Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Marketing’

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Social Networking and Business Benefits in a Tough Economy

Monday, March 1st, 2010

searchcircusfacebookAre we living in a new entrepreneurial era? Economic conditions have forced many to rethink their career path. As a result, many people are transitioning into consulting careers, freelance careers and entrepreneurial careers. According to WorkXpress CEO Treff LaPlante, now’s the time to start a technology business.

And many are finding that social networking and business benefits abound. New, small businesses are taking the lead when it comes to thinking creatively about using services like Facebook and Twitter as low-cost methods of getting their brand out into the public eye.

A great example is Coolhaus, a new ice cream business started by a former architect and a former realtor. They realized potential social networking and business benefits by establishing Twitter and Facebook accounts. Social media promotions included giving followers a link to a famous architectural photographer Julius Shulman. If customers came to their roving ice cream truck and said his name, they’d get a discount.

Thanks to fun ideas like that, the social networking and business benefits have led to Coolhaus gaining nearly 8,000 Twitter followers and 1,300 Facebook fans. And according to a recent Rice University study, having more fans and followers really does matter when it comes to social networking and business benefits. Fans of a small chain of cafes visited the business 20 percent more often and spent 33 percent more money than other customers.

Looking at social networking and business benefits goes beyond the low costs. Social media marketing reaches consumers where they communicate. It’s a way of getting in on the conversation.

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

5 Great Apps For Social Media Marketing on Facebook

Friday, February 19th, 2010

facebook-for-business-applicationsFacebook is transforming into a bigger and better social media marketing site. It has added many great applications that make it easier for businesses to use it to reach its targeted consumers to convert them into sales. ForeSee Results Inc. performed a recent study showing that more than half of online shoppers follow a business on Facebook. This means the social media marketing site can help businesses reach millions of online shoppers if they possess the knowledge.

Here are some popular applications that can help any business successfully perform social media marketing:

  • Business can use the application called Payvment to create a retail store on the giant social media marketing Web site. This applications uses PayPal to accept payments and can conveniently allow online shoppers to buy from multiple vendors with only one shopping cart. Business can also use their outside retail sites and post their products for sale on their Facebook pages.
  • An application called NutshellMail makes it possible for businesses to easily create email newsletter campaigns and put it on a tab on their Facebook page for everyone to view. The applications collects recent account activity and generates a newsletter in an email format, which fans can select to follow via their personal email. Subscribers can share the newsletter and comment on it. This is a great application to create two way communication between a business and its targeted audience.
  • Companies can use the promotions Facebook application to share its contests, coupons, giveaways and sweepstakes with its fans. There is actually a free version of this application.
  • Slideshare makes it possible for companies to share their documents, mp3s and presentations on Facebook. All of this great information can be shared in profiles, groups and pages.
  • If businesses need to promote traditional events, they can use Eventbrite. This generates the event as a its own page with links. It is automatically published on the newsfeed.

These applications allow businesses to successfully create social media marketing campaigns using Facebook. The social media site has millions of followers and counting, so staying on top of how to best reach them is key to success. To read about more great applications see Website Magazine.

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10 Social Media Marketing Sources For Business Branding

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Remember those handy little rolodexes that sat upon your desk? There sat 100 contacts or more at the flick of a finger, which had a hope and promise of drumming up new sales leads or keeping current clients happy.

As an online marketing professional, I can honestly tell you, I do not have a rolodex nor a little black book containing business cards from people I’ve met at various social networks, seminars and business meetings. However, what I do have, and more business professionals have the same, are several profiles on various social media sites, which connect me to not only hundreds, but thousands of potential clients and industry professionals.

Social media marketing is a company’s most important means of communication and marketing their unique brand.

According to a recent article from Website Magazine, there are 50 social media marketing sources to build your brand online, find potential customers or clients and get the buzz going about your company to millions, yes millions, of people.

The Top 10 (of 50) Social Media Marketing Sources For Communication & Branding Online

1. Facebook.com – not just a social network for high school and college students; it has now become a full fledged business network.

2. YouTube.com – the buzz for 2010 is video marketing – anything from 10 seconds to 10 minutes.

3. MySpace.com – there’s still a market for some businesses to network online here – great for building your business profile page and frequently updating it.

4. Twitter.com – 140 characters or less to build your brand with social media marketing. Many companies have found much success using the real time search functions as well as using the various Twitter apps.

5. Flickr.com – yes, a site devoted to graphics, photographs and the like has quickly grown into a social media marketing platform not only for blogs, but also brand marketing. Especially useful with using the Creative Commons feature.

6. Photobucket.com – another high traffic site for finding the best photos and graphics to add that visual aspect to anything online.

7. LinkedIn.com – Search Circus loves using LI for prospecting, participating in group discussions, becoming an expert in SEO and social media marketing; there are so many opportunities for businesses to grow using this site.

8. Digg.com – if you can Digg it, more people are likely to find your social media profile, your Web site, Webinars, podcasts, events and more. Social media bookmark sites are replacing your “Favorites” file on your computer as well as allowing millions of people find you and your company online.

9. Ning.com – if there’s not a social media market for your niche, then you can create one in 30 seconds to build your brand and your online presence.

10. Yelp.com – if you want to know what others are saying about your business, this is the place to find out. Businesses can also list themselves in this directory, and provide their own reviews.

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Posted in Search Engine News, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

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