Posts Tagged ‘Social media’

Why we Need a School for Social Media

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Social Media is HOT.

It’s only getting hotter!

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Currently Facebook has more than 400 million active users.

Twitter

Twitter has 50 million tweets each day.

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LinkedIn has 65 million users.

In today’s age, social media networking is becoming the leading and most effective way to market and brand your company, and yet, there are still many people who do not know how to use it.

The idea for Social Media U came to me one day when I was speaking on a social media marketing expert panel recently, discussing social media strategies that could be employed to enhance business branding and marketing across a broader scale.  When someone in the audience asked, “What is social media?” A light-bulb went off and I realized the need for us to back-up and define social media before we could actually move forward with the social media marketing strategies part of my lecture.

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Simply put, Social Media University is a school for social media.  Whether you are a baby boomer who is new to social media, a business professional who wants to better leverage social media, or a recent student or grad who wants to use social media to help find job leads, Social Media U is the school for you.

Social Media U can help you grow your social media network to help you:

  • Build your online presence
  • Find and engage your business customers
  • Keep in contact with family, friends, and peers
  • Gain visibility for your brand/company

Unlike other learning centers and executive education programs, we require all of our graduates to have a complete and full understanding of course curriculum before obtaining their diploma.  This ensures that each student leaves the school feeling confident and ready to incorporate their newfound skill set into their everyday lives.

What Social Media U is not:

  • Not another networking event.
  • Not for social media “experts.”
  • Not for those who don’t believe in the reach and power of social media.
  • Not for those who want to sit-back and take it in (we’re hands-on).
  • Not a one time thing (you must graduate).

So what are you waiting for?  It’s never too late to go back to school!

Check us out online!

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Find us on Facebook!

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Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

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?

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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.

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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/

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Posted in Social Media Marketing | 5 Comments »

Don’t Cut Back your Branding. Brand Smarter.

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Unbeknownst to many business owners, branding goes far beyond your company logo, business name, and the colors of your business card. Branding is the process of establishing a clear and differentiated identity among your prospects and customers. When done well, branding can be one of your company’s most valuable assets, just look at Coca-Cola, Starbucks or UPS. I’ve outlined a few steps below to help your small business put some branding strategies in place. During these tough economic times, the trick is not to cut back your branding, but to brand smarter.

Find Out Why They Like You

First, you should gauge the market’s perception of your business today. Ask your customers why they selected you over your competition, and what they like most about your organization.

Next, determine whether your current value proposition resonates with your customers.

Then, review your business plan and examine every aspect of your brand.

Define Your Brand

Your brand is an intangible asset. Identify how your business differentiates

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itself from competitors,and how your products and services will satisfy customers’ needs. Finally, think about how to better interact with your customers.

The goal is to get your target market to attribute certain qualities to your business in a way that spurs them to take a desired action. One organization may strive to become the most trusted name in its industry, while another fulfills an untapped need in the marketplace. What is your brand hoping to achieve?

Make Sure Your Brand Is Consistent. Consistently.

Deliver consistent messaging of your brand in every possible situation, such as talking to the press, writing an industry article, and speaking directly with your customers. Customer experience with your brand can also be enhanced by elements beyond marketing materials, including:

  • Your product packaging and appeal
  • Your team member expertise
  • The look and feel of your office
  • Website ease of use and navigation

Setup A Twitter or Facebook Page. What Are you Waiting for?

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Social media is text, video, images, photos, audio and other media generated by and shared with everyday people from decentralized sources. Therefore, any website that invites you to interact with the site and with other visitors, such as Twitter, Facebook, and company Blogs fall into the definition of social media.

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These handy social networking tools can help draw attention to your business, attract new customers and turn current customers into die-hard fans.

Social networking is an effective tool to find new customers and build stronger relationships with your current customers. In today’s digital age, it’s important to use social

interaction to reinforce your branding messaging.

Track Your Performance

Measuring the impact of your social media is important too. You can either reach out to an external audience with the help of a third party vendor such as The Nielsen Company, or track brand awareness on social media sites with a service like Sensidea.

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Put all of tracking records into one spreadsheet and see whether your branding efforts enhance your business goals. .

A Word Of Caution

Just a word of caution, branding is a long-term effort and measurable results cannot be always be seen immediately. You need to focus certain aspects of the brand and deliver consistent messaging based upon them. Stick to your branding strategy and you will benefit enormously when the economy turns around. Now stop all of this talk about cut-backs, and go out there and brand smarter!

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Posted in Branding | 15 Comments »