Seriously. Social Media is no longer a novelty, nor should it be viewed as such. Online Marketers who have not yet taken the plunge - ought to - and fast. Many clients that I speak with on a regular basis have already initiated a Social Media Strategy. Those who have not, typically explain their lack of social media involvement on two main reasons: Time and Knowledge and not having enough of either.

Let’s address the time factor. If you think having a Facebook or Twitter Page is going to take up time, you are 100% correct. If you’re not sure what is worse between having zero presence on social media channels, or having a crummy presence, it’s the latter. There’s no way around it, Social Media is a time investment. If you do not have the internal resources (and knowledge) to devote to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn page, you may be doing more harm than good. A clear strategy is mission critical to the success of your Social Media efforts. There should be an action plan in place so everyone in your organization is clear as to who is responsible for which channel, how often posts will be made, which promotions will be offered and when/how you will responding to any feedback (both good and bad).

Now let’s address knowledge. It is super important to become well versed in the various social networks, especially those in which your organization will be participating. Knowledge is power and the more you educate yourself the better your efforts will be. Anyone can start a social media profile page (especially with no graphics or custom design features), but the harder part is understanding which channels are the best fit for your organization, why someone would frequent your page or profile and how to engage users to appreciate and become a part of your social media arena, as well as tell their friends/business associates about it.
If any, or all of the above, seems overwhelming, please feel free to visit the Social Media page on our website, which will hopefully help to shed a little more light on the subject. We offer a variety of programs that can be customized to your needs and goals.

Jumping into Social Media can be intimidating, however if done correctly, it can reap huge rewards. Go Social or go home!

If you haven’t already realized the importance of video content on the web, then now is the time to open your eyes. I think that it’s pretty safe to say that online videos have established an overwhelming presence throughout the web.

ComScore, time and again has stated that more than 80% of the total U.S. Internet audience views online videos throughout the month, and many companies still aren’t tapping into this audience.

ComScore, just recently released statistics that confirm that 183 million people in the U.S watched online videos during the month of May compared to 178 million in April. That’s nearly 84.8 percent of all Internet users in the U.S. According to comScore, YouTube.com achieved record levels of activity in May with an all-time high of 14.6 billion videos viewed. This surpassed their past average of 100 videos per viewer to approximately 101.2 videos per viewer.

Naturally, YouTube remains the dominant player in video, with 43% of online videos being seen on their site. According to YouTube, every minute 24 hours of video are uploaded to their network, and on average, 2 billion videos are being watched a day. The average visitor spends 15 minutes per day on YouTube.

Online videos are a hot trend that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. This rising popularity has been inspiring a trend for marketers to create and distribute more informative and even viral videos. At this stage ignoring the demand for creating videos could be a great detriment to your businesses. Creating online videos is a great opportunity for companies/brands to become a part of the ever going demand for online videos.

Since social media is becoming a way of life, company’s advertising budgets are shifting more to social marketing channels. Paid search ads are becoming available on most of the top social media sites, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Facebook offers a variety of targeting options. You can target the audience as wide or narrow as you want. For example, you could target a certain school, major and year of graduation. One thing to note is that the more granular your targeting is, the average recommended cost rises per click or per thousand impressions.

Facebook ads are based on either a cost per thousand impressions or a cost per click model. Whichever you chose Facebook will let you know a recommended range of budgets that will be competitive within your target market.

In the following example, an extremely niche target audience was chosen with ad copy appealing to that audience - female bridge players with a picture of the “fun” set of the bridge game being sold in the ad. This brought awareness to the product and returned a great ROI because of the small users in the pool and the ad creative specifically tied to the target audience.

Always keep in mind your advertising goals and objectives when choosing your social media marketing plan. Displaying catchy but specific ads to your audience sometimes requires a bit higher CPC, but usually has a greater ROI.

Many argue that users of social media channels have no interest in connecting with companies while they are spending time within their social networks.  Recent data from emarketer and comSore make a good argument against this thought.

Social media is not a fad.  It is a change in the way that people are communicating. Whether using a desktop, laptop, Smartphone, etc. people are accessing social networks on a regular basis. In 2010 about 127 million people (57% of all US Internet users) will use a social network at least once a month, according to emarketer. This is estimated to grow to two-thirds of internet users by 2014.

In addition, 33% of Facebook users have connected with brands on Facebook.

Online retailers have the ability to offer coupons, promote new products, encourage customer reviews, etc., and are thriving in social media. Those companies that have not yet ventured into social media marketing are realizing that they are falling behind and are letting the potential of social media marketing pass them by.  Emarketer estimates that 9 out of 10 companies are planning to build a presence in Facebook during 2010. Some might think that these companies are just jumping on the bandwagon. While that may be true, it’s a smart choice.  ComSore data shows that users who spend time on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, spend more money online than those who are not engaged in social networks.  If you have an online store, why would you not want to be in social media to put your brand in front of these individuals?

This data may also coincide with the growth of social networks. Channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. are no longer just for teenagers.  The fastest growing age groups are adults, and not necessarily younger adults. This leads to more people using these channels who have a bit more disposable income than the average teenager.

While social media is extremely important for online retailers, it will not replace the importance of search engines.  Social media is great for awareness and creating a positive brand image, but when someone is really looking to research a product, they will turn to search engines. Social media does not replace search. They each have their own place in the buying cycle and enable companies to reach customers and an interested audience in different ways.

Social media can spread good news or bad news about a company like wild fire across the internet. The real trick is to figure out how to keep the fires contained and quickly put them out. By acting in real time to put out social media wild fires, companies can learn from the situation and make a better name for themselves.

Recently, Hampton Toyota experienced the wild fires of social media first hand. Here’s a brief synopsis of what took place.  One of Hampton’s customers who came in to get their car serviced claimed that one of the employees had taken money from their car. The stealing occurred on several occasions, and was even brought to the attention of one of the service managers.  After complaining several times, with no response, the employee placed a video camera in their car, which caught employee’s stealing money from the car. The customer posted the videos on YouTube and sent a copy to the dealer.  It sounds like an uncontrollable wild fire. However, what the Hampton Toyota dealer did next tamed the wild fire.

The Hampton Toyota dealer took action. He contacted the customer, apologized for the lack of integrity on the employee’s part and in fact, some of the employees were terminated.  He then placed a video on YouTube explaining what happened and how Hampton Toyota had taken steps to resolve the situation. What was turning out to be a disaster was quickly changed to a positive. The Hampton Toyota dealer used social media to put out the wild fire.

There’s a proverbial saying, “It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond.” The dealer of Hampton Toyota responded correctly. Not only did he rectify the situation with the customer, he effectively addressed the situation with his social media audience. The dealer was able to show that they cared about their customers as well as the social audience.  They were able to put out the social media fire, instead of letting it consume them.

It’s almost hard to imagine a world without social media networks like YouTube and Facebook.  Many utilize these types of sites on a daily basis, but how are these outlets changing the world?

A short time ago, after the enormous success of her Superbowl commercial, fans of Betty White created a grassroots campaign on Facebook to have the 88 ½ year old Emmy Award-winning actress host NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL).  The initiative was so widely popular that not only did NBC take notice and book White to host SNL, but it was the first time in the show’s history that social media helped influence the selection of a host. 

Recent, a video emerged on YouTube of 12 year old Greyson Michael Chance playing piano and singing Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi.’  The video was viewed over 18,000,000 times, and was also featured on many national news programs including ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer.  Ironically, Interscope Records, the same record label as Lady Gaga, saw Chance and offered the seventh grader a recording contract.

So you may be asking yourself, ‘what does all this have to do with my business?’  Since social media is putting more power in the hands (or fingertips) of the public, now is the time to use the suggestions, ideas and opinions of your customers to improve business.  White and Chance are prime examples that popular demand cannot be ignored, especially when it comes to social media.  Identifying trends within your social media channel can help you stay ahead of the competition.  Who knows, maybe your business will discover the next Greyson Michael Chance of your industry.

No matter if you ever plan to “tweet”, or are active in other social media channels like Facebook or YouTube, I encourage you to sign up for a Twitter account and begin to follow some people / organizations. The reason to do this is because I believe that Twitter and whatever comes next is so dramatically different than anything before, you need to begin watching and learning. If you start paying attention now, as Twitter evolves you will have an historical perspective on what’s transpired, to appreciate and capitalize on where things are going.

A logical question would be…who should I follow? The answer would be anyone or any organization that interests you. For example, people who are leaders in your industry, places that you like to travel to, sports or sporting teams that you follow, restaurants you like, etc.

It almost doesn’t matter who you follow, because you can modify the list of people / organizations at any time. The point is that by dipping your toe in the water, long before you even think about actually tweeting yourself, that you should start watching how Twitter works. The potential uses of this real time publishing for businesses appear to be limitless and I think it will become an integral dimension of your marketing efforts in the not too distant future.

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.