July 2011
26 posts
Social traffic eclipses porn traffic on the internet.
When is it time to call for help?
Social media marketing can and will continue to grow, and as it does, so does the importance of social media for businesses of all sizes. The big question is whether or not these types of tasks can and should be outsourced to offshore companies. At first thought you may think, no freaking way, however doing so can significantly decrease management costs, and when looking at Facebook page management in particular, it may be reduced as much as 60%
Define Tasks And Manage Time Step one of any potential task outsourcing is to first understand which tasks may be more effectively outsourced than others. This may seem basic, but you’d be surprised how often it’s overlooked. Any sort of custom app or layout development, content writing and rich media posting are examples of tasks that could be done by an offshore third party.
The major element that shouldn’t be outsourced is the strategy behind the social media promotion. You need to define goals and measure success.
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We found some clever design solutions for your perusal
(G)Ninja Bread Men
Nifty Banana Slicer
Clever way to protect your fingers when chopping
Who knew cleaning the floor could be such a breeze
Keep out those lunch theives
No more chopstick nonsense
Tips on 'tweeting' in public.. oh my!
Give your live event a new dimension,
Tips For “Live Tweeting” An Event Live tweets from an event are a great way to catch people’s attention and build a following. Especially if they’re done right.
I’ve live tweeted several events, most notably Barack Obama’s Inauguration in D.C. for my student newspaper and the Chicago Sun-Times. I walked into those experiences learning on the fly, and there’s a lot I wish I knew then that I know now. So here’s a collection of tips.
Before you go “live,” some promotion goes a long way. Let people know well ahead of time so if they’re interested they can follow along. Tease it a few days ahead if you can, and remind people again just before you get started.
If you push it a little beforehand, sometimes it gets pushed a lot, as people retweet (rebroadcast) your tweet about it or mention it to their followers.
The event itself, whether it be a court trial, sporting event, press conference, or some sort of breaking news, does not matter much. The basics are pretty much the same. Here’s some tips:
- Give people a sense of place. What’s the scene like, how are people acting?
- Engage all five senses as you compose your tweets – smells, sights, sounds, etc.
- Use at least one hashtag (#) so people can easily find your tweets, either in the moment or after the fact.
- Keep an eye out for trends, key moments, or shifts in momentum or mood. Share these observations.
- What’s the lede of the story? Put that in 140 characters or less. What’s the lede five minutes later? Ditto.
- Try to add quotes now and then. Do something like this (Obama: “We will not give up in this fight against terror.”) or develop your own style.
- If you can’t fit everything in one tweet, start with one, and add a follow-up tweet with additional context. While this technique should be kept to a minimum, don’t shy away from something just because it’s complex.
- When writing your tweets, picture an editor looking over your shoulder, continuously chopping off unnecessary words to make it more concise. Keep them as short as possible and only include the most pertinent info.
If you do it enough, you’ll begin to develop your own “live tweeting” voice. And after you do it once or twice, it gets a lot easier.
The tough part – and one of the most important – is interaction. Remember to keeping check your @ replies and responding to them. People appreciate it when you connect with them while on the scene — answering questions, acknowledging comments, etc., all in real-time. By doing that, you bring your live tweets to a whole new level.
No matter your approach, live tweeting can be a fun experience, both for you and your followers. And if you do it right, you’ll pick up some new followers too.
Say please and thank you
Looking to build your customer base and keep people coming back for more?
The answer is to reward your customers.Want to know how? Keep reading…
Why Rewards? t’s easy to see that social media and other digital technologies are making a huge difference in the way brands interact with customers and how customers perceive a brand’s image.
With so many new business owners testing the waters of social media, it can be easy to forget what our focus should be. Just like any business situation, the customer should be our first priority, always.
Social media is another great way to drive traffic to your website, people into your stores, and ultimately, money into your bank account. One of the best ways to grow your customer base is to reward them.
Social media and online communities are the perfect playing fields for a customer rewards scheme, and can offer new possibilities to business owners in any field. Let’s take a look at six ways you can reward your customers online.
#1: All the world’s a game—stickers, badges and pins Commonly seen on “check-in” applications like Foursquare, GetGlue and Gowalla, collectible stickers, badges, pins, medals, stamps, items or trophies add a game-like competition to the user experience.
#2: Digital discounts: Online-only offers With discount sites like Groupon growing in popularity, consumers are not only hungry for discounts, but they’re beginning to expect them. Offering discounts, exclusive offers and coupons is nothing new, but focusing this effort on your online audience is a fairly recent idea.
#3: And the winner is… Content-creation competitions Competitions are another tried-and-true way of engaging new customers and rewarding existing consumers. While giving away free prizes can be a great way to reward your customers, content-creation competitions have recently become a popular way for brands to use social media and digital technology to involve consumers, while achieving free publicity.
#4: Say cheese: Involving your customers in advertising and promotions Another great way to get customers involved in promoting your brand is to directly involve them in your advertising.
Doritos has a great example of a successful campaign called Make an Ad, Make a Fortune, where users created a commercial for Doritos corn chips, with the most popular commercial (voted on by the public) broadcast on prime-time television.
#5: Hand ‘em over: Collecting suggestions and ideas Starbucks is a brand that immediately comes to mind when thinking about businesses that have succeeded in showing customers that their ideas are truly appreciated.
“My Starbucks Idea” is a platform designed to collect ideas and suggestions for improvement from Starbucks’ customer base, and allow other users to vote on suggestions they agree with. The most popular ideas are then implemented throughout the coffee chain.
#6: Gracias, Merci, Danke, Xiexie: Thank you goes a long way! Perhaps one of the easiest, yet most often overlooked, ways of rewarding customers is to simply say thank you
Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-ways-to-socially-reward-your-customers/
QR codes made easy
QR codes, or Quick Response codes, are a great way to help your customers interact with your products or service. A QR code is much like a bar code which you scan with a smartphone camera.
QR codes can be used for a variety of engagement tactics including driving web traffic to your site, your social media, your latest events, and your competitions. This is a great way for the consumer to get in-depth product information instantly from their very own smart phone.
QR codes today have been zooped up and you can have a beautifully designed QR code with your own branding for extra oomph!
Quick QR tips:
· Make sure you provide a link to a downloadable QR code scanner
· Make sure the code goes to a mobile friendly site
· Track the success of the QR code by tracking the URL stats-ie the the number of QR code scans per hour as well as the devices used.
· Make the effort for more designer and branded QR codes
· Think of interesting areas to place your QR codes: on a wine bottle, on your business card, in an email signature, on a t-shirt, on top of a cake…QR codes can be found everywhere!
Have you seen any great examples of QR codes? Leave your example below and we will scan it!
Interactive octopus {Timmy Tickle}
Of course we loooove this!
Great interactive book for children.
Enjoy!
“Women Are 85% Of The Consumer Market. But How Do You Reach Them?
“Approach women like you do wild animals, with caution and a soothing voice.” Targeting a female audience requires a delicate, nuanced approach.” —
“Approach women like you do wild animals, with caution and a soothing voice.” Targeting a female audience requires a delicate, nuanced approach.” —
How about like rational beings who carry checkbooks and want to make smart decisions about what they will or will not buy? When I am grocery shopping and thinking about what kind of soy milk I want, I feel very much like a wild cheetah on the plains of the Serengeti. A wild cheetah in a David Foster Wallace book.
Despite the irritating introduction, the article is actually worth reading.
(via modernandmaterialthings)
What Is Foursquare And How Do I Use It? →
businessinsider.com
But what is it? What’s it for? How can you get started?
Foursquare is primarily for letting your friends know where you are and figuring out where they are. Secondarily, it’s for collecting points, prize “badges,” and eventually, coupons, for going about your everyday business.
“Social media is not a technology change it is a cultural change”
—andre hugo
Are College Libraries About to Become Bookless? →
good.is
According to Danuta Nitecki, the dean of libraries at Drexel, the terrace is book-free since the role of libraries is changing. “We don’t just house books, we house learning,” she says. That means defining “a new kind of library environment,” one that’s decentralized across the campus. Indeed, the space is more like a study lounge. There are cozy chairs, movable tables for study groups meetings and gigantic whiteboards. And, since Drexel already has 170 million electronic books, journals or other academic material in their collection, all students need to do to access them is get online. If they don’t know exactly what research source they should be looking for, librarians will be staffing the space, bringing their expertise to the students.
» via GOOD
Four C’s to build a community
1) Content
If you don’t have content, you won’t bring any new value. Concentrate on building out your content in the proportions that matter to your intended audience. You may have a lot to say about a particular niche, but odds are you won’t be able to grow until you widen it out further.
In some cases, you can “farm out” your weak areas to guest posters, but most of the time it just helps to be aware of your tendencies and react accordingly. Others here have written about the need for a real editorial calendar. If you’re on WordPress, there are plugins that help you visualize your publishing schedule and ensure that you’re not over-reliant on certain topics.
2) Context
If Content is King, then Context is the Jester who exposes the King’s lack of wardrobe.
A business that wants to succeed in social media can’t do so in a vacuum. Unless you are a publishing dynamo, it’s too much to ask for you to write amazing essays several times per month. We’re just not wired to create completely fresh content. However, your real service to your audience comes through providing context.
- Be the person who shares news about your industry (even if it includes your competitors.)
- Be the person who points the way.
- Be the person who reveals the trends, because you’re in a position to see around corners.
- Be a resource, by putting your own context on what others say and do. And don’t forget to…
3) Connect
Your value to the community you build isn’t measured by keeping members within your fence. Your value is measured by how often they come back, and how often they recommend you to others.
Don’t be afraid to link away to someone else’s content. There is reward in being known as the Node that connects people to knowledge or insight. It also doesn’t hurt that you are forging relationships with others in your field of interest. That can open the door for guest posting, collaboration, or even outright referral.
4) Comment
Let’s say you write a piece that is read by 500 people. If you’re lucky, a couple of them will chime in and say “I felt like you were speaking directly to me.” That’s a powerful feeling, and it’s a degree of engagement that makes you “sticky” and unforgettable.
So why do so many bloggers refuse to engage in their own comments?
When someone leaves a comment on your site, you need to set your default behavior to “acknowledge and engage” unless there is a reason to not do so. You now have an opening to talk to that person directly, in a way they can never mistake for a mass communication.
There’s a secondary effect that builds on the first. The more your readers see you commenting, the more likely they are to comment themselves. Will it take more time? Yes… it can be quite demanding. But the people you are talking with are more likely to be the people you ought to be talking with.
“It’s more about creating technology that millions will use than making millions of dollars, they say. Their aim is to keep up with Steve Jobs, not the Joneses.”
—In Silicon Valley, status symbols look different (via courtenaybird)
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Are you prepared to put your customers in charge of your brand… literally?
What would happen if you gave your customers the keys to your corporate social media channels? This article reviews the rewards and the risks marketers face as they decide how much brand control they’re willing to give up.
Marketers are just coming to terms with how to deal with customers having free rein to either praise or bash their companies, but I think there may be a new trend on the horizon—the customer brand ambassador.
You have customers who love your brand and rave about it. But their reach only extends so far. Why not give them a platform to amplify their reach and spread the word? Think about it… It really could be a beautiful partnership.
source: socialmediaexaminer.com
