Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category

Social Media Do’s and Don’ts for your Business

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

I recently had a chance to speak about social media to a group of women at the East Boston Chamber of Commerce. My topic was “The Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media for your Business.”   So, here’s my personal spin on best social media practices for your business. Go ahead, take, steal and apply some of these principals to your own company’s social media strategy.

Q. What’s your Individual Spin on Social Media?

A. Social media should be based on business strategy to be effective. Think of social media as a part of your entire communications plan. You wouldn’t develop a direct mail campaign and then decide not to send it. You wouldn’t write a press release and decide not to post it to the wire. So why would you create a LinkedIn Profile or Facebook Page without driving your clients and customers back and consistently engaging them?

1

Q. What Social Media Strategy has worked well for Spotlight and what has not?

2A. Our team is really adept at “seeing the forest through the trees.”  We take an integrated approach, so we value a larger overall impact across all applications, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and our email marketing campaigns.  While the individual audiences may be smaller, we have a larger audience as a whole, which we know we can engage by providing useful, relevant and valuable content.

Q. What are Some Great Examples of Spotlight’s use of Social Media?

3A. We did a project for Commodore Builders with the objective of using social media to monitor whether Commodore would be able to complete a full green build in 15 days. This is rare in the construction industry, as cost overruns and missed deadlines have become the norm, so we dubbed the campaign “15 Days” and incorporated a microsite, where the team setup a blog, vlog, real time footage, and photography.  This was really a breakthrough for the construction industry. Essentially, we leveraged social media so that everyone could tune in, 24-7, and hold the builders accountable to the deadline, which created lots of national and local PR attention.

4

Internally, we started our online newsletter, SPARK, five years ago, with the goal of being “the hottest monthly newsletter for the inner publicist in all of us.”  The format was PR-based, with a heavy emphasis on content, company news and clients.  Last year we developed SPARK PLUG as a more blog-based model for people to engage, share and comment on short snippets of relevant social media news.  Now in the Twitter era, in the world of 140 characters, we are working on an even shortened and more hard-hitting version with just the facts, and no fluff. The reality is, people want content and they don’t want to have to go searching for it. This way, they can’t miss it.

Q. What are your Top Tips on How Best to use Social Media?

5A. Choose the best social media marketing options: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, etc, and start small.

A. Understand the pros and cons of social media. It may not be a fit for your particular business.

A. Don’t do social media for the sake of doing it, because you can lose credibility if you don’t continually update it.

A. Always make sure that your social media is based on a strategic goal.

Click here to see my event photos: http://www.spotlightcommunications.net/media-center/photo-gallery/album-3/73/

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

How to Setup a Facebook Fan Page

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

In our last edition of SPARK Plug, I spoke about the value that Facebook Fan Pages can add to your business, and many of you asked me for setup instructions. A Fan Page is a customizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users. By leveraging the real connections between friends on Facebook, the Page lets Fans become brand advocates, driving word-of-mouth to a wider circle of friends.  So this blog post is dedicated to showing you how to create a Fan Page.  See Facebook’s step-by-step guide below.

Step 1: To start

Log into your personal Facebook account. If you do not have one, you need to create one. From your existing Facebook Page, click on Advertising of any Facebook web page. Click Pages and then Create a Page.

Step 2: Pick a category and name

Pick the category that best fits what you’d like to promote on Facebook. Don’t worry if you don’t find a perfect fit, but pick the closest match since you won’t be able to change your category. The name of the Page should be the exact same as the name of the business, organization, product, band, or individual it represents. Click “Create Page.”

Step 3: Add a profile picture

Click “upload a picture” near the top and upload the graphic or photo that best represents you. Make sure that your brand is clear even as a “thumbnail,” since the image will appear at that reduced size throughout the site (for example, on fans’ profiles and on their friends’ Home pages).

Step 4: Add information

Click “Add information to this Page” underneath the profile picture and enter as much basic and detailed information as you can. The fields available will depend on your Page type. The more details you can add about who you are, what you do, and when and where customers can buy your products, the more successful you will be.

Step 5: Make it rich and engaging

Like user profiles, Pages have multiple tabs. By default, your Page has a Wall tab for you and your fans to share content, an Info tab for you to share business information,and a Boxes tab for application modules. You can choose to devote entire tabs to several Facebook applications, such as Photos, Reviews, and Discussion Board. In addition, applications built by outside developers can choose to use Page tabs.

The more rich content you add, the more ways users can interact with it and spread that connection to their friends. Post photos of products, employees, and customers. Add video clips of your bar or restaurant in action. ‘Behind the scenes’ content often works well. List an event for your grand opening or in-store sale. Write a note about upcoming promotions. The choices are yours and all these features are free and unlimited.

You can also add applications by outside developers to customize your Page further:

  • A restaurant might add the Reservations application to let users book a table without leaving the Page.
  • A film might add Movie Times and Tickets to help users find nearby screenings—again, without ever leaving the Page.
  • A small business owner might add the Visa Business Network application to connect with peers.

Thousands of applications are waiting for you. Need help? Browse other Pages in your category to discover applications that will help serve your customers.

Step 6: Publish

Click the “publish this Page” link to share your Page the with world. Unlike a phone book listing or website, this public profile has the power to let your customers engage their friends on your behalf.

Optimize your Page’s performance by clicking the “Edit Page” link and setting a variety of controls. For instance, you can control the default landing tab for users who are not yet fans of your Page. You can also choose whether or not to allow fans to share Wall posts, photos, and more; allowing these will enrich your Page and increase its reach across Facebook.

To link to your Facebook Page from elsewhere around the Web, use a “Find us on Facebook” badge. Don’t forget to become a fan of your own Page! Share it with friends by clicking the “Share” button in the lower left of the Wall or Info tab.

Step 7: Update Regularly

Updating your Page regularly with fresh photos, upcoming events, and the latest promotions means your Page won’t just look like a profile, it will feel like one, and that will keep users coming back. Facebook users are used to getting information sorted by what happened most recently. If you keep your Page active, which you can do through mobile integrations and applications, you’ll find that your fans are more engaged and more interactive.

You can also send some or all of them messages by clicking “Send an Update to Fans” in the upper-left of your Page (under the profile picture). Updates are useful for sending out announcements like promotions, sales or events. For more information on how to use Pages, visit Facebook’s help section.

Need more help? Watch Spotlight’s interactive web tutorial on “How to Setup a Facebook Fan Page” on Spotlight TV

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

4 Reasons You Should Setup a Facebook Fan Page

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Lately I have begun to notice that brands are stepping up their social media marketing, particularly on Facebook , and a lot of clients have been asking if it make sense for them to setup a Facebook fan page. So I have decided to further explore that question in this month’s IGNITE, and to examine the business benefits of creating a Facebook fan page. Here’s how three strong brands (and one little known brand with no budget) have catapulted in their industries through the use of Facebook fan pages.

The New England Patriots Facebook Fan Page offers hard core Pats fans the opportunity to join team-related discussions, and stay up to date on highly anticipated games and events through a team calendar. Users can also take advantage of interactive features by sending virtual Patriots gifts to their friends, answering the Patriots Poll, and participating in Fantasy Forecasts. The Pats’ social network presence enables them to connect users who are already congregating on Facebook, and to capture another audience demographic. Smart social media marketing strategy? I think so.

New Englang Patriots

Spending only $11,000 to produce the movie Paranormal Activity , Paramount Pictures generated more online buzz than the upcoming Twilight sequel New Moon. Instead of using a conventional trailer, Paramount opted to make a short clip that showed early viewer reaction to test screenings. With virtually no marketing budget, the movie became abuzz through word-of-mouth and college town tweeters. So, the producer launched ParanormalMovie.com , where thrill-seekers demanded local movie theater owners screen the movie. Once 1,000,000 demands were made, the movie opened across the country. The Paranormal Activity Facebook Fan Page was a key part of that success, enabling fans to purchase tickets, compare haunting reactions with other moviegoers, as well as recommend the movie to their own social networks. Following 2-weeks of nationwide midnight only sellouts and fan frenzy over the limited release hit thriller, Paranormal Activity earned Paramount $7.1 million in its opening weekend, showing in just 200 theaters.

Paramount Activity

Coke lovers Dusty and Michael were thirsting for a Coca Cola Fan Page, so they created their own. The page was such a hit that Coke’s director of worldwide interactive marketing contacted them, and assigned a team of employees with the task of monitoring the page, along with supporting and enhancing the page without intruding on fans. Here’s how Coke shares their Facebook marketing experiences: (1) Facebook is a particularly useful tool if your product or service has an emotional appeal to it. (2) The secret is to let the Facebook fans do the talking. (3) Facebook isn’t a marketer’s silver bullet, it’s simply an accessory in the marketer’s toolbox. Coke’s strategy seems to be working; their fan page has now hit 3.7 million!

Coke

And what would Facebook be without its own Facebook Fan Page for self-promotion ? Not to be outdone by Coca-Cola, the page currently has an impressive 5.4 million fans to date.

Facebook
As brands catch on to the power of Facebook marketing, we’re likely to see a lot more of these fan pages cropping up. Contrary to popular belief, Facebook is not just for college students. These specialized pages offer a ton of business benefits, including the chance to build an online community, a boost in search engine rankings, and the best part of the Facebook fan page ? It’s free! If your organization doesn’t have a fan page yet, then perhaps it’s time to create one.

Tags: ,
Posted in Social Media Marketing | No Comments »