A New Social Audience for SMBs!

Small and medium size business owners: Have you’re figured out (yet) how to make your voice heard among the thousands, if not millions of online conversations occurring all at once?

The whole buzz about using social media to get new awareness and create a following is real, but you have to be remarkable. If what you’re saying is the same as 10 or 100 other businesses out there, why should anyone zero-in on what you’re saying?

In order to garner someone's attention you have to either make a loud a statement, or just have something they absolutely want or need - or both. So how do you do that? Give something away!

With over 70% of consumers researching products and services online before making a buying decision, what do you think they are searching for? Certainly they're trying to ensure that what they are about to purchase is a quality product from a verifiable business. But what they're really searching for, more now than ever is a discount or a way to save a few bucks. EVERYONE wants to cut costs. And don't mislead yourself into thinking that wealthy people don't care about savings. A majority of the wealthy became so through frugality.

So if you truly want to be found online, make it easy for someone to find you. Offer steep discounts for a trial period. The relatively new and still growing coupon site is all the proof you need.

But there are other ways too. If your product isn't a consumable, how do you attract your target audience? How do you draw in an audience that could one day need your product or service? The short answer is, branding and awareness - right? Those typically take a lot of time and a substantial investment. Who has that? SMB's need and want the exposure in real time.

What's the hottest electronic device on the market today? Try offering one or two as part of a giveaway promotion and watch your traffic explode. Sweepstakes and giveaways are good short-term attention getters. But there's actually one addition tactic that produces both short and long term results. Scholarships.

Business branded scholarships haven't been a common term in the SMB vocabulary until lately. Historically, larger corporations have held the term and used scholarships purely as a way to give back to their loyal customers.

With the growth of the internet and social media sites, SMBs can also capitalize on the fruits that scholarships produce. Those being a constant flow of fresh new leads and traffic to your business and social media websites; visits by friends and relatives of those applying for the scholarships because they want to help the student and/or they need it just as badly; and, long-term commitment. If you're questioning long-term commitment, consider this. Have you forgotten the name of the first person who either extended or gave you financial support?

The going-to-college audience, 18-30 year-olds is the next generation of consumers. The sooner you can get to know them, and them to know you and your business, the sooner you can begin to instill your brand and its commitments in their minds.

What are you doing today, to reach the audience that will propel your businesses through tomorrow?

Start with "Why"

If you haven't figured it out by now, reaching your target audiences can be simply complex. What's meant there is the old shot gun method is still easy. Getting responses is still difficult. At least until you consider how the social audience interacts. Engagement is the key to success. Being engaging however is the challenge. What can you say or write to invoke a conversation? Rather than asking a barrage of questions to start a dialogue, start by answering one simply question. "Why?" Starting with "Why" blows away the outer shell and pierces through to the inner belief. It encourages, inspires and instills integrity.

What are the core values of your company? Do you share and demonstrate them to your current and potential customers - or only to your staff at all employee meetings? Better yet - do you promote them in your marketing? And is that message engaging?

If you aren't, perhaps 2011 is the time for you to consider changing your strategies?

How are you engaging your prospects and customers?

Social Network Ad Spending to Double in U.K. by 2012!

The rise of social networking, and the involvement of advertisers in these channels, was one of 2010’s mega-stories—not least in the UK. Though spending in social networks is still a fraction of total online ad spending, many UK brands have leapt at the chance to engage with consumers in an environment where they spend increasing amounts of time and are highly motivated to share their thoughts. eMarketer estimates social network ad spending in the UK will rise from £130 million ($203 million) this year to £275 million ($430 million) by 2012, an increase of more than 110% in two years. This will boost social network ad spending from 3% of all online ad spending to 6% over the same time period.

via UK Social Network Ad Spending to Double by 2012 - eMarketer.

Inside Twitter’s “100 Million New Members” Number!

How many users does Twitter really have?

Last week, Twitter announced that it added 100 million new accounts so far in 2010. That’s a staggering number when you consider that six weeks ago it revealed it had signed up a total of 175 million new accounts since its launch and was adding new ones at a rate that would bring it to 200 million by the end of 2010. Translation: 50% of Twitter’s accounts were added this year.

On the flip side, the Pew Internet & American Life Project just reported that only 8% of US adult internet users used Twitter in 2010. According to eMarketer’s estimates, there were 178.6 million adult internet users in the US in 2010, so Pew’s figure translates to 14.3 million users. This number is lower than eMarketer’s April 2010 estimate of Twitter users, which will be updated in early 2011.

To be clear, Pew asked survey participants if they actually used Twitter, not merely whether or not they had an account. This is very different from Twitter reporting its total number of new or existing accounts.

Inside Twitter’s “100 Million New Members” Number

Marketers Buy In to Promoted Tweets!

Twitter’s ad formats mature and grow

Twitter advertising is attracting more interest from marketers.

In November, the TWTRCON conference and oneforty, an online directory for Twitter tools, surveyed 110 business professionals, mostly from marketing and communications, about their interaction with Twitter’s Promoted Products suite.

Overall, the respondents were interested in using Twitter ads as a part of their marketing mix, with 51% of respondents somewhat or very interested in Promoted Products. However, 27% hadn’t made up their minds and 22% said they had no interest at all.



Marketers Buy In to Promoted Tweets

Emineo Media

Social Media Is Greater Marketing Priority for Small Businesses!

Facebook is now third most important marketing tactic Small businesses, while not yet at the usage levels of their larger counterparts, are warming up to social media marketing, according to a fall 2010 survey from small-business marketing firm Constant Contact.The businesses surveyed overwhelmingly considered word-of-mouth the most important marketing tactic for finding new customers, but that figure includes discussions that take place both online and offline. Websites and email marketing followed as the only other tactics a majority of small businesses said were “very important.”

The businesses surveyed overwhelmingly considered word-of-mouth the most important marketing tactic for finding new customers, but that figure includes discussions that take place both online and offline. Websites and email marketing followed as the only other tactics a majority of small businesses said were “very important.”



Social Media Is Greater Marketing Priority for Small Businesses

Emineo Media

Who's Using Twitter? The Pew Center Report!

The Pew Center has a new report focusing on Twitter usage in the U.S., and it reveals that 6% of the entire U.S. adult population uses Twitter.

The report also reveals women and those with college educations are also slightly more likely than other groups to tweet.

One-quarter of Twitter users check the service multiple times per day to see others’ tweets, while one in five never look for new updates.

These are just a few select statistics about the actual tweets that are going out there:

72% of Twitter users say they post updates about their personal life, activities or interests.

62% post work-related updates.

55% use Twitter to share links to news stories.

53% use the service to retweet others’ material.

40% use the service to share photos with others, while 28% use it to share videos.

24% tweet their location.

The report was compiled as a result of multiple surveys: Data on overall Twitter usage and demographics is from the Pew Internet Project’s November 2010 tracking survey. Information on how often people use Twitter, as well as the topics they post about, were from two October 2010 surveys.

According to the center, this is the first time it has conducted research that focuses solely on Twitter users. This is because Pew typically looks into general online activities, as opposed to particular brands. So in most instances, the center’s research has involved asking Internet users if they “used Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?”

In August 2008, 6% of Internet users answered “yes.” By September 2010, the number had changed to 24% — but some analysts and readers assumed this pertained to Twitter users alone. This is what led researchers to decide that Twitter usage was worthy of being examined on its own.  Mashable

Download the full Report.

Big Jump in Social Media for Holiday Marketing!

Three-quarters will market on social sites this holiday season

Holiday advertising budgets are shifting as marketers increase their reliance on online channels, according to research from BDO USA.

While print advertising remains on top for holiday spending, nearly 27% of retailers reported they would spend most of their budget for the period online, including on social networks. That was up just from 18% last year and puts online ahead of broadcast for the second year in a row.

Big Jump in Social Media for Holiday Marketing - eMarketer.

Social Media Is Top Priority for Search Marketers

Social will be at the center of SEO and PPC campaigns

Is 2011 set to be the “year of Facebook,” even among search marketers? Based on what US advertisers told search marketing agency Covario, it’s definitely the year of social.

Search marketers have discovered how social media marketing can help build their search engine optimization efforts, and respondents to the Covario survey said their No. 1 priority for SEO next year was integration with social media programs. According to the report, “leveraging social media for scalable link-building efforts is a major initiative for advertisers.”

Social media will also play an important part in paid search efforts next year. Search ad campaigns on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn were top of mind for nearly half of advertisers surveyed—far ahead of priorities like local search or dealing with recent changes to major search engines (for example, Google Instant and Yahoo!-Bing integration).

Social Media Is Top Priority for Search Marketers

A Study: Twitter Increases Student Engagement!

Communicating in 140-character segments may seem to contradict the goals of generally long-winded academia, but a new study has found that the two are less opposed than one might think. Students in the study who were asked to contribute to class discussions and complete assignments using Twitter increased their engagement over a semester more than twice as much as a control group.



The study used a 19-question survey based on the National Survey of Student Engagement to measure student engagement at the beginning and end of a seminar course for first year students in pre-health professional programs. Four sections (70 students) were given assignments and discussions that incorporated Twitter, such as tweeting about their experiences on a job shadow day or commenting on class readings. Three sections (55 students) did the same assignments and had access to the same information, but didn’t use Twitter.

via Twitter Increases Student Engagement [STUDY].

Emineo Media

HOW TO: Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Strategy!

There’s nothing like the basics to help bring things back into focus when you feel lost. In “Marketing 101,” the acronym AIDA stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. This is the most simple and rudimentary of sales and marketing funnels and is still incredibly relevant today when it comes to social media and Internet() marketing strategies.

Each section of AIDA represents a section of your sales and marketing process and can help you set your expectations, decide what to monitor, and visualize the relationships between each part. Understanding the flow of the tools and tactics will also help you get your measurements and analytics in line with your goals.

Here’s a closer look at the breakdown of this marketing funnel, some tips on how to apply it to your social media strategy, and a look at how the model is evolving in the social media age.

via HOW TO: Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Strategy.

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

Emineo Media

Social Media Grows Up!

Three years ago, Twitter was barely known outside the geeky confines of San Francisco. Today, it's a marketer's dream: a free service with an audience of nearly 125 million people, who use it to keep tabs on friends, celebrities — and their favorite companies. Co-founder Biz Stone explains what's happening, where it's headed, and how entrepreneurs can take advantage.

Social Media Grows Up.

Emineo Media

Retargeting Used by Marketers for Cost-Effective Brand Lift!

According to a study by comScore and ValueClick Media, the display ad placement strategy with the most brand lift is retargeting.

While display ads may once have been considered primarily a direct response vehicle, and many marketers still rely on measures of declining clickthrough rates as primary display metrics, studies have shown that banner ads provide an important branding vehicle and should be considered as such. Given the cost, reach and effect of various display campaigns, retargeting provides a large benefit with reasonable costs.

Retargeting Used by Marketers for Cost-Effective Brand Lift

Emineo Media

The Continued Rise of Blogging!

More than half of web users will read blogs this year. Social networks and microblogs have in recent years nudged blogging off the social media pedestal. For some consumers, who have more communication tools at their fingertips than they did a few years ago, Facebook and Twitter have supplanted blogging as life-streaming outlets.

The Continued Rise of Blogging

Twitter to Release a Real-time Analytics Solution This Year!

Twitter plans to launch a free analytics dashboard that will help its users – especially businesses – understand how others are interacting with their tweets

Member of Twitter’s business development team Ross Hoffman has revealed at the Sports Marketing Summit that Twitter plans to launch the dashboard in the last quarter of 2010. He was speaking in the context of sports, but there’s no reason to believe the tool won’t be available to other users, too.

Twitter to Release a Real-time Analytics Solution This Year [REPORT].

Top 3 Stories in Social Media and Business!

Top 3 Stories of interest:

Twitter to Release Real-Time Analytics Dashboard in Q4

LinkedIn Acquires ChoiceVendor

Mark Zuckerberg Now Richer Than Steve Jobs

via Top 3 Stories in Social Media and Business This Morning.

Consumers Force Retailers to Adopt Social Strategy!

Confusion about ROI, disagreement about performance indicators

For most web users, online shopping is not a fully social activity. A few leading-edge retailers have begun allowing transactions to occur on sites like Facebook, but social media users do not typically report starting a search for a product on social sites

Consumers Force Retailers to Adopt Social Strategy - eMarketer.

Social Media Will Change Your Business - BusinessWeek!

The original title of this story was "Blogs Will Change Your Business,” published in May, 2005. It has received numerous revisions and updates and 5 years later; its essential reading for anyone interested in the relevance of the evolution of Social Media.

Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later.

Social Media Will Change Your Business - BusinessWeek######.

3 Small Cause Campaigns That Won Big With Social Media

Non-profit organizations are leading the way when it comes to creatively harnessing the power of social media.

In fact, 93% of the top U.S. charities have a Facebook page, 87% have a Twitter profile, and 65% have a blog. Why does this matter? Because the rapid growth and adoption of social media is helping non-profits in their quest for change — they truly are using social media for social media.

3 Small Cause Campaigns That Won Big With Social Media.