Ideas to improve the effectiveness of marketing using social media marketing platforms
Social media marketing is important; enough has been said on the matter. On the surface, many facets of social media marketing through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ seem simple. But effective marketing goes deeper than that. Executing this marketing is a more nuanced affair. It isn't simply a matter of "doing it," there has to be a clear goal in mind, with an overarching ethos and objectives that align with that.
It’s not always a matter of avoiding doing it “the wrong way.” Doing the “right thing” the wrong way can be just as worthless, so let’s let's look at some common misconceptions about how to go about marketing on social media.
1. Myth: update constantly
A social channel with nothing on it is a dead one, and nobody will want…
Social media campaign tools can save you from developing and maintaining bespoke social apps
Popular social media management tools such as HootSuite are great for posting simple social media updates, interacting with your followers and tracking responses. But their capabilities can be lacking when you want to use more interactive tools like surveys or contests to engage your audience on Facebook and other social networks.
I've recently written a report for Smart Insights members where I compare social media campaign and community-building tools which reviews the options in detail. In this post I give a flavour of what some of these tools offer. In the guide we review the alternatives and give examples of campaigns created with each tool to inspire campaigns.
The benefits of using social media campaign management tools
The main purpose of the tools featured is to help marketers and agencies go beyond basic status updates to launch promotions…
14th November 2012: Pinterest launches business pages
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Pinterest blog post about new business pages
Well it had to happen… Following Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter Business pages, Pinterest have now launched their own business accounts. For now the main benefit it will give you is a verified account, the layout of the boards is identical.
It’s a quick job to convert to a business page, here’s how.
What is the process for getting setup as a Business on Pinterest?
This is the order in which I upgraded our Pinterest page to a business account.
Step 1. Verify your site . To do this go the Account Settings page and choose “Verify”. You will then be able to download an HTML file which you upload to the root folder of your site and this then proves it is connected to your…
8 practices and examples that show how savvy companies are using Pinterest to engage and sell
Now it’s even easier to get started on Pinterest,. Previously you had to be invited to join, but now Pinterest have opened up membership to all and so “pinners” are likely to rise so now could be the time to get onboard and see what it’s all about and how it can work for you.
More and more businesses are signing up with varying levels of success. Both B2C and B2B are giving it a go, although not all businesses seem not to be using Pinterest to its full potential because their isn't a planned approach leading to sale. In this post I’ll look at examples of eight key practices to make Pinterest support online and offline sales.
Recommended…
HootSuite leading the way in the social media tools market even amongst large companies
Source: Royal Pingdom survey
Value: [rating=4]
Our Commentary
Recent data compiled and released by website monitoring business Pingdom looked at the top 100 brands in the world and which Social Media Management Tools (SMMT) they are using. While the survey reviewed Twitter, many of these tools support multiple social networks including Hootsuite, are service of choice at Smart Insights and First 10 (it support Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, but not yet Google+.
While a typical Twitter user would use the Twitter website or one of the Twitter owned applications to publish to their profiles, naturally businesses require a little more management. For example, they need multiple people to have access, the requirement to schedule & monitor results.
Most popular social media management tools & the companies that use them
HootSuite – 20 accounts (20.8%). Used by @hm, @tiffanyandco, @gap, @hp, @ebay, @porsche,…
The role of social gifting for retail Ecommerce
Social gifting allows users to send paid-for, discounted or free gift cards to their social network friends via mobile or desktop applications from gifting companies. Start-ups offering a social gifting options include:
Wrapp for Facebook (Europe and US)
DropGifts for Facebook (UK)
Cashstar (US)
Socialgift (an own site embedded solution for group gifting)
How does it work?
Each of the main providers have a slightly different approach with some focusing on individual gifting via social networks and others enabling a group of friends to contribute (ideal for leaving presents or shared family gifts).
Taking the example of Wrapp a Swedish startup now offering the service elsewhere in Europe and the US, retailers can use the service to help their customers remember their Facebook friends’ birthdays and prompting them to send a gift. Personalisation enables Wrapp to recommend suitable gifts based on account age,…
Lady Gaga’s Littlemonsters.com crowns her social media empire
Lady Gaga is renowned for her prolific following in Twitter (near 27m) and Facebook (52m Likes), Google+ (near 3m) - as well as Tumblr and recently her first pic on Instagram. Let’s not forget there’s also a plethora of fan sites and endless coverage in mainstream and niche media. If that weren’t enough “Mother Monster” (that’s what her fans call her) has opened her own social network fresh from private beta testing - you can see it here: Littlemonsters.com. We think it can help all marketers think differently about social media marketing...
What is it all about?
I’m not going to review the site in-depth (you can see stuff like that here), but suffice to say that it’s now the official community hub for the Gaga brand. Anyone with a…
ifttt : what is it and how can I use it as a marketer?
Short for "If This Then That", ifttt is an online service that allows easy management of social services. We've heard more marketers mentioning it recently, so thought it was worth sharing to see whether it could help you save time. Alternatively, we're interested to hear how you use? Do you have any other tips to share - these "recipes" are a good place to start if you want to see how it could help you. Here's a simple example:
You can see it's designed for people managing multiple social outposts (or channels as they call them) to manage at once and are looking for more efficient ways to maintain services.
It's a relatively new alternative for using other tools to automate social sharing. Dave Chaffey wrote…
Britain's online beauty brands find discounts, coupons and samples drive social media engagement - a quick insight to Mintel's latest social media research report
As we are well aware, British consumers are increasingly incorporating the Internet into their daily lives. The Internet has revolutionised the way that people communicate with one another and interact with brands. Social networking sites have facilitated a far greater reach for word of mouth marketing with 59% of Brits logging into their Facebook accounts and 13% signing into Twitter every day.
How are social media platforms used to inform purchases?
Mintel's latest social media research report (into the beauty and personal care market) reveals that Brits increasingly go online to research beauty products before purchase with sites such as Facebook and Twitter informing purchase decisions on beauty products for 34% of would-be buyers. Almost four in 10 Brits (37% - equating to 15 million consumers) have…
A case study of how a family-run business gets an edge by using the latest social media tools
I love this recent campaign pointed out to me by Pritesh Patel. It shows you don’t have to be a big business to run big campaigns in social media. You just need to think big!
McKay Flooring are a family business established for 40 years. I think they give a great example of how smaller businesses can be creative in using social media marketing to expand their reach.
What caught my interest was the way that they use some of the newer social media marketing platforms like Pinterest and Instagram for competitions. These are all promoted through their blog, which is also a great example of how a specialist blog can act as a social hub for campaigns, while also building the credibility of a company by using testimonials and linking to product categories…
