How Lawyers May Use Social Media in the Future?

There has been a tenuous union between lawyers and social media. The fact that so much information and conversation is made public can deter firms from jumping on board. That same hesitancy, however, gives some clues as to how social media may be used by lawyers in the future.

Social media is a big deal. Everyone from your mom to your nephew is probably online in some way. But you might not think to look up your lawyer’s Twitter() handle or read up on his or her firm’s blog.

More and more firms and individuals are coming online. To try and get a grasp on where social media is heading, we spoke with three social media savvy attorneys to help us read the tea leaves.

How Lawyers May Use Social Media in the Future.

Emineo Media

Social Media Increases Small-Business Exposure!

According to the American Express OPEN fall 2010 “Small Business Monitor,” small-business owners have dramatically upped their usage of social media for marketing in the past year.While just one in 10 business owners reported using social networking for marketing last year, 39% indicated they did in September 2010. The impetus is driving sales by connecting with consumers. Facebook was the clear leader among small-business owners, with 27% using the site to attract new customers, vs. 9% using LinkedIn, 8% using Twitter and 5% maintaining a blog.

Social Media Increases Small-Business Exposure

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Investing More Time Brings Sophistication to Social Media Efforts!

Nonprofits that spend the most time see the most success

Nonprofits, which have sometimes shown themselves to be ahead of their counterparts in the business world when it comes to social media marketing, are also divided depending on their experience with the medium. What makes the most experienced users stand out?

According to August 2010 research from Ventureneer, a provider of online tools for nonprofits, and Caliber, nonprofits that had been using social media the longest also tended to spend the most time on their efforts. Among respondents that had used social media marketing for at least two years, 68% spent at least 25 hours a week on it, compared with just 12% of nonprofits that had been active in the space for less than a year.

Investing More Time Brings Sophistication to Social Media Efforts
Emineo Media

How Entrepreneurs and Startups Can Get Involved in the Mashable Awards!

The Mashable Awards, our annual contest highlighting the very best the web has to offer, is gaining momentum with more than 150,000 votes already. If you’re an entrepreneur looking to get recognition or working for a startup that needs to get nominated, we have some quick tips for you.

If you haven’t nominated yet, now’s the time. We’ve opened 21 of the 25 categories so far, for which you can nominate a person, company, organization, app, device, gadget, video, URL or technology. Also, make sure to follow along in the Mashable Awards series that takes a closer look at nomination categories.

Nominations will close at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, November 29. The top five nominees with the most nominations (subject to editorial policies and official rules) will move forward to the “Final 5 Voting Round” starting Wednesday, Dec. 1.

 How Entrepreneurs and Startups Can Get Involved in the Mashable Awards.

Emineo Media

Mashable Weekend Recap: 18 Stories You Might Have Missed!

Emineo Media's provides the Social Media recap recently found on Mashable.

It’s been an eventful weekend in social media and technology, and we’re here to help you get caught up before an even more eventful week begins.This weekend, Sony retired the Walkman, Groupon added self-served deals, Lady Gaga surpassed 1 billion YouTube views, Kanye West released an innovative online music video, Microsoft revealed that Windows 8 is a long ways away, Netflix started rolling out streaming-only subscriptions and WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange walked out of an interview with CNN. As always, we also have some helpful features that you might want to check out. Thanks for reading!

Mashable Weekend Recap: 18 Stories You Might Have Missed.

Emineo Media

3 Ways Small Businesses are Investing in Social Good!

This is Emineo Media's Sixth highlight of the recent 38 New Social Media Resources recently found on Mashable.

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Lately, a lot has been written about how businesses are using social media to promote social good. Most of the attention has focused on the campaigns of large companies like Pepsi or Pedigree. While the success of those campaigns warrants exposure, small local businesses have also begun using social media to create positive change in their communities.

Below are some examples of how small businesses are investing in social good to partner with non-profits, raise funds and finance micro-loans.

If your company is raising awareness for non-profits through social media, let us know about your work in the comments below

via 3 Ways Small Businesses are Investing in Social Good.

Emineo Media

38 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed!

Mashable has had another busy week and they have yield another mega list of tools and resources for your reading pleasure.

Emineo Media will highlight and promote some of the 38 resources we feel will be beneficial!

Check out Mashable's Social Media section for tips on how turn any video viral, find out why the web loves cats so much, or simply determine what kind of geek you are. Tech & Mobile is packed with tools like top blogger templates, Photoshop tutorials, and tips for beginners when it comes to PHP programming. Business rounds out the list with how to use hashtags to boost you job search, great social media management tools, and some games for learning stock market strategy.

Looking for even more social media resources?  This guide appears every weekend, and you can check out all the lists-gone-by here any time

via 38 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed.

Emineo Media

Corporate Blogging Goes Mainstream!

Becoming fully incorporated into media and marketing Blogging has been around for well over a decade—an eternity in internet time. Whereas blogs used to be a thorn in the side of traditional journalism, today they’re an essential ingredient in the media mix. Hardly a news organization exists that does not have a blog where its journalists post updates to breaking stories, offer personal commentary and engage in a dialogue with readers and viewers.

Corporate Blogging Goes Mainstream

Emineo Media

Brand Campaigns Drive Most Social Media Following!

According to emarketer; brand Campaigns Drive Most Social Media Following

Three-quarters of Facebook fans have signed up with pages after invitations or ads from brands

Research on social media users who follow brands has shown marketers the importance of offering deals and discounts on Facebook fan pages as well as the nature of brand following as a form of self-expression, through which advocates can show support for a company they love. But what triggers Facebook users to “like” a brand is typically some form of outreach.

Brand Campaigns Drive Most Social Media Following

Emineo Media

Are you looking at social media?

If you haven't started looking at how essential social media marketing is to expand your brand, Look at these numbers!

1. Facebook with 133,623,529 unique visits.
2. MySpace with 50,615,444 unique visits.
3. Twitter with 23,573,178 unique visits.
4. Linkedin with 15,475,890 unique visits.
5. Classmates with 14,613,381 unique visits.
6. MyLife with 8,736,352 unique visits.
7. Ning with 6,120,667 unique visits.
8. LiveJournal with 3,834,155 unique visits.
9. Tagged with 3,800,325 unique visits.
10. Last.fm with 3,473,978 unique visits.

Invest in a proper Social Media campaign and your ROI will be impacted.

In order to grow your business, you need to invest in your business.

How much are you willing to invest?

Be Proactive!

Emineo Media

List courtesy of About.com: Web Trends

You’ve got a website!

You’ve got a website.

It’s got great graphics, pictures, company description, a blog and even a shopping cart, but where are your customers?

You’ve got a website! Your business should be booming now, right?

Step back and think about why you have a website in the first place.

The goal of a website:

      Find Sales Leads!

      Social Media Marketing!

      Conduct e-commerce!

      Search Engine Marketing

      E-mail Marketing

      Sell!

      Brand your business!

      Promote!

Does your website produce any of these goals?

If it doesn't?

The good new is we can maximize your website!

Emineo Media delivers interactive solutions that maximize marketing ROI.

We focus on business objectives to determine how companies can best use the Internet to increase revenues, reduce expenses and/or streamline business processes.

Emineo Media focuses on the complexities of interactive marketing and web services so our clients can focus on their business.

We can provide an analyze of your website.

You’ve got a website?

Let's make the website work for you!

Emineo Media

10 Killer Social Media Pitfalls Businesses Must Avoid!

Many businesses in Florida recognize social media as a powerful tool to engage customers, build brand awareness, drive website traffic and influence sales.  A properly implemented social media strategy can increases in website visitors, improve customer loyalty, reduce the cost of sales, improve the quality of customer service, boost brand awareness, and increase the lifetime value of customer relationships.  However, the pitfalls of an improperly planned, executed and managed social media strategy could easily outweigh the potential benefits.  Many companies have already learned the hard way, enduring embarrassing and sometimes costly mistakes.  Here are our top ten social media pitfalls to avoid:

1. Failure to properly plan. The 5 P’s of Success, “Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance”, perfectly apply to any social media strategy.  Consider the primary goal you’d like your social media strategy to achieve.  Then consider how the success of your social media strategy will be measured. What type of tools will be required?   Who will be primarily responsible for executing and managing the strategy?   Select you’re your social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flikr, a blog, etc. Who will be in charge of crafting the content?   How will your content approval process work?  Which members of your team will play a supporting role?   How will your social media strategy be integrated into your other initiatives?  What type of technology will be required?  What outside resources will you need?

2. Avoid spreading yourself too thin. For best results, concentrate many messages on just a few social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter (at least in the beginning) than spreading yourself out too wide across too many channels.  Although setting up a Facebook profile may be free, managing it requires somebody’s dedicated time, which is not free.  Producing compelling content such as copy, videos, presentations, and offers is also not free.  Consider which existing materials, i.e. print collateral, photos, events, contests, special offers, etc. could be re-purposed for your social media channel for maximum impact and value.

3. Don’t think of social media as a quick-fix.  Sure, a successfully planned and deployed social media strategy can deliver immediate measurable results – often making a dramatic positive impact on your business.  However, it’s important to think of social media as an initiative, not a campaign.  Despite the early gains in can produce, the value social media can deliver will typically increase over time and the level of success your social media strategy will yield will be in direct proportion to your level of commitment. Routinely producing fresh, highly relevant content aimed at your target audience will be the lifeblood of your social media strategy.  Over time, after you’ve hit a critical mass of friends, fans and followers, your social media network will become more self-sustaining through participation from users. However, reaching that critical mass requires

4. Don’t think that just because you’ve built it, they will come. Attracting fans, friends and followers during the early stage of your social media program will require outreach.  You’ll need to give people incentives to compel them to connect with you.  Appropriate incentives will be dependent on your target audience and need to be properly promoted through both your traditional and interactive marketing channels.

5. Don’t just follow the followers. While there’s nothing wrong with following the leader, in today complex business landscape it can be difficult to distinguish the true leaders from the followers.  Recognize that every business is unique. A social media strategy that works wonderfully for one company may be completely inappropriate for your business.  The key to launching a successful social media strategy is to gain a deep understanding of your customers and their needs.  Then, learn to genuinely speak to them and be committed to delivering real value.  When in doubt, don’t hesitate to enlist a professional social media consultant or agency to get you on the right track.  An outsider’s objective point of view could help put you on the right track faster and yield better results than going it alone.

6. Don’t make blatant sales pitches. While many customers do “befriend” or “follow” companies to get discounts or special offers, be sure to use social media as a way to establish and maintain relationships with customers and establish yourself as a knowledgeable expert in your field.  People prefer to do business with people they like and trust. Earn their trust and their business will follow.

7. Don’t treat social media as a one way street. Social media is most effective when it’s a dialogue, not a monologue.  Engage your customers, encourage discussions, listen and learn from their feedback.  People prefer being “spoken with” over “talked at”.

8. Don’t assign the responsibility of managing your social media strategy to an intern. Improperly communicating with your audience can have long-term negative consequences. Social media is public relations, marketing and customer service all in one — on a grand scale.  Entrust only your most knowledgeable and capable people with the responsibility.  Consider who within your organization you’d trust to attend a high value business networking event, a customer summit or press conference.

9. Don’t treat social media as an island. Social media is most effective when properly integrated into your other marketing, sales, public relations and customer service strategies.  Social media should be the thread that weaves together all your marketing initiatives. Reference your social media channels in all your email communications, your website, your blog and your traditional advertising – YES, your traditional advertising!  Advertise your Facebook page anywhere you’d advertise your website.

10. Don’t delay the launch of your social media strategy. A Nielsen study point out, “Social networks or blog sites are visited by three quarters of global consumers who go online, which is a 24% increase from last year.”  If your company has an established customer base, there’s a high probability that people are already conversing about your brand, products and/or services every day; customers, prospective customers, critics and competitors.  The only question is whether or not you want to be part of those conversations. Getting actively involved now will help build your brand, enhance customer loyalty and retention, enhance the quality of your customer service and increase your potential for both short-term and long-term revenue growth.

These pitfalls are the ones we most hear about, what did we miss?

As a business, have you experienced any others issues?—-  Share them with us.

As a consumer, what would you like to see business doing different with their social media?

Top 6 Interactive Marketing Tactics for Retailers to Drive In-StoreSales

Over the past several years a dramatic shift has occurred in the way consumers shop – they’re increasingly turning to the Internet to research products before stepping into a retail store. In fact, Credit Suisse reports 87% of consumers now conduct product research online before purchasing in person. U.S. in-store retail sales influenced by online consumer research are expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2012. That’s nearly half of total retail sales!

Not only is a well-planned and executed interactive marketing strategy critical to the success of any e-commerce website, it can also catapult in-store retail sales. Below are our top six interactive marketing tactics to implement into your marketing strategy.

1. Use email to deliver timely, personalized offers. It’s well known that at an average cost of about $0.01 per email sent and the immediacy in response rates, email is one of the most cost-effective and efficient marketing methods for retailers. But in addition to using email marketing to drive website traffic, it can also be an extremely effective method for driving in-store retail sales. As the holiday shopping season draws to a close, consumers become increasingly wary about making purchases online out of fear that their merchandise may not be shipped to them on time. This represents the perfect opportunity to step up emails for digital coupons and offers–valid for in-store purchases.

The effective use of email marketing to drive in-store sales however requires a well thought out action plan. The first step involves cultivating a highly targeted opt-in email list of shoppers. Then, highly engaging offers with clear calls-to-action (CTAs) need to be designed and routinely delivered. Email collateral should be consistent in messaging and design with your traditional advertisements and drive consumers to offer-specific landing pages or micro-sites or include promotion codes for in-store use so the performance of the offers can be accurately measured, reported and optimized.

2. Get found where consumers are searching. With nearly 9 out of 10 consumers researching products and future purchases online, effective search engine optimization (SEO) and social media optimization (SMO) of your website and retail store(s) is no longer optional – it’s now crucial. According to “The Compete Online Shopper Intelligence” study*, retail websites and search engines are the top two resources shoppers use to do their research, followed by retailer emails. The report found that 90% of consumers are utilizing search engines, 48% use online yellow pages and 42% are using comparison shopping engines to research purchases. Nearly 25% are using vertical websites. But the biggest change is that consumers no longer rely a single resource for information. On average consumers are looking at 7.9 different sources for product information.

“Coupon codes” and “discount codes” for specific products are extremely popular search terms which can be highly effective at driving both website and in-store retail traffic. It’s important to consider that consumers generally perform online searches for specific products, not store names. Therefore, use keyword-optimized “landing pages” for your most popular products to attract these highly targeted shoppers. These landing pages should contain detailed product descriptions, optimized images, videos (if available), customer feedback and testimonials, and third-party endorsements, etc. These landing pages not only help drive product sales but can also lift your website’s overall search engine rankings.

3. Leverage the viral power of social media. Social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter offer retailers the opportunity to empower loyal customers to significantly increase both the reach and impact of their offers. Since the average Facebook user has 130 friends and 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations (according to Neilson), a social media marketing program has quickly become a “must-do” for any retailer. Compete’s study* reveals that consumers are seeking out retailers on Facebook and Twitter in growing numbers; 31 percent report checking out Facebook fan pages or Twitter feeds of retailers –  almost twice as many people as in Q3 2009.

While setting up a Facebook fan page and Twitter account is free, maintaining it and properly leveraging it to drive measurable increases in sales isn’t. Social media success requires a well-planned social media strategy, which hinges on timely, highly relevant and entertaining content that encourages discussion and sharing. A poorly planned social media strategy, on the other hand, can disenchant consumers and result in dramatic adverse effects on your store’s online reputation, potentially causing greater harm than good.

4. Blog your way to increased sales. A blog is an important component of any interactive marketing and social media strategy today, serving as an excellent way to establish and maintain a dialogue with your most vocal customers. Since blogs are not yet commonly used among all retailers today, it’s an easy way to distinguish your store from the competition and increase customer loyalty. A blog is also an excellent way to solicit informal feedback from your customers about your company and products. In addition to the customer engagement value, content of your blog posts can be search engine optimized with titles and key words to help lift your website’s search engine rankings.

5. Embrace cross-channel marketing. We define cross-channel marketing as the use of one marketing channel (such as direct mail) to support or promote another channel. Since an estimated 9 in 10 consumers now research products online and via mobile devices to narrow down their purchase options before stepping foot into a retail store, effective cross-channel marketing has become a necessary component of any retailer’s marketing strategy. Consumers today expect a unified experience across all marketing channels which include content, design, pricing, and promotions.

A properly implemented cross-channel marketing strategy may use a catalog that drives your website traffic or an email campaign that grows your Facebook fan base. Providing your retail customers discounts, exclusive offers and digital coupons typically serve as proper incentives. Essentially, cross promote all of your marketing channels in all of your marketing channels.

6. Empower your website to drive in-store sales. Transform your website into a hub for all of the vital information your customers need to make a smart purchasing decision. Include detailed manufacturer product descriptions, large multi-angle photos, cross-product comparison functionality, rich media (video), product ratings and reviews, customer testimonials, warranty information and return policies. Include local promotions and weekly circular advertisements into your website. Be sure to include a store locator and consider adding an in-store product inventory feature and “buy online, pick up in-store” functionality to provide customers added convenience and avoid disappointment.

*Compete Online Shopper Intelligence™ study

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Do you take action or gamble?

We truly appreciate when trusted sources share nuggets of information to educate us all on the how-to’s of web design (et al). Whether your company has been online for many years or many months, take heed to the advice but more importantly, take action. You can have the greatest product or service in the world but a poor or bad experience on your website will turn your prospective customer in the opposite direction. It’s no different than a sales agent at a retail (offline) location. If that agent is having a bad day and it’s in the mood to deal with the same questions she just answered over and over the day before and she leaves your prospective customer feeling annoyed as opposed to excited to learn more, there’s a (huge) problem.

So be honest with yourself and/or your team. Are you really going to take action when you receive these complimentary tips from the experts, or are you going to go about your day and take a gamble?

Remember, even if a browser on your site doesn’t turn into a customer, what is it that you want them to remember from their experience (while on your site), which in turn is what do you want them to remember about your company?

If you acknowledge that you likely won’t and rarely do take action, contact a professional interactive web design firm. In the long run, your business will outperform the competition when you focus more on the experience, and less on the expense.