9 Proven Ways for Businesses to Attract Attention on Pinterest

By now you’ve probably heard plenty about Pinterest — the new social media platform that acts like a virtual pinboard. Pinterest lets users pull photos and other content from the web to “pin” on their own “board,” organizing their favorite online content and making it all easily shareable.

America’s now 3rd most popular social media darling at 104 Million visits in March 2012, behind Facebook (700 Billion visits) and Twitter (182 Million), can also be an attractive proposition for small businesses who want to get the word out about their products.

Source: Experian Hitwise

Why You Can’t Afford To Ignore Pinterest:  

• Pinterest grew to 10 million users faster than any other independent website in history.
• According to Mashable.com, most users are spending more time on Pinterest than Facebook.
• Nearly 12 million monthly unique visitors.
• Daily users have increased by more than 145% since the start of 2012

Here’s What Pinterest Can Do For Your Business:

• Drive a massive and consistant stream of quality traffic to your site.
• Sends quality traffic that can turn into more sales.  In the last six months, the retail deal site ideeli.com has seen a 446% increase in traffic from Pinterest and sales resulting from those visits have increased by 500%.
• Provides a platform to establish your credibility, build relationships with prospective customers, and become a leader in your industry. 

“A Pinterest board is a screamingly obvious setup for an online catalog.

Click a Photo and Jump to a Page where you can buy it.”

New York Times



Here are nine proven ways to attract the attention of your target market, improve your click-throughs, and spread the word about a new product or service:

  

1. Spend the time

Like any social network, and maybe even more with this demographic, Pinterest.com requires an investment in time. Jason White, who owns Quality Woven Labels, says one key is to build relationships with those who are known for quality “pins” at the site. He says, once these movers and shakers get to know you and your business, they will be more likely to post about your product. White says to focus on the users who get the most likes and repins.

  

"All of these repins and likes share a common interest, making it easier to take the conversation to Twitter or Facebook to nurture the relationship," he says. "Like everything else, be real and show your true self. Authenticity is hugely important."

  

2. Keep it simple

The main appeal of Pinterest is that the site is exceptionally easy to use. Everyone has a “board” where they pin images that are all the same size. Hana Abaza, the co-founder and CEO of Wedding Republic, says it's best to mimic Pinterest's uncluttered aesthetic, so she creates boards that are clean and elegant looking. Each pinned photo includes one link back to her site (you click once to see the pin page, and again to see the source site). Abaza says Pinterest dramatically boosted page views. Through her social media efforts she saw a 75 percent increase in traffic, with Pinterest generating most of that.

  

3. Connect your physical presence with your online presence

It’s important to connect the dots between a physical location and your Pinterest page. Becca Bijoch does public relations for the Minneapolis store Creative Kidstuff. Often the physical store will feature online ads and Pinterest promotions. Soon the company website will feature Pinterest buttons. So far, the campaign has yielded about 150 extra page views directly from Pinterest and two direct sales. Not astounding, but that's only after using the site for about 30 days.

  

4. Make sure your business is a match

This tip might seem obvious, but Pinterest caters to those looking for recipes, room décor, and do-it-yourself crafts - those businesses that flourish leveraging high-impact images. If your company sells power sanders, you might not be a good fit. Quality Woven Labels, which makes tags for custom clothing, has been able to use Pinterest to connect with the perfect demographic: independent fashion designers.

Pinterest also has a higher female to male demographic.  Some estimate a 60/40 split.

  

5. Use other social nets to feed Pinterest

The new kid on the block may be getting all of the hype, but existing social networks have one advantage: a vast number of users. Justin Palmer, the online awareness director at Sevenly, a custom T-Shirt shop, says to get the most number of eyeballs his company uses Tumblr and Facebook to point people to Pinterest.

Integrated marketing is key to all you do!

  

6. Launch a daily pin theme

Sevenly has created a daily pin to promote its brand. The idea is to come up with a catchy slogan that is tied to the organization's charity work and memorable enough so that the images get re-pinned. The daily themed pins usually lead to repeat visitors. Sevenly also posts a weekly custom-designed t-shirt, which is often re-pinned by other Pinterest users. Bonus: They come back often looking for the new one.

  

7. Promote more than products

The temptation for any business is to post pins only for products you sell. Giselle Gonzalez is a promoter for Cakestyle, a company that makes wardrobe suggestions for women, and says one key is to post interesting news tidbits, tips, and products from other companies. She says Pinterest users are savvy in spotting a board that is too self-serving and only posts product photos.

  

8. Follow the big hitters

One of the best ways to raise awareness about your company is to start following the big names on Pinterest. This is the proven method on Twitter: When you follow popular figures, and they follow you back, other Twitter users get the message and follow the leader. Sevenly’s Palmer says it’s important to find out who is “pinning” your products and to follow them to see if they follow you back. Most do, he says.

  

9. Selective curating

Pinterest caters to those who love to “curate” or weed out the good from the bad. Presenza, a custom clothing designer, finds unique products beyond their own offering and pins them. The company also uses key phrases on their board like “made in the USA” and “defining confidence” to help define the brand.

Given the current media landscape, PHANTOM POWER is highly adept at reprioritizing marketing initiatives to meet the changing priorities of target audience behavior.  We stay ahead of the trends to get your message heard via multiple channels. 

PHANTOM POWER

Marketing by Design

www.phantompower.co   

7 Unwritten Rules Of Social Media

Social media seems easy especially because the barrier to entry is low. You can be up and running on any social media platform in minutes, and usually for free. In reality, social media is hard for exactly the same reason. When the barrier to entry is low, the barrier to attention is high.

The fundamental path to succeeding with social media is to consistently contribute meaningfully—engaging with you should make the lives of those engaging more meaningful. The bonus would be to achieve this without adding costs to the others.

As you think through your social media strategy, here are seven unwritten rules of social media.

1. Connection does not imply permission
Many social networks make it easy for you to connect with anyone. You can follow someone on Twitter, Quora or Google Plus without needing their permission to do that. A small percentage of them might follow you back. If they do, you have a two-way connection. Don’t confuse the two-way connection as permission to interrupt them. You need to build a relationship and there is no shortcut for that.

2. Access does not imply entitlement
When you connect with someone on a social network and start engaging with them, you have access. Don’t assume that they owe you something because you are now engaging them on social media.

3. Activity is not productivity
The barrier to create content on a social network is virtually non-existent. This means that you can write whatever you want irrespective of whether it makes sense or not. You can get extremely busy with social media— trying to post anything and everything. In your enthusiasm to share, you might drop the quality of what you share and that’s when the problem starts—people will silently start to ignore you.

4. More is not better
When what you write about is a hit for some reason, you tend to end up doing more of it on social media forgetting that everything has a lifecycle of its own. What’s hot today may not stay hot tomorrow and what’s hot tomorrow may not stay hot. So trying to do more of what works does not guarantee success—you need to adapt all the time.

5. Reciprocation is optional
Don’t do anything with an expectation that someone will reciprocate back. Equal actions don’t create equal impact on social media. Say you have a 1,000 followers and you share something from another person who has 10,000 followers. Expecting him to share something from you would mean you are expecting someone to give back ten times of what you gave them.

6. Amplification without accomplishment is futile
Social media is a great amplifier. But fundamentals of mathematics are always at play. You can multiply zero with anything and the result will still be zero. You need relevant accomplishments as the foundation and social media can help amplify them. Sans accomplishments, it’s hard to amplify. Unless your business is to make money with social media, you have to get out of social media and spend time on building some meaningful accomplishments. Once you have them, you can use those to extend your influence using social media.

7. Engagement without enrichment is not effective
You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you. When you enrich someone, you make their life more meaningful—at home or at work or in both places. Social media provides an excellent opportunity enrich people’s lives. Engagement for the sake of engagement can only make you get tired. Engage with an intention to enrich and you will not only win with social media but also makes this world a better place.

How do you contribute meaningfully to the social media-sphere?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/  

How to Measure and Grow your Social Media Reach

Social Reach is the total number of individuals across all social platforms you engage who actively follow (fans, followers, subscribers) your company. For example, a company with 10,000 Facebook fans, 5,000 Twitter followers and 1,000 YouTube subscribers has a total Social Reach of 16,000.

A company’s Social Reach drives the level of benefit for all social media efforts. Most companies are engaged on multiple social channels, but how many social channels are enough? There are no hard and fast rules, but the experts agree that companies should participate in as many social channels as possible - as long as their target customers can be found there and sufficient resources can be dedicated to ensure high-quality execution in all chosen channels.

Jason Falls, principal at Social Media Explorer, explains, “Companies need to prioritize social media channels by how extensively these channels are being used by a company’s target audience. Every company needs to grow their reach - this is the foundation on which to share content over time.”

Andrew Patterson, manager of new media at MLB Advanced Media, says that “the decision on number of social media channels for a company is contextual. What is important is how consistent you are with engaging in a social media channel. You can’t be there one day and gone the next. If you have the resources to be consistent across multiple channels, then by all means do it. But if you spread yourself too thin, you will end up disappointing your fans and followers and jeopardizing your social marketing initiative.”

Social Platforms of Choice

Facebook, Twitter, and the use of landing pages and company blogs are the leading platform choices for brands of all sizes, with a growing number of companies reporting planned integration of YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr and Foursquare in 2011.

Best-in-class companies use three to four social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) vs. the average company, which is using less than two social media platforms. Best-in-class companies also have multiple channels within each social media platform as shown in the next two graphs.

Measuring Social Reach

To measure your company’s Social Reach, you need to measure the number of total social profiles you have accumulated across all of your social media platforms.

Use that initial Social Reach to measure your Social Reach Velocity – your Social Reach Velocity is your ability to grow your Social Reach with social marketing over time.

How are you measuring your social efforts?  What platforms prove most effective for you?  Have you ever considered Social Velocity?


PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
www.phantompower.co

10 Reasons Why Twitter Is So Popular

I was pondering today why the social networking site  Twitter is so incredibly popular. So I thought I would Google it and read what others are saying about Twitter. Surprisingly I couldn’t find much out there so I wrote down some thoughts and it wasn’t long before I came up with the following reasons for Twitter's popularity.

Everyone seems to love lists so here are my 10 reasons why I think Twitter is so popular.

1. Twitter is so darned easy to use - period. No further explanation is required. 
2. It’s a lot easier to get Twitter followers than it is to get Blog newsfeed subscribers. 
3. Twitter is a complete no-brainer. Absolutely no technical know-how is needed. Just open an account and start tweeting. 
4. It’s an excuse for being a bad writer. Because of Twitter’s 140 character limitation you can be excused for bad judgement grammar and abusing abbreviations. 
5. Twitter makes you feel like you are a part of something greater than yourself. You never have to feel alone again.
6. For the ‘always-connected’ generation Twitter keeps you in contact with all of your ‘friends’ no matter where you are. When you are mobile and on-the-go it’s like a free conference text-messaging service in your cell phone.
7. Having lots of so-called Twitter “friends” makes you feel you are popular. How else can you make a lot of friends as quickly? Where else can you find an audience interested in what you ate for dinner and threw up later?
8. Is there a better way to keep in touch with your favorite celebrities? Twitter is an instant social fan club. You can write to them and they (or their entourage) might respond. You can almost reach out and touch them. Do you feel the love?
9. Similarly, if you follow your favorite a-lister they will probably reciprocate and follow you back. Wow! Is Howard Stern really tweeting?  He really is the King of All Media.
10. Twitter is a great way to pretend being someone’s friend so you can sell them something later. Backdoor marketing for the new media age. 

Perhaps you have your own reasons for Twitter’s popularity. Did I miss anything?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

101 Small Business Marketing Activities

One universal small business goal is to sell the business's products and services. This is usually best accomplished by positioning the business in front of the target audience, and offering something they can't refuse or find elsewhere.

To this end, one of the smartest things a small business owner can do for their business is take the time to develop a small business marketing plan that will set them apart from the competition. A marketing plan clearly outlines how you will reach your ideal customers by effectively implementing your marketing strategy.

There are thousands of ways you can promote your small business. With the right mix of activities, you can identify and focus on the most effective marketing tactics for your small business. Here is a list of 101 small business marketing ideas to get you thinking about all of the different ways you can promote your business.

Do you have an idea of your own not listed here? Add it under Comments.

Marketing Planning

1. Update or create a marketing plan for your business.
2. Revisit or start your marketing research.
3. Conduct a focus group.
4. Write a unique selling proposition (USP).
5. Refine your target audience and niche.
6. Expand your product and service offerings.

Marketing Materials

7. Update your business cards.
8. Make your business card stand out from the rest.
9. Create or update your brochure.
10. Create a digital version of your brochure for your website.
11. Explore a website redesign.
12. Get creative with promotional products and give them away at the next networking event you attend.

In-Person Networking

13. Write an elevator pitch.
14. Register for a conference.
15. Introduce yourself to other local business owners.
16. Plan a local business workshop.
17. Join your local chamber of commerce.
18. Rent a booth at a trade show.

Direct Mail

19. Launch a multi-piece direct mail campaign.
20. Create multiple approaches, and split test your mailings to measure impact.
21. Include a clear and enticing call to action on every direct mail piece.
22. Use tear cards, inserts, props and attention-getting envelopes to make an impact with your mailings.
23. Send past customers free samples and other incentives to regain their business.

Advertising

24. Advertise on the radio.
25. Advertise in the Yellow Pages.
26. Advertise on a billboard.
27. Use stickers or magnets to advertise on your car.
28. Take out an ad in your local newspaper.
29. Advertise on a local cable TV station.
30. Advertise on Facebook.
31. Advertise on LinkedIn.
32. Buy ad space on a relevant website.
33. Use a sidewalk sign to promote your specials.

Social Media Marketing

34. Get started with social media for business.
35. Create a Facebook page.
36. Get a vanity URL or username for your Facebook page.
37. Create a Twitter account.
38. Reply or retweet someone else on Twitter.
39. Setup a Foursquare account for your business.
40. List your business on Google Places.
41. Start a business blog.
42. Write blog posts on a regular basis.
43. Start social bookmarking your online content.
44. Create a Groupon.

Internet Marketing

45. Start a Google Adwords pay-per-click campaign.
46. Start a Microsoft adCenter pay-per-click campaign.
47. Comment on a blog post.
48. Record a video blog post.
49. Upload a video to YouTube.
50. Check your online directory listings and get listed in desirable directories.
51. Set up Google Analytics on your website and blog.
52. Review and measure your Google Analytics statistics.
53. Register a new domain name for a marketing campaign or a new product or service.
54. Learn more about local search marketing.
55. Track your online reputation.
56. Sign up for the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) email list.

Email Marketing

57. Create an email opt-in on your website or blog.
58. Offer a free download or free gift to make people willing to add their email address to your list.
59. Send regular emails to your list.
60. Start a free monthly email newsletter.
61. Use A/B testing to measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
62. Perfect your email signature.
63. Add audio, video and social sharing functionality to your emails.

Contests, Coupons and Incentives

64. Start a contest.
65. Create a coupon.
66. Create a "frequent buyer" rewards program.
67. Start a client appreciation program.
68. Create a customer of the month program.
69. Give away a free sample.
70. Start an affiliate program.

Relationship Building

71. Send out a customer satisfaction survey.
72. Ask for referrals.
73. Make a referral.
74. Help promote or volunteer your time for a charity event.
75. Sponsor a local sports team.
76. Cross-promote your products and services with other local businesses.
77. Join a professional organization.
78. Plan your next holiday promotion.
79. Plan holiday gifts for your best customers.
80. Send birthday cards to your clients.
81. Approach a colleague about a collaboration.
82. Donate branded prizes for local fundraisers.
83. Become a mentor.

Marketing with Content

84. Plan a free teleconference or webinar.
85. Record a podcast.
86. Write a press release.
87. Submit your press release to various distribution channels.
88. Rewrite your sales copy with a storytelling spin.
89. Start writing a book.

Marketing Help

90. Hire a marketing consultant.
91. Hire a public relations professional.
92. Hire a professional copywriter.
93. Hire a search engine marketing firm.
94. Hire an intern to help with daily marketing tasks.
95. Hire a sales coach or salesperson.

Unique Marketing Ideas

96. Get a branded tattoo.
97. Create a business mascot to help promote your brand.
98. Take a controversial stance on a hot industry topic.
99. Pay for wearable advertising.
100. Get a full-body branded paint job done on your company vehicle.
101. Sign up for online business training to revamp, expand and fine tune all of your marketable skills.

There are many more than 101 small business marketing ideas. Do you have an idea not listed here? Add your small business marketing idea to the list.

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
www.phantompower.co  

Contributions by Alyssa Gregory

10 Keys to More Effective Social Media Marketing

A recent Econsultancy report revealed that 86% of more than 800 companies surveyed plan social media budget bumps in the coming year.  Clearly, social media marketing (SMM) is working its way into company marketing plans more than ever.  SMM is just as important to the smaller company looking rto market more on a shoestring as it is to a large one.  SMM gives businesses of any size an equal voice (or at least the chance to compete equally), which is something that traditional marketing doesn’t offer.

Studies have shown that even more so than television, today’s consumers are turning to blogs and social networking sites for the latest news, reviews, and opinions.  Your customers want to have a relationship with you.  They’re blogging about their favorite products and live-tweeting customer service experiences, for better or worse.

10 Keys to More Effective Social Media Marketing:

1.  Find out where your customers (and competitors) are and set up shop.

Odds are, your customers are already discussing your brand on social networks, whether you’re aware of it or not.  Just do a few simple Google, Facebook, or Twitter searches on your brand or product names to find out who’s talking about it and where.  Prioritize your social media efforts by giving the most attention to the places where buzz about your brand is the heaviest.

2.  Build one-on-one relationships.

It’s a simple concept, but one many companies fail to grasp.  By its very nature, social media marketing is about communicating and connecting with individual users, not one-way messaging to the masses.  Marketing your brand takes the form of meaningful conversations, answering questions, sharing information, giving honest feedback, and reaching out to potential advocates.

3.  Put a human face on it.

Social media is not about communicating behind a nameless, faceless logo.  People want to know who they’re interacting with; that there’s a real person behind the wheel, flaws and all.

4.  Engage through content.

If you plan to get serious about social media marketing, know that it requires constant care and feeding, and that feeding comes most often in the form of content: industry news, how-to videos, new product previews or reviews, unique offers, podcasts, tweets from conferences, and other brand-centric content that keeps followers interested.

5.  Keep it current.

Though blog posts, videos, and other forms of content can have a long shelf life, social media marketing is very much about the here and now.  What’s current?  What are the issues facing your industry?  What’s making news?  Can you influence the news?  What can we comment upon and answer questions about?  The more in-the-moment you can engage, the higher your visibility is likely to be, and visibility is the flashy lure that attracts more fish.

6.  Be realistic about resources.

Know that all of this content, care and feeding will require a lot of time and commitment.  Don’t bit off more than you can chew.  An untended social media effort feels half-baked to users and is almost worse than having none at all.

7.  Set actionable goals and have a plan.

Regardless of who within your organization handles the day-to-day social media, their efforts should be led by specific goals.  How much time will they commit to social media marketing?  How often will they interact within each community or channel?  What will it take to generate new content?  Set objectives, develop action plans, and track milestones for measuring progress.  We recently announced the launch of our new Social Media Strategy service, which helps brands do exactly that.

8.  Proactively monitor reactions to your brand.

This kind of “reputation management” gives you a window into what people are saying about your company, your industry, your products, and even competitors.  Monitoring can be as simple as setting up Google Alerts, and there are many free or low-cost social media monitoring tools.  There’s no shortage of paid, more robust solutions, either, which are a must for big brands and large organizations.

9.  Measure your efforts.

Yes, social media marketing can be measured!  Start by looking at your web analytics and focusing on things like traffic from social media sources and engagement metrics.  Once you have established goals, (see #7) you’ll know better what tools will help you measure those outcomes.

10.  Learn from your experiences.

Social media marketing requires a lot of changing on the fly.  Be prepared to adapt your action plan to the results you’re getting (or not getting).  Don’t think of poor results as failure because with social media marketing, you need to be learning all the time—even when things don’t turn out exactly as you’d have liked them to.

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
www.phantompower.co

Source: Web Ad.vantage

RIP Cold CallingSurvived by Social Networking

Cold calling has been served notice, a new era beckons and with it an altogether different way of working. Social networking has arrived and will soon replace cold calling as the predominant method of prospecting in business.

I know many people will think that there is no replacement for activity, specifically picking up the phone. Yet, no matter how intelligent you are about cold calling, it is what it is – speculative, scatter gun selling, not to mention costly and increasingly ineffective.

Consider the following data I found online...

In a test which spent an equal amount of time cold calling and using social media (9 AM - 5:30 PM; M - F).

Cold Calling Results

• Outbound calls made 325
• Meaningful conversations (pitches) and brand touches 80
• Meetings made 4
• Sales made (as a direct result of cold calling) 0

These are average conversion ratios for time spent but it comes with much overhead.

Social Media Results

• Inbound calls generated 8
• Meetings as result of inbound calls 3
• Sales as a result of inbound calls 2
• Brand touches (from site statistics unique views of content) 422
• Visitors to sales associate's blog Subscribers (RSS) to sales associate's content 27
• People following sales associate's Twitter 12
• New contacts 71 (on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeCanDo.BIZ, etc)
• Listeners to sales associate's Podcast 83
• Opportunities to sell found 21
• Online conversations had 39
• Warm call list (names generated expecting a call) 11

The cost of the social networking blitz to find new business opportunities, other than time and internet connection are small, if anything at all. Most importantly 2 sales were closed, covering any cost associated with the activity and generating a very healthy return.

The central question, however, is do modern-day sales people have the level of skill required to conduct a social media campaign individually? The simple answer is no. Not all salespeople will have the necessary skills, but having a skills gap is nothing new on the sales floor otherwise we wouldn’t have the multi-million pound training industry!

Can the skills be taught quickly and cost effectively? Yes. I have always taught people that sales is a process: follow steps one through five to achieve your aims. Social media networking can be processed as well, giving salespeople clear guidelines on the ‘how to’ and ‘how not to’. We spend millions every year teaching salespeople to cold call better, use the latest CRM (customer relationship management) system, be better team players and so on; and so it must come to pass that companies will need to train all staff to be ‘social media savvy’ as it extends far beyond just sales – marketing and service need to be in on the picture as well. 

Naysayers?... Agreed, updating your Facebook page with pictures of the weekend, playing silly games, nudging or poking other people is not the best use of your company’s time. But creating engaging, thought-provoking, discussion-opening content, centred around your products or services is. 

Social media networking will reduce dependence on cold calling. I am not saying it will eradicate the need for the telephone – that perhaps is to bold an idea. But I am certain it will become the first step in prospecting for new business.

What kind of results are you seeing when you pin Cold Calling vs. Social Networking?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
www.phantompower.co

Twitter... Are You Missing The Boat?

If you tuned into The Apprentice Sunday, March 8, you would have watched the "boys and girls" come up with a new slogan for Zappos. The CEO of www.zappos.com was the judge and selected the "gals" proposal. 

What stunned me, while watching the show, I happened to Tweet @zappos, and got a reply within 3 minutes. What I didn't realize at the time, that it was the CEO Tony Hsieh, sending me a message. 

Whats remarkable, here is a CEO of a $1B company, watching with the rest of us, probably his biggest marketing exposure (and expense) on national TV and he is on Twitter, tweeting to anyone that sends a message. 

How many CEO's of $1B companies do you know, that even know what a Tweet is, actually use it and are using it to their corporate advantage?

So are you missing the boat?

I became a fan of The Apprentice early on in the series. As a marketer I found it interesting to see so many promising young professional spread their marketing wings at the many tasks surrounding such high-end brands.

I saw the Zappos.com Celebrity Apprentice episode. I am struggling as a fan of the show with the Celebrity episodes as these individuals are not marketers and it is so painful to watch them fumble through fundamental marketing challenges.

I’ve seen Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, featured many times before and find his business plan completely refreshing. It is no doubt that his emphasis on customer service and corporate culture is responsible for his huge success as a brand and, ultimately, their sales growth of 1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008. I did find, however, that the show was either edited poorly or the part he played in the “RFP” process was below par. He did not discuss the target consumer at all, rather, broad stroking it; and, although he did mention customer service, I do not feel he placed appropriate emphasis on this core competency given its direct relationship to their success. (Note: I am a loyal Zappos consumer because of their customer service.)

Many companies are looking for guidance with branding on Twitter. To begin with, they need to know how to use Twitter, what it’s all about, who should handle Twitter (marketing sales, PR,) who to follow, etc.

Then to the question: Should the CEO or business owner also have a Twitter profile? This is a great question and one that takes some time and thought. Good social media consultants will tell you that social media marketing requires a strategy – and it’s not necessarily the type of “boiler plate” marketing strategy companies may be used to.

This key question – should the CEO (and other key management) have a Twitter profile to be part of the social media strategy?

Tony Hsieh is a highly visible CEO on Twitter right now (his profile is Zappos.com CEO.) This strategy blends the brand. This is definitely a trend we’ll be seeing more of. Tony even posted a Beginner’s Guide that can be helpful to business owners and entrepreneurs:

http://twitter.zappos.com/start 

It is important to know that while good personal branding involves self-promotion, there’s more to it. The social media world is all about “Give to Get” and engaging in two-way conversations. The value comes from not what you are doing; rather it comes from what you are thinking and sharing. It is about conversations and building relationships; not hard sell marketing, broadcasting or ego-driven tweets.

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/

What is The Social Funnel?...

And Why You Need to Build One.

Social media channels increasing the venues of choice for consumers to collect information and connect with brands, presents a strategic opportunity for companies to create a “Social Funnel” above the traditional marketing and sales funnel – where consumers take the lead in finding information and content that ultimately drives brand preference and sales.
 
In Winning the Consumer Decision Journey, McKinsey & Company’s David Court shares that, in the new social and digital age, “the path to purchase and loyalty is now complex, iterative, and dynamic.” In this new environment, creating a Social Funnel allows brands to identify and have access to buyers long before the buying process begins.

The Social Funnel Defined

The Social Funnel is a dynamic collection of consumer activity across social media channels, which sits on top of the traditional marketing and sales funnel. Developing a Social Funnel requires a systematic process of identifying and capturing consumer interactions across a variety of social media channels, aggregating this activity in a social customer relationship management (SCRM) infrastructure, and continually mining this insight to deliver relevant content to the right social profile at the right time. The chart below describes the Social Funnel and its tie to the traditional marketing and sales funnel:

To be effective, Social Funnels need to be tightly integrated with traditional customer relationship management (CRM) systems to create a 360-degree view of a prospect to allow marketers to nurture this relationship over time using a combination of social and traditional, experts agree that this integration holds a lot of potential. “Integrating social deeper into existing CRMs is going to be very popular in 2011 – we expect to see a growing number of brands tying customer records to public social profiles and bread crumbs”, says Nathaniel Perez, head of social experience at SapientNitro.

The integration of social media with the traditional funnel is one of the key priorities for brands in 2011. Although only 6% of companies today report that they fully integrate social with traditional marketing funnels

David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for digital marketing agency 360i, agrees but tempers things by saying that “we are still early in the process but tying social profiles to CRM systems will be big.”

We see a growing number of companies starting to tie social profiles to their CRM systems. As this process continues to evolve, we expect to see social media becoming more of a critical component throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Systems that support the integration of social with CRM will increase in adoption over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, giving organizations the ability to seamlessly combine data from multiple systems easily and efficiently.

 

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
http://www.phantompower.co/


Source: MarketingSherpa Benchmark Report: 2011 Social Media Marketing

Achieving The Coveted:Viral Marketing

Viral campaigns yield the highest ROI... Information about your product spreads naturally, like a contagious disease... only a good one...

I once read up on the 5 C’s of viral marketing:Community, Compelling, Comedy, Charity, and Contest

Let's talk Community...

We all know that viral marketing in the social media space is all about communities. In fact, I would argue that communities play a larger role than most people think, both online and offline. They can build a brand, kill a brand, make a career, break a career, influence elections, etc. Think about it; from an offline perspective, life is community driven through PTA organizations, church groups, sports leagues, stay-at-home mommy groups, and various school organizations (sororities, fraternities) to name a few. And of course online, you have Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin, Digg, Stumbledupon and hundreds of other social media sites jumping in the scene daily.

Within each of these online/offline communities consumers are talking and having conversations with each other. And, they are sharing opinions, experiences, advice, recommendations and commentary about products, services and companies usually based on real personal experience.

THIS IS VIRAL MARKETING.

The challenge with viral marketing is that it’s not always viral, if that makes any sense... Often, marketers plan for and label their marketing plans as “viral” but 9 times out of 10, it never catches on. It’s the things that just happen by accident that become viral. Remember the Diet Coke and Mentos video? At first, Coca-Cola distanced themselves from the exploding Diet Coke and Mentos viral video phenomenon, fearing it would damage their reputation and brand; however, just recently that have fully embraced the concept and now there are over 7,000 consumer generated videos on YouTube, millions of pageviews, hundreds of comments, and favored by thousands of fans. The community here is not only the millions of YouTube enthusiasts, but also the micro-communities of people and their offline conversations about these videos.

So, while I do believe it is impossible to craft a viral campaign, you can certainly try to influence one:

• Formulate your marketing message.  Think about the product or service you are advertising and create a message that communicates the benefits and uses of what you are selling.  A website is nonnegotiable.  
• Make the content on your website sharable. For example, you can allow readers to embed a funny video from your website onto their own blogs. An "email this article to your friend" link is another way information spreads from one person to another.
• Use email as a viral marketing tool. Include a marketing message about your product or service in the tag lines of your emails and also include your advertising message in auto responder emails you send to those who email you.
• Post your content on other Internet sites such as message boards and blogs. However, do this carefully; many forum managers are now aware of this practice and may delete your messages if they think it's spam.
• Incorporate your marketing message into rich media. Video clips and Flash games are very popular on the Internet, so if you have a great idea for this medium your message will spread like wildfire.
• Spread your message off line as well. Tell your friends and colleagues about your product or service and hand them business cards with the URL on them along with a catchy tag line, perhaps the same one you use in your emails.

What are you doing to boost your buzz factor?

PHANTOM POWER
Marketing by Design
www.phantompower.co