Tag : plan

  • 4 Steps to Strengthen Your Brand with Social Media

    Posted Jul 9th, 2010 By in Business, Social Media With | 1 Comment

    Social media is a very powerful tool for allowing businesses to efficiently and economically develop a strong brand presence in the marketplace. This is true not just when it applies to brand outreach, but also brand development at it’s core.

    At Flying Pig Communications, we work with a lot of start-ups and small businesses that are at the forefront of establishing who they are, in the mind of their consumer. These businesses have found amazing success in developing that core brand foundation by relying on social media as their platform.

    Unfortunately social media is so new and omnipresent, it can seem overwhelming. This prevents many business owners from taking advantage of the opportunities it presents them. Never fear…you started a business, you can’t be a coward…here is an easy four step protocol to help any business owner develop a successful social media branding program:

    1) Know Who You Are

    Before embarking on any marketing campaign, but especially a social media one, which operates on such a personal, conversational level, a business must establish a clear vision of the following cornerstones of brand development:

    -What is the goal of your business/service/product? This should have nothing to do with sales or your personal profit/success. This should have everything to do with how your business can make your customer’s life better. Why in the world, with all the many products and services out there, would your customer benefit by choosing you?

    -What makes you unique? Why would your customer choose you over the 15 zillion other ‘you’s’ on the market?

    -What personality do you want to convey? Make your business human. People like working with other people, not other things…and social media gives you the power to develop a voice, literally! Develop a personality for your business and keep it consistent in everything you do. It could be your personality, it could be one you make up….have fun and always consider what will best appeal/resonate with your target audience.

    Just like life, you need to know who you are before you can attract others. Building a brand is more about a snappy logo or catchy slogan. Building a brand is about telling your customer a story about who you are, what you believe in and why they should trust you.

    2) Develop Your Strategy

    Once you feel firm in your answers above, moving on to the actual social media program is easy. Only two questions remain;

    -What social media channels will best help you express who you are.

    -How will you keep it consistent.

    Don’t try to tackle the whole social media sphere in one swoop, more isn’t better, better is better! Choose your poison (but make it strong).

    Choose the social media mediums that will best let you both target your ideal customer and express your brand. Know your limits, a good marketing campaign is the one that is properly executed, not the one that sounds good on paper.

    3) Prepare for the consequences

    Be aware of the power of social media, both for good and evil. It can be a double edged sword, and once you commit to a plan you need to make sure you maintain consistent and communicative with your audience.

    4) Enjoy it

    Most of all, have fun! Imagine social media as a web 2.0 way of shaking hands and kissing babies. Talk to your customer, enjoy them…serving their needs is the reason you went into business in the first place!

    Guest Author: Laura Petrolino is Founder and CEO of Flying Pig Communications. A full service Marketing, Communications and Business Consultancy Firm that specializes in working with start -ups, small businesses and non-profits.

  • 7 Mistakes That Can Kill Your Social Media Marketing

    Posted Jun 14th, 2010 By in Social Media, Social Networking With | 2 Comments

    Mirna wrote a list of 50 social media mistakes, so I thought it would be a good idea to elaborate on some of them in this guest post.

    Every nine out of ten online buyers visit social media websites before buying anything and around 50% of them take decisions under the influence of information they get from these social media websites. In a current market scenario where social media websites are influencing the 50% purchase decisions it has become impossible for business owners to ignore the power of social media. social-media-mistakes

    Although, building your business presence on social media is not a rocket science but still here are seven mistakes which can turn your entire social media marketing efforts in to disaster if not taken care of.

    1) Promoting without a plan – Time and again we see business owners who have no idea of what they to want to achieve from these social media websites. They join them just without a plan which makes their social media campaign like fishing in dark.  Like any other marketing, you must have an action plan for your social media efforts too which will contain the objectives you want to accomplish, the resources and time you have.

    2) Having Incomplete Profiles – Nothing will frustrate your target audience more than your incomplete profile. Leaving your profile partly filled not only creates communication problem between you and your target audience but also makes you look unprofessional. Make sure that your profile is complete – have your image and correct contact information.

    3) Start selling from Day One – It’s true that you have joined social media websites to promote your own brand but social media websites don’t work in that way. Promoting your products from day one will only get you marked as spammer and shunned from the community.

    4) Using same strategy everywhere – Every social media website is different. All have their own ecosystem i.e.  It might be possible that the strategy which is very effective on twitter could never see the light of the day on Facebook. Customize your strategy according to social media websites. Using same strategy everywhere will limit your success.

    5) Not thinking before speaking – Although, social media is a platform where everyone can express his/her opinions freely. But when it comes to using the platform for marketing purposes you must think twice before saying anything. Avoid giving opinions on political or controversial issues from your business account as it may attract the unwanted attention.

    6) Not being consistent – Every social media profile you create is a part of your brand that represents your company on that particular site. Hence being inconsistent in updating your social media profiles and disappearing from the community not only creates a bad experience for your target audience on these sites but also affects your brand in a negative way.

    7) Not measuring results – Well you would never come to know if you are on the right track or not in case you are not going to measure the results. And to measure results, you must have predefined goals (remember point one). Start your social media campaign only after you’ve decided what you want to accomplish from these social media websites and what metrics you are going to use.

    So these are the seven mistakes which you should avoid during your media campaign. Do you know of any other which you would like to add to the list?

    Guest Author: Roger is working for Fortepromo promotional products, a promotional tote bags company based in Minnesota.

  • 11 More Key E’s of Social Media

    Posted Jun 8th, 2010 By in Social Media, Social Networking With | 4 Comments

    Told you I got carried away with all the E’s!  This is a continuation of yesterday’s blog post “11 Key E’s of Social Media.”

    The social media E’s are listed below in alphabetical order:

    1. Entertainment

    A very large of your social media engagement strategy should include entertainment.  The very first step in entertaining your audience is to be a person not a business.  Your message should also be interesting and amusing enough to generate reaction, which increases chances of your message going viral.

    2. Enthusiasm

    It is crucial to create enthusiasm for adoption of social media within your organization.  Also, generating enthusiasm (or excitement) will inspire your audience to be enthusiasts who spread your message for you.  The goal is to find those influencers!

    3. Escalate

    You may run into situations where you deal with negative feedback and brand haters on social media sites. How you choose to deal with the negative comments is very critical to how you are perceived on social media sites.  If you don’t handle it properly with a strategic repsonse, you will escalate the problem. Yikes!

    4. Etiquette

    Practicing proper etiquette is essential when networking on social platforms.  The same etiquette rules that are used in the offline world should be applied online as well.  For some basic reminders, this may be a good time to revisit “7 Rules of Social Media Netiquette.” (more…)

  • 11 Key E’s of Social Media

    Posted Jun 7th, 2010 By in Social Media, Social Networking With | 5 Comments

    A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about the The 21 Essential C’s of Social Media.  Since there are many more elements, I thought it may be fun to discuss  the key E’s of social media.  My friend and technology consultant, Meetu Singhal may call this the vitamin E of social media :) . 

    The social media E’s are listed below in alphabetical order:

    1. Education

    Educating your prospects and customers is important to the success of your business.  Not only are college and universities providing online education, but millions of people are going online to watch how-to videos, listen to podcasts, read informative blogs, etc.

    2. Effective

     A big part of social media success is creating clear, consistent, timely, and captivating content to effectively communicate with your community.  The more strategic your content is, the more effective your social media efforts will be.

    3. Efficient

    Due to the amount of information, tools, and sites on the web, being efficient with social media is certainly not easy, but it is also not impossible. If you have a plan, a schedule, and an editorial calendar in place, you will be extremely efficient when integrating social media.

    4. Effort

    If you want to succeed in social media, you must put in some effort.  Social media is about being proactive and making a real effort to research, learn, converse, test, and measure. 

    5. Embrace

    Embracing social media means accepting the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Although the social web has provided us with endless possibilities, it also opened doors to things that are not so great (spam, fraud, hackers, and privacy, concerns).  Control the bad and embrace the good!

    6. Empower

    Using social media to empower your community (prospects, customers, employees, etc.) is extremely powerful.   It is essential to create a vision for your audience and empower them to take action on what they love, trust, and believe in order to fulfill a dream or a goal. 

    7. Encompass

    A successful social media strategy should encompass all departments of a business:  sales & marketing, PR, advertising, customer service, communications, business development, research, etc.  Remember, it does not stop at marketing.

    8. Encourage

    Encouragement allows your customers to feel comfortable enough to start dialogue with you.  It is vital to encourage or support feedback, comments, and sharing of information from your community. 

    9. Engage

    Social media allows you to engage with your prospects, customers, employees, and other stakeholders.  Engaging is about helping, giving, sharing interesting exchanges, and building community.

    10. Enjoy

    Social media is about being creative and having fun.  To succeed, you must not only enjoy the work you do, but also enjoy the social media process.  People can tell if you are posting things because you think you have to or because you are truly enjoying it.

    11. Enlighten

    By sharing your thoughts, ideas, stories, knowledge and expertise, you will enlighten and inspire your community.  If you are a business with many employees, it is also essential to enlighten your employees on social media.

    Wait! I did get carried away again, so I am not done with all the E’s of social media.  Look for more E’s in tomorrow’s post…

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