Digital Marketing Strategy Development: 12 Common Problems

This is a great article about common problems organizations face when trying to integrate a digital marketing plan into their overall marketing strategy.  The following two points in particular, although in theory are good ideas, in practice might lead to unemployment:

"4. Placating executives by executing their bad ideas

If this is happening to you – stop, now. No one wins when you’re creating things merely because someone up top is forcing down a one off idea here-and-there they feel might work (especially if they have limited experience with digital marketing). If it doesn’t play into the strategy, it doesn’t matter who it comes from. If you see this happening put a stop to it. No one wins when resources are drawn away from a winning path to placate bad ideas of the king. If the emperor has no clothes, say it – if you’re that valued you’ll be respected for it.

5. Having to dumb things things down for the team

If you have to consistently do this, you need a new team. There are far too many others fluent enough in modern marketing strategies, it’s unnecessary to waste time doing this. If you have to dial down ideas for internal comprehension, it means your competition is already running circles around you."

Read full article here.

SEO and social media 'beat banner ads'

30/11/2009 Social media and search engine tactics are better at engaging customers than banner advertising, experts have advised (Andy Carter)

Engaging potential customers through social networking sites is far more effective than simply waiting for them to click through on a banner advertisement, it has been claimed.

Citing the results of several recent studies, PR agency Punch Communications has concluded that online marketers are now broadening their efforts as traditional click through advertising becomes less effective.

In particular, the more savvy online companies are making use of the potential of social networking sites to both improve customer relations and to provide consumers with relevant information they may be interested in and which may boost sales. Read full article here.

Website Visibility can be achieved via a number of Internet Marketing Strategies

A list detailing the most effective online PR strategies for the past year has been revealed by an American company, with social media and organic search engine optimisation (SEO) ranking at the top.

'SEO.com' found that the growth of social media has been strong over the course of the year and returns are beginning to be seen on campaigns that have been conducted over pages similar to Twitter and Facebook, such as the viral message set forth by Ikea on the latter, 'Direct Traffic Media' reports.

This may be down to the fact that such strategies are cheap to produce and use online communities to promote merchandise on behalf of brands.

Read full article here.

T.M.I. (Too Much Information.)

Lindsay Berger wrote about what is common sense to some, but unfortunately, not to many, in a well-written, witty post.

"I’m just going to come straight out and say it: social media is good for business. It’s a chance to connect, develop and nurture relationships, cultivate “expert status,” and grow a successful enterprise.

There’s just one [HUGE] problem. Propriety has been thrown out the window." Read full article here.

21 Chicago Small to Medium Sized Businesses That Are Effectively Using Social Media

Written by The Ocean Agency

It is pretty clear that social media works for big brands. Just to name a few, we all admire the utilization of SM by Southwest, Jet Blue, Comcast, and Dell among a myriad of others.

But what about smaller companies? What about small and medium sized businesses that don’t have the brand awareness of a large corporation? Does it work for them?

I spend a lot of time convincing businesses that social media marketing is real and here to stay. But I’m pretty sure you all wouldn’t appreciate a sales pitch in a blog post, so instead I’m going to give 21 examples of small to medium sized Chicago businesses that are using social media effectively. Read full post here.

Social Media ROI?

Take a look at this incredibly information and witty commentary on Social Media by Chris Voss. Enjoy it here.

Spin Your Social Media Marketing Flywheel

By Thomas M. Schmitz on December 2, 2009 4:57 PM

I’m going to tell you a secret that people in social media marketing and social media optimization don’t like to talk about. Fame begets fame. If you’re a celebrity or popular brand then social media will be particularly easy for you.

For those of us who are celebrities only in our own minds, you and I will have to work a bit harder to succeed with all this social media stuff. That’s okay. Social media marketing is eminently doable. You just have to smash a few popular preconceptions then roll-up your sleeves.

Social media is not new. Facebook and Twitter opened to public registrations in 2006. StumbleUpon was created in 2001, MySpace in 2003, Digg in 2004.

It’s not too late either. People, brands and companies that nobody ever heard of are making names for themselves all the time. Social media marketing and social media optimization are about creating original, compelling and link-bait worthy content and about networking with others. If you can do that you can become an Internet success story. Read full article here.

Top Small Business Marketing Trends for 2009

Marketing in 2008 became decidedly social — and 2009 will see the social elements of marketing accelerate. Social media went from being on the cutting edge, to approaching the mainstream. When I say “social” I mean marketing driven by word-of-mouth relationships. Read full article here.

Social Media Marketing

What exactly is social media marketing?

” SMM combines the goals of internet marketing with social media sites such as Digg, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and many others. The SMM goals will be different for every business or organization, however most will involve some form of viral marketing to build idea or brand awareness, increase visibility, and possibly sell a product or service. SMM may also include online reputation management. Most online communities don’t welcome traditional direct or hard sell techniques so an effective SMM campaign will require more finesse to execute properly. SMM campaigns must be targeted to the community you want to reach with a message that appeals to them. Some common ways of achieving this are with authoritative information, entertainment, humor or controversy. “ -Wikipedia 2007

Social media marketing can be thought of an indirect method of marketing your business. It is a powerful process which utilizes the principles of traditional marketing to programs with social ends that ultimately promotes your business through social media channels. Social media marketing is the new wave of online marketing and might be considered an indirect method of marketing. Traditional marketing focuses on immediate sales and gets right to the point. This is who we are, this is what we do, this is why you should buy our product or service, now buy it. The length of traditional sales cycles vary within industries but the goal is always the same – close that sale. Social media marketing has the same goal but the means to the end are very different. It is generally frowned upon to try to do sell your product or service on industry forum sites, for example. Those forums are in place for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and networking. Most forums have a separate advertising section where businesses can pay for advertising. The idea behind participating in forums is to establish yourself as your industry expert. Sharing your knowledge and learning from those in the same industry or your target market results in exposure for you and your business. If you provide helpful information, make constructive comments and ask appropriate questions, you will be offering value to potential customers and they will, eventually, come to look for more value from you. Naturally, your ultimate value is in the product or service you are trying to sell. The inherent problem with social media marketing is that it takes a lot of time and effort to achieve the eventual desired result – that being the sale. Many business owners either don’t have the time to devote to something that does not provide immediate desired results (the delayed gratification theory) or they are resisting utilizing the powerful social media marketing available options specifically because of its indirect approach to sales and the time it takes to see results.

Social media marketing is really no different than social networking off the internet. When you attend a trade show or a company event, you are networking in a social environment with the desired result being to increase your customer base. Companies that sponsor golf outings, company picnics and other social events, often invite employees, customers and potential customers. What do these three groups of people do at these events? They socialize and network. Although some may develop friendships at such events, the main reason for and ultimate goal of such events is to increase the bottom line – meaning the company’s profits. The Internet offers massive sources for networking through blogs, forums, communities and of course the immense number of social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo, Dzone, Gather, Ryze, Squidoo, Tagged, Xing and many, many more. The networking concept is the same; the platforms are exponentially greater and different. The vast number of sites can be overwhelming (http://traffikd.com/social-media-websites), so it is a good idea to focus your social networking on sites that are specific to your industry as well as some of the larger, widely used generic sites like Facebook, Plaxo, Linkedin, etc. I prefer to use the sites that are more business-oriented like Linkedin and Plaxo – but that is a personal preference. To me, my Facebook profile has information and photos that are more appropriate for friends and family than business associates, but there are those who don’t agree. Again, that is a matter of personal preference.

For discussion purposes, let’s consider traditional (or direct) marketing to be a one way communication channel and social media marketing to be a two-way communication channel. In traditional marketing, a business might send you a direct mailer, an email, or you might see an advertisement in a magazine. These types of marketing campaigns cost the business a whole lot of money and don’t always result in large volumes of sales. Now consider participating in two-way conversations on forums, blogs and other social networking sites. You, as a representative of your business, are engaging in “conversations” with your prospective clients and hopefully providing valuable content (content is King in social media marketing). Over time, you and your business will become more visible (as you increase your online presence), your reputation and value will increase and in time, your prospective clients will know who you are, the value in what you are selling and where to find you.

I always like to put myself in the other person’s shoes to understand where they are coming from. I don’t purchase anything before going on the Internet to find everything I can about the product or service I am considering buying. I read the reviews as well as what is being said about the competitive product or service. This being said, why would I expect anyone else to not do the same? If you think about social media marketing in these terms, its value, albeit a time-consuming process, may become more apparent to you.

It is important to keep in mind that social networks consist of loyal and engaging large audiences. Social media marketing can greatly benefit any business as it compliments your brand (an incredibly important topic in its own right), business and online profile. However, social media marketing takes time and serious dedication but the ultimate return you will receive will be well worth the time spent.

Whether or not a business owner embraces the value of social media marketing, there is no escaping the fact that the Internet is the new frontier for marketing. Social media has taken on a life of its own and if you have not jumped on the bandwagon, you are missing the boat. Social media marketing can greatly benefit any business and should be an integral part of any company’s marketing campaign.