Are you looking for an innovative way to get your customers to your social media pages?  We’ve got just the thing for you!  Connect Pads!  Or Connect-Its or Social Pads or Link Ups or…well, let’s just say we’re still working on the name.

The bottom line is, you have customers and they need to be fans, friends and followers of all your social media efforts.  So how do you get them there?  You get a custom-printed Post-It with all your information and stick it…everywhere!

A graphically interesting sticky pad design, showcasing links to your social media pages with a call to action like “Fan us on Facebook for exclusive specials!” (and a QR code for convenience) works wonders.  Stick them on invoices, receipts, letters and more.  If you have a restaurant or bar, put them on the tables for people to take.

You’ll be surprised how well the information “sticks” — when people have the details at their fingertips, they’ll take action!

Interested in working up a design for this?  We can help!

In this age of social media, it’s all too easy to get stuck focusing on just one aspect of social media.  To make social media really work for you, though, it’s important to focus on all aspects — to find all possible avenues of value within your social media efforts.  Here are some ways to expand the value of your social media campaigns.

• Use it internally. Two of the biggest challenges for businesses are communication and asset loss.  You can improve both of those using internal social media.  Whether you choose to set up a private company blog or wiki, or use a social intranet, you can use social media within your company to improve communication.  You can also use it to bring the knowledge your employees have out of their heads and into a place where it’s accessible by others, thereby reducing your asset loss when you lose an employee.
• Use it for research. There is so much to learn on social media.  You can learn about your target market and what they think about your company and products.  You can also use it to learn what your competitors are doing, as well as what your target market thinks of their companies and products.
• Use it to build brand advocates. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had people in the world who were so excited about your company, they couldn’t help but suggest you to everyone?  Good news — you do!  You transform your existing customers into brand advocates by fostering the sense of community in your social networks.  They’ll share everything they can about your company and products with everyone they know in the social world!
• Use it for customer support. Social customer support is a growing trend among businesses, and we think it’ll just keep growing!  Keep an eye on what people are saying about your company, and when you find someone who is displeased, address them directly and see what you can do to make them happy.  A happy customer might tell a few people, but a dissatisfied customer will tell many more — by directly addressing and fixing the problem, you’ll earn respect and some new customers!

There’s nothing worse than awkward silence, except maybe public awkward silence.  And nothing kills a brand advocate’s loyalty faster than the public awkward silence that comes when a company doesn’t reply on social media.  Let’s say you own a restaurant.  A customer visits regularly, because they just LOVE your food and atmosphere and staff.  They’re checking in on Foursquare, posting pictures on Twitpic and posting status updates about how awesome you are on Facebook and Twitter.  They even reference you directly by tagging in you in Facebook posts and @ing your screen name on Twitter.  They’re excited, they love you, and they want the world to know!

Now imagine that all that goes on, and they never hear anything back from you.  They don’t pay much attention to it at first, but after a while their enthusiasm starts to dwindle.  They’re giving a lot for your benefit and getting nothing in return.  You’d be surprised how often this happens.

The lesson here:  Pay attention to your customers and brand advocates — they love you and need to hear from you so they’ll know their love isn’t unrequited!

For more information on social media marketing visit our website.

It has been one of those thankfully infrequent weeks where the world completely changes for many people.  The earthquake, tsunami and aftershocks have changed Japan for many years to come, if not forever.  The lives of the Japanese, as well as people living in Japan, and many other people around the world became entirely different in an instant.  And in this historical moment, we’ve been reminded of the true power of social media — connection.

Google immediately created a Person Finder to help people in Japan (and those with loved ones in Japan) find their loved ones.  Within seconds of the incident, Facebook and Twitter were flooded with status updates relaying news and images, and offering reports of people’s whereabouts and well being.  The social media world became like one giant emergency broadcasting system, making all the important information available instantly and worldwide.

Social media was created for one reason — to connect people.  As it has grown and developed over the last near decade, that purpose has become diluted.  While advances in social media have their own purposes and benefits, it can be valuable to get back to basics and remember what’s really important.  It’s all about people.  That’s true in life, as well as in both business and social media marketing.  Be authentic, and remember that people are people and not numbers.  In that, you will find great success — and it’ll feel good, too.

In case you don’t know — but of course you do — we are a full-service online marketing agency.  We design and build websites, streamline our clients’ SEO, implement online ads, create email marketing campaigns, craft and manage newsletters and more — pretty much anything we can do to help grow our clients’ businesses.

One of our many services includes getting to know our clients’ businesses well enough that we can write social media posts for them.  Not scamming-the-system, impersonal, keyword-spam-type posts.  The same kind of quality posts you’d get if you were writing them in house, with a focus on “infotainment,” our favorite buzz word of late.

There are many agencies in the country, and even the world, that offer this kind of service.  But even when you’ve hired someone to do all your social media posting, you can’t just ignore what’s happening for your brand on social media.  It’s important for you to know how to use the social medias in which your brand is involved.  Not only is it important for you to be aware of what’s happening for your business online — it’s important for you to know enough to advertise your social media efforts offline, as well as spread the word to your circles online.  There is a big pool of social media fans and followers in your current customers, and you know how to access them better than your online marketing agency.

So get in there, understand what’s going on, and support your agency’s efforts.  Together, you’ll grow your business in a way your agency couldn’t without you.

Need some online resources?  We post all the time about ways to increase your social media skills and grow your business online!

What’s your #1 social media tip?  Post it in the comments!

Otherwise entitled, “Where Are My Sales Already?  Yeesh.”

We have the amazing opportunity to work with so many incredible clients.  It’s part of what we love most about this kind of work.  Many of our clients are new to social media, and so we’re often asked some variation of the same question:  “Just how long is this social media thing going to take?”

As you already know from reading our blog regularly (wink), 2010 was the first year business as a whole completely embraced social media, spending more on digital advertising than print advertising for the first time in history.  So, there’s a lot of hype about social media right now.  The rumor is spreading like wildfire that social media is the be all and end all, easy and free marketing technique that will not only save your business in this questionable economy — it will bring you lots of customers and big bucks while you just sit back and watch it all roll in.

While we are obviously the first in line to tout the benefits of social media marketing, those are not them.  It’s just not true that the simple act of creating a Facebook page or Twitter account is like a giant “ON” switch in the Cloud, opening the flood gates of effortless financial and entrepreneurial success.  Here’s what is true:

1) Social media and online marketing are just like any other form of marketing. Would you put a bare-bones advertisement in the newspaper, then proceed to sit by your phone waiting for it to work?  Absolutely not.  This is no different.  Social media and online marketing must be an integrated part of your overall marketing strategy, and they must be engaging.

2)  Social media is only successful if you act like you’re creating a real relationship with your consumers. Because, in fact, that’s exactly what you’re doing.  There’s a reason it’s called “social” media.  In real life, would you think it reasonable to meet someone in a public place for the first time, then expect them to immediately give you all their contact information, follow you around and be loyal to you at all costs?  No way!  It’s no different on social media, but if you’re expecting immediate results with minimal effort, that’s what you’re asking from your consumers.  Connecting with your consumers on social media is just like being in a real life relationship.  There must be a reason for you to connect to begin with, then you must prove that you’re an engaging, trustworthy and worthwhile friend.  That takes both time and effort.

3)  Trial and error are the only way to find your sweet spot. Every business is different, every market is different and every consumer is different.  So, the social marketing techniques that work for one business will not necessarily work for another.  It takes time to find the perfect online marketing recipe for your business, because you are unique.  You have to try one approach, give it time, measure results, then adjust your efforts…and then rinse and repeat until you’ve achieved perfection.

So, just how long will this social media marketing thing take, anyway? As a general guideline, expect your initial social media marketing efforts to take at least 6 months before you see any kind of response from your consumers.  Obviously, this number can vary greatly, and the more you promote your social media in real life to your current and prospective customers, the better.

Have you found these things true in your business’s social media efforts?  Let us know in the comments!