social media marketing Archives

Tips to Become Better Integrated in Your Niche Community

April 8, 2013 By Joe Soto Leave a Comment

Author: Guest blogger Lindsey Patterson:

The new wave in marketing is clearly social media. However, social media marketing involves more than just creating accounts on every social network. Businesses that are using social media to its full potential are seeing more click-throughs and more conversions. These companies are using social media integration strategies to engage customers, expand their reach and enhance the online reputation of their brand.

Social networks provide platforms where communities can form around specific topics, industries and interests, and your business can become an influence in the conversations revolving around your own brand.

Using Google+ for Your Business

Google+ is fast becoming a necessary part of any social media marketing plan. With personalized search results, Google+ is one of the best ways to reach your niche community. Take advantage of the following G+ capabilities.

1 Become a member of any Google+ Communities which relate to your industry. You can’t circle an individual until they circle you, so Communities allow you to extend your reach and create business contacts when appropriate. You can also influence conversations amongst consumers about your brand.

2 Google+ Hangouts are an easy way to create content marketing. You can hold panel discussions with experts from your field or Q&A sessions with actual customers about new products and services. Record this video chat session and upload it to YouTube from the same G+ network. One Canadian photographer, Billy Wilson, has had success creating a following on Google+ using Hangouts On Air. He brings together artists, musicians and personalities every week to discuss world issues in a Hangout called, “That Show With Billy Wilson.”

3 Being that Google is already a search engine giant, establishing Google Authorship is the way to place your business at or near the top of search results. This is established simply by linking your G+ profile to your company website or blog and vice versa. Google ranks Google Authorship posts at the top of the results. The link to your post, which will include your profile picture, will stay ahead of any knock-off posts which might have followed your original content.

4 Google+ Events is a great way to promote parties, promotions or sales, and webinars for your business. The invitations sync automatically with Google Calendars, and attendees can share photos of the event directly to its photo album using a mobile app.

Develop a Community on Facebook

Approaching one billion users, Facebook is obviously a marketing force that can’t be ignored. Zappos, an online shoe sales company, has created a successful Facebook marketing campaign. Their slogan, “Let’s be in a Like-Like Relationship” is a clever invitation to become a fan of their Facebook page. Here are three other ideas which can help you develop a Facebook following.

1 Offer certain “fan-only” content.

2 Start a photo contest such as Fan-of-the-Week where fans can share photos of ways they are using your products.

3 Giveaways encourage fans to invite their friends to like your page.

Integrate Your Platforms

An essential part of any marketing plan is knowing the message you want to share. The delivery of this message should vary with each platform but the message itself must be clearly maintained. Consumers lose interest quickly in businesses that copy and paste content into multiple platforms. However, you can link your accounts and platforms to help spread the word about your brand. For example, Vivint, a home security and automation company, is an active user on Google+, using it as a platform to connect people to their blog and websites. The final three tips for integration are taken from Vivint’s example.

1 Post regularly to a company blog and share the links on social platforms.

2 Use a variety of content for posts including video, articles and photos.

3 Use widgets on your blog and websites to encourage users to share content.

With these tips, you can use Google+ and social media platforms to develop a community. When customers feel a part of your community, they develop trust, which results in more loyalty and referrals for your business.

Lindsey Patterson is a freelance writer who specializes in technology and the latest social trends, specifically involving social media. She is currently a social media advisor to Vivint. Be sure to follow them as well via Vivint’sTwitter.

Joe Soto

Joe Soto is the CEO of One Social Media. A leading expert in social media marketing, Joe has over 16 years of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, online lead generation, and Internet marketing.

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Filed Under: social media marketing, Social Media Strategies Tagged With: develop a community on facebook, facebook marketing, social media marketing, using google plus for business, using google+ for business

What’s Your 2013 Social Media Plan Look Like?

January 21, 2013 By Joe Soto Leave a Comment

It’s 2013 and there are still many businesses, big and small, without a social media plan.

Diving into social media without having a plan is like trying to build a new home without a blueprint. For the past three years I’ve seen it so much I now consider it to be the number one biggest mistake made in social media marketing.

You wouldn’t start a new business without a business plan. Why would you put your business on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and start a blog without a plan? In 2011 my wife and I took our children to Walt Disney World for a week. She spent more time planning out that week than most business owners I’ve met in the last three years ever spend on their social media plan.

If I met your marketing team today, would they all have a copy of and be on board with your company’s social media plan? Would they know what or how you were going to measure your campaigns?

Social media ROI becomes questionable when you don’t have a plan in place that you can measure.

Intuit recently shared an infographic showcasing a plan for managing your social media presence and answers the most common questions of ”How do I use it? Why should I use it? What do I say? Who has the time?”

Infographic by Intuit | Design Credit: Column Five Media

Joe Soto

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Filed Under: Social Media Infographic, Social Media Strategies Tagged With: how to make a social media plan, joe soto, One social media, social media infographic, social media marketing, social media plan

You Gotta Have Balls to Do What this Guy Did

September 14, 2012 By Joe Soto Leave a Comment

You gotta have balls to do what this guy did to build the most successful sports marketing brand in his industry.

Brandon Steiner is one-of-a-kind. An original. In his newest book, You Gotta Have Balls: How a Kid from Brooklyn Started from Scratch, Bought Yankee Stadium, and Created a Sports Empire,” Steiner shares his incredible story. And while you are busy getting emotionally sucked into his story, he covertly teaches you the art of storytelling, relationship building, branding, communication, marketing, business development and how to go for your dreams.

His rag to riches story will make you cry, laugh, and most importantly it will truly inspire you as a business person.

His 2 min. book trailer is a lesson in how authors (and marketers) can use video to reach more people:

Who needs this book?

If you are a marketer, you’ll get practical advice and applicable relationship-marketing lessons from the guy who built a sports marketing empire.
If you are an established business professional, this book will help you “raise your game” and get to the next level.
If you are an entrepreneur, you need this book. It’s chock-full of practical business building tips you need to outpace your competition going into 2013.
If you are a college student, this book will inspire you to dream big and show you how to be resilient in reaching your career goals.
If you are a sports fan, this will be your new favorite book of all time.
If you are a mother, you’ll be inspired to buy this book for your children so they too can learn what it takes to make dreams come true.

I had to privledge of sitting down personally with Brandon Steiner in his offices at Steiner Sports, in New York recently. We were joined by his Marketing VP Steve Costello. Here’s the video:

My friend and mentor Jeffrey Gitomer stated it this way, “If you’ve ever wanted to grow bigger balls, Brandon Steiner has the seeds and the water. This book is the instruction manual.”

Sometimes the best street-smart marketing advice you can get comes from the most unexpected book.

I enjoy learning from successful entrepreneurs who have gained tremendous business wisdom over the years and are kind enough to share this wisdom with others. Don’t you?

This book has my highest recommendation.

Learn more about the book at YouGottaHaveBallsBook.com (and get a free chapter preview).

Learn more about Brandon Steiner at BrandonSteiner.com.

Joe Soto

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Filed Under: Book Review, Branding, Marketing Advice Tagged With: best marketing book, books for entrepreneurs, brand marketing, brandon steiner, building a brand, how to build a brand, joe soto, marketing advice, social media marketing, sports marketing, steiner sports, steve costello, you gotta have balls

5 Quick Tips for Creating Fresh Visual Content

September 7, 2012 By Joe Soto 3 Comments

The pressure is on for marketers to come up with fresh content, consistently each week. It’s particularly challenging for business start-ups who want a fast start social media presence on Twitter, Facebook and their Blog.

What should you or your company be blogging about? What will be informative, interesting, educational or entertaining enough to attract them? What content will your community actually enjoy seeing posted and engage in? Perhaps you should just ask them.

To give you a head start, here are some quick tips for creating fresh visual content.

1. The Expert Interview. Record an interview with an expert in your field and post it to your blog. You can do this via telephone conference or via video conference using Skype. Recommended resources: For phone interviews try FreeConferenceCalling.com, for Skype: try Ecamm.com (mac) and Camersoft.com (windows).

2. Create a step-by-step guide on how to do something in a screencast, how-to video tutorial, or show the steps in a series of photos. Resources: Camtasia, Screenflow, Screencast, Jing, Prezi, Snap Guide (mobile).

3. Do a simple case study about one company, or offer a few visual examples of how other companies do something successfully. In a recent blog post, I visually showcased brands using social media well and how some were using it poorly to talk with their customers.

4. Poll your community on Twitter with Twtpoll or on Facebook with a Facebook Question and post the results on your blog.

5. Give your community visual choices. Here are two examples of this:

Example 1: One of our clients asked their community which of the author’s books is their favorite. It quickly became the most popular post for that Facebook page since it started with over 200 Likes and over 200 comments.

Example 2: We asked our community to choose which one character Mike most resembled that day.

Visual content is the hottest trend, and it’s not going away. The popularity of Instagram alone should be waking people up to this. And video content will rule in 2013 and beyond.

When thinking through your social media content strategy, think about what content will add value and/or attract prospects to your blog or social media sites. Attracting them is only the first step, but it’s perhaps the most important as you refine how to convert and then analyze the results to see which of these ideas works best for your brand and audience.

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Joe Soto

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Filed Under: blogging, Branding, social media marketing, Social Media Tips Tagged With: how to engage your audience, One social media, social media blog, social media engagement, social media marketing, social media strategy ideas, social media tips

What The Ninja Turtles Taught Me About Social Media

June 2, 2012 By Mike Bal Leave a Comment

The world of social media is more diverse than most people realize. It’s not just about posting on all of your channels, which takes a certain skills-set of its own. You need ideas to create and share interesting and valuable content. You need analytics to see what’s working and what’s not. You need leadership to create conversations and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry and with your customers. And you need to take a few risks to make sure that you’re not missing any opportunities. This is what brings us to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…

This is a team of diverse and dedicated talent that can really handle any situation. At least in theory. Sure they’re fictional, but that’s not the point. The creators knew that different personalities would relate with different characters. The same is true about social media. The same strategy won’t work across every channel. You need to mix and match the different elements and skills to come up with the perfect mix for each situation.

To support this idea with a little nonfiction, Facebook just opened up new admin roles for pages. This gives different admins different levels of access and allows them to focus on different aspects of the overall project. (See Image Below)

What that tells us is that social media, not even one channel, is not meant to be managed by one individual. No matter how diverse and talented that person is, they won’t be able to execute nearly as well as a team of specialized individuals. If you want to see real results from your social media efforts you have to make sure you’re doing EVERYTHING. The best way to ensure your success is to find a team comprised of the four personalities/talents listed below.

The Creative aka Michelangelo – This person never stops coming up with ideas. They are also the person who will ask the questions that no one else is asking. They may not always come up with the million-dollar idea but they will play a role in the thought process. Use their perspective to help put a creative spin on the strategies you’re already doing and to identify opportunities that you might be missing.

The Technical Analyst aka Donatello – This person pays attention to all of the details. They can tell you what’s working and what’s not because they have a knack for understanding analytics. This person is the rhyme and reason behind what you’re doing. They can tell you if that “great idea” was as great as everyone thought it would be and they can tell you where you need to adjust your strategy. They can also help translate industry-related research and understand how it affects your goals and strategies as an organization. Without this person on your team you are essentially just guessing.

The Risk Taker aka Raphael – This person isn’t afraid to fail. That may seem frustrating at times, but it’s essential to your future success on social media. If you never take any risks you’ll miss your window of opportunity because in social media those windows don’t stay open for long. This is the person who will make you the first to do something different and that’s what you really need to do in order to gain attention and respect.

The Leader aka Leonardo – This is the person you can count on to look at the big picture. They will make sure to keep the team working towards the main goal. This is also the person who is best at representing the brand through conversation. They’re confident and well-versed in everything related to your brand. They understand your audience and are best at starting and maintaining conversations.

Now, when I think back to watching countless episodes of this childhood classic I remember one very important thing. That every challenge the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles faced required a different balance of each member. Sometimes they would rely heavily on Leonardo to get them through a problem and sometimes Donatello would crunch the data to come up with the solution or ideal strategy. Michelangelo could pull an idea out of thin air that was just crazy enough to work and Raphael would sometimes take the problem head on and find the opportunity needed to succeed. The one thing that remained clear is that they would never be able to succeed on their own.

If you’re looking for more ways to succeed online download our complimentary and Essential Step-By-Step Guide To Internet Marketing by clicking below.

Mike Bal

Hi, I studied advertising, I have a passion for creativity and I love working in social media. I try to write about the combination of traditional marketing, branding, and advertising strategies that can apply and work affectively with social media. I also enjoy music, batman and life.

Friday Clicks [Volume 28] | The Best of the Social Web

June 1, 2012 By Rob Wormley Leave a Comment

There were two exciting updates made to Facebook this week. The first is the ability to schedule content to publish, without having to use third-party sites/apps like TweetDeck or HooteSuite. The second is the creation and launch of “admin roles” for Facebook pages. In other news…

The Links:

The popular URL-shortner site bit.ly launched a major redesign. Click here to learn about it. There are a lot of additional features now offered, and it seems as though the site is trying to position itself as a “social link sharing site” instead of just a place to go to shorten your links. A lot of people are actually making a big fuss about it.
It was announced that Google has applied to buy and own more than 50 new domains, including .LOL and .YouTube. According to their blog post, they focused on domains that fall into four categories:
- Trademarks, like .google
- Domains related to their core business, like .docs
- Domains that will improve user experience, such as .youtube
- Domains they think have interesting and creative potential, such as .lol
Mashable, Hubspot, and SocialFresh all wrote about how important images/visuals are on social media. Think it might be a pretty good hint that you should be sharing more visuals? Read Mashable’s article. Read the SocialFresh article. Download the Hubspot ebook.
Today is National Doughnut Day, and Instagram is keeping track of all the creative photos people are sharing! Click the image below to see the photos, and click here to see ours!
And finally, the video of the week. Have you heard of Google Glasses? If you want to be a little freaked out at the direction in which technology and social/mobile is moving, watch this:

Rob Wormley

As a social media specialist, Rob thrives in situations that require constant creativity. On days when Rob isn’t working hard to create, maintain, and strengthen relationships online, you might find him spending time with family, browsing through his nearest bookstore, or sipping on a cup of coffee at his local Starbucks.

Brand Storytelling Spotlight: Sweet Leaf Tea

May 30, 2012 By Rob Wormley 1 Comment

A few weeks ago I wrote that telling your brand’s story was the easiest way to build brand buzz online. Here are two pieces from that blog post that I’d like to reiterate:

The brands that are getting the most buzz on social media are the ones that are taking the time to creatively share their unique stories. They understand the importance of being genuine, and they legitimately care about the communities they’re sharing content with.

If you want to stand out on social media, if you want people talking about your brand over all your competitors, if you want to get anything back from your social media efforts at all, share your story. Sometimes it’s the only deciding factor between you and the other guy for consumers like me.

To illustrate the power of brand storytelling, I’ve decided to start featuring brands that get it. This week, I’m sharing the story behind Sweet Leaf Tea—because they are one of my favorite bottled teas out there, and because they’ve taken the time to share their story with me.

So let’s begin.

I actually chose Sweet Leaf Tea as my first brand storytelling spotlight because of a bottled jar of their tea that I had last week. I hadn’t ever tried Sweet Leaf Tea before, but the label caught my eye and I decided to buy one to drink with my lunch.

What stood out to me the most was the back of their label—the space that they chose to use to tell their unique story:

As mentioned above, Sometimes a brand’s story is the only deciding factor between you and the other guy for consumers like me. And that was the case for Sweet Leaf Tea. Fortunately, in addition to taking the time to design a great label, the company also takes the time to brew and bottle a delicious tea.

Right before I began writing this post, I decided to find out if Sweet Leaf Tea had gone the extra step and shared their story online. I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed. The brand has a great website, and a strong and interactive presence on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest, and YouTube. The only place I wish I could have found them on was Instagram, but hopefully they’ll read this post and jump on the insanely popular mobile photo sharing app.

I’ll ask that you spend some time looking through the links to their social sites above to get a better idea of what they are doing right as a brand. But just in case you don’t have time, I wanted to share their story right here on this page for your convenience:

Are you telling your brand’s story? If not, start planning. If you have questions about the best ways to move forward, ask me! I’m @RobWormley on Twitter.

Want to suggest a brand for me to spotlight? Shoot me an email.

Rob Wormley

Want Success on Social Media? You’ll Need Tradition Too

May 23, 2012 By Kelsey Jones Leave a Comment

With the emergence of all this “new” media (social media, blogging, mobile websites, mobile apps, digital marketing, digital video sharing, memes, photo sharing… the list goes on), we sometimes get wrapped up in the idea that alone, with simply social media, we can turn a business into a multi-million dollar, industry leading company!

If you have a strong brand, strong brand presence and are willing to pour money, time AND talent into your social media, you WILL see success. Here’s the BIG BUT…

Simply being a part of and active on social media won’t make this happen. In order to really utilize all the strengths of social media and your social media presence, your company needs to incorporate their traditional marketing and media strategies into your plan. Do your marketing goals line up with your social media strategies? Does your public relations plan align or include social media? Are you promoting your social media offline?

You may have a great looking Facebook page or blog, but if you just expect people to find or participate in your social media organically without any offline promotion, you may be disappointed.

How can you incorporate your social media offline?

Put social media icons on marketing materials – include a QR code where people can easily ‘like’ or ‘follow’ you!

Don’t simply send out press releases or post press releases online, but mention and link your releases to your social media. Connect with traditional media journalists and editors on Twitter and Facebook.

Incorporate social media as part of your “in-shop” strategy. Television programs are great at this – reading tweets on air, promoting a #hashtag throughout a program, etc. Find a way that your business can talk about and share social media engagement offline. Have a fan of the week get in-store discounts, share testimonials about your product or service from Twitter or Facebook in a newsletter or press release.

How are you incorporating social media into your traditional marketing and media strategies? Let us know!

If you want more information on pumping up your digital marketing, click the image below to download our complimentary e-book on the essentials of internet marketing.

Kelsey Jones

Social Media enthusiast who loves reading about and experimenting with the newest forms of communication. I'm a news and political junkie who loves advocacy work, the Green Bay Packers and working in this fast-paced environment.

Filed Under: Marketing Trends, Social Media, Social Media Strategies Tagged With: digital marketing strategies, how to get fans on social media, online marketing and PR strategies, social media and public relations, social media marketing, social media marketing plan

Friday Clicks [Volume 25] | The Best of the Social Web

May 11, 2012 By Jeremy Anderberg Leave a Comment

It’s nearly Mother’s Day. Have you bought a card? A nice present? Maybe a box of chocolates? Either way, you gotta remember to call not only Mom, but also Grandma, Great-Grandma and any other women in your life who has had an impact on you. Fo real. Do it. Mothers (and women in general) do not get enough credit in our world. Take some time to thank them this weekend and do something nice for them.

The Links:

Mobile websites are going to continue to become more and more important for marketers. It’s like a breath of fresh air when I come across a great mobile site (take a look at www.americanadsm.com, for instance, on your mobile). Here are 8 tips to make yours more user-friendly. Hint: Simplicity is key. (click here)
Apparently Bing (that other search engine…) is going to be unveiling a major redesign that is more heavily focused on social. Will they make a dent? Probably not. But ya never know. If nothing else, keep Bing and Yahoo in mind for SEO purposes. (click here)
Facebook made big news last fall when it rolled out it’s iPad app. The problem is that they haven’t really updated it – and in fact it doesn’t even sport Timeline yet. Fail. Some reports say Facebook (and Zuck) don’t really care, though, about mobile. Big mistake if it’s true. (click here)
There is a new round of video sharing sites vying to become the next Instagram (but for video, of course). Will you be creating an account anytime soon? (click here)
Speaking of Instagram – here are some etiquette rules for you to consider. (click here)
Finally, if you need something fun to post on your mom’s Facebook wall, consider this. I did.

Have a great weekend and let us know on Facebook or Twitter if we missed anything!

Jeremy Anderberg

Jeremy is a blog-reading, report-writing project manager. In his spare time he enjoys reading a good thriller, drinking a freshly brewed cup of coffee, and spending time with his wife.

Filed Under: Friday Clicks Tagged With: social media marketing, social media marketing agencies, social media marketing blog, social media marketing companies, social media marketing consultant, social media marketing consulting, social media marketing firm, social media marketing plan, social media marketing services, social media marketing strategy, what is social media marketing

Diversify Your Social Media Portfolio

May 9, 2012 By Tom Hummer Leave a Comment

In high-school speech class, we’re taught that speeches typically have at least one of three purposes: to entertain, to inform, or to persuade. Whether it’s Dane Cook doing stand-up comedy, a campaigning politician at a rally, or a professor giving a geology lecture, if somebody’s talking, it fits into one of these categories.

But this isn’t limited to spoken word– the same can be said for almost anything written, including social media. Try going to your Twitter feed, reading through the top ten tweets, and figuring out which category each tweet belongs in. See what I mean?

Unfortunately, hot-shot orators have an edge that common Twitter users don’t: people’s time and attention. This gives them the opportunity to combine the three kinds of speeches with ease. If a speaker gets on a stage for even half an hour, for example, they have more than enough time to inform their audience, persuade them, and do it in an entertaining way. How is anyone supposed to accomplish that in a Facebook post, let alone the 140-character confines of Twitter?

You can’t.

But here’s something you can do: mix it up.

Instead of trying to persuade people to buy your product all the time, teach them something that might add value to their lives. Instead of writing sarcastic or witty commentary about everything, post something genuinely deep and thoughtful. Throw your friends and followers a curve ball, and they’ll realize that there might just be a side of you they never knew about. Being multi-dimensional like this is a great way to attract a wider audience while keeping your current audience more interested.

Don’t get me wrong– consistency can also be important. If you’ve got a particular image or reputation to uphold, you don’t want to do a complete turnaround. Still, I’m willing to bet that you’ve got more wiggle room than you want to admit.

Here are a few examples of people diversifying their social media portfolio:

1. The Australian Census

In July 2011, a Twitter user sent a goofy question to the Australian Census’ Twitter account. What he probably didn’t expect was for the organization to play along:

Why it works: The general public wants to see that the government is made up of real people. We all like it when the folks in charge are a bit less stuffy than usual, and this is one heck of a start.

2. The White House Rick-Rolling Someone via Twitter

After someone had complained about a boring correspondence briefing on Twitter, The White House’s Twitter responded to them with a link that sent them to the infamous video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”:

Why it works: Mostly for the same reasons as The Australian Census example, but The White House gets extra points for being trendy and including a popular American prank.

3. Cake

If you’re not familiar with them, Cake is a California-based alternative-rock band, known for their absurd lyrics, great trumpet parts, and a fun, funky sound. Based on their music alone, the last thing you’d expect is for them to get all dark and serious on their Facebook.

But that’s exactly what they do:

Of course, there’s still the occasional music video, recording footage, or tour update, but this kind of content is also sprinkled throughout their timeline.

Why it works: Honestly, I can’t really say whether it does or doesn’t. Cake have actually alienated some fans by straying too far away from the music. This is a very extreme example, and while I don’t recommend it to everyone, I also can’t help but respect Cake for having the guts to stand up for what they believe in.

Whether you’re representing yourself or a business, take a look at your Tweets and Facebook posts and ask yourself this question: do I need to diversify my social media portfolio?

Tom Hummer

Tom’s two biggest passions in life are writing and music. In his free time, Tom reads, writes, and works on musical projects.

Filed Under: Better Tweeting, Social Media, Social Media Strategies, Social Media Tips Tagged With: social media agency, social media blog, social media for business, social media marketing, social media marketing blog, social media marketing strategy, social media tips

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