With the explosion of social media, it has become essential for companies to leverage the marketing strength inherent with social media participation.  Even if you are hesitant to jump head first into social media marketing, there are a few aspects you can control as a business that doesn’t require heavy investment in time or resources.  Customer testimonials are an excellent way to help promote your business and increase your chance for more conversions with minimal time and resource allocation.

If you already have a Facebook or Twitter account, you can use those channels to encourage your customers to talk about their positive experiences dealing with your company.  One idea is to give an incentive to customers to “tell their story” and those who decide to provide a testimonial are entered into a drawing for a gift or special discount.  The only caveat here is that you will have to manage the interaction and quickly respond to and diffuse any negative feedback.  However, if this does happen, quickly move to resolve or respond to the negative feedback.  Your quick and decisive action can go a long way in building a positive reputation as a business that cares about their customer’s concerns.  Turn the negative into a positive and you gain a loyal customer who may in turn, provide a positive testimonial in the future.

Another way to leverage positive customer feedback is to create a customer testimonials section on your website.  This could be placed in a prominent section on your homepage, or it can be a unique page within the site structure itself.   There are many companies who use this strategy, but I am still surprised when I visit a website and can not find any content related to their customer endorsements.  Another idea is to create a blog on your site and allow your customers an opportunity to post articles talking about their customer experience.  Choose one blog a week as the “Customer Blog of the Week”, reward the winning “blog post” with some nice discount or special incentive and watch your blog entries grow over time; all customer generated and touting their approval of your company.

Today, more than ever, social media and social interaction are driving buying decisions.  It’s no different than your classic word of mouth advertising; it’s just on a much larger (and digital) scale.  You would be hard pressed to find a business owner who didn’t value the power of the referral.  Your customers can be your best sales people.  Use them, and reward them, for their positive testimonials to help grow your business and attract new customers.

Finally, summer is right around the corner! Soon children will be out of school and at last people can enjoy the outdoors once again. What does that mean for your business? For many advertisers, summer months are a slower time of year for sales. Now is the perfect time to take advantage of sponsored advertising through social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Sponsored advertising in social media platforms is a great way to reach new customers and keep your sales numbers up.

Advertising special summer deals, promotions or sales through social sites helps you to stay in front of your audience during a time when they may not be thinking of your brand. Since social media sites like Facebook target users by interest, you can market to your exact demographic. This feature is particularly attractive to advertisers with unique products or services.

However, this approach does not only apply to business to consumer (B2C) advertisers; business to business (B2B) can also reap the benefits of summer social media marketing initiatives. Since LinkedIn is specifically aimed at business professionals, advertisers can target by industry, as well as title and location. This option makes it easy to be conservative with an ad budget, while still appearing in front of the appropriate audience.

Whether you are a B2C or a B2B advertiser, social media advertising can unlock possibilities you never imagined, especially during a season where it can be difficult to obtain new business. If you are not already participating in social media advertising, why not start now? After all, summer is almost here!

Foursquare is an application (app) for your iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or Palm that takes social networking to the next level. Users can update their location and send reviews about their favorite hangouts. This app uses a list of restaurants, bars and nightclubs and it integrates with Yelp and Google Maps, making it ideal for quick reviews and directions.

Foursquare lets other users know where you are. You can even “check-in” someplace to let your friends or social contacts know you are there. You can also let them know any specials or other things to do nearby. There is a competitive element to Foursquare that creates engagement. For example, you can earn badges and points for each action you complete, including “checking in” or becoming the “mayor” of a location. As more of your friends use Foursquare, you will learn more and more about the places they frequent and you can discover new places.

Foursquare goes beyond the typical online reviews seen in directories. Got a favorite local hangout? Local businesses that use Foursquare begin to recognize patrons and reward them with special offers, deals and incentives. For example, a restaurant engaged in Foursquare may want to offer a devoted customer free coffee, appetizers, ice cream or otherwise. Businesses should take this and other opportunities like Foursquare and run with them. Reward customer loyalty. It is a great way to get repeat customers and gain their social contacts as customers through word of mouth recommendations.

With the phenomenal growth of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, many businesses have begun creating their own fan pages within these sites.  While social media platforms are a great way to interact with your fans, friends and followers, issues can often arise when users post critical comments about your company or brand.

Nestle has received negative press by Greenpeace regarding many environment issues, which include the destruction rainforests in Indonesia to extract Palm Oil to use in their KitKat candy bars, in addition to reports of genetically modified organisms found in baby formula overseas.  “Fans” began modifying the KitKat and other Nestle logos to promote awareness about these issues. The Nestle Corporation requested that these images be removed immediately.  Their Facebook response could have been addressed in a more courteous, respectable manner.

The Nestle party responsible for managing their Facebook post began posting comments that were perceived to be offensive by fans. Upset fans forwarded the supposedly offensive retort to others, and soon word began to spread.  Not long after, the story was all over the web.  Since then, Nestle has experienced major image problems.

What can businesses learn from this experience?  Whatever social media platform your business chooses to participate in, the main point is to remain calm, courteous, respectful and honest.  Fans and followers may not always have positive things to say, however these comments can and should be addressed in a professional manner.  These remarks may also be helpful in altering and humanizing your image, while positioning your brand as a caring, customer service oriented organization.

My Mom and Dad always said, ‘It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.’  This proclamation also holds true for social media sites.  It is always better to err on the side of caution than to avoid customer confrontations.  Address your fans, followers and even those who are not fans, professionally and you can save your company from an embarrassing situation.

Twitter is about to roll out ads to it’s users.  After four years of data mining I would imagine that these ads will be highly targeted.   Approximately ten advertisers, such as Starbucks, Virgin American and Best Buy will participate as they ramp up from yesterday’s roll out to 2% to 10% of their users according to the Wall Street Journal.

The San Francisco firm will leverage a new service, Promoted Tweets, in which ads will appear at the top of the search results.   Advertisers will be charged per thousand impressions, with plans for a more complex model based on users interactions with the message to come.

It will be a valuable tool for the marketers anxious to engage Gen Y or Millennials, the demographic most technologically connected in every aspect of their lives.    Brands have had a tough time reaching Gen Ys, since they use the Internet for all aspects of their lives and are not likely to be heavy readers of printed material or viewers of traditional commercial based TV shows.  Millennials get it all on the Internet with guidance from friends and consumption of content at all times and places during their day.   Some believe that this generation is the most coveted buying group due to their consumption rate being  five times that of  Baby Boomers.   Marketers will be anxious to court this generation on their own turf, and Promoted Tweets will be a highly measurable  method to achieve this goal.

Social media has to be a component of one’s overall marketing strategy and probably already is even for those not actively pursuing.  These social media communities will discuss your goods or services either with your contribution or without, its your choice.

When most businesses think of social media they think about getting their name in front of people and building relationships. However, one important factor is overlooked by many businesses that could actually help them grow. It’s called learning. Time and money can be saved, and frustration lost, if businesses learn how to glean information from their competitors on social media sites.

Social media sites have a wealth of information. In fact, companies can get valuable insights from and about competitors on social sites. How do you this? Search around for your competitors and see what they are doing. Many have a Facebook or Twitter page where they are posting their latest products or services. Why not join? It’ll allow you to stay abreast of what’s going on. When they launch a special promotion you’ll be one of the first to know. It’s almost like having the inside the scoop. Plus see what fans like or dislike about the company.

Let’s look at an example. Say Company A does a promotion, offering a coupon on Facebook and Twitter for people to try their new spicy chicken sandwich for free. They set aside one day, where all their locations are serving a free chicken sandwich. They have a good amount of people show up for the promotion at all their locations. Throughout the week customers tweet and send posts to Facebook about the free sandwich. The majority of the people say they appreciated the free meal, but didn’t like the long lines. Company A, posts a survey online, asking people if they liked the new spicy chicken sandwich, but they get very little response. In less than 2 months they discontinue the new spicy chicken sandwich. Company B, which also sells chicken sandwiches has been learning from Company A. They know from Facebook posts and tweets that Company A discontinued the new spicy chicken sandwich because everyone came for the free meal, but after that the spicy chicken sandwich didn’t generate much revenue.

Company B, which also sells chicken, launches a promotion on Facebook and Twitter for a free spicy chicken sandwich. However, they offer the sandwich for a week, and they give a schedule of locations and time slots that are available. As people sign-up, they are shown locations and time slots that are still available. They select what’s most convenient for them and print out their coupon. When they visit the location, they are given the free chicken sandwich and asked to fill out a quick survey. Company B gets good feedback and they make the adjustment to the chicken sandwich based on the survey. The new spicy chicken sandwich becomes a huge success for Company B, in part because they watched their competitor’s promotions and looked to see what their fans were saying.

Learning from competitors via social media sites can be a golden key for many companies. Fans aren’t afraid to share what they like or dislike about a company’s product or service. If you’re paying attention, your business can gain a host of new customers, by providing the solutions that your competitor ignored. Remember one man’s loss is another man’s gain or treasure.  Are you looking for gain?

I continue to see articles concerning AOL’s slow implosion in the press.  The latest in the salvo concerns the management at AOL consideration of shedding Bebo.  AOL bought Bebo for $850 million two years ago, while they were still a part of Time Warner Inc.  Bebo was an important piece of their transformation plan in which AOL wanted to move away from being a subscription based service for Internet access to a media business generating ad-supported revenue.  When a business with the resources of a Time Warner makes a billion dollar bet and fails to monetize, one must wonder if they performed the proper vetting process or were they simply following the herd.

This is not the first failure in the firm’s acquisitions; Buy.at was recently jettisoned for $17 million after paying $125 million in 2008 for the dgital ad firm.  Will its instant messaging service ICQ be next?  When will the shareholders demand better stewardship from the leaders making these bets?

The small to medium business (SMB) owner would not survive if they followed the herd at each new fork in the technology path.  SMBs must be better shepherds of their funds than the large public companies that they compete against, if they want to survive and flourish.  So how does a SMB determine when to launch a social media campaign and which platform?  Many variables must be considered such as these outlined in a recent blog post.   When you are ready and have performed your due diligence, give us a call and hear how we can help you to make the correct bet.

Maybe I am misguided or ill-informed, but my impression of government (especially local government) is that red tape always bogs them down.  Trying to contact City Hall to question your water bill (I speak from personal experience here) can be a real chore.  However, I was encouraged when I read an article recently about local governments getting into the social media arena.  According to research conducted by the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, “50% of cities had no official Facebook presence as of July 2009, though one in seven of these had at least one department that did have a presence, often public safety.”  In addition, their report goes on to note “44% of our surveyed cities did not have a Twitter presence in July 2009, though one in seven had at least one department active on Twitter”.  For the detailed report, in addition to how Fels conducted the survey, please feel read the report here.

While these numbers are not jaw dropping, it does show that even slow moving, red tape drowning local governments are starting to see the benefits of social media.  I prefer to look at the positive side of the report and by comparison 50% of cities already have a Facebook presence and 56% have a Twitter account!  I decided to research my city, and found they are well ahead of the curve when it comes to the average city surveyed in the aforementioned report.  Kudos to Tamarac, FL – they are doing quite well on Facebook and Twitter.  As of April 5, 2010, the city of Tamarac has 199 fans on Facebook and 743 followers on Twitter.  Both of their social media channels are actively managed, with their most recent “tweet” about 17 minutes before I viewed their profile (by the way, “Tonight’s Kick Boxing Aerobics class for this evening has been canceled”.

If local governments can find the time and resources to get involved with social media, there is no excuse for companies to continue to sit on the sidelines.  Red tape and bureaucracy usually bring government activity to a halt, but when it comes to reaching out to their citizens, more local governments are recognizing the value of social media.  As a business owner, executive, or manager, it’s important to leverage any opportunity to gain more customers and improve customer retention.  Social media is a wave that you can ride to success or you risk getting pulled under water.  Local governments are starting to allocate the time and resources to get social, private and public businesses should be leading the way.

With Social Media on every marketers’ mind (and if its not, may I suggest you start thinking about it?) it’s actually hard not to easily come up with really cool ways to get more Twitter followers, increase your number of Facebook fans, as well as acquire new connections on LinkedIn. There are all sorts of ways to get more eyes to your pages and profiles; many companies (both large and small) are coming up with enticing promotions and special offerings.

Before you launch all of your brilliant promotions in an effort to grow your existing social media circle, STOP! Why not first take the time to reward your existing social media family? After all, they are the ones who are already supporting you and they deserve a little special treatment.

So how can you show them your appreciation? Perhaps you can offer incentives solely for your existing social media base.  Sort of a” Thank You for Your Ongoing Loyalty” promotion and offer a discount, perk, free service, or free gift with purchase. It does not have to be anything fancy or even costly. The goal is quite simple: make your existing social media base feel like you truly care; that you value their ongoing loyalty and support. This will not only make them feel special, but will also make them want to tell their friends about your company, which in itself is helping to grow your fan base.

Once you have extended your gratitude toward your current fans, it is the perfect time to start to work on expanding your current followers, fans and connections.