With 1.9 million unique visitors per month, you can bet that celebrities all over are jumping on the Twitter trail too.  On an average day, users can expect to find tweets from Britney Spears, Lance Armstrong, Barack Obama, Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Colbert, Shaquille O’Neal and even, MC Hammer.  But the wide array of celebrities on Twitter really extends beyond this.  Some celebs ahead of the curve have already logged on to Twitter, managed their accounts for a while and subsequently deactivated.

So what would drive a celebrity to run away from the free publicity and fame?  Isn’t there always more time to be in the spotlight?  Well, not according to famous teen star, Miley Cyrus.  She claimed that her Twitter account began invading her privacy and putting her personal affairs in public view too frequently—probably right around the time she boasted a following of 2 million.  So she decided to conclude her Twitter affair and kissed it goodbye with a YouTube rap video about how she “stopped livin’ for moments and started livin’ for people.”  You should really check it out if you haven’t seen it— it’s highly entertaining, not to mention perplexing as she is trying to run from the public eye by creating a new viral video.  How ironic.  She should probably stick to acting, but that’s beside the point…

Regardless of Miley, many other celebrities have managed to run successful campaigns on Twitter.  They’ve used them to promote themselves, their songs and shows, grow a fan base, relate to their audience and humanize themselves.  Twitter can actually be a really successful tool for celebrities in increasing their personal brand awareness, just like how companies and businesses use the microblog for viral marketing.

Ashton Kutcher is a great example of this phenomenon.  I’m sure everyone remembers his victory over CNN?  Earlier this year, they we racing to see who could reach 1 million followers first.  He tweeted incessantly and offered a free Guitar Hero to his millionth follower.  Somehow he single-handedly conquered the news super station.  He currently claims the most followers out of any other celebrity on Twitter with 3.9 million fans reading his microblog on a regular basis.  He tweets about 10 times a day and usually adds in a link, either to a website or other profile.  He often interacts with his followers—recently, he replied to a fan’s tweet about his last chemo session with “live strong, Drew.”  Must be why he has so many followers!

However, Ashton Kutcher is not the only celeb using Twitter to show his sensitive side—Tila Tequila has been consistently blasting out posts on her profile page to aid her favorite charity, The Keep a Breast Foundation.  She recently collaborated with artist Randy Janson to create a shiny, red, sculpted version of her breasts to be auctioned off on Ebay.  Tila is a heavy Tweeter, with an average of 143 posts per day.  She’s been publicizing and promotion the auction from her Twitter account, which has apparently created a lot of hype.  There’s only 8 days and 10 hours left and the bidding has already hit $45,000, so if you’re interested, I’d bid now!

So as you can see, celebrities are not shy when it comes to Twitter.  The most successful celebs are the ones with the highest tweet frequency and most user engagement.  But, keep in mind, just because we’re talking about celebrities here doesn’t mean they are all tweeting with the same intentions.  Several news sources in 2009 have conjectured that many stars employ their Twitter profiles as a way of disseminating personal information before the paparazzi can expose it.  Some people may see this as lessening their personal privacy but celebs like Britney Spears, Lance Armstrong and Shaquille O’Neal believe that this is actually a form of privacy control because they can control the accuracy of the information they release.  Although it may deplete the dollar signs of the paparazzi machine, it seems like a pretty good plan to me.

For more information on celebrity profiles, check out Celebrity Tweet.

Why Use Social Media?

There are a lot of self proclaimed “social media experts” out there.  I do not claim to be one of them nor do I think most people should ever claim to be an expert at anything.  The term “expert” is used far too frequently in the online marketing world and should be taken with a grain of salt.  The bottom line is that Internet marketing strategies like social media are not complicated when you understand best practices and have a detailed plan.

Social media is one of the fastest growing online marketing initiatives.  The goal of a social media campaign is to create a fusion between PR, networking, advertising, and customer interaction.  A properly managed social media effort will also substantially improve SEO and online reputation management. 

When promoting specific products and services it is important to educate the consumer and build trust.  Social media provides that opportunity to create a conversation and engage the customer in valuable knowledge transfer.  It is important to create a strategy that informs the consumer about the product and provides a plan for responding to any potential negative feedback. 

When engaging in social media you must have a plan.  To execute social media properly, you need a detailed project plan just like you would have for any major Internet marketing initiative.  The following information provides some guidelines for marketers or companies to lay the initial framework for such a plan. 

Social Media Statistics

Social Media Audience
• Today, the social media audience totals 122 million. That is 64% of the total Internet audience!
• Time spent on social networking and blogging sites is growing at over 3x overall Internet growth.

Facebook
• Average user time spent on Facebook grew 566%  (2008)
• Fastest growing social media demographic is ages 35 to 54. Rapidly growing sub groups include women over 55 and young stay at home Moms
• Over 1/3 of all content sharing on the web is done through Facebook and Twitter

 Twitter
• 62% of Twitter users are ages 25 to 54
• 90% are moderate to heavy Internet users

Blogs
• In 2009, an estimated 96.6 million users will read a blog at least once per month. 
• By 2013, that number is expected to reach 128.2 million – which accounts for 58 percent of all U.S. Internet users.

YouTube
• 89.7 unique visitors in April 2009
• 16.6 average daily visitors
• 6 billion videos viewed each month
Mobile Access to Social Media
• eMarketer projects that mobile social network users worldwide will climb from 243 million in 2009 to 803 million in 2012.

Statistics provide by Nielsen Online and eMarketer

The Objectives

The key objectives will be defined by the final strategy.  The recommendations should include components designed to meet the following objectives:
• Provide great depth and breadth of information about the brand’s products and services
• To engage advocates for the product or service who will help create a positive buzz based on verifiable information
• To generate a “conversation” with current and potential customers
• To build on the positive and have a planned response for the negative including immediate feedback and communication of a plan to answer any concerns

The Platforms

The platforms used will be different for every strategy depending on the brand and defined goals.  Some initial platforms widely used include:
• Corporate Blog -  For communicating valuable industry information, answering frequently asked questions, and providing educational content about the brand’s products and services
• Facebook -  For providing an additional platform for communicating the brand message and educating consumers
• Twitter -  For providing an additional platform for communicating the brand message and educating consumers
• YouTube Channel -  To host additional videos about the product, testimonials, and interviews with advocates
• Review & Rating Sites -  To provide a planned strategic response to negative feedback and become involved in the online conversation. 
• Company website and all offline media components -  All social media platforms should be joined together with a centric message and combined with offline media placements

Social Media Archtiecture

NOTE:  New Assets and Existing Assets include any valuable content, articles, reports, videos, or educational pieces that will add value for the consumer base. Global Marketing is representing the incorporation of all offline marketing components.

Social Media Timeline and Editorial Calendar

Social media should not be a “fly by the seat of your pants” effort.  A define plan will ensure a more organized approach.  I recommend having a 12 month plan divided by quarter.  Again, every brand will have a different strategy.  You need to assign the key players that will be involved and make sure everyone is committed to the process.  Once you start communicating with your custoimers effectively through social media, you won’t want to stop anyway!

Many companies forget how powerful having a press release strategy can be.  Yes, I said press release “strategy”.  Most companies understand why press releases are important and how to send them out, but many still don’t understand what a powerful compliment this can be to your Internet marketing strategy.  Press releases are important for many reasons but essentially it is a free or inexpensive way to get valuable content about your company out on the web.  These is no sales pitch and the information must be newsworthy and well-written so you are usually ensured that you will be providing some kind of value for the reader.  As a component of an Internet marketing effort, press releases can provide great value.

Three Key Benefits to Press Releases:

1. A press release is a great way to blast valuable information about a company and its products, services, promotions, new hires, charitible donations, etc.  It is essentially free publicity.  Many PR firms do this for clients but most fall short in a few areas on the strategy (by no optimizing the content for search engine purposes, explained below).  As a PR element, a press release is free information for the consumer without the annoying sales pitch.  Sounds kind of like social media doesn’t it.
2. This is also a great way to gain further credibility and provide your audience with subtle messages about how great your company/product/service is.  A well-written press release will have all of the basic components including a good captivating introduction that echoes the message in the title, support paragraphs, quotes from executives or happy clients, and an “About” paragraph explaining the company mission/history.
3. The third and most important benefit is the impact it can have on search results (search engine optimization).  The impact is two fold:  First, a well optimized press release can appear in the SERPs for related search terms and in Google News results for similar keywords related to the content.  I will explain how to optimize a press release later, but once you have this done, you can use resources like PRWeb.com to blast your release out to many different news channels.  When the relase is picked up and distributed to other news sites it can be a great way to receive powerful inbound links to your website.  The more quality inbound links your site has, the more likely you are to achieve better rankings (assuming your website is well-optimized).

Three Tips for Creating a Good Press Release Strategy:

1. Make a committment to writing regular press releases, optimizing them, and sending them out through PR distribution channels on the web.  This is also great content to post on your website as well. Create a news section and upload the releases there as well.  The difficult part in doing regular press releases is that you have to find something newsworthy to write about each time…so get creative.  You will quickly find out what will be accepted and what won’t by the distribution channels such as PRWeb.com
2. Optimize the press release buy including important keywords in the content.  Take a couple keywords and use them as anchor text to hyper link back to key pages on your site.  Write a proper title and description for the release as well.  Sites like PRWeb.com have the tools to accomplish this.  Once the press release has been uploaded and optimized, then you submit it for review.  The editors will either approve the release and schedule it for distruibution, or they will deny it and tell you what needs to be fixed.  Usually, to send an optimized release there is now a small fee but it can be well worth the benefit.
3. The third tip as mentioned above is to add the press release content to your website as well in a News or Resources section.  Make sure to proof read all content of course.  You would be surprized how many press release still have typos and poor grammatical structure.

So you have a new online business and want to get it up and running. As we all know, money is scarce and both VC’s and Angels have tightened their belts. Angel investors are trying to stay a bit more liquid and really looking hard for the right investment. Often times they are looking for proprietary technology rather than service based businesses. The problem with that as an entrepreneur with a new company is that its take time and money to develop proprietary technology. So how does someone with a new start-up tackle the challenges and stresses of bootstrapping?

These economic times are going to forge smart, savvy, and tough minded business people because we will all be forced to make hard decisions and in the long wrong might be better off for it. Not getting those much needed investments can often turn out to be a blessing in disguise. You will be forced to work hard, keep your company lean and mean, and focus on your core initiatives.

Step 1: At first, focus on cash flow rather than profitability (this will quickly change of course and profitability will be your life line). The reason for this is that you will have expenses and your own bills to pay (need cash to pay them). Keep your overhead as low as possible and pay your bills on time.

Step 2: Forecast from the bottom up not the top down. In so many business plans you see people making projections based on the percentage of the market they plan to capture…usually it is the standard 1% to 5% depending on the industry. Rather than make these estimates, keep it more simple. By focusing from the bottom up you can project the productivity of your team, the ability to sell a certain amount of your product or service each month, and the growth plan for each component.

Step 3: Hire people you can actually afford. It may not be the time to go out and build your dream team. This can lead to a massive payroll expense and overstaffing issues. You will end up having a bunch of high paid people sitting around doing nothing. Make your team building strategy gradual and understaff if you can. This will lead to each team member having to work a little harder but so what…thats part of the start-up experience right? Once you hit a threshold where you think quality might start to suffer, go hire another person.

Step 4: Make good hiring decisions. You can’t afford to waste money on people that will not produce for you. Have a formal hiring process even for your lowest level positions and call references given. At the end of the day though you have to go with your gut feeling. I have hired people who I knew would be great even though one of the references was not that great. It turned out to be one of the best decisions we have made.

Step 5: As mentioned above, even if you plan to develop proprietary technology, you may not have the resources to start with this at the beginning. This will take time and significant resources. Have a service you can sell that will build a client base and get your name out there. This can include providing consulting services related your industry and future proprietary offerings.

Step 6: Don’t spread yourself thin. Focus on your core competencies and internal processes. The more formal your internal process is, the more scalability your model will have.

Step 7: Keep your eye on the competition and have a value proposition that differentiates you from the existing competition. Be ready to answer the question, “Well ABC Company has been around ten years and has a similar pricing model…why should we use you”. The answer can of course include more customer attention, better quality, a unique approach, a niche focus, etc.

Step 8: Accurately project your cash flow. Now how much cash you have; and if you are running negative, by how much? What is your burn rate and how can you decrease/slow the bleed?

Step 9: Have a cost effective Internet marketing strategy in place that will help bring you new business. If you can invest in SEO then my suggestion is to never wait. Creative social media marketing can also be a great way to drive some awareness to your new online business.

Follow some of these basic steps and you will be able to focus on growing your business rather than constantly worrying about investors that aren’t calling you back. In the long run, you will make better decisions and still have controlling ownership of your company!

The Internet has become the most important new communication platform since TV and is fundamentally reshaping the contemporary view of sales and marketing.  If your business does not have an Internet marketing strategy, you will lose market share and credibility…it’s that simple.

Good business owners and leaders know how to execute.  That is how they have achieved the positions they hold.  It is now more important than ever to change the way we do business.  If you are still doing business the same way you were six months ago, you may be in for a rude awakening.

All the same fundamentals apply to online marketing strategies as they do for traditional media:
• What are your overall business goals?
• Is your business model realistic?  (maybe it was 12 months ago but what about now)
• Who are your customers?
• What is the competition doing?  Who are your online competitors?
• What marketing mix strategies are most effective?
• When will you achieve a good ROI?

Questions about Internet marketing and why it is so relevant today.  We will make sure to answer then all eventually!

1. What does Internet marketing entail, what are the channels involved?
2. Why is Internet marketing becoming so popular and how is it different than traditional media?
3. How is it more cost effective?
4. What is the difference between paid search (pay per click) advertising and organic search engine optimization?  Which is better?
5. Explain why it is important to have a good website, how to get targeted traffic, and how to turn that traffic into business?
6. How can a company effectively use Internet marketing during tough economic times?
7. What is an example of a good comprehensive Internet marketing strategy?
8. If you really do not have any budget for any kind of marketing, how can you still tap into your online audience?
9. So what is social media anyway?
10. How is video content being used for online marketing?
11. How do I get started and what are some of the initial hurdles to overcome?  (convincing senior management)

The Growth of Internet marketing & The Power of Being Online

• Online ads expected to generate $19 billion by 2009. (Jupiter Research)
• Ecommerce transactions to total $329 billion by 2010, which represents 13% of total US Sales. (Forrester Research)
• Online advertising can boost brand impact at 60% less cost than piling on more offline ads. (Forrester Research)
• 50% of small to medium size firms attributed some portion of their annual sales to their online presence. (Forrester Research)
• 40% of consumers cite search engines such as Google and Yahoo as the chief way they research products and services. (Bwired.com)

Internet Marketing Defined: “Internet marketing is a set of activities that enable the acquisition of targeted Web traffic and the conversion of Web visitors.”  (Weidman Consulting)
• Lower costs for exposure to a global audience
• Ability to be extremely targeted
• Internet marketing is more measurable than tradition media
• Technology makes it easy to get in front of your customers and interact with them in real time
• Internet marketing brings creativity and technology together
• Effective internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes business goals with branding, online sales and marketing efforts, and conversions
• Internet marketing makes it easier to engage to customer during all stages of the sales cycle
• The strategy and effectiveness differs from industry to industry and depends on the company’s business goals cost/volume/profit analysis
• B2B and B2C:  basically the same principals apply