Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged linkedin
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.
Top Myths About Social Media Marketing
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
There are a number of myths that are common among many businesses that are keeping them from joining everyone else in the social media marketing world. We would like to address each of these myths and expose them for the misconceptions that they are.
Myth #1: My Customers Aren’t on Social Media
Wow, if we had had a dollar for every time we’ve heard this one….This myth keeps more companies and business owners from interacting with their potential customers through social media than any other myth.
The nice thing is that all you need is a little bit of data to convince people that their target customers are indeed on social networks.
For instance, 80% of female Internet users have become fans of a product or brand on a social network site and 72% report that they learned about a new product through social media. Take a look at the graph below – more than half of Facebook and Twitter users are over 35, not to mention LinkedIn.
Social networking is a pervasive cultural phenomenon, and there is no demographic that isn’t represented substantially on one or more social networking sites.
Finding Your Customers On Social Networks
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
For most organizations, the conversation of “why” or “should” we do social media has shifted to “where” and “how” do we do social media?
A major component of answering those questions effectively is understanding in which social platforms your customers are already connected and concentrated, because there really is no benefit in beating your customers or clients to the punch this time! Companies need to follow…not lead, their customers across the social networking web.
Maybe your boss thinks none of your customers are on Facebook, but you think they are. How can you prove it?
Or maybe you’re a small-business owner, and know many of your clients or customers are socially connected, but aren’t sure how to find them?
Here are 4 ways to find out where your customers are in social media:
#1: Hire Someone to Tell You
Rapleaf and Flowtown are just two services that reside in the emerging field called “social anthropology”. You provide them with the list of all your customer email addresseses, and they figure out who among your customers is on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media networks; their likes, and other important details.
#2: Analyze Email Behavior
Have you added links to all your social accounts in your emails? Have you added the ability for your email recipients to share content on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and elsewhere? If you send email routinely, you need to add these functions to your email immediately.
Most quality email service providers give you the option of easily adding sharing tools, and you can then run a report showing which of your subscribers clicked your Twitter link and/or shared content on Facebook.
Viola! Now you know that person is a member and is active on those social sites.
#3: Just Ask!
One of the most obvious ways of finding out where your customers are hanging out and using social media is also the simplest, but unfortunately the least utilized. Just ask them.
If you have a “Contact Us” form, an online lead generation form, an email newsletter signup or a shopping cart, why are you still only asking for name, address and email address?
Add data collection fields for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, at minimum.
#4: Your Friends at Hat Trick Associates
If you have email addresses for your customers, we here at HTA can actual use a little trick that takes advantage of the system functionality of one of the top email providers.
Without giving away the whole secret, let us tell you that with just your email list, we can tell you within the hour every single one of them who are on both Facebook and Twitter!
If you’d like to learn more, or just how we do it, all you need to do is Contact Us!