by Jessica Northey
If tradition holds, even in this economy, retailers whether brick and mortar or cyber, will see their business hit black today for the first time in 2009. Forecasters are calculating how much they think we'll spend on Black Friday-the day after Thanksgiving AND Cyber Monday-the Monday following the holiday weekend. These days kick off Christmas shopping season and are a strong indication of what to expect. Consumer spending makes up more than two-thirds of all economic activity in America. And this year there is a lot riding! Retailers such as JCPenney, Macys, Gap and Sears, have boosted not only their traditional promotional advertising efforts but are using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Stores are offering freebies and slashing prices and using social media to promote their deals.
What I am noticing is the clever way brands are using various Social Media Platforms to gain momentum as we enter the season of giving. These advertisements that work don’t sound like they are selling you something but appear as solutions: “Avoid Traffic-shop online at____”, “Hate Crowds try shopping online at___.”
If you’re an online marketer, hopefully you have already kicked off your holiday-shopping promotions. Black Friday has been a trending topic on Twitter for days now. The deals out there are AMAZING. You can twice what you could get last year, for half as much! However, if you are reading this and thinking, “I missed the opportunity already,” it’s ok….We can fix that! What you want to do is re-group quickly. Set up a meeting(or if you are a one-person shop) sit down and think about the following:
Set Manageable Goals(here are a few samples)
-Brand Awareness
-Reputation Management
-Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Rankings
-Relevant Website Visitor Traffic
-Improve Sales for a Product or Service
Determine Social Media Strategy
-What’s your unique selling point?
-What type of Campaign is this?(Awareness, Sales,Loyalty)
-What does your audience know about you today?(Nothing, Aware,Acted,Repeat,Advocates)
-Understand how your target audience uses social media.(Consumer, Creator, Critic, Collecter, Joiner, Spectators, Inactive)
-How will you humanize your brand?(Social Media is person to person not logo to people)
-How Will You Measure ROI?
Remember the Fundamentals
-Good picture
-Interesting bio
-Great background
-Include website or blog url address
-Make sure your accounts are not protected so people can easily see your information
-Content is King!
Set Manageable Goals(here are a few samples)
-Brand Awareness
-Reputation Management
-Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Rankings
-Relevant Website Visitor Traffic
-Improve Sales for a Product or Service
Determine Social Media Strategy
-What’s your unique selling point?
-What type of Campaign is this?(Awareness, Sales,Loyalty)
-What does your audience know about you today?(Nothing, Aware,Acted,Repeat,Advocates)
-Understand how your target audience uses social media.(Consumer, Creator, Critic, Collecter, Joiner, Spectators, Inactive)
-How will you humanize your brand?(Social Media is person to person not logo to people)
-How Will You Measure ROI?
Remember the Fundamentals
-Good picture
-Interesting bio
-Great background
-Include website or blog url address
-Make sure your accounts are not protected so people can easily see your information
-Content is King!
Target Followers
-Sign up for the Twitter Directories http://wefollow.com/ and http://www.twellow.com/
These are both free and a great way for SEO and indexing as well as other Twitterers looking for you or your service.
-http://search.twitter.com/ You can search to find people that you have things in common with, this is where you will also follow the people who are following them. You can use the advanced feature to locate people of like interest, find out what people are saying about you, your brand, your industry etc.
-Sign up for the Twitter Directories http://wefollow.com/ and http://www.twellow.com/
These are both free and a great way for SEO and indexing as well as other Twitterers looking for you or your service.
-http://search.twitter.com/ You can search to find people that you have things in common with, this is where you will also follow the people who are following them. You can use the advanced feature to locate people of like interest, find out what people are saying about you, your brand, your industry etc.
Maintenance
-Follow/Unfollow http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/
-Blog
-Answer ALL @replies
-Retweet, Re-Tweet and Re-Tweet Again!
-Download Tweetdeck to easily organize your Twitter, Facebook and Myspace Accounts
Promotion
-Promote all your Social Media Networks on your website and vice versa. Ideally you can use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Bebo and drive traffic to your website or blog and vice-versa.
-Promote your Social Media platform participation in everything you do: Business cards, letterhead, vehicle wrap, Broadcast and Print Media.
-Consistently talk about it when you are out in public. You can even download Social Media Mobile Applications like Twitter or Facebook in to your phone and add people while standing in front of them. Use it as a conversation ice breaker, simply ask, “Do you Twitter?” If they do add, and follow them. If they don’t, this is a great opportunity to share what you do and how they can take advantage of your business or service if they did, i.e. coupons, advice, product information, etc.
Social Media gives you FREE access to promote you/your business. With a little effort you can achieve respectable reach and unprecedented frequency promoting you and your business.
Jessica is the Social Media Editor for Full Throttle Country-Country Radio's newest full-service and free interactive idea sharing and new media on-line service. She has over 19 years experience including Radio, Television, Internet and Print Sales as well as an On-Air Radio personality. She is an Entrepreneur who owns MediaJess.com servicing all website needs including domain names, hosting, SSL Certificates etc. She specializes in big ideas and is known for the ability to create complete marketing campaigns and bridge marketing partnerships. Her company Finger Candy provides social and new media optimization planning for businesses, brands and individuals.
You can also read her blog, “Observations from the Peanut Gallery” at http://www.imwithjessica.com/
-Promote all your Social Media Networks on your website and vice versa. Ideally you can use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Bebo and drive traffic to your website or blog and vice-versa.
-Promote your Social Media platform participation in everything you do: Business cards, letterhead, vehicle wrap, Broadcast and Print Media.
-Consistently talk about it when you are out in public. You can even download Social Media Mobile Applications like Twitter or Facebook in to your phone and add people while standing in front of them. Use it as a conversation ice breaker, simply ask, “Do you Twitter?” If they do add, and follow them. If they don’t, this is a great opportunity to share what you do and how they can take advantage of your business or service if they did, i.e. coupons, advice, product information, etc.
Social Media gives you FREE access to promote you/your business. With a little effort you can achieve respectable reach and unprecedented frequency promoting you and your business.
Jessica is the Social Media Editor for Full Throttle Country-Country Radio's newest full-service and free interactive idea sharing and new media on-line service. She has over 19 years experience including Radio, Television, Internet and Print Sales as well as an On-Air Radio personality. She is an Entrepreneur who owns MediaJess.com servicing all website needs including domain names, hosting, SSL Certificates etc. She specializes in big ideas and is known for the ability to create complete marketing campaigns and bridge marketing partnerships. Her company Finger Candy provides social and new media optimization planning for businesses, brands and individuals.
You can also read her blog, “Observations from the Peanut Gallery” at http://www.imwithjessica.com/
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