Archive for the ‘Google Plus’ Category

8 Mandates for Social Media Marketing Success—#2: Plan Carefully

By Kent Huffman, Author of 8 Mandates for Social Media Marketing Success

Too many marketers jump right in and start using various social media tools and technologies—such as Twitter, Google+, and blogs—before they’ve even developed a strategic plan or thought about how those activities might impact the rest of their marketing initiatives. Don’t make that mistake! Take a little time to determine how to best integrate social media into your existing marketing strategy and mix. It’ll pay off for you.

Step one in the planning process is to nail down specific social media objectives, based on the listening activities detailed in Mandate #1. Now that you know what your constituents care about and are discussing on social media, how does that impact the messages you need to communicate to them? Step two is to integrate your social media strategy into your overall marketing strategy to ensure your resources can be leveraged most efficiently and effectively and that common goals can be more easily reached.

If you work for a large enterprise, you have two significant advantages over a small business when it comes to planning and budgeting for a social media marketing program. First, your company’s DNA most likely has a built-in “think strategically” strand, and second, it also probably has a fairly large wallet. If, however, you work for or own a small business, you have an advantage as well. You most likely can make strategic decisions and launch new marketing programs fairly quickly. That can be a huge benefit in the fast-paced social media world.

Finally, be sure you’re prepared to monitor and measure your impact and progress. Establishing benchmarks and other metrics that can be tracked over time will help you better understand what’s working and what’s not, and thus be able to make whatever adjustments are necessary to ensure the success of your social media marketing activities.

(This is an excerpt from Kent’s new book, 8 Mandates for Social Media Marketing Success.)

Next: 8 Mandates for Social Media Marketing Success—#3: Develop Relationships

Posted in Blogs, Google Plus, Kent Huffman, Marketing, Measurement, Monitoring, Small Businesses, Strategy, Twitter | Comments Off on 8 Mandates for Social Media Marketing Success—#2: Plan Carefully

Will Social Media Change the Face of Modern Marketing?

By Debi Kleiman, President of MITX (Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, creators of FutureM)

The very foundation of marketing is transforming before our eyes, and social media is playing a bigger and bigger role in the way marketers communicate.

MITX’s FutureM offers the community a week of events exploring the future of marketing and media, designed to promote innovation and bring the community together around the biggest and most exciting topics facing marketers today. FutureM events address the changing role of social media in marketing, so we reached out to our socially savvy event partners to find out their answers to the following question: “What is social media’s role in the future of marketing?” Here is what they had to say:

  • Ian Cross, Professor of Marketing at Bentley University
    “Social media is woven into the fabric of social discourse and upending conventions about what should be shared, discussed, and presented to society. But the medium is not the message; the message is defining the medium. Technologies will come and go, but the free exchange of real-time information is exciting, and it is challenging organizations and consumers. Tricky questions of censorship, organized riot and revolt, and online identity will need to be resolved. But right now, let’s embrace the unfettered exchange of ideas and technology that bring us together and resist efforts to command and control.”
  • John Fichera, Boston University student and intern, The Castle Group and CMO, FutureM Student Committee
    “Social media makes marketing personal. For example, if you see that one of your friends is into a certain product or brand (e.g., via Facebook), then this can spark your interest to at least research the product, raising name recognition.”
  • Chris Pollara, CEO of Convertiv
    “As adoption continues to grow, social media will become the preferred connection point and education vehicle between brands and consumers. Leading organizations will need to adopt and scale accordingly. Well-executed campaigns will motivate your community by fostering natural, self-sustaining conversation centered on consumer-generated media.”
  • Matt Rainone, Manager of Strategic Marketing at AMP Agency
    “The future of social is less about the channels and more about how, when, and where we’re accessing them. Our emotional connections to our devices point to a future where our social profiles, location-based services, and mobile payment systems converge to create an always-connected, one-step-from-purchase lifestyle.”
  • Marty Watts, Director of the Meltwater Group
    “In the future, social media will alter the role of (PR, advertising, and digital) agencies, and more importantly, how these service businesses are run. By leveraging the slew of new social media technologies, these organizations will be able to drive down fixed operating costs while generating net new revenues through digital client work. It will be exciting to watch which agencies embrace this sea change and succeed and those that cannot adapt and go the way of the Dodo.”

Social media is evolving as a force—if not THE force—in modern marketing. As e-commerce and social grow together, websites like Twitter, Facebook, and the young Google+ are becoming the playground for experimental marketing. This is creating new challenges for marketers, buyers, sellers, and others within the social ecosystem. As innovations—such as Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories”—show, there are plenty of up-and-coming ways to turn social media into a powerful marketing medium.

The modern social media strategist must be part technologist and part behaviorist. As marketing leaders, we must be willing to experiment with and implement technology while studying the changes in human behavior that come with new and evolving social media adoption. As our experts stated above, we are in the midst of foundational change. Who’s brave enough to create social media’s future?

Posted in Advertising, Advertising Agencies, Branding, Community, Debi Kleiman, E-Commerce, Facebook, Google Plus, Innovation, Interaction, Marketing, Networking, Public Relations, Relationships, Strategy, Sustainability, Twitter | Comments Off on Will Social Media Change the Face of Modern Marketing?

Google+: Where Do You Fit In?

By John Foley, Jr., Chief Executive/Marketing Officer at Grow Socially

Google+ has taken the social media world by storm. The search engine mammoth has finally created a social network with some traction, and everyone is taking notice, including Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team. At this point, businesses should be sitting up and paying attention. But should you be jumping into the new social venture?

Google+ offers features that can be highly beneficial to businesses. Features that even Facebook can’t match. For example, there is Hangouts. This feature allows for you and ten friends to video chat all at once. This is a simple, hassle-free way to video conference with clients, partners, and more. Video chatting can be more fun than a standard conference call, and it is a way for you to connect with your clients in a more personal way. Really get to know your cross-country customers.

Circles is another feature that can make life easier for your business. Have circles of friends dedicated specifically for the companies that you work with. Send out messages directly to the people you want to have read them. This way, you can keep up a personal, engaging relationship through the social network without the pain of having to sift through long lists of friends.

There is also Huddle. This is a way for you to chat with all the members of a Circle. You can use this for interoffice communication purposes. Keep everyone informed about meetings, time changes, new clients, and more.

These three great features of Google+ can easily be used to help your office’s efforts in communication. Google+ bridges the gap from social media interaction to real-time, practical, personal interaction. From the social network, relationships can improve with clients, prospects, employees, and business partners.

If you decide to jump into Google+, have a plan in place. Aggregate some influential and worthwhile Circles that can immediately give you people to connect with. Just like Twitter and Facebook, have a content strategy for when you are going to push out content and how you are going to engage your audiences.

Give Google+ a try. The more people who join, the better and more effective the features will become. And with a little planning, those features can greatly enhance your business.

Posted in Content, Customers, Engagement, Facebook, Google, Google Plus, Interaction, John Foley Jr., Networking, Strategy, Twitter | Comments Off on Google+: Where Do You Fit In?