It’s official, social networks are the new black and growing bigger and more valuable to marketers every day. With over 130 Million active users on Facebook alone, the possibility of reaching your target market (and even your future target market) through this one social network is basically a reality.
From fortune 100s to start-ups, companies are flocking to social networks in an effort to connect with their customers in ways that are meaningful and genuine. If you’re a marketer thinking about establishing a presence, you’re probably wondering where to begin.
Should you build your own company profile? Should you hire an agency to handle your strategy? Is Facebook even the right social network for you? If not, then which and how do you find out? And what do you do once you’re officially ON Facebook or MySpace or Bebo…
I mean, how do you build a vibrant community that empowers your biggest fans and generates sales?
Wait. What? Sales? Ummm… Oh yeah, sales – we are marketers, we worship the ROI Gods and stand accountable for the dollars and resources we consume. If an activity cannot be directly attributed to an uptick in sales, is it a worthy course of action or should you reallocate time and resources?
The answer is more simple than you might expect. Ready for it? Okay – the answer is… that depends. As a marketer, really as anyone in business, you’ve got to succumb to trade-offs. The time and energy you expend on executing, managing and measuring social media campaigns is time and energy no longer available for another activity. In the end, it’s about balancing short term goals with long term objectives.
In my opinion, investing time and resources in social media is ABSOLUTELY worth the effort. Social media exists because it is, by nature, social. It is propelled by REAL people engaging in REAL conversations about the things that matter to them. Sometimes, if you’re lucky enough, that conversation turns to your company, your products, your brand. Are you there to join in? If not, shouldn’t you be? Not because you want to control it, but because you don’t want to miss a golden opportunity to influence it.
Whether it’s re-affirming the good things chatted about your brand, or addressing the negative, the important thing is to be there when it matters to prospects and customers. In the end,’it’s less about establishing an online presence (After all, we’ve proven that you’re already there by way of conversations) and more about influencing the role you portray in the ongoing drama.
Brands that respect and empower existing communities are more likely to see their social media campaigns pay off in ways that amount to increased sales. Do you really need to BUILD a community? How about starting with JOINING the one that already exists? Now there’s a concept.
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I’ve written about this before, but it merits mentioning again. The marketplace is C-R-O-W-D-E-D. Your customers and prospects are being bombarded with a continuous stream of competing marketing messages. What is a marketer to do? How do you make sure your messages are heard?
Believe it or not, some companies are successfully penetrating the noise. Their messages are being heard and responded to. What you want to do during times like these is stake out a territory – a position – which your company alone is uniquely qualified to occupy.
The result is an effective positioning that sets your company and products apart from the competition. This competitive advantage gives rise to the clarity and focus necessary to outperform rivals.
Demand Metric is teaming up with MarketingExperiments to launch a new eWorkshop on May 19th about positioning. It aims to provide you with tools and practical guidance to discover and/or refine company and product positioning.
During the eWorkshop they’ll address:
1. What Positioning is and why it is important
2. The role Positioning plays in product launches
3. How to develop a Competitive Product Position Map
4. How to develop Product Positioning and a Product Positioning statement
5. How to leverage your positioning statement in all marketing communications to achieve greater message consistency and effectiveness
Plus, when you register you’ll receive instant access to the Premium Tool-Kit which includes:
· Competitive Analysis Tool
· Competitive Product Positioning Tool
· Market Research Report Template
· Product Positioning Tool
· Value Proposition Worksheet
· BONUS REPORT: Market Segmentation, Targeting, & Positioning
The tools and training you receive will help you understand the value of positioning your company and its products, and equip you to lead a positioning planning process for your organization. Find out More>>
If you decide to register, let us know what you thought of the training in the comments.
Anybody notice how noisy it’s gotten? I mean, all of a sudden I’m being flooded by a constant flow of press releases and social media releases and sooo-much-PR… it seems endless.
It’s as if, in a mad dash to be heard, companies are cranking out more and more releases every day — whether it’s newsworthy stuff or not — just hoping, even praying they’ll get picked up. Working harder to accomplish less is never the smart business choice. Better to have a few effective campaigns under your belt than a dozen forgettable attempts.
What does your communication strategy look like? Do you even have a strategy? Or are you like many busy marketers out there firing off standalone tactics? The good news (If I can call it that) is that your competition’s probably in the same boat that you’re in — so what we’ve got here is an opportunity. A chance to get ahead of the pack and sharpen your skills at the same time.
From figuring out the goals for each campaign — to allocating the appropriate amount of resources and time — you need a plan to be effective. And believe me, the answer isn’t to write a press-release about everything just to cover your bases. It’s a lot like crying wolf — after a while your audience tunes out. You need to know what’s newsworthy in order to keep them engaged and listening.
If you’re not sure where to start, there’s an eWorkshop with Demand Metric and MarketingExperiments on April 28th that’s worth checking out. In addition to the hour-long training, you get tools and templates to use for developing your media relations strategy.
I started using the tools and played around with the templates today (My company’s producing the event) – as a package, they’re powerful indeed. During a webinar rehearsal a couple weeks back Brian Solis, Principal at Future-Works, said that “Influence is the ability to inspire action and measure it” — Optimizing my media relations strategy seems like an excellent starting point.
What do you think has caused the uptick in press releases? Do you think it’s a result of reduced marketing budgets and thus an over-reliance on traditional media strategies? Let us hear your theories in the comments.
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Don’t get on Twitter because it’s cool or trendy — That’s never the “right” reason to do something. Like your mom always asked: “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”
Call me an idealist, but I believe all business and personal decisions should be based on whether it’s the “right” thing to do — right for you, right for your customers, right for your business. Here are the 4 “Right” reasons for being on Twitter:
- Your customers are on Twitter – Don’t know for sure? Ask them.
- Your prospects are on Twitter – Compare Twitter marketplace data to your customer profile – Sufficient overlap? Go for it.
- Your offers are time sensitive – Assuming you’ve met the criteria for #1 and #2, if your calls 2 action require immediate response, Twitter is “right” for you.
- You have fans – People want a personal connection with things they love – this is tricky to accomplish for large brands (impersonal), perfect for celebrities of any sort.
Can you think of other reasons why Twitter would be “right” ? We want to hear them! Let us know in the comments.
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If you’re establishing an online presence, you know how difficult it is to find an available domain name that communicates who you are and what you’re offering (the keyword being “available”). You’ll likely run into lots of dead-ends before finally settling on one that works. Many of the best domain names are already registered and sell or auction for a pretty penny. Unless you’re willing to fork over the money to make the acquisition, you’re going to have to settle for a good alternate.
We’ve assembled a list of our favorite domain research tools. With great features like bulk checking lists of domains, management tools, and suggesting alternates – they eliminate a large chunk of the inevitable trial and error you’ll endure.
Check out these 5 web tools designed to help you discover your best domain:
1. Domainr — What’s innovative about Domainr is that this service makes it easy to explore the entire domain name space beyond the .com, .net and .org. Great examples include burri.to, del.icio.us and last.fm — How creative can you get with the end of your domain name — if a .com is not essential (and more and more these days it isn’t) — Go for something unique! I already own the .com for my own name – Whew! As I am 100% certain it’s gonna be worth a gajillion dollars one day (yeah right) — but I was seriously impressed by all the additional variations I didn’t know about that domai.nr uncovered for me. Who knew?
2. Dotomator — If thesaurus’s were magical rings — Dotomator would be like the Ring of Power — The one wordsmith to rule them ALL – Seriously – because it does the heavy lifing in the name suggestion department. You can narrow your search by prefix or assign a suffix to the cue. You can even tell it to provide a list of suggestions based on category- Dotomator takes brainstorming to a whole NEW level. Looking for the latest Web2.0 name for your startup? How about Kiblix or Yozoom – Hmm…
3. BustaName — Now this is a tool after my own heart. Intuitive and helpful, not only will BustaName help you find a suitable (and available) domain name, but it also provides a management interface so you can come back later and pick up right where you left off. Not sure where to begin??? Watch the video tutorial! BustaName’s DomainFriend feature makes life easier for the busy person. Hey BustaName I’ve got this massive pile of papers that need filing — can you come over later?
4. DomainTools — Useful because it aggregates all available information about a domain name in one interface. DomainTools is your one-stop shop for finding a great name, researching ownership information, scanning lists of domains ‘for sale’ and ‘for auction’, and for conducting your own search with the help of their suggestion tool. If you haven’t got a lot of time to invest in the process of finding the perfect domain name, or if you’re willing to spend the going rate for acquiring it through auction or sale — this is the tool to use.
5. Domize — These guys tout themselves as the “Fastest Domain Name Search Ever” but what I really like about them is their iPhone app and their widget. Domize just gets it. People aren’t always sitting in front of their computer when they think of great domain name ideas, also they shouldn’t have to find you to use your services. Spreading the widget and iPhone love to make accessibility a cinch is just the smart way to trump the competition.
What other Domain name search tools incorporate neat features? Let us hear about them in the comments.
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