Outsource My Social Media Marketing

The common thread of social media marketers is that they connect with the world, the people, and their surroundings. These people are connecting, communicating and reach out to others. Always sharing and giving news and ideas. The main interest is other people, always sharing and being active in the interest of others. To be successful in Social Media one must be active in it. Social Media marketers are communicators.

A good Social Media marketer knows the area. Look at it like a map. You must know the layout and the terrain. Understand the products, the people you are reaching out to, understand the industry you are promoting. An expert Social Media marketer must understand the Internet as if they are a member of the community and they know, understand and gain the trust of that community. You will fail if you do not have the working knowledge of customers, markets, and the complete picture of the company’s product. Knowing the Internet, using it most effectively and being able to distribute the information is very important.

Proficiency in the various social web community is the main goal of  a good Social Media marketer. One that connects, an information resource at the same time being very trustful and an active participant, a conversationalist in the social media community.

Ideally, a Social Media marketer, not really “marketer”, is a person with many qualities, Web Marketer, Customer Service and PR combined with genuine enthusiasm, trustfulness (listening, speaking, a conversationalists).

Do not let all of the tools, peer pressures, and work get in the way of the big picture, our morals and knowledge that develop significant and gratifying associations. As an expert in Social Media, we must have the ability to conclude which networks are pertinent to the product/service we represent. And why, how and when to fit into place.

The conclusion, those who find the most success in the social media marketing territory are those who are seriously networked and make certain that continue constant associations is part of their everyday routine.

Word of the mouth might not be enough if an effective networking has to be achieved. This is done with an active assistance of networking tools such as social book marking, video and photo sharing websites and an engagement with blogs which share the content through the use of RSS in the blogosphere. Other special blog engines which perform in the same way like Technorati are especially popular with the younger lot. Techniques like these help in building new opportunities for the marketers and for even those who are new entrants in this field. Social media optimization is basically, a set of methods for generating publicity through the social media, online communities and community websites. The method is similar to search engine marketing differing though, in a number of ways from it. Actually, the focus is on driving traffic from other sources apart from the search engines whereby improved search engine ranking is emphasized.

For those with skepticism towards the latest optimization technique, Rand has something to suggest. He says that awareness should be there because in its absence, one can get a double listing by the competitor. This is made possible by some advanced planning on the competitor’s part to do some ‘virtual drafting’ and thus appear directly behind you. Social media optimization however, has its positive aspects as well. Like Rohit Bharghava, the man behind the coinage of term, explains it in yet simpler way and suggests the implementation of changes to optimize a site. In this way, it is easily linked to more highly visible sites in social media searches on custom search engines such as Technorati. Besides, these changes are introduced frequently in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs. Social media optimization assists in building search engine friendly sites resulting in generation of large traffic. Bookmarking a website is yet another feature that helps in the increased visibility of a webpage.

Social media sites on most of the occasions operate as a magnifying glass, in that they help in tapping into many other links. These links usually flow back helping with the search engine rankings on an increased scale though. Cameron Olthius’ introduction to Social media optimization provides further insight. It is a common knowledge that in SEO method, a single website is present with a common domain rather than its division among various places. An added advantage of having the multiple sites is understood by the SEO whereby a corporate blog and a corporate website double the representation in top search results. Limitations are however, there because of the traffic directed towards your own places. With SMO, one can own multiple sites while they being still valuable to you.

Social media optimization utilizes several methods by which one can advertise their products in an appealing way. Communication is a prominent factor here and besides that, interesting web content still decides the viability of a site. Opinions are expressed freely and other people come to know about your services and products. Here, target audience has to be identified which in turn, facilitates in marketing the services and products offered by the companies. SMO has made the communication between the common people a lot simpler and thus made your business touch the heights you always dream of.

This article is for my class that has introduced me to many new facets of online social media; from Digg to StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Reddit and of course, Facebook and Twitter. A great guide for finding out more about social media or reading the social media policies of companies can be found at http://123socialmedia.com/2009/01/23/social-media-policy-examples/ Another thorough introductory overview of media policy can be found at http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/

A real life example of how social media can be utilized is when a few weeks ago I was looking for a curling iron online and doing a lot of research i.e. reading a ton of user reviews. Before learning about social media marketing I never would have thought twice about my purchasing and research process but now that I have learned about the marketing opportunities presented by social media, it was all to clear that the brand I wound up purchasing, Hot Tools Professional, is ignoring a lot of possibilities and missing a lot of sales opportunities by not being more involved.

All of the reviews for Hot Tool Professional on Amazon and Folica are great, which is the main reason I wound up buying from their company, but in all the searches I performed, there wasn’t a single video result from the actual company which is a major lost opportunity. They could be utilizing websites like YouTube to promote their brand by having professional stylists demonstrate how to use their products or recommend certain products for specific hair types but in the hour or two that I spent on YouTube, although their products were used, I saw no videos put up by the company.

Considering that Hot Tools is widely considered to be one of the best brand of curling irons, not just by reviewers but by professional hair stylists as well, it is such a shame and a major lost opportunity that their website doesn’t even show up in the first 5 pages of Google results! Although they do have a twitter account, even that does not show up on the first 5 search result pages. I feel like the Hot Tools company could be doing a much better job of getting brand exposure and interacting with consumers and potential customers. Another example is their facebook page, they have 142 followers and just one post and nothing under their information section.

This experience is just one small example of how everyday purchases can be influenced by social media and the major opportunities they can present to a company who knows how to utilize them well. For more information on social media, visit http://newmediadl.com and start doing your own research today!

There have been many debates as to whether internet marketing services that use social networking and media sharing web sites to improve search engine optimization really work. Do they actually help your website gain improved search engine rankings? These all have been referred to by terms like social media, social media marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing and web 2.0. Social websites have become the latest craze on the internet and these terms have become the buzz words.

Social media websites and networking web sites offer the website owner a straightforward approach to bond with another community of people who have related points of views or interests like you. Some social networking websites group people with common interests, but some websites are “traditional networking sites” and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. So now how do these websites really operate. In websites like MySpace users share music which was what helped rocket MYspace into the well renown place it is today and in Facebook, users create their personal information that they want shared and use pictures, software programs and audio, videos to display or depict their business environment. In websites like Fastpitch, Joe Popular and Adlandpro the users create product and sale pitches and work with each other. Promotiing your website using these new tools is termed social media marketing.

How can you benefit and improve your search engine optimization ranking by using social media websites? When you use social media marketing and social networking , you have the opportunity to expose your website to a much larger group of people. When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. This is a form of viral marketing that is word of mouth. The additional links means that as you grow these natural links from a large number of relevant websites, your rankings improve in the search engine due to increased organic search traffic.

Another advantage is that search engines programs that roam the web are keen on social media and networking websites and typically go after links on these websites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking websites, your search engine optimization ranking is better and your website site will be indexed quickly. Getting bookmarked from different users and different social media websites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines.

Like it or not, social media websites have become an integral part of the internet because social marketing is easy to do, search engines love social links and hence your business by default will benefit. So if you are engaged in operating a website, and search engine optimization is important then you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media websites for increased traffic. To take advantage of this new method of building business you need to know what steps to perform? Well explore search engine optimization services. Also explore social media marketing and the difference to social networking websites.

It’s a Blog New World. Social media has changed how we communicate. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger.com and dozens of other social media sites have given us a new way to communicate with friends and business colleagues. They have also given us a new vocabulary.  We now “blog” and “tweet” and “text”.  We read “blooks” and “microblogs” and are concerned about “trackbacks.”

But most importantly, social media has given us a new set of communication rules. And if you are a business leader, knowing the ins and outs of communicating in a social media world can be critical to your online reputation and your business presence.  

Here are eight guidelines executives might think about when communicating in this brave new social media world.

1.  Think Eternity. When writing a blog, tweeting, or commenting on any social site, the first thought in your head should be, “These words are permanent.” Will you be proud to see the comments you wrote, let’s say twenty years from now? Comments associated with your name can advance or tarnish your online reputation, so write with an eye to your future.

2.  Think Like Aretha Franklin. Remember her famous song, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”?  No matter what social media you engage with, offering up respectful comments, recognizing and calling-out the efforts of others, and keeping a collaborative mindset will serve you well. It’s also one of the most important brand traits for a business leader.

3.  Think Like Twitter. Few people have the time or inclination to read rambling and lengthy articles or comments. Twitter’s micro blogging 140-character limit forces us to be crisp and focused. No matter what the venue, concise and to-the-point writing will help gain any business leader an audience.

4.  Think Like the Audience. What do THEY want to read?  What are THEIR likes and needs?  Make your comments and writing more about your readers than about you.  That’s not to say you should keep your opinion in check, just make your opinion relevant and topical for readers.

5.  Think Story. People all over the world love narratives. You can never underestimate the power of a good story, no matter how long or short it is.  When commenting and especially when blogging, add stories, relevant business examples, and real-life people to make your writing come alive.

6.  Think With Your Ears. Listen to the crowd.  Don’t just jump in and write to LinkedIn colleagues or respond to a blog post. Really listen to the collective voice first. Maybe read a post more than once before you respond, or review a few of the blogger’s key words. By really listening, you’ll know how to more effectively frame your comments—you’ll add more value and be more a part of the social fabric.

7.  Think of the Venue. Each social site has its own conventions and ways of doing things.  Spend some time checking-out the lay of the land before you land your comments on a page.  Conventions for Twitter are vastly different from those for Facebook or your corporate blog. Think, “Editorial Guidelines” so your comments will be in keeping with the look, feel and flow of the social site you’re writing for.

8.  Think Twice Before You Tweet. Does the world really care that you are going off to the slopes now, or meeting Mr. X for lunch, or taste-testing a new microbrew? As a  business leader, are you advancing compelling business ideas?  The types of comments that might be relevant to your favs or family might NOT be relevant to the corporate world.  If it’s not of value to the collective business crowd, think twice before posting.

Bottom-line, the social media is not like the American Wild West.  There are rules, conventions, etiquette and best practices. And as a business leader, following or not following those guidelines can impact your executive brand.

Thinking about social media conventions before you jump in can make the experience a better one for both you and your readers.

Session: Tools, Policies and Practices: Twitter Here, LinkedIn There, Facebook Everywhere! Social Media Policies for Organizations. Steve Boland, Nonprofit Assistance Fund; Barry LaGrave, MN House Public Information Services; Richard Fong, MN Department of Health. Moderated by Ann Treacy, Treacy Information Services. Conference: 2009 Blandin Broadband Conference

In conversation with other marketers, I am often asked how Social Media Marketing is useful to a website. I realize that not everyone understands how social media marketing (SMM) can affect a websites page rank, traffic, sales (the list could go on).

Content is an extremely valuable resource to all web users. By putting it to work for your website you can find yourself as the “Reliable Content Provider” also known as an “Authority” on that topic. You can use social media to give you that authority.

Recently, I implemented just a few of the social media techniques taught my Social Media Rockstars and promoted my website to top ten Google rankings – making it an authority site for a keyword related to my business. Here is my example of how social media marketing affects the natural search listing.

1. First, I had a business website that needed more traffic (what website couldn’t use more traffic). This is already a successful website for a few other keywords, but I wanted to spread the valuable content provided with this website.

2. I then researched a high traffic, low competition keyword that was related to my business website. You only want traffic that is looking or searching for what you can provide them. I do not want to falsely advertise with irrelevant content otherwise all my efforts with social media marketing would be a waste.

3. Next, I researched my market to find out what they were looking for and how I could best provide valuable content to the web searchers looking up that keyword.

4. Then I created multiple forms of content – content is information provided to a website searcher; this can be text, video, or audio. *Remember that relevant content is what you want to create.*

The content was broken down into one short video and 12 articles. 3 of the articles were 1000 words, and the remaining nine articles ranged from 300-500 words. Note: be sure that this content is in someway relating back to the main site that you wanted to increase traffic, sales, or reputation. Whatever your purpose, be sure that this content is helping.

5. Now you need to spread the content across the different social media sites. I added the larger articles to the more popular social media sites.

Of course the video went to you tube. And for the social media sites that allowed me to share a video along with my content I added the video to it.

These 12 articles and one video spread across 13 sites drove traffic back to my businesses website. The key here is to post your content on a site that has a high page rank. This will tell the search engines that the content is coming from a reliable and valuable source. In return, those high ranking sites give your site higher rankings (or a more trusted reputation) because it’s being promoted by a high ranking website. (Sort of like the popular high school student introducing the new kid – you start off on a higher social status).

Don’t stop there! With social media marketing you need to share the content. You can so this by using social bookmarking sites, posting the information to a blog and sharing the article links in a forum. People are always looking for free information. Share your free information with everyone you can. If it’s valuable and relevant to the web users you shared it with they will also bookmark it on social bookmark sites creating viral traffic.

Now if, you remember form the beginning my main purpose was to increase traffic to an already published website. I now have 12 articles, loads of social bookmarks, and a video linking back to my website. If I did my social media marketing correctly this will definitely increase the traffic coming to my business website.

But that’s not my only result: because I have all of these popular authority sites sending traffic my way, the search engines now see that I am providing valuable content. In return for providing this content and sharing it through social media marketing tactics I have boosted the listing placement of my original website. Now in the search results for my targeted keyword I have dominated the top 5 pages with articles, social bookmarks, videos, and more importantly my main business website.

With my recent efforts in social media marketing (with in the last month), I moved my business website from the 21st position in Google to the 8th. On top of that, I hold 14 other positions in the top 30 search results for my targeted keyword. All this and I didn’t use half of the resources available with social media marketing.

As budgets are drying up entrepreneurs are turning, yet again, to technology, social media comes to the rescue. Words such as YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn would have been considered typos not too recently have become part of our corporate success dictionary. Social media offers companies inexpensive ways to improve their customer service, ramp up their customer service, learn more about their market, reduce their expenses, and more.

Improve your customer service

Having a conversation with your customers through social media is a new business skill. In an effort to improve its public image, Dell has made a conscious effort to connect with its customers through various social media channels such as blogs, forums, and various third-party websites. Dell had to appreciate that customers talked about their products online, and the company was forced to become part of the conversation. With a little help from their social media friend Dell managed to make improvements to its Latitude laptop. Note: It was a Dell laptop that exploded into flames at a conference in Japan.

Social media is the great equalizer as the story of Jeff Jarvis, an unhappy Dell customer, shows. Jarvis took on this giant of a company using his own blog. He managed to create awareness about customer concerns that had reached an international audience. Initially, Dell had ignored the blog voicing Jarvis’ concerns until his blog became the outlet for public conversation of customer issues. His blog, the BuzzMachine, has become the focus of Dell’s mistakes, poor customer service and flawed products.

The blogosphere doesn’t create the problems it simply brings them to light, and it makes it possible for business to address the issues at hand. Now, the CEOs of companies don’t have to take customer service managers word for it, they can learn about customer issues directly from the source. Some might argue that somehow this is a bad thing. On the contrary, with social media, companies and consumers can realize problems that need to be addressed. Customer engagement through social media could only hurt a company in the long run that is not interested in positive change. Instead of creating a problem social media brings a new level of efficiency to the corporate world.

Do more research

Market research is no longer a luxury only large companies can afford. Social media is the market research alternative for small and mid-size businesses that don’t have money to burn. Especially in a recession, market research is an essential part of a winning corporate strategy. Using social media, companies can carry out their own market research, and the best part is that it’s free.

Search for the topic of your choice on StumbleUpon and learn what people say. One of the greatest aspects of StumbleUpon is that marketers can easily find websites related to their market that they would never find on their own. Businesses can use this website to get instant feedback. The community is continually engaged providing constant opinion that result in a better product. A company might be developing new packaging for a product and get instant criticism from the online community. Something that might have taken weeks and months using traditional methods can be done in a matter of days or even hours. This method is not only fast, but it is also free.

LinkedIn, the social media outlet for grownups, is a rich and dynamic database, which can be searched, mined, and yield insightful and useful information to you and your business. Through its “Answers” feature LinkedIn serves as a valuable market research tool because it enables users to ask questions on virtually any topic, and expect to get answers quickly from the community. Executives can ask questions about products, services, trends, or any topic that might be useful to gain a better insight into their market. You can use the search feature to find people by industry, job title, company, or geographical location. The search results include vital corporate information.

Twitter, a micro blogging service, with its millions of users, offers a world of market intelligence for your business. Twitter is the killer app for marketers that are dying to become the fly on the wall as they are given the opportunity to listen in on public conversations about their market, social issues, products, services, or industry trends. Twitter provides near-real time intelligence on virtually any market.

Should StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Twitter, or other social media applications going to be your only source of market research? Of course not, but social media offers an abundance of honest conversation from which business can gather a wide range of vital information.

Social media one of the best tool for your business It gives you more customer’s approaching to direct communication and the capacity to gauge the effectiveness of these conversations very closely.

Step 1: Listen

Social media is a term we use to discuss the tools for the conversations to be an easy way. Before your company can be a part of those conversations, you need to identify what are the people’s interests so you can find out what you can most excellent to contribute.
Setting up the tools to supervise conversations is easy. The tricky part is choosing the perfect keyword that will return the best working results. Social Media Firehose, Latest Blog Mentions Pipe and Alltop are some tools to help you get started.
Be as precise as possible so that your searches return fewer results that are more relevant to your product. This may acquire some time, but once you have discovered which keywords give out the results you’re looking for, you will find out a host marketing tools relevant to your industry.

Step 2: Prepare

Social media platforms help aid conversations between individuals, not companies. Once you identify what people are talking about, it’s time to spot the appropriate people inside your organization to take part.

* Find the People you want to have conversations with company representatives who have authority in their area, who are zealous about their work to act on the response they receive from the community. If you want to focus on the marketing upright, then look to your marketing team. You should provide the appropriate training for these employees on social media participation.

* Offer Guidelines. Make sure your company has a social media rules that offers guidelines to your employees on the suitable way to engage in online conversations.
* Identify Your Strategy. Social media is comprised of many various stages. Rather than trying to participate in all of them, start with one or two that appear to make the most sense.

Step 3: Engage

The best part of this is to start leaving commentary on blogs, uploading images to different social media sites or whatever else that strategy involve that helps further the discussion and illustrates your company’s pledge to developing these online relationships.

At the end, the potential result for corporate social media participation is vast. These companies will have a better sense of how they are perceived by their target audiences that they will empower their customers not only to speak at them but also with them. However, strategic approach to social media is needed to proceed successfully.

Outsource to RemoteWorkmate

Are you looking for a company to benchmark? One you might consider looking at first is Intel Corporation.

CASE STUDY
It all started in the early 2000′s with grassroots employee participation. One employee in particular, Josh Bancroft, started to build out the social infrastructure in 2004. The result was the creation of Intelpedia, a team based wiki collaboration site launched in November of 2005. Today, Intelpedia contains over 15,000 articles from Intel employees defining, collaborating and documenting their part of the Intel workplace.

Over time, Intel created a comprehensive set of social media policies simply called the Intel Social Media Guidelines. These guidelines are now available in over 35 languages designed to help everyone use social media in a respectful and responsible way.

(And if you want to really explore what cross section of these social media guidelines look like across companies and industries, you can refer to the Social Media Governance website, with over 105 Social Media policy documents from a wide variety of companies — all available for free at Social Media Governance Database.)

It is important to recognize that merely having social media policies in place at an organization does not necessarily mean an organization’s employees will understand them or incorporate them into their daily jobs. Instead employees must be trained in how to use social media to drive business results. It is the training and policies combined that provide a framework for employees to increase their participation in social media. With this framework in place, a comfort level evolves between employee participation and management’s concerns. Both find satisfaction that everyone is on the same page and that the expectations and responsibilities of social media participation are clearer.

To better foster and manage social media, Intel’s next step was the creation of the Social Media Center of Excellence, a cross functional body of experts in Legal, Marketing, PR, and Web Communications, who come together to create guidelines, processes, strategies, and skill-building courses for how Intel employees can responsibly and respectfully use such social media tools as blogs, wikis, Twitter, Foursquare, and social networks around the world.

In June 2008, Intel added the Digital IQ training program on how to use these social media tools to increase innovation, communication and collaboration at work. The company has created a series of over 60 online courses, organized as an online university granting Intel employees a certification in Digital IQ. The Digital IQ certificate was created to up-level sales and marketing employees’ skills and understandings of the dynamic digital marketing world. While the target audience was Sales & Marketing, the program is open to all global employees who wish to expand their understandings of digital and emerging media.”

The Digital IQ courses cover such areas as:

Tweet Like You Mean It: The Right Way To Tweet Your Brand
The Importance of Brand Identity in Social Media
WOM (Word Of Mouth) The Anatomy of Buzz
Social Media Measurement
Viral Marketing
Mobile Marketing: Wide Reach of a Small Screen
China’s Social Media Landscape

Intel employees select a unique certification path based upon their job role. Then they plan a curriculum path of both required and elective courses leading to a certification in their Digital IQ. Since its inception in 2008, more than 20,000 Intel employees have completed Digital IQ training. Intel went one step further by creating a Masters Course called Digital IQ 500 which licenses Intel employees to practice social media on behalf of the company.

As you plan your social media strategy, first ask yourself: what are the sweet spots in your business where social media can have the most impact? For Intel, it is focusing on the entire population of sales and marketing population who can go through Digital IQ training and then move on to participating and collaborating on the social web. For a company with a large population of new hires, this could mean creating an internal corporate social network to build greater speed in collaboration, innovation and problem-solving.

How are you:

Building a community among your global employee base?
Engaging employees and customers to more easily collaborate with each other?
Moving from a marketing campaign to having a conversation with your customers?
Training your employees to be active participants in using social media to build your brand?
What have you done to customise your social media policy uniquely to your business needs. A specialist legal firm familiar with the social media space is best. They are equipped to advise you on the IP and employee issues that relate to creating your social media policy.

BlandsLaw is a specialist legal firm advising companies on establishing their social media policies. They also offer staff training programmes in social media policies and speak at various conferences on social media policies.