Tweet for Cheap

I was cruising around the internet this afternoon and found an interesting YouTube video which discussed the positive results that businesses could achieve through using Twitter, building up their brand image. Small and large businesses can both benefit through using Twitter as a marketing tool. Since small businesses do not necessarily have the capital to market their business with the same scale as larger businesses; utilizing  free social media tools like Twitter and Facebook can positively build up your brand/company and get that "buzz"; especially if you don't have the money for the traditional marketing campaigns that cost large businesses millions of dollars.

Social Media and Small Businesses

This morning I was reading the Boston Globe at work and I stumbled upon an article that caught my attention, titled "Small businesses learn to tweet, post, and blog." This articled discussed how the new technologies (Twitter, Facebook, Groupon) have changed the way small businesses market themselves. In the article, Mike's Automotive Services always tried to keep up with the latest technology when it comes down to marketing, building their first web page back in 1994. Small business owners have begun to navigate away from the traditional refrigerator magnets and wall calendars and moved towards tweeting on twitter, social networking on Facebook, blogging, and offering online coupons at Groupon (an online coupon site). Their online presence increased their businesses tremendously; they sold over 1,705 coupons for a "ten dollar oil change" from Groupon alone! New customers for Mike's Automotive Services went up 28% after they began their social media campaign and the numbers are still increasing. The biggest effects of social media is igniting "buzz" about any company or business. Before there is any "buzz" no one knows anything about a company/business and leaves them local/loyal customers that frequently stop by. By igniting "buzz" with social media more and more people realize their existence which drives the business to receiving more and more revenue. The results are proof that social media works and the businesses that are avoiding it, are losing customers and profits. So, the lesson learned is to jump into the social media and see the results first hand! 

I found this article online at the Boston Globes website. Here is the link to view the article: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/02/22/small_businesses_learn_to_tweet_post_and_blog/

Important/Critical Components For Developing a New Media Strategy

I think the most important/critical component  for developing a new media strategy is to understand the customer and know your buyer persona. Only after gathering this pertinent information can you begin to develop a strategy to reach your buyers. You will not succeed if you make a strategy and are aiming for an audience that isn't interested in your products. By understanding your potential customers you can begin a campaign to meet your buyers needs and give them useful information which will help expedite the sales process.

Second Life: Marketing in the New World

While reading Chapter 19, Social Networking Sites and Marketing, it was very interesting that Scott brought up the online virtual world of Second Life. He talked about how businesses can use this as another medium for marketing. As a result, Second Life has become more and more popular. I thought it was extremely fascinating that companies are using Second Life as a place to conduct live press conferences. This gives companies the ability to save money from traveling expenses and also gives them the capability to have a "web conference" with people in different areas around the globe. What I also found fascinating is that Second Life has recently created an environment for Vet's to deal with PTSD. Up to one in five U.S. military service members screen positive for PTSD following combat deployment. Yet, almost half of those do not seek information or help for their suffering. The T2 Virtual PTSD Experience invites people to endure the causes, confront the symptoms, and discover the help available for combat-related PTSD in Second Life. It gives them the ability to seek help without giving away their identity. Check out this interesting article on the U.S. Army’s website: http://www.army.mil/-news/2011/01/24/50751-dod-gives-ptsd-help-second-life-in-virtual-reality/

Social Networking

Social networking sites are a wonderful source for marketing. Not only is it a free medium to spread the word or get yourself or your band, business, etc. noticed; it offers a way to connect with millions of people and let them know about certain functions or new products. My three roommates are apart of the band known as The Raft and they have both a Facebook and Myspace page. On Facebook they have the ability to notify everyone (friends) about upcoming shows and new songs that they are making. They use Myspace to give people the opportunity to listen to their tracks for free. They also network with other bands by showing what their likes and interests are on their Facebook page and those bands also have them (The Raft) on their pages as well.  If your interested, you can check them out on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Raft/159395607415352?sk=info or on MySpace at : http://www.myspace.com/getontheraft YouTube is another wonderful source to give people a chance to watch and listen to anything you want people to see. They have also taken advantage of this ability as they have a few recorded songs available. Check them out at this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRaftMusic

Nike Commercial

While I was watching TV this afternoon I saw a Nike commercial and it really impressed me. Nike did not make an obvious attempt at selling their product but showed average people doing above average things while using their products. They made their focus very broad and showed a wide variety of athletic activities that people were engaging in; ranging from running and basketball all the way to extreme wheel-chair stunts and break dancing! It was quite impressive. Take a look at this YouTube video showing Nike's commercial... 

Blogging Ethics

Blogs are a wonderful tool for organizations to communicate with the marketplace and their buyers. People often struggle to come up with content to populate their blogs which can be harmful in more ways than one can imagine. Remember, consumers come first, honesty isn't optional, and deception is always exposed. Here is a short list included in the New Rules of Marketing and PR to think about ethics and blogging:
-Transparency. You should never pretend to be someone you are not.
-Privacy. Unless you've been given permission, don't blog about something that was disclosed to you.
-Disclosure. It is important to disclose anything that people might consider a conflict of interest in a blog post.
-Truthfulness. Don't lie.
-Credit. You should always give credit to bloggers (and other sources) whose material you have used in your blog. Besides being good ethical practice, links to other bloggers whose ideas you have used helps to introduce them to your blog and they may link to you.
Using these rules as a guideline for your blog will provide yourself with the benefit of having a clean, well-kept blog.

Groundswell

The information from the book Groundswell revolves around a strategic perspective on the use of new media in the marketplace which was created through the advancement in Internet technologies. The new media has weakened the control that businesses had on its customers with regards to production, operations, and markets. Today, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube have enabled people to create, connect, collaborate, react to each other, organize content, and accelerate consumption, which puts the customer in more control than any business thought was possible.

The authors of the Groundswell created a model for developing a new media strategy called the POST model. POST stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology.

People- what are your customers ready for? How will your customers engage?

Objectives- what are your goals? Listening(research), Talking(marketing), Energizing(sales), Supporting(support), and Embracing(development). By starting with an objective and you can create your groundswell strategy and tap into the power of the groundswell. Listening is referred to as learning what your customers are saying. People are talking about companies and if they listen, that information flows back into the organization which will enable them to better serve their customers. Talking refers to the two way conversations that take place. You send your messages out, hear what comes back, and you also see if your messages are reverberating out in the groundswell. Talking lets people spread the message of an organization through social networks. You can also communicate directly with your customers and monitor the information that is coming back- blogging. Blogs are a highly effective strategy that yields important information from the consumers to any business. Energizing is helping your best customers to recruit other people. Businesses can send a message out to their customers, they get excited about it and tell other people, which also gets them excited about products. This chain reaction goes on and on and on through various forms of social networking. Supporting enables your customers to support each other. This objective is all about saving money. If you can enable your customers to support each other in forums, this takes away the need for customers to call your business and ask questions. Embracing involves customers in the product development stages. 

Strategy- How do you want relationships with your customers to change? 

Technology- What applications should you build?

The POST strategy can be summed up by listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing your customers. Using the new media will enable your business to accomplish all of these tasks, and success is sure to follow. 

Using News Releases To Reach Your Buyers

When writing news releases its crucial to write for your buyers because those are the people that will be purchasing your products. In the new world of marketing, its important to be active and write news releases all the time that have high quality content which shows the audience that your an expert in the industry and a trusted resource to turn to. The New Rules of News Releases are helpful when considering what and when you should make a news release. They are as follows:

-Don't just send news releases when "big news" is happening; find good reasons to send them all the time.

-Instead of just targeting a handful of journalists, create news releases that appeal directly to your buyers.

-Write releases that are replete with keyword-rich copy.

-Include offers that compel consumers to respond to your release in some way.

-Place links in releases to deliver potential customers to landing pages on your Web site.

-Optimize news release delivery for searching and browsing.

-Add social media tags for Technorati, DIGG, and del.icio.us so your release will be found.

-Drive people into the sales process with news releases.

Simultaneously posting releases to your own Web site and news release wires such as Yahoo!, Google, and Lycos will ensure that they will reach hundreds of Web sites, countless people, and it will be indexed by the news search engines and vertical market sites. Creating links on your news releases is also important because it will give people the ability to navigate from your news release to the specific content on your web site so they can purchase your products. Your buyers are important so give them the information they need to purchase your products and do it often!

Linking Thought Leadership Content into the Sales Cycle

After you have given your potential customers content that will be useful for solving their problems and answering their questions, you need to provide content that will draw buyers into the sales cycle. Providing detailed information about your products and services that will benefit the buyer will be useful in pushing the buyer further along the sales cycle. Also, when designing your website you need to have easy-to-use mechanisms that someone can "click" on to directly link them from the content about the product or service to where they can purchase the items to finalize the purchase and enter their credit card information, shipping address, etc. Now hold on a moment, just because the buyer finalizes the purchase doesn't mean that the sales cycle is over. You still need to continue that relationship with the customer so they will come back and purchase more goods and services. Adding that customer to your e-mail newsletter, encouraging customers to give feedback, and providing customers with ways to interact with your company and other customers on your website will all turn out beneficial. All of these tactics are critical to the success of your company.

Developing Thought Leadership Content

 "The New Rules of Marketing and PR tell us to stop advertising and instead get our ideas out there by understanding buyers and telling them the stories that connect with their problems" (Scott p.141).Why go through the effort of writing information on a webpage about your company and your products? That is boring and above all ineffective. People already know about your products and your company, which is why they are visiting your website in the first place! The important thing to remember when trying to capture a buyer is to help them solve their problems. Give your customers something they can value- give them solutions to their problems, answer questions that they might have, and most of all show them that you are trustworthy and worth doing business with. Remember, you are not writing for yourself so think of the customer when trying to write thoughtful content. Make it interesting and provide stories of how your products will help the customer.

In chapter 11 of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Scott gives a perfect example of developing content for the buyer. It would be wise for a marketer at a tire manufacturer to write about or make a video of how to drive safe in the winter. Just saying that you should buy model FTL 3000 Extra Grip tries will be ineffective. Promoting this ad on your website would be useful for the customers. By providing content that helps the buyer solve their problems (driving safe in the snow) you captured their attention and they can find a product that is useful for them.

Super Bowl Ads and Social Media

Its crazy to think about how big of change the social media has made for marketing strategies. In the past, there was no way that any company was going to release their new commercials before it was shown during the Super Bowl. This year, Volkswagen, Pepsi Max, and Doritos  released their Super Bowl commercials on YouTube, Facebook, and were talking about them on Twitter. If someone heard about a company doing this years ago, they would think that they were crazy and were wasting their millions on their 30 second TV spot. However, other companies (such as Anheuser-Bush) viewed these marketing promotions as a hit, a new strategy, and its viral. In only five days Volkswagen was able to rack up 13 million views  from its 1 minute long commercial before the kickoff of the Super Bowl! Quite impressive. The new rules of marketing and pr have defiantly changed and its once again backed up by the strategies that companies are taking during the biggest advertising day of the year, the Super Bowl. It's going to be quite an exciting week before the Super Bowl in 2012 as more and more companies begin to make the switch, releasing their BEST commercial of the year days before kickoff.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

While reading the chapter titled  Forums, Wikis, and Your Targeted Audience I came across situation for a company Sony BMG and thought the information regarding that company was very interesting and important. What was important for Sony BMG and for every organization is how critical it is to respond quickly to situations as they unfold on the web. Reacting quickly and honestly in the online forums, blogs, etc, where the discussions take place is critical to enhancing the value your customers receive which ultimately builds a stronger relationship with their customers. Customers will comment and tell their story to anyone who is willing to read what they have to say and the internet is the perfect place for that. Since their are so many niche topics and wonderful search filters, anyone can find a topic that is suitable for them. A company will not be able to completely turn a negative situation into a positive one, however, they will be instantly seen as a real person who gives a name and a personality to a large organization. Just by participating in the discussion about their company  they can contribute to making the situation right. The internet's unlimited power will link that post to multiple places and ensure that anyone who is eager to read articles about that company will see that post and know that this entity really does care about their customers, not only up until the point of purchase, but even after the fact, further continuing and building a stronger relationship. The important point I am making is that the company spoke out as a person, an individual face that cares about its customers.
"The internet is like a massive focus group with uninhibited customers offering up their thoughts for free!" (Scott p. 81) Companies have the ability and should chose to either read or participate in these discussions. Just by having a presence on blogs, or any other form of online discussion shows that that company cares about the people that are spending money on their organizations products. The web enables new opportunities for organizations to engage in everyday...