Social Media Marketing Checklist

Recently came upon an article in New York Times talking about how small businesses who have turned to marketing with social media tools such as Twitter are finding great success they would not have had otherwise.

In one case, a small ice cream shop noticed people we flocking into their store after reading their tweets for ice-cream flavor of the day! This is a great way of using Twitter to get your marketing message out into the real world and should make you think of how your business could use twitter in the same way.

If you need more ideas take a look at some big corporations using Twitter to get their like products promoted and answer customers’ questions: @starbucks & @delloutlet.

The NY Times also points out some great reasons why small businesses benefit from Twitter:

• Much easier to update than a websit
• Encourages word of mouth promotion by followers
• Creates a chain of communication with customers who try your products/services and also tweet about their experiences
• Builds long-lasting relationships with people globally
• Increase your knowledge with tips from your network

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A recent report by EquiMedia in the UK exposed that Twitter is in talks with search giants Google and Microsoft in deals for data-mining which could change the landscape of search marketing today.

The deal encompasses a license for a full Twitter feed integrated into the search engine results. This kind of real-time result feed could completely revolutionize the way people do business online.

Want to buy a new pair of Nike shoes? Search Google and also see what people are talking about real-time. This would greatly encourage businesses to have a comprehensive social media strategy to ensure online reputation management and focus on positively influencing their marketplace. Having this in place today will prepare you incredibly well for the future of search marketing.

So what leads to success in the social media landscape today?

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Compared to 2008 many industries are noting that email open rates have gone up this year. In fact, a recent report indicates that opening rates are currently 18% higher than the same quarter last year. So the question is why?

Some speculate that this is because businesses have figured out when to send out emails in a timely manner and to focus on relevance to what’s hot in their specific niche at the time.

Perhaps a different perspective could be that these same industries are also embracing social media and improving their communication highway with their customers and partners. After all, social media is an excellent way of understanding what is at the top of your customers minds. What are their most current needs and obstacles.

It’s time to be completely aware of the latest trends and even strategize to create trends just as the fashion industry is so smart in doing.

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Many businesses today are beginning to use Twitter to communicate with their customers and build their online presence. However, one thing many forgot to do is to develop an effective social media marketing plan to really utilize these social media tools effectively.

For instance are you including links back to your website/blog? Are you making sure your tweets are short enough so others can retweet them and have space to add their comments? Are you providing valuable tweets and information that would benefit your customers? These are all questions you want to ask when developing your twitter strategy.

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More and more people are spending their time online browsing and communicating on social networks. In fact, statistics shows that most people spend 18% of their time on the biggest social networks and blogs. With demographics spanning a variety of ages it is the reason many businesses are waking up and finally realizing that they need to have a presence on these sites.

With this in mind, the most surprising statistic if you compare August 2008 to 2009 is that online advertising increased by 119% from $49 million to $108 million. This is only going to increase exponentially in the following years as businesses are realizing that traditional forms of marketing such as print advertising, cold calling and radio/tv spots are becoming less and less effective. People just don’t spend as much time with these mediums, everything has moved online and you will get left behind if your business doesn’t make that shift as well.

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There is new research emerging every day which talks about the influence social media has on not only regular consumers but those who are at top of the decision-making processes of large companies. Although many businesses don’t understand how to use social media properly to benefit their bottom-line it is wise for them to hire outside consultants who spend 24/7 keeping on top of this ever-changing world of social networking.

Most business owners are realizing that the more traditional forms of marketing such as print are completely losing their effectiveness and making way for the web which is where more and more are spending their time. In fact, social networks have taken the web by storm and have overcome porn sites in the amount of time where people spend their time most.

The following article talks about research which Ad-ology has done shows that social media is influencing high income consumers more than any other group and this is very significant news that any business should perk up and pay attention to…

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When reviewing this new feature retweeting within Twitter make sure that you consider how this can be beneficial in getting you message across. By being able to see who has retweeted your messages you will get a better idea of the content that your followers are interested.

When others see these retweets, which they will be able to much easier in the new design, there is greater likelihood that they will share these retweets with their friends. In essence, this is great method to initiate viral word of mouth marketing. Couple this with a contest and you will have yourself a retweeting frenzy.

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In the following article Google has announced that it will open up Double Click advertising into their network of Adwords/Adsense. What this means for your business is that you will now have an incredible resource to test the effectiveness of graphic and multimedia banner advertising on a large network of sites. Up until now it has been mostly focused on textual banners served through Google’s content matching algorithms.

Of course, in the social media world this means that blogs participating in Google’s Adsense program will now have the opportunity to display relevant banner ads (not just text ads) next to the content. The question therein lies, are graphic banner ads more or less effective than text ads which have dominated the Google Adwords Platform?

Google’s Youtube video explaining how the system will benefit your business:

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Social Media Marketing Checklist is a brand new blog which focuses on using social media to generate leads for your business. The site will be updated very frequently with the latest news in social media and will feature a quick paragraph on how this news can be used to generate leads for you business.

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