Featured, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Achieving success with Social Media Marketing

Using Social Media to do online marketing is being done on a large scale. You may not even be aware of it, but your are part of the target market for someone and therefore you are being subject to some sort of Social Media Marketing every time you use a Social Network.

The trick is being subtle and using a lot of finesse. Try out these simple tips and see the results for yourself.

1. Hit the right target audience. If you don’t know who your target audience is, then your marketing efforts simply boil down to shooting in the dark. Very few products appeal to every age group. Even in that situation, your marketing efforts should be tailored to suit those age groups. For example if you sell high performance mountain bikes, your target audience is generally between 14-35 years in age. Even this can be broken down in to a 14-19, 20-35 demographic and targeted differently.

2. Add value. Communicate with this target group. Figure out their likes and dislikes of the product, what they want, what they need, etc. Then try to figure out how you can give them what they want. This is what will make you unique when you eventually start selling. In the meantime give them as much information as you can in helpful videos, articles, advice etc. Basically you have to appear as a Guru in the making.

3. Get personal. Have one to one discussions with people from the target group. While this maybe time consuming, the bond you form will help you get a sure sale when the time comes. Once they do become your customers, this bond will prompt them to promote the product for you as well.

If you need professional help, we recommend iClimber. iClimber provides social media marketing services, as well as content writing.

Social Media Marketing

The Dos and Don’ts of Social Media for Makeup Artists

Guest post is submitted by Cosmix Inc., a Fort Lauderdale makeup academy.  Check out their website for more information.

Schools of makeup artistry cover many of the important elements of being a makeup artist from application techniques to marketing.  However, in today’s world, it’s crucial to use social media to promote your makeup business.  Social media is utilized by millions of people every day which means it can be used to promote and take your business to a new level.

While nearly every makeup artist school stresses the importance of word of mouth referrals, the reality is that social media might just be changing that.  Never before in history has there been such an easy way to network and reach millions of people at the click of a mouse.

Social media should be used in a very specific way in marketing.  Here are the major dos and don’ts of social media for makeup artists:

Do utilize all of the social media venues: There is such a variety of social media websites today including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.  These websites can help you increase the visibility of your business, network with other makeup artists, and have regular interaction with existing and potential clients.

Don’t use your profiles for personal means: Nearly everyone today uses social media which means both potential employers and clients will look up your Facebook and other social networks.  Therefore, it’s critical maintain a professional appearance and to be conscious of the types of comments and posts that you leave.

Do show your personality: You can use everything from YouTube videos, a personal blog, and your other social media profiles to showcase your fun personality.  Show people why they would want to work with you!

Don’t privatize your profiles: Many employers look down upon private profiles.  If they can’t see your profile, they may just choose an applicant who isn’t hiding anything from the public eye.

Social Media Marketing

A Note on Digital Sharecropping

By definition, digital sharecropping is “One of the fundamental economic characteristics of Web 2.0 is the distribution of production into the hands of the many and the concentration of the economic rewards into the hands of the few.”

The term derived from farming practices after the American Civil War, and not very different from feudalism, where a landholder would permit farmers to grow crops on their land and would enjoy most of the profits generated by the crops. Simply put, the landholder has all of the control and could put a farmer out of work if he wanted to.

While we’ve moved on from such times, the truth is that this practice remains prevalent. Take Facebook and Google+, for example. The more content you create for them, the more valuable they become.

Since most businesses are dependent on Facebook to thrive and have set up their business online for free, it’s important that you have to stay in the ‘good books’ of Facebook or you can find yourself out in the cold.

This is, for all practical purposes, sharecropping in its digital form. Without a doubt, there are certain disadvantages that come in taking such an approach.

Firstly, the ‘landlord’ might remain in demand forever or gone tomorrow and all those hours that you’ve put into your fledgling online business will be for nought.

Secondly, there’s every chance that you can violate the terms of service or Facebook can change the way you relate to customers. What will your business do then?

This is why it is always recommended to have a well-designed website with your own web hosting provider, an opt-in email list and a reputation that offers value who stays or goes.

In short, this is best way to build your business by buying your own land instead of renting it.

Social Media Marketing

3 Useful Small Business Internet Marketing Tips

Knowing how to position your brand, using internet marketing, is probably one of the keys to success for any internet business.

Despite the fact that what works for one small business owner, in terms of internet marketing strategies, might not work for another, here are 5 small business internet marketing tips that might to most, if not all, small business owners:

#1: Set clear goals

Knowing what your goals are is half the battle won. In most cases, it is about driving more business but knowing how that’s going to happen – for example, by increasing the number of phone calls to your organization is one way to get started. Setting clear goals are one thing – measuring them is just as important.

#2: Remember that Content is King

There are several questions that you must ask yourself, keeping in mind that ‘Content is King’. Some of them include whether the content on the site is useful and educational for your customers and whether it is worth spending time on you site for. Reviewing what the content on your website also says is just as important as it should be written with the objective of matching your business goals.

#3: Blog and post videos online

Apart from using your website as a means to advertise your business to visitors, there’s no harm in actually taking the time to blog about your business regularly and better still, post videos on Youtube or Metacafe. The best part about spending time on these activities is that they cost-effective (and effective) ways of getting the word out.

Social Media Marketing

Popular Social Media Event in New York, June 5-7, 2012

Bloggers, online content creators, and forward-thinking brands listen up! BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2012, the first and only conference focused on blogging and new media, is scheduled to take place at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, June 5-7, 2012.

This three-day event features informative conference sessions and many keynote speakers. It also offers a Social Media Business Summit, tradeshow and networking mixers. Content creators and online publishing services can learn all about the latest strategies for content creation, monetization, and distribution, while businesses can learn how to use social media to boost revenues and better serve their clientele. Registration is now open, and you can receive a 10 percent discount on your tickets by entering the discount code: SXVIP10.

Social Media Marketing

3 Tools That Will Help You Engage In Social Media

If there’s anything that is true of social media, it is the fact that a lot of time usually needs to be spent on keeping your campaign up and running, thanks to the numerous social media communities that are on the web. Still, there are shortcuts by which you can reduce the time spent on getting the word out using social media.

So, here are 3 tools that will help you increase efficiency when it comes to managing your social media campaign:

#1: Digg – Digg Alert

Digg is a social media site that is community-driven. Users submit content and depending on whether it is liked or not – these articles are voted either up or down where the best of the lot get posted to the home page.

An excellent tool to keep track of your submissions is Digg Alerter – a program that alerts every time your article gets dug or is promoted to the front page. Another tool is the Bury Recorder which helps you to not only track buries on any submission but also other details such as type of bury, when the bury was received and the number of diggs per bury.

#2: Twitter – Twhirl

You can do anything you want with Twitter using a desktop tool known as Twhirl with a main feature which includes three Twitter messages in quick view mode.

#3: StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon Alerter

Much like Digg, StumbleUpon is also a site where submissions are voted up or down by the community. A tool such as StumbleUpon Alerter will help you not only see who’s voting your articles up and down but also how many votes and comments were made as well.

Social Media Marketing

A Personal and Real Twitter Account Will Not Be Closed

It doesn’t matter if your main purpose when using Twitter is to market a product or a service — that’s still does not constitute an excuse for being so careless in your tweeting that you end up stirring up the ire of powerful official Twitter Account Closers. In plainer terms, even if your marketing is not ever going to boast the most personal of outreach methods, you can still keep said methods in line with accepted Twitter rules. Doing so is actually very important because it will ensure that your account is not permanently shut down.

First words from the wise when engaging in Twitter marketing: Do not become a transgressor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The papery bulk was made official law in 1998 and should continue to be respected until through due process it is changed. Include yourself among its line touter and you will be doing much towards your account not being closed.

Another thing to be aware of is that Twitter does not look too kindly on accounts that have many duplicate posts or updates. Massive duplication is interpreted as spam, so avoid posting the same thing more than once. Occasional duplicate posts will not shut you down, but if the duplication is massive, then you probably will be.

Last few words from those in the know: Do not engage in massive Following or Unfollowing sessions. Both acts are frowned upon by Twitter officials; and, again, they’re related to spamming activities. Next, you also want to sidestep posting links all by their lonely selves. If you need many links up on your account, include them but lace them with personal touches. These can be comments about anything, really, just demonstrate that it is a person that’s writing the tweet, not some inanimate machine.

Marketing techniques can sometimes come perilously close to being taken for spamming activity. Spam in the bane of the web so it makes sense for Twitter to be on the lookout for it. Don’t get caught up in these crosshairs. You’ll keep your account soundly tweeting by abiding by the aforementioned points. Keep your tweets personal and real. Much luck!

Social Media Marketing

Twitter Your Way to Improved Brand Recognition

Want to try a proven way of increasing brand visibility and bettering your search engine ranking? Then it’s time to start a Twitter marketing campaign. Twitter, with its steady stream of micro-blog postings, or tweets, provides an excellent platform to build up a stronger and more committed customer base. Tweets can be used to introduce would-be customers to your brand and to engage existing customers through on-going, interactive, and digital conversation.

If you require some technical assistance or pointers for optimized marketing, it’s possible to contact someone like the folks over at iClimber. They not only offer 30-minute training sessions over the phone for Twitter, but they can also create your Twitter account for you and manage your posts. According to their website they will create 40-150 Twitter postings each month for your account (you select how regularly you’d like your postings to appear); the postings will be about favorable topical industry issues and, quite crucially, link to your business website, blog postings, and press releases. Twitter has the potential to significantly expand your customer base through consistent, powerful, and easy-to-swallow advertising.

There’s no reason to not do everything you can to better the reach of your brand or your search engine ranking. Get started on Twitter to foster loyal Twitter and brand followers.

Social Media Marketing

3 Relationships Building Tips in Social Media

Just as much as social media is about starting a conversation, it is important to keep in mind that it should be used to build relationships as well. This takes time. Yes, to convert skeptics into promoters and brand builders.

So, here are 3 relationships building tips that a company can follow:

#1: Avoid “faking” – be real instead

Insulting your audience’s intelligence is one of the worst things that you can do . It’s all been tried before – by creating fake profiles, blogs or even writing fake reviews, and they’ve been caught red-handed sooner or later.

#2: Listening is the key

Social media will help you to find out what you customers are saying, no matter how bitter the truth might be. What’s more – if you are able to listen carefully and show understanding while resolving their problem, the negativity press can turn out to WIN-WIN situation for the both of you. Most experts agree that this is one of the best ways by which you can find out how your customers feel about your product or service – thus, keeping you on your toes.

#3: Dedicating resources will speed up the process

Since one person can’t handle relationship building, dedicating a team for this very purpose is an excellent idea with unimaginable benefits in the future, if handled correctly. Since tasks can be anything from writing blogs for your site, leaving comments, uploading photos, reading blogs, managing friends’ lists, joining groups or even participating in forums, you can be sure that you will have to dedicate a team to speed up the process of relationship building.

Social Media Marketing

Three Relationships Building Tips in Social Media

Just as much as social media is about starting a conversation, it is important to keep in mind that it should be used to build relationships as well. This takes time. Yes, to convert skeptics into promoters and brand builders.

So, here are 3 relationships building tips that a company can follow:

#1: Avoid “faking” – be real instead
Insulting your audience’s intelligence is one of the worst things that you can do . It’s all been tried before – by creating fake profiles, blogs or even writing fake reviews, and they’ve been caught red-handed sooner or later.

#2: Listening is the key
Social media will help you to find out what you customers are saying, no matter how bitter the truth might be. What’s more – if you are able to listen carefully and show understanding while resolving their problem, the negativity press can turn out to WIN-WIN situation for the both of you. Most experts agree that this is one of the best ways by which you can find out how your customers feel about your product or service – thus, keeping you on your toes.

#3: Dedicating resources will speed up the process
Since one person can’t handle relationship building, dedicating a team for this very purpose is an excellent idea with unimaginable benefits in the future, if handled correctly. Since tasks can be anything from writing blogs for your site, leaving comments, uploading photos, reading blogs, managing friends’ lists, joining groups or even participating in forums, you can be sure that you will have to dedicate a team to speed up the process of relationship building.