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 Because of the sheer number of online communities and the number of active users, every possible demographic is represented on the social networks on the Internet. Your customers are on Socail Communities right now.
Having a powerful social media presence is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience on the Internet. Social Media Optimization is your opportunity to embed yourself, your business, your brand, or your product into the community of people who are most likely to purchase from you.
Interchanges uses highly effective segmenting technology to target and attract specific types of people to invite to become a "friend". We call this "Social Droving". Interchanges' Social Marketing teams will run a highly effective campaign for your organization....all you need to do is make us your first "friend" and we will do the rest.
Brand Awareness |
Lead Generation |
Event Promotion |
Customer Loyalty |
Blogging Platform |
Build Brand-Centered Community |
Local / Regional / National Focus |
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Professional Profile Development |
Video Integration |
Create a presence that engages your market |
Web site Integration |
Custom Social Community Development |
Blogging Campaigns |
Integration with Other Social Media Outlets |
Bulletins and Comments |
- Proprietary technology
- Experts that “live” in the social networks
- Systematic Processes for developing friends
- Lead generation techniques
E-consultancy had an interesting post about Forrester Research who are advising clients that a recession is the time to be advertising on social networks.
As Forrester put it:
Social applications in particular, such as communities and social networking sites, are cost-effective and have a measurable impact on prospects' decisions in the consideration stage, which will be important to companies under recessionary pressures.
This is an interesting position for Forrester to take as social networks have not exactly been a boon for most advertisers. In their paper Forrester makes two points why this is a good time to switch your advertising dollars to social networks.
 The first point is:
"Well-designed social applications are effective. Social programs leverage the voice of the customer to get messages carried further than ad impressions. If your message resonates with consumers, their word-of-mouth is a more effective medium than any of the traditional media."
Yes a successful viral campaign can be much more effective than a traditional campaign (see the Barack video for an example of this). But isn't viral marketing simply successful word-of-mouth marketing? You can plan on having a campaign go viral, but unless the message resonates with the consumer (and that is a big if), your message will go nowhere. Social networks can be a conduit to helping your message go viral, but it needs a good message and product in order to be successful.
The second point is:
"They're cheap. Advertising campaigns often run into millions of dollars. But Facebook pages and blogs are two examples of social programs that you can start for next to nothing. Even more sophisticated programs like a full-blown customer community typically don't cost more than $50,000 to $300,000 to get going."
Just because it is inexpensive to advertise on social networks does not mean that the traffic you are buying is good. There is a reason why StumbleUpon lets you buy traffic at $.05 a click in even the most competitive markets. Social networks are notorious for providing advertisers with lots of ad impressions, very few clicks and even less conversions. One of the reasons for this is that users of social networks are not on social with a commercial intent. When I talk to my nieces who are heavy Facebook users, they all mention that they are never looking to buy something when they are on Facebook. They are there to socialize. They are blind to the ads.
It is akin to when you use Gmail. How many of you actually read the ads that go along with the email you are reading? You ignore the ads, because you are not looking to buy something. The same applies to broad based social advertising campaigns.
The only difference between a poorly executed cheap social marketing campaign and a poorly executed expensive marketing campaign is the amount of money that you spend.
Social Media Marketing is a relatively new concept utilized by businesses developing online communities which allow current and potential customers to congregate and discuss a particular brand, product or service. In most cases, the online communities include mechanisms such as blogs, podcasts, videos, message boards, and product reviews, all of which contribute to a transparent forum to post praises, criticisms, questions, and suggestions.
Also included in the realm of social media is Mobile Marketing. Mobile phone users (xx million in the US alone) opt-in to a short-code using a certain keyword and once they are opted-in, they will receive messages tailored around the campaign to learn more about the product or service. Other unique and highly effective campaigns can be developed as well.
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One of the primary reasons to use Social Media Marketing is because traditional advertising is losing its influence on consumers. This premise is backed by statistical evidence demonstrating a growing trend of consumers making purchasing decisions from Internet research and referrals. Most people agree that feedback and reviews from like-minded peers hold more weight than corporate marketing messages dispersed through traditional television, radio, direct mail, or newspaper advertising. Combining Social Media Optimization and Mobile Marketing.
Although businesses would be exposing certain weaknesses to the marketplace by allowing individuals, or even competitors, to post critical comments, responding with an honest and transparent answer designed around solving the issue at hand may mitigate potential risks. Marketing Experiments has conducted research on the topic of transparent marketing.
Click here to find out why you should combine Social Media Optimization with Mobile Marketing->
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