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What Consumers Really Want With Companies’ Social Media Marketing


It’s no surprise that social media is here to stay, as the world has watched sites like Twitter and Facebook continually grow. Furthermore, new social media sites like Pinterest pop up constantly and consumers become immediately drawn to them.

With this increased consumer engagement in social media, there is now more pressure for companies to step there game up, differentiate themselves, and cater to their consumers’ needs with their social media marketing campaigns.

Based on these trends in social media, Wildfire Social Media Marketing developed an interesting report at the end of 2011, called, “2012 and Social Media: What’s Next?” This report gave major predictions about how companies would utilize social media in their marketing efforts this year.

The main claim of Wildfire’s report was that 2012 would be, “the year of understanding how to engage an audience and learning how to monetize it through better analytics and a focus on results.” Now, three months into the year, it is evident that the prediction was exactly right.

However, a more recent study done by the CMO Council and Lithium discovered that several companies’ social media marketing campaigns aren’t effectively addressing the needs and wants of consumers through their social media.

An article published by Steve Olenski, contributor to Forbes.com, analyzed this study and claimed that there is a clear, “divide between what marketers think consumers want vs. what consumers really want when it comes to social media.”

Olenski discovered that the most main issue involving what marketers think their consumers want and what their consumers actually want, involved the category of incentives. It was reported that about 65% of social media users connected with brands on their social platforms through the use of, “games, contests and promotions,” while just 33% of companies felt that consumers were really “looking for incentives or rewards for engaging with the brand.”

So, it seems that it’s not so much about how consumers are using social media sites to connect to brands, but it’s more about the fact that consumers want to engage with companies through social media because they are hoping for something in return.

The good news: social media marketing is a newer area that is still growing and changing, so marketers still have time to examine their social media marketing campaigns and modify them to really connect with consumers.

Ultimately, success in any companies’ social media marketing comes down to two main issues: first, clearly identifying and addressing the needs and wants of consumers, and then offering incentives to those target consumers, regardless of consumers’ social media habits.

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6 Latest Lessons For Social Media Marketing

In order to carry out good online marketing practices, you need to be constantly learning the latest digital trends and getting training a few times a year. Make sure everyone in your company, or at least everyone involved in the marketing of your company, is up to date on the latest social networking changes, and try to update all your social media platforms about every six months.

Here are some lessons on how to keep your business’s social media marketing campaign running smoothly.

1. Look for new ways to engage your online communities
Marketing is an essential practice for business, and today, social networking is the best way to provide better customer satisfaction and discover insights into how your consumers feel about your products and services. The fans and followers on all your social media sites are your main strategic tools to use to see how to modify your business to meet their needs more effectively.

2. Don’t let staff tweet and comment outside of the workspace

This may sound harsh, but it is a currently trending idea that could really help businesses. Employees’ online social networking and tweeting done outside the company could have potential consequences; so to be safe, keep all company social networking done inside the company.

3. Restructure and/or retrain a couple times a year

Because social media is such a quickly evolving field, it is vital to stay on top of all the trends and new tools. If you can make an effort to have your company restructure social media platforms to stay up to date, as well as, retrain employees on the latest social networking changes at least twice a year, your business is sure to continue to thrive with social media marketing.

4. The main way for finding products is becoming social search

Currently, Facebook seems to be one of the main tools people end up using to find information on products and places. With this in mind, it is likely Facebook could take over Google’s rep as the main ecommerce search engine. So make sure you’re aware of social searching, and highlight your products and services effectively on Facebook.

5. Create a long term social data plan

Creating social media campaigns based off behavioral data is now more popular that ever thanks to online conversations, interests, groups and friends, which companies can use as vital information in their social networking. Don’t merely join social media platforms and gain fans and followers, but also be continually thinking about how to build up your social media presence based on interesting information from these sites so you are able to grow and evolve.

6. After your target audience is created, watch your social engagement grow

An average brand oversees multiple blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, YouTube channels, etc. So, what companies must remember, is to maintain a common brand image and communication style that is uniform among every social media account. Consumers will be able to recognize your company amongst other competition and have a solid understanding of your brand image and want to engage with you for life.

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Tracking Pinterest With Google Analytics

 

 

 

 

Social media’s latest trending site, Pinterest, has grown exponentially this past year. The site quickly went from a lesser-known network, to a top 100 site.

But, does Pinterest really get referrals? Are visits on Pinterest valuable to companies? How engaged are consumers on the site?

Using Google Analytics, you can measure how Pinterest is working for you.

1. Customized Reports

You can use custom reports to get a good analysis of Pinterest. These reports allow you to view only the information you want to view. If you just want to see the “pins” on Pinterest that sent visits to your site, or whether visitors have been to your site before, etc. you can get a specific custom report. Furthermore, you can select “Landing Page” as your secondary dimension to figure out which pictures/products from your site are pulling visitors from Pinterest to your site.

2. Referral Reports

If you want a simple way to track the number of visits coming to your site from Pinterest, this is a great tool. In Analytics, go to “Traffic Sources” and click “Referrals Report.” Then, if pinterest.com does not show up in your top 10 referrals, search “pinterest” at the top of the table. Even simpler, you can make a more advanced segment that shows just the traffic from Pinterest. Then you can add to your report by selecting a “goal set” in Analytics. If you have goals set up in Analytics, this tells you how Pinterest visits compare to the site on average.

3. Multi-Channel Funnel Reports

To see if Pinterest visits are converting, it can be tricky. Standard Google Analytics reports use “last click attribution,” which means Pinterest will only show a conversion if it was the last source of the visit that converts. So, this means that if someone comes to your site after visiting Pinterest, then returns to your site after using an organic search for your product, then makes a purchase, that purchase will not be attributed to Pinterest. In order to get a better idea of exactly how many conversions come from Pinterest, use the Multi-Channel Funnels reports in Google Analytics. First look at the “Assisted Conversions” report, and choose “Source/Medium”, then filter for Pinterest.

4. Dashboards

Google Analytics Dashboards give great views of your site’s activities. By adding widgets to your dashboard, you can see whatever information you want to see regularly. In tracking Pinterest, monitor things like daily visits from Pinterest, how long users stay on the site, how many pages they look at, etc. Dashboards will also help show which products seem to be resonating with Pinterest users, so you can effectively strategize your future content.

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The Power Of Social Media

 

 

 

 

It is a fact that developing a presence on social media is far more complex than simply making a Facebook page.

Social media marketing tools have become intricate and numerous this year, and the evolution of social media is peaking.

Businesses are struggling to keep up with all the new technology, and are finding out just how important it is to learn tools and techniques for online marketing and social media. As a result, there is now there is a big emphasis on teaching online marketing in universities, as the Internet becomes more and more relevant for conducting business.

Marketing instructor Jessica Rogers from Texas A&M University is a major supporter of taking advantage of every social media tools available.

According to Rogers, “Social Media creates a whole new world…Schools embracing these tools deserve a lot of kudos.”

Both students and companies around the world have more access to information than ever before, thanks to the Internet. And now social media has allowed businesses and consumers to connect and engage with each other on a more intimate level than ever before.

One of the latest tools used by students to get more in tune with social networking is Chatter. This platform is similar to Facebook, but allows for more privacy and has private, numerous subgroups that can be created. In addition to engaging through these subgroups, you can go into separate chat rooms to exchange and view videos and slides.

Always remember that there are so many different social media platforms in existence, so take advantage of the platforms that make the most sense for your business goals. There are sites with more simply stated and shared information, and other sites that are more “hands-on” and require a greater level of engagement.

Today’s students are gaining knowledge of social media because when applying for jobs, companies know social media and social media marketing are the future of business, so knowledge of how to properly use these sites is extremely important.

With all of this in mind, it is clear that knowing social media networking is power. You can take your business to new heights by learning and utilizing the right social media marketing techniques for your business.

In the social media world, the sky’s the limit!

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7 Steps For A Location-Based Marketing Campaign

 

 

 

 

When the idea to have users on social media sites share their geographic location on their mobile devices popped up back in 2009, location-based engagement became a popular trend. Foursquare became one of the best-known platforms that tackled this marketing idea.

Location-based marketing gives customers incentives to “check-in” to a company’s location so that consumers automatically engage with that business.

Some platforms aside from Foursquare that utilize this technique include Yelp, Gowalla, BrightKite, Facebook, and more. No matter which platform you choose, if you’re considering developing a location-based social media campaign, use these tips to be successful.

1. Measure Your Performance

Right at the beginning of your campaign, come up with a way to measure the campaign’s performance.  State the goals you want your business to reach and identify the appropriate tools to use to measure those goals.

2. Select Your Online Venue

Select a platform, or platforms, that you want to use to create your online presence for your location-based marketing plan. Register and create an account, then “claim” your online venue. This gives you complete ownership of your venue.

3. Use A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

Figure out how to combine data from the location-based marketing systems you use along with the data from your CRM. This way, you will be able to see the social media activities that users are engaging in, along with the user interactions reported into the CRM.

4. Design Your Location Marketing Page

With each account you start for a location-based campaign, you should customize a profile page.  Current and prospective customers will want to check out your profile to get a feel for the personality behind the brand. In addition, this information is indexed in search engine databases, so people will be able to find your company more easily if you’ve filled out a profile page.

5. Adjust Your Marketing Plan

Look back to the goals you wanted to reach with your location-based marketing campaign and decide if there are things you need to change in order to see better results.

6. Adjust Your Budget

Go into location-based marketing strategy with a budget. Examine how your brand is performing with this marketing technique and make any changes to you budget in order to continue to be able to carry out the campaign.

7. Come Up With Incentives

Think of great offers to give to your users that are relevant to your brand. Incentives are what location-based marketing is all about, so you must create unique rewards for your specific target audiences.

It can be hard to start a location-based marketing campaign, but with a strong plan to stick to, location-based marketing can prove to be a huge success for your company!

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Some Negatives To Google+

 

 

 

 

With about 90 million users joining Google+ since it came out in June, it would seem as if Google+ has become a successful social media platform.

However, that number of users doesn’t explain how Google+ really matches up in the social media world. In fact, compared to its rival site Facebook, Google+ seems almost invisible. Research firm comScore Inc has found that while Google+ is getting many users to sign up for the site, users really aren’t actually on the site utilizing the tools Google+ has to offer very much.

Users on personal computers spent an average of three minutes a month on Google+ during the months between September and January, whereas they spent six to seven hours on Facebook during this same time, according to comScore.

In addition to this lack of engagement on Google+, there’s also the issue of differentiating Google+ from Facebook. With the launch of Google+ last year, the site was positioned as a Facebook rival where users could share content with very specific groups of people, however sharing on Facebook is much more commonly used.

An original feature of Google+, the “Hangouts,” where users can conduct a videoconference with up to 10 people, hasn’t seen much excitement from users. This feature has not proven to be compelling enough to convert Facebook users to Google+ users.

Executives at Google have tried to ignore this comparison to Facebook and continue to state that they are making a long-term investment on a strong idea and that they are still working to build up more tools to make Google+ triumph over Facebook’s features.

Google vice president of product management, Bradley Horowitz, claims that Google+ is meant to be more than just a destination site and acts as an auxiliary to other Google services like YouTube and Gmail, by adding a social-interaction component to those services. However, other Google+ partners are concerned by the lack of activity on the site.

Google still has not gotten companies to advertise on Google+, and some marketers testing the site have found that brand messages don’t seem to reach consumers as much as they had hoped.

It seems that Google+ does not have the same frequency of activity that sites like Twitter, Facebook and the latest, Pinterest, currently offer. And without the level of engagement on the site, there’s not a strong desire to advertise on the site.

Twitter and Facebook have come to change the way people find new content on the Internet, which competed with Google as the main gateway to the Web. Most activity done on Facebook cannot be accessed from the Google search engine because of privacy controls, which have made the search engine less useful since people are spending more time on Facebook.

So, what’s the main point to take away from all this? Google+ is definitely a prominent site in social media networking, but to find the benefit out of it, you must be effectively engaging on the site. Keep in mind that as far as consumer usage on social media sites, Facebook and Twitter are still the dominant sites used.

 

 

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The Power of Pinterest

 

 

 

 

 

The latest social media craze is Pinterest. Currently, Pinterest is not as big as Facebook and Twitter, but companies should look into adding Pinterest to their social media strategy to build up their brand.

Pinterest is an online “pinboard;” users can “pin” content and images they are interested in and can share it with users with similar interests, family and friends.

Just since last May, Pinterest’s audience has grown 76%! This shows just how relevant this site is becoming. In fact, it’s becoming one of the fastest developing social media site ever and is a great site to use to show off products and get noticed.

Right now, brands should develop their image on Pinterest before the site explodes and becomes even more popular. Become a brand already noticed on Pinterest right now before you become lost amongst even more brands in the future looking to join the site.

Build a strong presence on Pinterest now so you get used to the site and know exactly how to use it efficiently. The site is the newest way to visually show off what you have to offer in a new way that Facebook and Twitter cannot. Furthermore, it allows you to build strong relationships with consumers who share your same interests.

After finding these consumers who are passionate about your brand, they will share your content on the site, ultimately bringing you more consumers who fit into your target audience.

Make your boards fun, creative and exciting to get some attention and highlight what you have to offer. Pinterest is great for retailers showing off fashion trends, restaurants showing off their best dishes and brands that really target the youth culture-music, movies, celebrities, festivals, etc.

Give Pinterest a shot and give the world visually pleasing images of what your brand has to offer and watch your brand identity and loyalty grow!

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Getting Word of Mouth Marketing Right

 

 

 

 

By posting and sharing information the right way through various social media platforms, followers will post and share your information with their friends and followers on more social media sites, and you will ultimately become a stronger brand. You want to get people buzzing about your brand in a positive way with word of mouth marketing.

With social media sites, you must be careful about choosing what to post and share with your audience. If stated correctly, your posts have the power to engage and inspire your customers and they will automatically want to share what your brand has to offer with others.

Word of mouth marketing is as social as it gets. It allows your fans and followers to become your advertisers. Furthermore, they advertise your brand to new audiences and demographics, allowing you to reach more potential customers.

However, if you word of mouth marketing strategy isn’t done right, it can backfire and give your brand a bad rep. So, be careful with your campaign and use these tips to help you along the way!

1. Offer Quality Products

Without taking the time to develop the quality of your content, no consumer will give a second thought about your brand or product. Or worse, they may feel the need to spread negative opinions of your brand.

Millennials especially are affected by word of mouth marketing when making purchases. This generation, aged 18-34, uses and makes recommendations online to help their favorite brands, and will also give criticism online to help others’ purchasing decisions.

Invest in perfecting your products and services in order to get positive feedback from your fans and followers. Otherwise, you will see a wildfire of negative reviews about your brand!

2. Gain Consumer Trust

In order to carry out word of mouth marketing successfully, trust is essential. Hiding and/or laying low in the social media world will only cause customers to easily look over your brand or question your brand identity.

With 76% of consumers already feeling that companies lie in their advertising, it is key to building trust with your audience to keep loyal consumers for life. By getting your consumers to advertise for you with positive word of mouth marketing, others will see truth and the “realness” to your brand. People are more likely to trust their friends and followers on social media sites than a brand they are unfamiliar with.

3. Get Some Recommendations

As long as you use your manners and say your please and thank yous to your customers, asking them for recommendations can strengthen your word of mouth marketing.

Through social networking, you can stand out among other brands by highlighting recommendations and creating forums to build conversations with your consumers.

In fact, 93% of customers have noted word of mouth as the best and most reliable source for information on brands, products and services. This means recommendations could be the golden ticket for your word of mouth marketing.

If you can gain happy consumers who enjoy following and promoting your content, you will see long-term benefits in building a strong brand image.

Use these three ideas to help build your brand and gain consumer loyalty with the power of word of mouth marketing!

 

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A Peak Into Pinterest

 

 

 

 

With social media marketing, there is always a new platform coming out to learn. Pinterest happens to be the latest social media channel, and it is quickly becoming a popular site among users. Pinterest lets users “pin” things they find on the web that they like onto an online pin board. This new platform has great potential for small businesses selling visually unique products in particular.

Another appealing element to Pinterest is its strong social factor. Users can share their pins with followers on Twitter and fans on Facebook. These pins can then be repined and shared. Furthermore, users are also able to make new pins from anything they find on the web, or other social media sites.

Marketers everywhere are starting to discover how much potential Pinterest has to offer. Here are a few things to expect if your company starts using Pinterest.

1. More traffic to your site

After importing a “pin” (an image) to Pinterest, the site then links that pin back to its original source. For example, if a restaurant posts a pin of one of their best dishes, users can click on the image and will be directed to that restaurant’s website. This element of Pinteret will certainly drive traffic to your main site and increase your company’s SEO.

2. More insights into followers’ interests

Companies are using Pinterest for market research. The site is a great way to connect with consumers knowing that anyone can create a pin board in the site. This means that a clothing boutique could use Pinterest to discover what trends users are sharing with others. Then, using this information, the retailer could use these trends and styles and post similar clothing onto their pin boards. Or, they could use this information to make their own board that users could pin clothing trends that they’d like to see in that boutique. This gives businesses great feedback and insight from their followers.

3. More relationships with customers

New companies will find great success using Pinterest to get their name out there and create lasting relationships with new customers. The pin boards are public, so anyone can see and share pins. With a strong brand community, businesses will ultimately expand, and sharing your product images on Pinterest is sure to spark interest around your brand.

With any social media channel, it’s important to have strong connections and be active and engaged with your followers. Simply sending out promotions is not the way to start to reach customers. With Pinterest, users will immediately follow businesses that provide them with valuable content that connects with them on a personal level. After gaining a solid base of followers, slowly engage more and more with promoting your brand, but first begin by joining Pinterest to connect with people. Repin things you’re interested in and create your own pin board to get your business rolling with Pinterest!

 

 

 

 

 

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Staying On Top Of The Changing Social Media World

 

 

 

 

After playing with social media for a few hours, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. You quickly realize that there are so many new tools constantly coming out that you feel obligated to learn in order to keep your social media marketing plan strong.

You can be sure that with Internet marketing, once you conquer one social media platform, a new one will come out soon enough, so always be prepared for continual learning! However, understand that sometimes it is worth learning all the new social media tools, and sometimes you might not need to invest so much time in learning a new platform; it all depends on your specific marketing plan and target audience.

While it can be demanding to have to constantly keep up with the latest social media tools, there are tricks to help keep your cool and stay strong in the ever-changing Internet marketing scene. Here are three elements to stick with in order to keep your social media marketing plan sturdy when approaching new social media channels.

1. Stick with what you know

If you’ve been playing with social media for a while now, you should know what works for you and what doesn’t. If there’s one social media platform you know is bringing you success, stick with it and maintain that success. When you find a new social media channel, experiment with it, but don’t neglect your best platform.

2. Stick with your marketing plan

If you know certain social media platforms won’t work well with your company’s marketing goals, don’t waste your time with them. Know what your company message is, what content you want to deliver, and who you want to deliver it to. Keep this plan flexible so it can adapt to the latest platforms, but never forget what your marketing plan is. Only spend time looking into new platforms if they seem to align with your marketing goals.

3. Stick with your customers

To be successful with social media marketing, you must know who your target audience is and know what social media platforms they use the most. Take this information into consideration when new platforms pop up. Think about if the new platform seems like something your target market would get into, or not. If it is, take the time to learn it to reach those customers.

Even though there is a lot to learn with social media marketing, if you spend your time wisely on learning what will work with your social media campaign, you will stay successful.

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