Last year we tried to push you towards Social Marketing. Some of you took the hint and joined Facebook, My Space and maybe even Linkedin. But few of you took the total plunge and joined all of the sites. (I'll give credit to the EI guys who have created some nice communities on FACEBOOK) Well we always try to follow our own advice and can be found on just about every Social Network out there from Flickr to YouTube to Linkedin to Beebo to Yahoo Groups to Facebook. We launched 30 new web domains in 2008 and a New e-Commerce Store front. Our Blog is a daily affair and then we have our ACT-POS Social Ring on NING.
So how to keep track of everything? One tool that I have found that actually works is 'FLOCK' a hybrid version of Firefox designed especially for SOCIAL Networking. You can check it out here for yourself: http://www.flock.com/ If you're like me and trying to do several things at once, then this could be a real TIME SAVER.
The article bleow is from Brick Marketing's BLOG, a firm that specializes in Marketing GORILLA STYLE. You can catch more of their insight here: SOCIAL MARKETING JOURNAL
TEN REASONS TO NOT IGNORE SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES
Writing by Brick Marketing on Monday, 22 of December , 2008 at 3:29 pm
It shouldn't come as a surprise that even smaller local businesses can even benefit from Myspace or Facebook. The social media landscape is not just for big business anymore. It is important that any business of all sizes tackle this channel very soon. 2009 is going to be a very busy year for many companies and the social landscape will be an area of extreme importance. Partially because their audience is there and the fact that it is free to participate so you only pay for time spent. If you have the time then you have no excuses.
1. Your Customers are There: It doesn't matter whether you are shining shoes or a hotel consultant your audience is here. The social media space is taken up by a very large number of internet savvy shoppers and many of them will buy from you either now or at a later date if they only know you exist.
2. Cheaper than a Newspaper Ad: It doesn't cost you anything but time to get onto these websites and begin to engage in some sort of conversation with others. A newspaper ad is very expensive and often times doesn't warrant the spend. If you have 30 minutes or an hour each day you can begin to interact on a Myspace or Facebook so people can see who you are.
3. It is Still Early: Social media is at the nose end of its life cycle. This area has just begun and it is exponentially growing. Get on board now because even a year or two down the road and it might take you even longer to catch up and learn everything.
4. Link Building: Building profiles and all the various different social websites helps your website with something called link building. As you build profiles they will give off power to your current business websites allowing to further climb the search engine results for your targeted keywords.
5. Proactive Reputation Management: As you build profiles they will rank for your company name this way allowing others who might want to tarnish your online reputation down the road a bit more difficult.
6. Online Branding: This shouldn't even require a reason but here it goes, as you connect and engage with your community online your branding message will linger in peoples minds for future purchasing needs. The more people you connect with, the further your reach extends online.
7. Fan Groups: Once you build an online following for your business you can start online groups which are basically collections of fans that will leave comments and engage in online discussions to help your brand grow. If people like your brand they will be willing to talk about it.
8. Your Competition Is Probably There: Chances are you already have some of your competitors already there taking away business from you. It doesn't matter how unique your business is if you have competition chances are they have already begun their online marketing.
9. It's Quick: It doesn't require a great deal of time to get things going. You can get on a computer and build a profile much quicker than it takes to contact your local publication and get things started on offline ad.
10. Because we Don't Live Under Rock: Unless you live under rock you have not come to terms with the idea that you need this. Social media is the future whether you want to admit it to yourself or not. only those who decide to break their mold and start using will prosper. 2009 will be a strange year for all business owners so it is up to you in order to stay competitive
Whatever you do or don't do is up to you. All we want to do is give you some information so that you know what your options are. Be sure to check our BLOG, Facebook My Space and YouTube for more information.
