Now and Zen of Social Media Marketing

Now and Zen of Social Media Marketing

I want to start off by thanking my readers who find this blog to be a good resource of personal health information, marketing tips and resources. I tend to get carried away with writing more personal health blogs and am realizing that my readers are appreciating the marketing tips and implementing the information they are learning. I tend to take for granted my marketing expertise and need to share that knowledge more regularly as well. Thank you for your comments it’s very encouraging to know I’m being read J.

This week I’d like to discuss SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING. Social media marketing has quickly become the fastest method of reaching your audience, customers, clients and followers. It’s extremely versatile and can be used in many ways. Social media marketing is being used to expand brand reach, create a community of followers, get sentiment about what people are saying about your products and services, reputation management, creating and managing a conversation and message, as well as selling products and services.

Social Media Marketing is also quickly evolving with the pioneers being My Space, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with new applications hot on their coat tails experience significant growth being Google+, Pinterest and sooooooo many more. There are online tools called dashboards that help you manage all your profiles in one place, Hootsuite is one such tool.

Social Media can be very misunderstood because many companies fail at building, growing and nurturing a community and following in social media. Whole Life Marketing can consult with you and help strategize a successful social media campaign call us now at 310-418-3855 for a FREE ½ hour consultation.

Two excellent resources to learn more about social media are the following two books:

The Zen of Social Media Marketing (2012 Edition) by Shama Kabani. Yet to read but on my list!

The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing: How to Attract and Retain Customers and Grow the Bottom Line in the Globally Connected World by Beverly Macy and Teri Thompson (Dec 13, 2010). My Social Media UCLA course instructor published this book and it has great information and case studies.

 

Here are 5-key take aways from the “Zen of Social Media Marketing”:

1.    The #1 reason people fail at social media marketing is that they don’t have a solid foundation.

They don’t have a brand, and they don’t understand the outcome they provide. Companies focus too much on how they do something versus what it gets their clients. And, they have absolutely no way of differentiating themselves from the competition.

Social media is the ultimate amplifier. If you have a good product or service, it will be amplified until it is perceived as great. If you have a shoddy product to begin with, that will also be amplified.

2.    Traffic is nice but should not be the only goal of social media marketing.

Some people out there look at social media marketing only as a means of attracting traffic to their websites. Although traffic is a great goal and easily measurable, it should not be your only goal.

Remember, you can and should use social media to transform as well. It is a great way to share your stories, listen to feedback, and cultivate relationships with potential customers and future partners and vendors.

3.    Facebook advertising should be fresh, based on actions, and constantly monitored:

• Change content and creative frequently (about once a week) to keep your ads fresh for viewers who will see them repeatedly.
• The CPC (cost-per-click) method has been much more cost-effective than the CPM (cost-per-thousand) model, which is based on impressions.
• You can share your account activity with colleagues or clients by going to “Ads,” then “Settings,” and adding permissions. Never leave these unattended. This is your money hard at work, so watch your bids, your budget and your overall performance to get the most bang for your buck.

4.    The Power of Web Video: Why bother with online video?

In large part, it’s because that vast majority of people, when given the choice, prefer to watch rather than read.

In fact, a 2007 study by the National Endowment for the Arts reports that “on average, Americans aged 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading”.  And you can bet that Web video is only further fueling this “watch vs. read” scenario … across all age groups.

5.    If you have a Facebook page, keep interaction consistent and high.

This is key to landing in people’s news feeds. A report by Page Lever recently showed that most pages only reach 3.5% to 7% of their fans. Why? They don’t show up in their news feed.

I hope you find these resources useful and please don’t hesitate to call me if you have any questions.  Take advantage of our one-time offer for a FREE ½ hour search engine marketing consultation, just mention you read my blog. Also please don’t hesitate to share your personal successes or learning “aha’s” with social media.

Peace and blessings,

Jennifer Dickens
310-418-3855
jd@wholeli1.nextmp.net
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