Social media marketing – the ever evolving medium

Thinking about jumping into the social media world? It can be daunting to say the least because things change so fast. New applications launch daily and the existing ones evolve and add new features.  In the past 12 months we’ve witnessed the debut of Google+ and the introduction of Facebook Timeline. Even the Merriam-Webster Dictionary moved into the 21st century of technology last year when they added the words “tweet” and “social media.” The dictionary company is a little late to the game as the The Oxford English Dictionary had already added “tweet” and “retweet” along with “sext” while the Collins English Dictionary had already added “Twitter” as a verb and noun way back in 2009.

It’s clear that Blogs, Twitter and Facebook are the most popular forms of social media.  But is it enough for a winemaker just to have a profile on these platforms to make a presence for their label?  The answer is No.  The goal here is to produce quality content, find and engage your fans, build relationships, inspire word of mouth… and actually have a little fun while doing it!

I don’t have a tasting room – how will Social Media sell more wine?

There are a number of ways Social Media can help your marketing and distribution efforts.  Content and activities such as an active blog, videos, and “Twitter Taste Live” events (such as the successful St. Supery East Coast Wine Tweetup Tourin 2009)  bring wine lovers together to taste and celebrate your brand. Drive people to your website by linking blog posts to Facebook and Twitter or with a QR code on your label.

Your label becomes your virtual storefront

Can I hire someone to do this for me?

Yes…and no. It’s always a good idea to get some coaching before jumping in. However, keep in mind that social media is transparent and full disclosure is critical. You wouldn’t send someone to a networking event and tell them to pretend to be you, would you? If you decide to hire someone or an agency to be in charge of social media, make sure they sign their posts and disclose to the audience who they are and why they are engaging with your audience. They also must understand the strategy behind your marketing campaigns, vision and goals.  Creating a Facebook or Twitter page and occasionally putting out generic, one-way messages is a waste of time and nobody will pay attention to it.

To properly engage with your consumers online and create quality content you need someone dedicated; someone who understands how all the social media platforms work together.  I’ve seen a small wineries give this task to a staffer who already has enough on their plate. Unfortunately, as with any project, you only get back what your able to put in. Instead, consider tasking your  social media marketing to someone who has a firm grasp of all the platforms and applications, who is able to keep up with the ever evolving technology and trends, who has a passion for the wine industry,  who cares about your wine, and can approach the brand from a consumer’s point of view.

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Spending a little time today reflecting on the year, setting new goals and revisiting old ones. I’ve archived some really fun, helpful and just plain cool stuff this year – Here’s a sampling. Enjoy!

100 People I hate on Facebook – I particularly appreciate #21, 79 & 91

Top 75 Apps for enhancing your Facebook page - One of my goals for 2011 is to become absurdly proficient at landing pages and other handy FB apps.

20+ awesome and unique uses of google reader that you probably didn’t know about – I sure as heck didn’t.

12 gifts most freelance designers only dream about – I admit to dreaming and yearning for #1

Mapping America; Every City Every Block – this is so cool! Put in your zip code and find out how diverse (or not) your neighborhood is…

The top 40 iphone apps of 2010

One of the BEST twitter cheat sheets I’ve seen so far!

I meet with small business owners everyday who want to know if they should tweet, or Facebook or YouTube or….and the answer is usually a resounding yes! However, NEVER without a plan. Examine your goals and objectives – even your vision (you DO have a vision statement, don’t you??) before you even get your toes wet…Have some idea of your purpose in the SMM world. Have a measurable goal too – just like you do for your marketing plan (you DO have a marketing plan, don’t you??).

by Rich Brooks  President, flyte new media :

Whether you’re an early adopter or finally fell victim to the hype, there’s a moment after you’ve gotten on Twitter or set up your company’s Facebook page where you ask yourself, “now what?” If you find yourself at that point, you may have already skipped a couple of essential steps to building a social media campaign that will grow your business or non-profit. If you’re looking to create a sustainable, effective social media presence, then follow these five steps to social media marketing success.

1. Clarify Your Business Goals. Getting on Twitter is not a goal, it’s a tactic. What are your goals for the coming year? Is it to grow by 20%? Bring a new product to market? Increase donations to your non-profit? Without specific goals you’re shooting arrows in a fog.

2. Outline Your Strategies. Remember: strategies are the forest, tactics are the trees; when evaluating strategies think big picture.

If you’re trying to promote something, one strategy might be to get influencers talking about it. If you’re bringing a new product to market your strategy may be to educate people about why they need it, and what more expensive product or service it’s replacing. For a non-profit looking to increase donations, your strategy may be to tell stories that personalize the troubles your organization solves.

3. Determine Your Tactics. Here’s where you determine whether a Twitter account, Facebook Fan Page, or YouTube channel will be most effective.

One thing to keep in mind when prioritizing your social media campaigns is that you want to go where your audience is. B2B companies might get the most traction by getting involved in LinkedIn, either by joining appropriate groups, creating their own to attract new clients, or answering questions in the Answers section to establish their expertise. They may also choose to encourage their employees to get on LinkedIn and build out their profiles to give the company a wider reach.

Companies that have products that don’t necessarily scream for social media engagement might instead try creating valuable content. Performing a keyword analysis to determine what effective search terms might be, and creating blog posts, podcasts and videos around those phrases can be help increase online visibility, search engine ranking and drive more qualified leads to the Web site.

4. Plan Your Execution. Joining social media sites may be free, but social media does have a cost. Whether you hire an outside social media consultant or task one or more employees for the work, there is a cost.

Some questions to ask are:

• Do you (and your staff) have the skills inhouse to launch an effective, sustained campaign?
• How will you handle negative comments and feedback?
• Which (or perhaps whether) employees can play in social media spaces on behalf of the company?
• If you do hire a consultant, what will their role be? Will they tweet for you? Engage your fans on Facebook or forward leads to your sales team? Will they get you going, or will you enter into an ongoing engagement with them?

5. Measure Your Results. Social media is fairly new, and some hard numbers on its effectiveness–or even what to measure–are difficult to come by. Here are some suggestions on how you can measure the ROI on any social media campaign:

• Don’t discount soft numbers. The number of followers you have on Twitter (especially in relation to how many people you follow on Twitter), the number of fans on Facebook, and your subscribers on YouTube are all “soft numbers.” None of these directly increases your revenues. However, they do represent “social proof.” Just like when someone steps out of a limo wearing a stylish tuxedo, there’s a certain amount of social proof that this person has “made it.” (And like that example, these numbers can be artificially influenced.)
• Measure hard numbers. If you’re tasked with showing your boss that tweeting matters, you’re probably going to have to show her more than just the number of followers you have.If you get business or sales through your Web site, you can look at your traffic reports to see where your traffic is coming from. At flyte, most of our recent “referrers” are from blogs or social media sites. That means that our blogging and social media activity is directly increasing the qualified leads from our Web site.You can dig even deeper by setting up Google Analytic goals and measure whether or not this traffic is taking desired actions on your site, like completing a contact form or purchasing a product.By using URL-shorteners like bit.ly you can easily track specific traffic to different campaigns to see whether it was your blog post, your online video or the link you posted to Twitter that brought in that big new client.

In Conclusion
When businesses hear stories about Blendtec’s viral video success, or Dell selling millions of dollars in product through Twitter, they assume social media is a get rich quick scheme, for better and worse.

However, for most of us, social media is an investment in our future success. It takes planning, hard work and a results-oriented focus to work. It doesn’t happen overnight, but rather like a snowball rolling downhill, it builds momentum over time.

Rich Brooks is president of flyte new media, a Web design and Internet marketing company http://www.flyte.biz . They help small businesses with search engine optimization, email marketing, blogging and social media marketing. You can contact them for a free consult at http://www.flyte.biz/contact

Powerful wise words for those of us delving into the world of social media – blogging, tweeting, Facebook. What is the best way to make these “social” networking sites work for you and your business?

ENGAGE. Knowing that you had too much to drink last night or that your husband lost his job is not engaging. It’s boring and, quite frankly, none of my business. It amazes me when Upper Management in a small community publishes posts about misconduct in their lives. Don’t they get how viral this is? The conversations are personal but decidedly not private. So is it possible to be personal AND professional on Facebook? I think absolutely yes! Part of “Enlighten” is to allow colleagues a glimpse into your life, within reason. I still live by the adage “Don’t publish (on the internet) anything you wouldn’t want your grandma (or biggest client) to see or hear about!” Keep it relevant and interesting. Offer up some value; an inspiring quote, an interesting anecdote or a link to some fascinating tidbit. Engage with your friends and colleagues without sharing so much that your other 430 followers are made uncomfortable. On Twitter there is no space to waste. 140 characters means get to the point and get me interested!

ENLIGHTEN. According to the dictionary the definition of “enlighten” is: to give intellectual or spiritual light to; instruct; impart knowledge to. What does this mean to you? Find out what your community (friends/contacts/followers) are talking about. What is trending in their world (follow http://twitter.com/trendingtopics and look for Twitter to release a local trending topics search tool soon: http://bit.ly/583Ejx). When you stumble upon relevant interesting tidbits – share that! When someone enlightens your world – pass it on!

EMPOWER. My favorite tweets are the ones that lead me to the coolest newest app or to a fantastic article about my industry that provides immediately applicable strategies. I feel empowered and that creates immense good will for the person or organization that provided the information. Chris Brogan calls these folks “Trust Agents” and uncovers how to become one in his best seller of the same name.

Become a trusted agent in your online community. You do this by Engaging then enlightening and empowering.

It’s tedious, can be time consuming and a little intimidating if you don’t know where to start. It can make you feel overwhelmed, might disappoint you and can frustrate the heck out of you. It can make you feel like a twelve year old staring at his first algebra assignment. For these reasons most small business owners I talk to avoid this imperative first step in their marketing strategy. What is it? Research!

The information gained through marketing research is information that can guide your most important strategic business decisions. Market research is effective when the findings or conclusions you reach have a value that exceeds the cost of the research itself.

There are five broad categories of market research:

• Market Segmentation
• Purchasing Power and Buying Habits
• Psychological Aspects of the Market
• Marketplace Competition
• Environmental Factors

What are the benefits of market research?

1) Will help you better communicate.
Learn about your potential clients — who they are and what they want the most. Nothing improves communication skills better than a little person to person contact.

2) Will help identify opportunities.
Check the competition. Are they missing something you can capitalize on? What can you do better than they can? Are you clients in need of something nobody else is offering?

3) Will minimize risk.
Just like any situation, if you come prepared you will be less likely to loose and more likely to win.

4) Will create benchmarks to help you measure progress.
How well are you doing? By setting the standard high from the start, you will be in a better position for sustained growth.

With the power of the Internet it is now very easy to conduct market research using one of the many online survey software sites that make conducting surveys and collating good market research intelligence quick, easy and extremely cost effective. I use Constant Contact or Zoomerang

At Rossetti Marketing we are proud to work with small businesses – many just starting out, some home-based and a bunch who are ready to take it to the next level. One of the first things we “teach” is the difference between marketing and advertising. It may seem basic, but it’s worth posting for those excited entrepreneurs who may not understand.
Knowing the difference and doing your market research can put your company on the path to substantial growth.

Let’s start off by reviewing the formal definitions of each and then I’ll go into the explanation of how marketing and advertising differ from each other.

Advertising: The paid, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to existing and potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of services or products.

After reading both definitions it is easy to understand how the difference can be confusing to the point that people think of them as one-and-the-same; so let’s break it down a bit.

Advertising is a single component of the marketing process.

It’s the part that involves getting your word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the largest expense of most marketing plans, with public relations following in a close second and market research not falling far behind.

The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside the pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in this strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently bu they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.

Social Media Marketing takes that exchange and makes it between consumer and consumer – a 2-way conversation about your business. Coming soon: Social Media Marketing basics

OK, I admit it – I am NOT an expert on this stuff…but, hey, I’m in the game and I am learning! I have uncovered some compelling reasons to use social media in your marketing mix and a few sensible rules of engagement…

Why incorporate SMM into your marketing mix? Well, as opposed to advertising- SMM is free. It’s also credible – peers advising peers.
My role, what I do and what I love to do is promote my client’s events, services, products and brand through any and every avenue possible. I have fun doing this because the world of social media allows me to engage with and follow folks who have the same interests and want to hear what I have to say – and vice versa. What you can do with SMM is this; build a community. Engage with your customers, partners, prospects and peers. Have a voice. Listen and learn from others. Use social media tools to help build your brand.

Tips I have found on colleagues blogs and tweets:

1. Know why you’re using a service.
I use Twitter (http://twitter.com/dvendley) to access relevant links to useful knowledge and influential people in my idustry and to reach and develop mutually beneficial relationships with others. Linkedin provides me the ability to tap on or grow the collective knowledge and expertise in my network. This is assuming I’ve linked up to people I know or trust to be reliable, of course (I have). Then, even if my immediate contact does not know the answer, their contacts down the trust chain may or can refer to people who can help me. Facebook has proven valuable both personally and professionally. I have created groups and connected with long forgeotten colleagues and aquaintances who are now valuable resources, prospects and who can link me into their networks..
2. Know what your followers or friends want – provide value.
Understand what your friends, family, colleagues and customers wnat and give it to them. Simple as that. Keep it relevant and engaging.
3. Cross-pollinate your friends
from one social media service to another. If I tell my Twitter followers I’m on Linkedin or Facebook, I will get new followers “crossing over” from social media service to another.
4. Use the same avatar for each service
so that you’re instantly recognizable by your friends from other services.
5. Help others unconditionally
Doing so attracts people to you and helps you be seen as an expert. I know this doesn’t seem very “markety” but that’s the point: it’s actually the best marketing you can do. If somebody showed they gave a damn and helped you solve a problem or answer a question, wouldn’t you be more inclined to follow/friend that person, maybe check out their blog?
6. Put in the time.
This is the hardest point for many to deal with. They just don’t have the time. My advice is to pick two social media sites that resonate with you and use them.
Take breaks.
ou can wear your followers and friends out if you over-use a service. They’ll get sick of you, even if you’re providing value. It’s like the social media version of that person at the party who just won’t shut up and you want to wring his neck.

Yesterday I posed the question, Is the sky really falling? Diana Mermigas, editor-at-large at MediaPost has this to say:
Television broadcasters and newspapers have their moment of truth

Many individual and group TV and newspaper properties will collapse under the weight of an advertising recession and legacy costs. Their online and other digital revenues will fail to offset double-digit ad losses. Loan covenants and debt payments will be missed. Some will shut down; a few will sell off in a dismal deal market.

All media will hang on and gear up for post-recession consolidation

When asset values are reset and financing flows, every kind of rollup and startup will abound: TV and radio stations, newspapers, TV networks, production companies, agencies, and everything Internet.

There will be big media sellers

Sacked with thinly valued stock prices, declining revenues and earnings, and a long, painful recovery, many media properties will be sold. Majority shareholders and owners are under pressure to sell or merge assets, including Yahoo, CBS Corp., Time Warner’s AOL, General Electric’s NBC Universal, New York Times Co., bankrupt Tribune Co., book publishers such as CBS’ Simon & Schuster, Take Two and Sirius XM.

There will be big media spenders

Media conglomerates with cash will fill strategic needs buying at attractive valuations. Prospective buyers include Time Warner, News Corp., Google, Microsoft, and Liberty Media. Most likely deals: Yahoo-AOL-Microsoft, NYT-News Corp., NBCU-Time Warner, Viacom-CBS, IAC’s Home Shopping Network-Liberty’s QVC, Take Two-Electronic Arts. Bank, private equity, venture capital and other capital outlets may begin to thaw by the end of 2009.

Legacy costs, structure and processes are history

The only way may be Chapter 11 bankruptcy for some bigger players. Going digital, going green, and infrastructure redo tech boom will be other ways that companies of all size will wrestle with their legacy demons.

The Long Tail gets squeezed

Only the niche enterprises with the strongest, most lucrative consumer and advertiser following will thrive in The Great Recession. Others may have to align with or be folded into a larger entity to survive. Online niche has not existed long enough to develop a recession-proof business model, but it will continue as a primary element in the connected digital universe.

Advertisers will spend even less than the worst-case decline forecast

More of what they spend will shift online and to other digital platforms, where overall growth could exceed single digits. Advertiser spending will noticeably decline in the broadcast network’s upfront, which has its last big hurrah. Cable networks inch closer to ad-dollar parity, but suffer the same online competition pressures. Newspapers continue to tank, unless they participate in the massive contraction and consolidation of cross-platform news.

Major ad categories will never be the same

Major advertisers such as automotives, financial services, retail and real estate will not return any time soon; they will be diminished and different when they rebound a year from now. That is a disaster for local media, which could easily see more than half their ad revenue base wiped out in 2009. For instance, automotives generally have comprised 40% of local TV income.

Consumers continue to embrace and drive digital

Even in a recession, all age consumers will be discriminating spenders on the interactivity that best suits their needs and interests, mostly on devices and services they already own.

Local is the new social

Some local TV broadcasters and newspapers will begin to monetize enough to stay in business. Some Internet players will begin to dabble more in this huge void. Relevant local information, social sharing, retail coupons, school and community data, sports scores, car pools, etc. remain a big missed opportunity.It will be delivered to Internet-connected mobile devices, including smartphones. A new player will emerge and do for local content and services online what Craigslist did for regionalized classified advertising.

At least one broadcast network disappears

The CBS Broadcast TV Network is the most likely candidate to collapse or convert into a general entertainment cable network. It is a possibility whether CBS Corp. remains autonomous, is sold, or is reunited with Viacom, given Sumner Redstone’s debt problems. NBC-TV, Fox-TV and ABC-TV also recognize the need to establish a solid second revenue stream that would come from converting their traditional broadcast networks into general entertainment cable hubs. However, cable advertisers and subscribers would probably only support two of the four.

Digital video growth continues

Established long-form TV and film producers will create more intriguing ways to entice consumers with abbreviated five-minute forms of their content for dispatch to all corners of the social-networked Web. Many Internet and media players, such as Time Warner, Google, Yahoo, NBC Universal and Walt Disney, will launch virtual video studios. They will use existing and strategic partner resources to produce original content that will attract new advertising dollars. Some user-generated video will be more enterprising, professional and commercially successful. Online and television video will become more mutually supportive in driving consumers and advertisers.

Refinement of online functions

Search, discovery, e-commerce, social networking and personal relevance become the focus of new value-creation efforts by companies waiting out the recession.

New media economics and business models

Personal relevance and engagement become forces as strong as any marketing brand; e-transactions become as important as advertising revenues and subscription fees.

More accountable, monetizable media metrics

Advertisers demand and get more ROI from interactive digital buys. A new metric that begins to take shape involves mutual monetizable connections that target consumers, advertisers and producers of goods and services. Measurement will extend to tracking what users do with advertising, data, content and connections in ways that generate revenues. Other devleoping new metrics will measure and value user engagement.

Mobile connectivity will become the core platform

The road to universal WiFi and WiMax may be bumpy, but anywhere, anything interactivity on smartphones, video-friendly PDAs and other wireless mobile devices will be the global screen of choice. Primary drivers will include interactive communications, location-based services and e-transactions.

Governments and gatekeepers seek digital cash

New York Gov. David Paterson is just the first to propose an iPod tax on digitally delivered entertainment services–one of nearly 90 new fees and taxes to help close the state’s $15 billion budget gap. Other ailing states (including California and Illinois) and the federal government as well as distributors, such as cable system operators, will follow.

From Diane Mirmigas OnMedia Blog: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=97024

I have three words for 2009: Relevance, Permission and Mobility!

First things first: Fridays at Five this week (1/9) is at Noli’s Italian Cafe (located at 5th street Market. See you there!

Now….Is the sky really falling???

I think not. There are some sound strategies out there for marketing through a recession -
I hate to beat a horse to death (really, how gross and inhumane) but here are some tips for yoMarketing Through A Recessiou:

1. Analyze your efforts. What is working, what isn’t? Do more of what’s working and eliminate what isn’t.
2. Ensure strategies are integrated and measurable. If they aren’t, you have the wrong people doing your marketing. Replace them. And if that person is you, get it together or outsource it. For marketing to succeed, it must feature a strategic plan that integrates marketing tools to maximize success and that measures everything being done.
3. Ensure that marketing is a long-term effort. Starting and stopping, doing a little here and a little there, is a failed policy. You might as well host a company BBQ and burn money instead of charcoal.
4. Get a steady hand on marketing and make sure it is working every day of every month of every year. And measure, measure, measure, revise, revise, revise.

Please let me know your thoughts on this subject – give your tips to the audience and don’t forget to join us online or in person at Fridays at Five! www.FridaysatFive.net
Online: Facebook or Linked in

See you soon

D

Meatball Sundae
I’m reading a brilliant book by a brilliant guy, Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae. It is for sure changing (and validating) the way I view traditional marketing. Traditional marketing is like a car alarm- In the 80′s if a car alarm went off we all looked out the window to see if it was our vehicle…today an alarm sounds and nobody notices. Not only is the alarm ignored, it’s not even heard. Invisible. Well, isn’t that what is happening today with traditional marketing? TV, radio, Newspaper even billboards? We are so inundated with messages and they are coming at us so fast and furious in so many ways that we just stop seeing them. I know I do. Godin defines New Marketing as sort of caveman marketing, the sort of marketing that existed before money and corporations took over. New Marketing doesn’t understand top-down command-and-control thinking. It’s consumer telling consumer what to buy. It’s about creating stories that spread because people want to spread them.
Permission Marketing
The term “Permission Marketing” was coined by the afore-mentioned Marketing Guru, Seth Godin. Permission Marketing allows marketers to gain consent from customers or prospects before sending them a marketing message. This type of marketing is a win-win. The advantage to the consumer is that they are in control of what messages they receive and when so the messages are anticipated, personalized and relevant. They can also opt out at any time. The advantage to the Marketer is that cost is low, feedback is instantaneous and they are speaking to a loyal, captive audience who will likely pass the message on. What is more credible that consumers promoting your product?
Does it work?
According to a study done by University of Texas at Dallas Professor B.P.S. Murthi, this marketing method has proven to be two to three times more effective than conventional direct email and ten times more effective than banner ads. According to a survey by Flownetworks, inc
an incredible “94% of consumers opt-in for permission based email”.
Is it Easy?
I don’t think so. I think you have to be diligent and work just as hard. More to come on this as I explore the world of contemporary marketing and how I can help my small business clients navigate this new world.