are designed to drive targeted traffic to your website – the end result – increasing your bottom line! Here are a few of the basic tips to get started with SEO and SEM once you have created your online store.

1 – Utilize Search Engine Optimization

2- Pay Per Click: Pay Per Click search engine placement is the only guaranteed way to hold top placement in the search engines. Anyone who has the budget and is willing to spend what it takes to be #1, can be!

3- Link Building-Meta Tags: The major search engines, including Google, now track the number of incoming links to a website in order to determine the website’s popularity. The website is then given a corresponding Page Rank, which is used to help determine search engine rankings.

4- Analysis: The most important part of web marketing is to work with a company that you can trust. They need to be able to analyze your website and understand where the traffic is coming from.

5- Utilize all social networks: Add +SHARE buttons to your site.

6- Add a Blog: A blog is a great way to create a relationship with your customers. It also creates a sense of following on your site.

7- Email Newsletters and Press Releases: Targeted HTML E-mail campaigns are one of the lowest priced and easiest ways to increase customer retention and repeat sales by keeping in touch with your existing customers.

8- Build a customer/VIP e-mail database: Another great way to keep in touch with your very important customers.

E-commerce is expected to grow 12% in 2009… go get the market share !

I watched a very interesting video the other day that featured this company as arguably one of the best companies in the world that fully understands the definition of customer service. The company is Zappos. They started in 1999, and have been growing at a rapid rate ever since, largely due to their company values and culture. Every small and large business can reference this business perspective of valuing your employees and also valuing your customer as the #1 priority. Your customer and employees are the key players that keep your business running. Trust your employees to let them be themselves, let them be creative and empower them with the understanding that their ideas will be implemented and heard. Experience the success together…

Care about your employees as people. Care about your customer. Watch this video…
“WoW your customer “ These guys get it !

Love Your Customer