Posts Tagged ‘social media optimization’

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Execs and Online Marketing in 2010

Posted by Nicole on December 11th, 2009

In case you didn’t know, we’re in tough economic times.  These economic conditions have drastically cut budgets across the nation and world, leaving meager allowances for marketing and advertising in its wake.

Nonetheless, expectations for 2010 remain optimistic.  In a new study released yesterday, StrongMail reveals nine out of ten business executives plan to maintain or increase their marketing budgets.  Execs aren’t thinking conventionally for the new decade either, instead the survey’s respondents indicated they were open to marketing strategies that utilize the Internet and maximize their dollar.  Next year, 69 and 59 percent of business executives anticipate increasing their email and social media marketing, respectively. Another 42 percent claimed they expect to spend more on search engine initiatives, such as SEO and PPC.  The survey’s results indicate a migration to internet marketing tactics, as advertising and direct mailing initiatives are expected by less than 30 percent of execs.

Furthermore, the study showed a desire among business executives to combine the tested and proven tactics of emailing potential customers with social media.  Execs did not, however, demonstrate uniform confidence about how they would go about implementing such strategies in the upcoming year.  Instead, one out of five executives claimed they had no idea where to begin.  With more businesses seeking to establish an online presence in hopes of finding cheaper alternatives to conventional advertising, it is certain that social media marketing and search engine initiatives will play integral roles in the year 2010.

Media Bashing, Break ups and More

Posted by Nicole on November 27th, 2009

From Britney Spears, to Oprah; from Sarah Palin, to Ashton, celebs and politicians alike are employing social media as a means of online reputation management.  Whether they want to promote their books or shows, refute paparazzi and journalists or simply stay in the spotlight doesn’t matter- it’s all different means to the same end.

Social media has become a great way for people to get out their message with a large reach and a low cost.  Recently, Sarah Palin has been making waves on Facebook to promote the launch of her new book “Going Rogue: An American Life.”  She used to be an avid tweeter but decided to cash in the 140 character microblogs for Facebook notes.  Now, she regularly writes back to readers and journalists making false accusations about her memoir and suggests that AP writers engage themselves in something more newsworthy than ripping apart a book.  See a recent Facebook note of her’s below:

Sarah Palin's Facebook Note

Sarah Palin's Facebook Note

This is only one of many and the others were definitely more aggressive but I think this gets across the same message in a brief manner.  Clearly, Palin isn’t afraid to be frank and candid, which was shown to the world on her recent Oprah appearance as well.  Oprah, who is also heavily engaged in social media, made the interview a trending topic on Twitter and posted a podcast of of some of the clips.  While the video claims, “There’s nothing we didn’t talk about!,” much of the interview has not been released to the public.  But, Oprah does occasionally give her Twitter following some proprietary information:  On November 20th, when she announced the end of her show in September 2011, she first informed her fellow tweeters.  Before the episode, she tweeted, “Big day…. tune in my tweet friends.”

Rach and Tey prior to break up

Rach and Tey prior to break up

Oprah isn’t the only public figure using Twitter to relay big news.  Rachel Zoe and lead employee, Taylor Jacobson, publicly broke up on Twitter only weeks ago.  They had been working side by side for the last four years styling celebrities all over the world on the show the Rachel Zoe Project.  On November 6th, Taylor tweeted: “Today is an end of an era and the beginning of a new professional chapter.  Looking forward to what the future brings…!!”  The media picked up on this immediately and their split soon became common public news. But, sources are still not sure who broke up with who….  What do you think?  Let us know what gossip you’ve been hearing around the globe.

Celeb Twitter Affairs: The Good, The Bad and The Embarrassing

Posted by Nicole on October 30th, 2009

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.

Free Speech vs. Libel: Who Wins?

Posted by Nicole on October 15th, 2009

Last week, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) announced a new set of rules to govern bloggers with a connection to any company selling a product they are writing about. So, how far will the government go?  Right now, it’s unclear, but the guidelines could extend to regulate posts people make on Facebook and other social networking sites.

So what does this mean for our 1st amendment rights?
•    The government will have the ability to further dictate the parameters of individual communication via the Internet.
•    Several new questions arise about what exactly constitutes blogola and disclosure. (For those unblog-savvy types, “blogola” refers to posts made by bloggers who have been given some sort of incentive to post about a product.)  Should the disclosure be written in the post or can it be in the bloggers “about me” page? Is blogola really that different than traditional forms of advertisement and promotion?

However, here at IMI, we do believe that there are two sides to every story:

•    Libel is illegal. Defamation is illegal. Do they still happen frequently?  Yes.  Do they happen on the Web?  Way too often, but it’s not rigorously regulated online at the moment.  These new regulations will hold people responsible for their blog posts, which is a logical extension of current laws surrounding these concepts.
•    Has anyone ever posted anything nasty about you or someone you know on ripoffreport.com, juicycampus.com, etc.?  These sites continue to pop up every day, constantly grow in usage and exposure, and have significantly injured the reputations and careers of many.

So, what’s fair?  What do YOU think?  We’re interested, let us know…


Don’t Forget to Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

Posted by Brent on May 26th, 2009

We have talked before about how social media strategies can be a great compliment to any SEO strategy.  Social media can be a great way to build quality inbound links and develop solid off-page content.  Naturally, all the basic SEO rules apply:  content, keywords, user value, and quality inbound links. 

So what about your social media profile pages?

If you haven’t already noticed, social media profile pages are starting to rank regulary for search terms.  For example, if a person has a Facebook.com and Twitter.com profile and then Google their own name, these profile pages will usually come up first,  or at least very near the top.  The reason of course is because these websites themselves are already highly regarded by Google.  They have millions of pages, great user-generated content, etc.

So when looking for a great compliment to your SEO strategy for your website, consider optimizing your social media profile pages as well.  Great SEO pratice according to Google’s latest algorithms suggest that it is best to optimize all possible online assets including websites, videos, social media profile pages, press releases, pod casts, images, etc.  When considering optimization for your social media profile pages don’t forget the following:

  • If you don’t have a Twitter and Facebook page (any other networks of course) for your brand, create one
  • Flood your BIO and pages with keywords, but do it in a reader-friendly natural way
  • Use keywords in your profile name if possible
  • Add other great content such as videos
  • Build good inbound links

Remeber also that when building a following for your profile pages such as Twitter and Facebook, one of the best ways is to actually drive external traffic to these pages (as opposed to just networking within the social community).  Make sure to have links to your social media pages from your main website, email signatures, newsletters, print media, etc.   Some companies have considered using social media profiles as their main websites do to their searchability, cost effectiveness (FREE), and great functionalities. 

The best Facebook and Twitter strategies use the profile pages as key communication platforms where they announce all value propositions, special offerings, incentives, coupons, etc.  Imagine of these pages are also apearing in the SERPs for relevant keywords how impactful that would be!


Related Blogs

Social Media: Gaining Acceptance

Posted by Yashar on May 16th, 2009

Here at IMI, we have been big proponents of using social media for all kinds of businesses. Social Media is not, and should not be exclusive to tech companies, and this can be seen by giants such as Starbucks, Whole Foods, and more. Social Media is the replacement of what PR and traditional marketing used to conduct, and as a result businesses are jumping on the bandwagon so they will not stay behind.

According to Business Journal, social media has begun to gain wide acceptance.

“More than two-thirds of those who responded to the most recently completed Business Pulse survey said they use sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for work.

About 12 percent said they use social media only for business. About 18 percent said they use it only for personal enjoyment.

Another 37 percent said they use the sites for both reasons.

About 11 percent said they have tried the sites but don’t use them while about 19 percent said they have never been to a social media site.”

These numbers keep changing daily.  Social Media is here to stay, but to be successful your business must have a clear cut plan of what it needs, what it wants, and what audience it is intending to rech out to.  Additionally, because running a social media campaign is a job in itself, many businesses cannot afford to hire a full time person to do an overwhelming task.  This is where hiring the right Social Media company comes into place.  They have the knowledge and expertise, and will assist you in obtaining what you need without breaking your bank account.

Taco Trucks Using Social Media Marketing?

Posted by Brent on April 14th, 2009

You bet!  The following example is one of the most aggressive (but simple) gorilla marketing efforts (via social media) done by a simple Mom and Pop Korean Taco Truck in Los Angeles.  The good old days of big marketing budgets may be over for a while but small companies with large visions are killing it with social media.  There is a big difference between basic social media and social media down right.  A company must make a true committment to these efforts if they want to see a tangible ROI.  The soft an easy approach usually doesn’t work.  A good recomendation is to hire an experience Internet marketing company or social media marketing company to handle this effort.

Take a look at how Kogi tackled the world of late night Korean BBQ tacos with agressive (but meaningful) use of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and blogs. First, the set up a great looking

kogi-logo-final

website with a design feel that you would not expect from people in the late night taco business.  After that they used the following basic SEO and social media marketing tactics. First, they realized that content is king, but not just with thoughtful blogs and articles.  Although they have a great blog.  They developed a large inventory of videos as well to fill the site with rich media in a Google friendly way (i.e. YouTube videos).  They also set up an account on Flickr and use Youtube to marketing the videos.  They have a powerful SEO campaign because the site has great basic SEO coding and the rest is in the valuable content (a good mix of copy and video as well as great inbound links developed through their social media efforts).

Next, they did what any good social media company would do and found out where their target audience was hanging out online.  Twitter just so happened to be the most responsive tool in their soccial media tool kit and they are up to a following of about 14,000.  The next step is crucial and where many social media campaigns fall short.  They actively and regularly interact with their audience.  They don’t just post comments and truck locations on Twitter, they use it as a real communication tool. They talk to their customers, get feedback and even include them in branding ideas, t-shirt designs, etc.  This gives their customers a sense of community and ownership.  It sounds crazy because most of their customers visit them after being at the clubs and bars all night!  But it works!

The company has a true sense of authenticity and transparency.  They know their customers and their customers know them.  They started as a simple mobile taco stand and know have two trucks and customers that stand in line for over an hour late at night to get their hands on the awesome tacos!  The best part about their social media campaign is that they have a good product.  None of this works in the long run if there isn’t something great on the other end for the consumer.  In fact, that is where the world of Web 2.0 can bite you.  This leads into a discussion of online reputation management, but we will dig into that later.  More to come!


Follow the Social Media Herd – All 14 Million of Them

Posted by Mike Martin on April 8th, 2009

 

This is a pretty telling chart showing where the social media herd is going over the past year.

It will be interesting if Google pulls the trigger to buy Twitter in the coming months and if either company can find a way to truly monetize it.

Is your business on Twitter and how are you leveraging it to help you and your customers?

twitter-dominates-unique-visitors

 

Related Blogs

Creating Viral Online Videos

Posted by Melanie on March 23rd, 2009

The fact remains that our population consists of 60% visual learners and 35% auditory learners (the other 5% are kinesthetic learners).  It is no wonder online videos are the ideal environment for people to learn about your brand, products, services and company.  With many online videos to compete with you’ll need to make yours the one to Twitter, Digg, bookmark and buzz about.  To make your online videos ‘viral’ is to create it so that it is indeed remarkable and worth remarking about!  Here are a few tips to creating remarkable and viral online videos:

  • Don’t forget to consider production quality: lighting, sound, location, editing, etc.
  • 15-30 seconds is ideal.  If creating a longer video, break into 10-15 second shots.
  • Make your videos relevant and informative to your business.
  • Have an engaging and shocking (if possible) story line.
  • Connect with your audience by capturing a human element that people can relate to.
  • Add some humor where appropriate- everyone loves a laugh.  This is what makes comedic videos so viral.
  • Be clever in delivering your message.  If it appears like an ad, viewers will not share it unless it’s truly worth sharing.
  • If possible, add a celebrity presence as it would attract more viewers.
  • Don’t forget to add call to actions i.e. frame with your company name and website URL at the end of the video.

With the above in mind, it will make your Social Media Optimization (SMO) campaign more effective and possibly profitable for your company.  The Return of Investment (ROI) for online video marketing is astounding.  You can reach a global audience quickly with little investment as compared to traditional marketing.  The catch is that your online videos need to be share worthy backed with a SMO strategy!


Why Social Media Matters

Posted by Yashar on March 16th, 2009

By now you have probably heard of Social Media.  If you have not heard of it yet, now is a good time to learn more about it, what it does, what it can mean for your business, and your branding efforts.

Social Media is what the industry commonly refers to web applications, tools, software, or websites that connect people to one another.  Famous among these are the likes of facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit,  Xanga, Flickr, YouTube, Digg, and many, many more.  These  allow people to connect to one another in one form or another, to read the opinions of one another, and to base their own decisions on what the “communities” of these sites say.  But, that is not all that Social Media is excellent for.  In fact, it is becoming an increasingly important part of a company’s arsenal of marketing, messaging, and customer interaction.

To understand why Social Media Optimization (a.k.a. SMO) is an ever increasing crucial part of a company’s marketing strategy, one only needs to look at the success that Alltop (Guy Kawasaki’s company) has had by looking at their Twitter efforts. According to Guy Kawasaki, 6% (http://bit.ly/HeGOs ) of all traffic to Alltop comes directly from one source alone – namely Twitter.  Alltop is not the only example, and it may not be the best tool for your customer either.  In fact, here at IMI we decided to run a test a pilot run for one of our high end customers with a niche market – the highly affluent people (in other words, rich!).

We decided to do this test on one site only.  We posted a forum on investments begininning at $5mm on aSmallWorld.net.  The response was astounding, because witin 5 minutes of posting we had our very first interested potential investor. This was social media at its finest.  Our poster already had a following on ASW, had been an active member, and with their post they were able to prove the model – social media optimization works.  SMO does not only work, but it is absolutely crucial for companies wanting to build branding, obtain customers, and expand, and pinpoint demographics for their product, services, or brand.  Without SMO, you may very well be giving up the edge for your competitors to run with.


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