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August 10, 2011

Small businesses and social media

Marketing tools These days, small business owners have a lot of marketing options to consider. There are a number of traditional marketing platforms including newspaper ads, print ads, billboards, direct mail, and TV commercials. Then combine these with a slew of digital and social media marketing options such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogging, a custom mobile application development, Groupon, Places, foursquare, Yelp, PPC advertising, and mobile marketing to smart phones. Now you’ve got an extremely large pool of potential marketing combinations and strategies for small businesses to exploit.

The number of options and evolving technologies can be overwhelming for small businesses. Staying current with various platforms can be a challenge in itself. The amount of time required to simply manage and maintain a handful of online accounts can be daunting. In fact, a recent survey by Hiscox revealed that many small businesses were not using social media channels to promote their products and services. Only 12% of businesses considered social media promotion a necessity, 14% indicated they don’t know enough about it, and nearly 50% of respondents weren’t using social media at all.

Over 40% surveyed said that word-of-mouth was the main way they got business. This is an interesting statistic – as social media is essentially a word-of-mouth advertising vehicle. While offline forms of word-of-mouth remain critical for all brands, and certainly for small, local businesses, social media also plays a valuable role by giving customers a louder voice for their recommendations and helping to amplify that voice beyond their immediate circle of friends, family and colleagues.

So how can a small business focus on what they do best while at the same time take advantage of social media marketing? Easy – you don’t have to go it alone. There are marketing specialists to help sift through all of the social media options and develop a custom marketing strategy that fits your business model and budget. For the same reason you wouldn’t attempt to fill a cavity in your child’s tooth, there’s no need to take on tasks which exceed your limits.

Small businesses need to open their minds and be creative. Innovation is paving new opportunities for businesses to market themselves and secure customers. Integrated marketing campaigns can yield meaningful results. Whatever your objectives are, social media can be a powerful communication tool to help spread your message.

waveSpawn provides a full range of customized marketing solutions for small businesses. Please contact us to discuss your specific goals.

March 26, 2010

Social media confirms that many companies have nothing to say

Social media confirms many companies have nothing to say Have you ever noticed how many business-related social media accounts have little, if any, postings or messages? You know the ones… they hastily ran out and setup a corporate Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blog account without a plan or clue as to what they were doing. Somewhere along the way they strayed from logic. It’s as if they’re proclaiming “hey we’re not only slackers, but we’re cutting edge slackers.”

These companies should consider buying a full page ad in a magazine, forgetting about it, and then letting the publisher print the issue with just their logo on the page and maybe a line that says “too lazy for anything more”. That’ll be a consistent branding message that integrates well with their social media campaign. After all, a holistic approach is good. It’s actually taking a page out of the Seinfeld series “it’s a show about nothing”. Instead, it’s a company that is shouting “we have nothing to say”.

The simple point here is neglected social media accounts can be detrimental to a company’s brand. You wouldn’t create a website with no content, would you? Social media should not be treated any different. Many companies seem to underestimate the value and scope of social media – assigning minimal resources to manage them. Companies that engage in social media need to map out their long-term strategy and approach. Moreover, they need to delegate responsibilities of monitoring and maintaining social media account activity. This shouldn’t be dumped into the hands of an intern or temp. This should be taken serious by someone that understands the platforms and knows how to interact with customers and prospects.

The good news is that there are companies to help guide businesses through the process of engaging in social media. As a starting point, waveSpawn has assembled a comprehensive white paper entitled Understanding social media ROI.

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March 1, 2010

Maximizing Social Media ROI

There’s no denying the magnitude and increasing impact that social media is having upon the business world. Marketing professionals in every industry are reevaluating their business plans and strategies to incorporate this growing phenomenon – which is clearly here to stay. Sometimes this means including a Technorati claim token: G3J8CMQZPY79.

Social media ROI is arguably the hottest topics in the social media eco-system as it relates to marketing. Social networking is changing the way businesses and individuals connect. Online communities create an immediate forum for solicited and unsolicited customer feedback, commentary, suggestions, referrals, and yes even slander. These consumer messages can be powerful and detrimental at the same time. Organizations should give careful consideration to the variety of vehicles and response options available when implementing a social media program.

Each social media initiative takes time, planning, and attention. Perhaps the biggest mistake organizations make is thinking that these accounts can function on autopilot. A blog is created, a Facebook account is activated, Twitter is turned on… and then nobody adds content or monitors these sites. They fail to execute a plan or strategy. In my opinion, neglecting social media accounts is worse than not being involved at all. It’s a direct reflection of a business’s lack of follow-through.

What constitutes effective social media marketing? More importantly, how can marketers accurately measure the results of past social marketing campaigns and how can they predict future results? waveSpawn has compiled a white paper which presents a framework for businesses to better understand and measure the ROI of social media. It outlines the key dimensions of marketing metrics which are critical to determining the success of each social media campaign. It will also help marketers to learn from social media, react to what consumers are saying, and help influence future results.

Download the entire white paper here.