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Tag: social media marketing

  • NASMM (Senior Movers) Conference Las Vegas 2010 – Presentations

    Below are the slides from my presentations to the National Association of Senior Move Managers last weekend.

    This is my second year talking to the Senior Movers and they’re a great, very appreciative crowd. This year, I spent about 3 hours after the presentation doing review / recommendation sessions with attendees and it was FANTASTIC!

    Because these files are so big I decided to post them here. They’re referenced from Google Docs, which I like better than SlideShare given SlideShare shows other, competitive stuff next to your slides.

    NASMM-Website Promotion Basics

    Social Media – What’s in it for YOU?

    I’ll update with more detail later.

    I’d love feedback on these presentations and if you attended NASMM Las Vegas 2010, I’d love to hear your impressions.

  • Facebook Advertising Delivers Low Cost Per Lead

    In the middle of August we started testing Facebook Advertising for one of our plastic surgeon clients.  The surgeon wanted to reach potential tummy tuck and breast augmentation patients.  We selected a number of stock images and loaded the ads.  However, Facebook rejected all of our ads (The Downsides) because they did not follow the Facebook advertising guidelines.

    Facebook Advertising Rejection

    Facebook Advertising Early Lessons

    This was a shock to me, the surgeon and the 5 other people who saw the Facebook advertising mockups, because we thought we used:

    • relevant and appropriate images and language
    • correct grammar
    • spelling and punctuation
    • proper sentence structure
    • and targeted the ads appropriately

    After trying many Facebook ad combinations, I realized Facebook was rejecting the images, so we decided to try the practices’ logo instead.

    Facebook Advertising Effectiveness

    Is facebook advertising effective?  I had run an unsuccessful Facebook advertising campaign in early 2008 that turned out to be a waste of money!

    So, I wasn’t very optimistic going into the campaign. We decided to start out by testing $150 in August.  After several days of looking at the impressions, click through rate and cost, I was still discouraged.  However, when I logged into Google Analytics, I noticed that Facebook was referring a decent percentage of the sites visitors and these visitors were completing contact forms at a very high rate.  At the end of August, I calculated that of the almost  $150 spent in August on Facebook Ads, there were 11 completed forms, which is about a $13.63 cost per lead.

    Facebook Advertising ROI

    WOW! A $14 cost per lead for plastic surgery is amazing! So, for September we decided to increase the budget to $200.   Again, I noticed a lot of activity in September and, as of Sept 30th, Facebook advertising had referred 17 completed forms for a total cost per lead of  $11.76.

    Low cost per lead means more money in your pocket

    Overall, $350 was spent on Facebook ads and 28 contact forms were completed during August and September, averaging a total of  $12.50 cost per lead.

    I am pleasantly surprised at how well it all worked, and I am very excited to explore more Facebook advertising opportunities in the future!

    —

    Related Posts:


  • Twitter: Fad or Essential Business Communication Tool?

    From those who claim that Twitter is just a fad, to internet experts who believe that the impact of Twitter is being felt in ways never imagined, the news is abuzz with reports of this social media website.

    Love it or hate it, Twitter is here to stay, with its user numbers having grown at the rate of 752 percent in 2008 alone. Facebook is still the #1 networking site in terms of numbers and user loyalty and not all businesses might need to get into the social networking sphere.

    Social Media One Hit Wonder?
    Social Media One Hit Wonder?

    But a social media presence is no longer considered ‘optional’ for businesses with an online audience. Here are some of the ways in which Twitter is changing the marketplace.

    • Source of Breaking NewsIn the recent past, Twitter has proven it’s mettle as a source of breaking news, especially with the death of Michael Jackson, and continues to be a leading source of real-time news stories.
    • New Exclusive ContentAs a WebProNews story noted, Twitter features new content, created on the fly and accessed in real time. More importantly, this content is exclusive to Twitter and not available through search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo.
    • Sales Booster While Twitter has helped Dell rake in the sales, New Orleans-based Naked Pizza, has seen a sustained 20 percent of sales dollars from its Twitter presence. It is primarily using Twitter to market to an area with a 3 mile radius and has now replaced its “call for delivery” billboard in favor of one displaying its Twitter handle.

    As the article on Twitterrati notes, for any company that deals with consumers, Twitter is must-use tool simply because it’s another way to communicate with existing and prospective customers.

    Image courtesy of: keiyac

  • Twitter: Fad or Essential Business Communication Tool?

  • LinkedIn Company Profile Tutorial from Dream Systems Media

    Our colleauge Mat Siltala of Dream Systems Media (Mat was Social before Social was cool) has a nice video tutorial with some great screen shots on how to set up your LinkedIn Company Profile .

    Among the benefits are:

    • One more positive reference for your brand (reputation management)
    • Ability to show your depth with automatic pickup of employees
    • Rich text opportunities

    Mat put together a nice video and has many more screen shots of building the LinkedIn business page on the DSM internet marketing blog. Definitely worth a quick review.

    Here’s the video:

  • Now Post Reviews Directly to Facebook and Twitter

    For online businesses that depend on customer reviews to improve visibility in local search, social media engagement has become even more relevant with companies like Yelp giving reviewers the option to seamlessly broadcast their Yelp reviews to Facebook and Twitter.

    According to the official Yelp blog, any photos that reviewers upload to Yelp.com will also be included when sharing reviews for that business via Facebook Connect. Users also have control over which reviews they want shared and which ones they don’t.

    So if your local search visibility matters, let your customers know how they can share their feedback of your business with all their Twitter and Facebook friends with a one-time signup at Yelp and watch your rankings rise.

  • Score More Brownie Points with Your Facebook Page

    Facebook far exceeds the other major social networking sites in popularity and value, because it has the most loyal users, states a new social media study by Anderson Analytics. According to the news report, Facebook members were the most loyal among regular users of the four major social networking service (SNS) destinations – Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn being the other three.

    Staying Connected
    Staying Connected

    Facebook is used by many people to share photos, post updates and keep in touch with family and friends, especially by the older population. The site launched Fan Pages in November 2007 to give brands and celebrities an official presence on Facebook.

    Many companies and celebrities use Facebook to create profiles or share widgets for brand-building and promotion. Fan pages of celebrities like Barack Obama and brands like Coca-Cola and Nutella now attract millions.

    Facebook is also helping brands and celebrities promote their pages by introducing features and widgets like the “Facebook Fan Box,” that can be embedded into web sites allowing businesses and celebs to better interact with their fans.

    Social media experts recommend fan pages as a cost-effective way to engage with raving fans of your business. But to work well, they should ideally be setup professionally, kept interesting, and updated regularly with useful content and promotions that keep users coming back for more.

    Social media experts like Mari Smith and Dan Schwabel recommend that businesses can earn more brownie points and attract more fans to their Facebook page by

    •    Being authentic and engaging
    •    Offering fresh and exclusive content
    •    Getting a vanity URL
    •    Controlling your page
    •    Holding contests and promotions
    •    Engaging with fans
    •    Promoting your causes
    •    Buying social ads

    Image courtesy of:  rebuildlakeshore.com

  • Facebook Marketing – Sneaky, Subversive, Effective!

    The tactics of Local Facebook Marketing just got a whole lot easier to understand. Sarah Smith gave up the goods in her presentation at the Local Search Summit. It turns out there are some very subversive ways to use current Facebook technologies. Marketing on Facebook just got a lot easier. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="265" caption="Local Search Summit 09"]Local Search Summit 09[/caption] Don Campbell gives a great overview of the ideas presented in our "Using Facebook and Twitter to Drive Local Leads" session. And, I'm looking forward to Aaron Irizarry posting the rest of the video... ... But in the mean time, I'm going to share some ideas based on the Facebook marketing presented by Sarah Smith. I'm so excited by these ideas that we're going to be implementing some of them THIS WEEK with clients. But look, I'm even more excited by what YOU are going to do with them. Please comment and let us know what you think the opportunities are. Ok, ok - so the list:
    • Kinda mundane but still very helpful: Sarah indicates there is now radius based targeting for ads (e.g.: 15 miles around city X)
    • Real-time Search with greater search granularity.
    • Target just your fans or people coming to an event with Facebook Ads (this is definitely cool, and I can see some good applications but not mind-blowing).
    • Birthday Targeting! Holy cow! This is huge. I have a whole program already laid out for this one.
    • 1 to 1 communication with Event attendees/maybes. The pain point here is less obvious - you'll get it when I 'splain it.

    Killer Facebook Marketing Opportunities:

    Birthday Targeting:

    [caption id="" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Happy Birthday to You!"]Facebook Marketing - Happy Birthday to You! Cake Picture[/caption] So, Birthday Targeting - my goodness, how subversive can you get?! Imagine yourself cruising along in Facebook and Blammo
    "happy birthday Bob, click here to register for your birthday gift - good all month".
    Notice, we plan to message "good all month" (or "all week", or "for the next 10 days"). There is still a serious call to action but clearly it's an obtainable goal. The challenge of the Birthday message in Facebook marketing is that if you make it a "today only" deal you may miss those who sign in after work hours or who are otherwise unable to commit today. Maybe they've got a party to go to :D. You can see how this would be a killer tactic for a local business. Let's say you have a non-impulse product. You could make an offer of a $25.00 commodity gift card (Wal-mart, The Gap) or $100.00 gift certificate for your service. Even if you're not perfectly targeted you have the opportunity to start a dialog with a local buyer who knows someone who is.

    Event Focused Permission Marketing:

    Facebook event invitations are becoming much more prevalent. And, it turns out given this new feature, they're a sneaky marketing opportunity. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Ant Party"]Ant Party[/caption] One of the problems we've had with "Fan Pages" vs. Facebook Groups is that there is no way to push communication to your fans. You can post something which will show up in their feed but  you can't get into their inbox without a more personal connection. So, Sarah says that all you've got to do is get someone to respond "Yes" to your invitation (or "Maybe", I think - hopefully Sarah will clarify) and you can then message them up until the event. But wait, there's more: You, the group owner don't necessarily have to initiate the "Event" invitation. Meaning that you can easily convert the Fan to a Friend with much less restriction on continued messaging. I'm not going to tell you how we're going to put this one into use 😉 but I'll tell you once we're done. --- As you can see, these two opportunities, "Birthday Ads" and "Event Focused Permission Marketing", enable much greater attention getting behavior on Facebook. Marketing through these channels can get you past the banner blindness of the usual ads and may even get you into the Inbox. With the rate of adoption of Facebook and Twitter we'll take any opportunity, the more sneaky and subversive the better, to build community and then hopefully move that community offline to buy something. We'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on how to best leverage these new Facebook marketing opportunities and any of the others Sarah detailed at Local Search Summit. --- Related Posts: Image Credits:

  • Twitter for Local Business

    This is the slide deck from my presentation at Local Search Summit “Using Facebook & Twitter to Drive Local Leads” this afternoon.

    We had a great crowd and I enjoyed the heck out of putting this slide show together. I was trying to position some real tactics in using Twitter for local business.

    I’m hopeful that it was tactical versus theoretical and I look forward to your feedback.

    Twitter for Local Business

    View more presentations from Will Scott.

    Please, please, please ask questions and let me know what more you’d like to know.

  • Use Twitter for Business? Tell Us About It

    UPDATE: At the suggestion of Terri Troncale I want to invite submissions for non-profits as well. Please, please – fans, recommend your favorites! I’m really happy to have the businesses self-submit but I want to get rid of these iTunes cards 😀

    Also, my original limitation on location was because of driving distance to http://socialsouth.org. Please submit anyone, anywhere using Social Media to drive sales, membership, contributions, or any trackable outcome.

    —

    Twitter Bird - Tweet, Tweet, Tweet
    Twitter Bird - Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

    Let’s get one thing straight right here: I’m not above buying your love. (Just ask David)

    I’m going to be taking part in a couple presentations at Social South in a few weeks and in preparation I’ve been asking: who’s doing it?

    The “who” I’m talking about: Small businesses in the Southeast United States (hopefully within a day’s drive of B-Ham (that’s Birmingham Alabama, you dig) and non-profits?

    The “it” is – using Social Media to promote their business or organization.

    So in other words, do you know a small business or non-profit in your area who is trying to use Twitter for business (or Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Orkut, or YouTube, or Blogging)?

    Now, a couple caveats:

    • I would prefer local businesses/non-profits: plumbers, lawn guys, doctors, spas, hair salons and organizations trying to promote local causes
    • I may feature home-based businesses but I’d rather they have a product sales or membership action component

    Cash Register goes Cha Ching
    Cash Register goes Cha Ching

    What’s in it for the small businesses? First, I will do an email interview and a follow-up phone call which will be featured as a blog post on the Search Influence blog. Those which represent the best case studies will also be featured on Local Search News (and may appear on Search Engine Land).

    And, I will do a half-hour interview follow-up in which I’ll make recommendations and offer ideas for other promotional opportunities. And hopefully we’ll all learn better how to use Twitter for business (and other social platforms).

    And, finally, a select few will get an opportunity to join me on-stage at Social South to talk about their experiences.

    What’s in it for you? (I know, I know, it’s all about you) I’ve got a stack of $10.00 iTunes cards burning a hole in my pocket, y’hear. I will give a $10.00 iTunes cards to 10 randomly selected participants – in other words, comment below including a link to the business in question and their Twitter account page (e.g. Nancy’s Corner, New Orleans Gift Baskets, Nancy’s Corner on Twitter).

    [Ginsu Style] But wait, there’s more – 1 lucky entry will win a $150.00 gift card / certificate to the business of their choice from the entrants listed (small print – I need a minimum of 20 entries to execute on the $150.00).

    So, please, let me buy your love – help me find participants for this great panel at Social South, I’ll help you get a little more enjoyment out of life with the gift of music and we’ll both help a local business get a little more exposure online and learn about how to use Twitter for business.

    All you have to do to enter is comment below with a link to the business (home page or online profile page is fine) and a link to their Twitter, Facebook, or other social media profile.

    Oh, and you should definitely Tweet about it – here’s a good example: RT @w2scott: Know a small biz or non-profit using Social Media? Promote ’em 2 win great prizes – details: http://bit.ly/vQqTA Please RT

    Don’t want to copy and paste, if you’re logged in to twitter just click here to automagically retweet (may not work while Twitter is having issues).

    Look, this is serious, I’m trying to help others understand how to use Twitter for business (and Facebook and LinkedIn and the others) and you can help a local small business get a little further down the road with this internet stuff. And, like I said, I am willing to buy your love.

    Thanks in advance for your help!