Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged fan pages
More Social Statistics – 101
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
As social networks grow and mature, new data has begun to surface that show the behaviors and preferences of its users that could prove invaluable to businesses in the future.
Business owners and marketing professionals are of course quite interested to learn more about how consumers on Facebook and other social media become motivated to connect with companies and brands, and their preferences in interacting with organizations.
Some of the latest statistics:
Many users of social media initially displayed a resistance to connecting directly with businesses from their personal pages, in effect showing a desire to keep “business separate from pleasure”, or their personal lives. A fear of being inundated with advertising pitches surely helped shape this mentality. However, new research shows that 43% of Facebook users now “Like” at least one brand or official company page, and this number is rapidly growing.
Of these, 38% of consumers “Like” a company on Facebook so they can publicly display their brand affiliation to friends. This new trend is being called “Social Badging”, and can be a very powerful motivation for affiliation. These users want to display their connection to brands and organizations that they believe represent them, their personal beliefs, are “cutting edge”, say something unique or valuable about them.
42% become fans so that they can receive special discounts and promotions. Many companies have begun to offer Social-specific sales and announcements, which can give their followers the sense that they are part of an intimate online community…even if they are one of tens of thousands of followers; and that they have the privilege of being included in exclusive, “members-only” specials.
35% say they follow companies and brands to stay current about the organization’s activities, public initiatives, or new products. Once again, the ability to connect with your brand’s following directly when announcing new initiatives, events, products and services can be a quite effective method to roll out your new marketing programs, sales and specials.
Only 23% of respondents said they follow brands on Twitter. Twitter has become more of a “news aggregator” for many users; a large number of new Twitter users have sent fewer than 20 personal tweets, but instead are using the service to gather news and opinions on brands, products and stay up-to-date on cultural trends in general.
14 Ways To Promote Your Company Or Brands Online
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
There are now a wide variety of effective ways that you can promote your company, your brands, your products and services online, perhaps more than you realize.
Here’s a handy list of the 14 top categories/activities that you can use to increase your brand presence and awareness- and your revenues – on the web.
Top Web Promotion Methods #1 – #7:
1. Blogs
Blogs have become an excellent tool for social media marketing. If optimized correctly, they can be used to drive traffic to a website. A good blog will also assist in creating internal links, fresh content and non-search engine web traffic.
Some popular blogs platforms include: WordPress.com, Blog.com, Bloggers.com, Typepad and others/
2. Microblogs
Like blogs, microblogging can present huge opportunities for business endorsement, though content needs to be consistent and optimized. The most used is Twitter, as well as Posterous and other niche platforms.
3. Online Video
With the proliferation of broadband Internet, the importance of online videos has rapidly increased. This allows more opportunities to demonstrate products or better explain brands. Popular video-sharing websites include YouTube and Vimeo.
4. Photosharing
Social networks are all about sharing! And this includes photos too, so there are numerous platforms that allow photo sharing with friends or followers. Some of the biggest are Flickr.com, Memeo.com, and Photobucket.com.
5. Podcasting
Podcasting is one of the newest media tools that are available to both promote your brand and also your products/services. Visit RadioPodcast.fr or Blip.fm.
6. Presentation Sharing
Do you have existing presentations on topics that may be interesting to your audience(s)? Another great way to put your brand’s name in the spotlight is by offering them on presentation sharing websites. They are increasingly gaining in popularity, and some of the best platforms are: SlideShare.net, MyPlick.com, Scribd.com, or AuthorSTREAM.com.
7. Social Networks: Applications, Fan Pages, Groups, and Personalities
Social networks are one of the most important places to present and promote yourself as well as to keep in touch with your target audience.
Up Next: #8 – #14
Facebook Marketing Strategies and You
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past 4 years, and my dear readers certainly have not, you already know how popular and widely used Facebook is today.
Just a couple of years back, and you had to relentlessly encourage family and friends to join this social network (probably not long after others had convinced YOU to join). Nowadays, it’s rare to find someone who isn’t on Facebook.
At last count, Facebook had over 350 million users, and this number is continuing to grow as those final stragglers jump in. Facebook overtook MySpace as the number 1 social networking website on the planet early in 2009, and is now just behind Google in terms of online traffic. So it’s not hard to understand just how important Facebook marketing has become for websites and brands everywhere.
It’s A “No Pitch” Zone
One of the most critical things to remember about social media is that they are NOT places to blatantly or endlessly pitch your brand, product or service. Do this, and you won’t be gaining any favor from most social media users, will get largely ignored, and may even receive bad reviews.
Social media is actually better used for building relationships with potential customers or clients in the market. How can you do this? Start by:
• Post helpful information and links that helps them solve a problem.
• Personally chat with them to assist with problems or answer concerns.
• Create lots of content addressing the needs of users.
The bottom line –you want to be seen as genuine and helpful. This way, word will spread that you’re the “real deal”…and before you know it, people will soon become interested in what you have to provide in terms of products and services.
So the real nitty gritty of what you have to offer shouldn’t be shared on social networking sites such as Facebook. Instead, share helpful information in the form of teasers that will interest people enough to ask questions and wonder if there’s more. Offering free stuff is always a good tactic for garnering attention, too!
Marketing On Facebook
The great thing about Facebook is that from the outset, it has encouraged all users to use the website as a means of sharing information and marketing whatever they please. As a result, it has developed many ways for users to do this. You are not obliged to use every single one of them, but a combination of them can only improve your Facebook marketing.
Fan Pages
This is probably THE marketing tool out there on Facebook. On its website Facebook describes Pages as “a public Profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users.” It is specifically designed for promoting a business and everything it has to provide. People can then become a Fan of your page and when they do this, they let their friends know that they’ve become a Fan of your page via their News Feed. The potential for your Page to gain a lot of popularity in a small period of time is great.
Events
Create events to be held at a certain date and time. Depending on your business type, they can be local, physical events, or virtual ones, for an international audience. The best part about creating an event on Facebook is that it can go viral, and before you know it, people will be attending your event in droves. It can be any one of the following:
• Seminar: It should be introductory and free but you could promote a paid one too.
• Webinar: A seminar conducted online which anyone in the world can join.
• Product/Service Launch: If you’re about to launch a new product or service, this is a good way to gain attention.
Advertising
Facebook finally introduced an advertising service about a year ago where people can put ads promoting their website or their Facebook Page and they Pay Per Click (PPC) or Impression (CPM). (It works in about the same way as Google Adwords.)
Not only can you target your ads to certain geographical locations, but given the nature of Facebook you can additionally attach your ads to various social actions. So, if you are a wedding photographer and wanted to promote your services, your ads could be set up to appear only to females between the ages of 24 and 30 and whose relationship statuses indicate they are “engaged.”
Embrace Facebook
If you want to market your website online, you’re doing yourself a grave injustice if you aren’t using Facebook marketing as one of your key strategies. Just be careful not to get caught up in it too much, or hire someone to assist you in your Facebook tactics, because it can become a very time consuming activity!