Kevin Kemp – WSI Digital Marketing Consultant

All businesses whether billion dollar organizations or start-ups  realize that word of mouth is the most powerful tool to grow their business.  It appears based on research completed by SEMPO that many SMB’s are going to be focusing on Social Media to help grow their business.  Companies are making it their second priority after establishing a website, leaving SEO to be less of a priority.  Read a great article by Emarketer.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008302

Many different reports have come out lately talking about the number of current social media users that are on Twitter.  Numbers vary based on the depth of the analysis as duplicate accounts, international users, “Twitter quitter”, and people who only use Twitter for information purposes are not easily differentiated in the various analysis.  Twitter has claimed that as of September 2010 there were 175 million accounts.  However, firms that track unique visitors claim that it is around 26 to 20 million per month for 2010.  While the numbers may vary, one thing is for sure it is growing and will continue to grow.  Usage is expected to increase between 25-28% this year and will continue to grow in double digits through 2013.  It is important for companies to understand the demographic using Twitter before making a decision to make Twitter a key strategic marketing focus.  Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 10% of US Female internet users and 7% of US Male users are using Twitter.  As well, Twitter is very popular among younger users.  Setting your objectives and goals should not be done without understanding the data about users versus getting confused by the various high level numbers/projections being provided in the media.

Managing the customer feedback is becoming an even more important strategy.  A 2009 survey by CustomerThink’s showed that nearly 70 percent of U.S. consumers were frequently exchanging messages and information on their social networks.  Looking at Twitter, celebrating its 5th birthday today is an example of how fast social networking as become.  It is important for companies to makes sure you are managing the voice of the customer.  Three ways to rethink about these programs are:

1) Social media is a new source to gain feedback.

2) Companies must leverage the unstructured and unsolicited feedback to identify trends and other opportunities.

3) This insight must be used to make or lead changes to meet customer needs.

It is important for companies to listen, assess, and develop strategies/plans based on this information.  It is those companies that will continue to grow and succeed through the changing landscape.

It might be a prelude to the pending growth of mobile marketing, but the experts are predicting significant growth in deal-of-the-day sites.  Sites like Groupon are growing fast, but Facebook and Google will soon be entering the market.  It is expected that they will grow to revenues of $6 Billion by 2015.  BIA/Kelsey is forecasting that it will reach $3.9 Billion in the US by 2015 – a growth of 35%.  Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008283

It has been reported that leveraging long-tail keywords will allow you to attract a more focused visitor to your website.  A study produced by CONTEXTWEB validates these findings as they have determined that those with an overall smaller reach had a much higher clickthrough rate.  Overall, long-tail sites lifted click rates by 24%.  The site categories that provided the biggest lift in the long tail were education, technology and computing, and hobbies and games.  The value in having visitors through long-tailed keywords is that they are more likely to match the product or services you are offering, thus generating better quality leads.  You want to be focused on converting high probability leads versus someone who may be seeking information or more clarity as they are unsure if your product or service meets their needs.

Emarketer has written a fantastic article about Social Media and how marketers are starting to become more engaged in the process.  As they have become more comfortable, they are starting to leverage social media and becoming more interactive. Participation on Twitter and Facebook have increased.  Read the article at – www.emarketer.com

Social media is an important strategy to developing your brand and credibility online.  To be successful you must have a realistic level of thought and investment.  Without the right strategy, resources, and budget it will result in companies missing the mark.  Some of the challenges are driven by 4 myths that exist.

Myth 1- Social Media is all about conversations – that is only a part of the strategy, not the entire goal. It is about building credibility, followers, and potential clients.  The conversation is one of the strategies to reach the goals.

Myth 2 – Social Media is free – resources and time are required to manage social media effectively.  You or someone on your team will have to be actively involved.  The time and frequency is dependent on many factors, but that is determined when building the strategy.

Myth 3 – There is a definitive start/end date – while offline media tends to start and finish based on a fixed time frame, social networking is a continual ongoing strategy.  Conversations begin and end, but new ones start, whether by the consumer or the company.  You will quickly lose followers once you become idle and all the effort put into building them will have been wasted.

Myth 4 – Social media cannot be measured –   Nothing can be further from the truth.  Not just simply measuring followers, retweets, and other metrics but you should be measuring consumer behaviour.  The analytics is varied depending on your goals, but it can and should be measured.  With any strategy, you must be able to measure its effectiveness – if not, you will be wasting valuable resources that could be deployed elsewhere.

Prospects are spending more time doing research whether it is independent, via peers, or through 3^rd parties.  The B2B process is highly emotional, due to the personal risks associated with these decisions.  To minimize this fear they aim to eliminate the risk, which is completed by building trust with the potential supplier.  Content marketing develops the trust by building confidence during the decision-making process.  By sharing industry information, educational material, and other best practices in the industry you are building rapport.  In the end it makes it easier for the prospect to justify purchasing your product.  Leverage many different tools including whitepapers, web/podcasts, webinars, videos, articles, etc.  Nurturing the prospect through the prospect will provide better quality leads to the sales reps when the prospect is ready to purchase.