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http://OurTextMessage.comOne-fifth of small businesses "could not survive" without mobileMobile and wireless technologies such as smartphones, Wi-Fi hotspots and laptop data cards are becoming more important for small-business owners, according to the "Small Business Technology Poll" from AT&T. More than one-fifth of respondents said they could not be in business at all without wireless technologies, and a further 43% claimed it would be a major challenge. That makes mobile and wireless critical for about two-thirds of small businesses. This reflects the increase in use of mobile and wireless tech among small businesses over the past two years. AT&T found that while one-quarter of respondents reported the same usage as in 2007, 74% of small businesses relied on wireless at least somewhat more. That dependence is set to increase, according to small-business owners' plans for the next two years. Nearly three-quarters of respondents plan to up their use of mobile and wireless technologies, including 37% who say they will use the services "much more." Small businesses' top uses of laptop data cards and Wi-Fi hotspots were for checking e-mail (done by more than eight in 10 respondents) and surfing the Web (57%) on the go. Smartphones were used slightly less for those purposes but were of course vital as mobile phones (91%). "Wireless technology is a critical business tool that allows mobile workers to stay in touch with colleagues and customers, and to access company data on the move," said Timothy Doherty, associate research analyst for SMB Mobility, IDC, in a statement. "Reliance on wireless technology will only increase, as growing adoption of mobile business applications among small businesses drives the need for fast, reliable connectivity." Contact Us Today and start A Mobile Campaign For Less Than 29.00 per Month http://OurTextMessage.com
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1. Location is dead. We have now fully entered into the Interaction Economy.
2. It does not pay to engage in 'pissing contests' on business review sites or in forums.
3. When used properly, a small video camera like a Flip and a standard digital camera (or just an iPhone), can be like having your own marketing department.
4. Instead of trying to be everywhere in the social media space, determine what online activities work best for your business and focus your attention there.
5. Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is important but it needs to be combined with a well distributed plan for Search Engine Visibility (SEV).
6. Conceptualizing and then defining your social media goals can help to keep you on track.
7. Social networking sites can be a tremendous time suck. Use a site like Egg Timer to help limit the time you spend interacting online.
8. Get to know the online influencers in your small business niche, as well as, the social media pros.
9. There is gold to be mined with Twitter Search if you are willing to use it to listen, engage, and provide value.
10. Uploading well titled and tagged videos to YouTube and photos to FLICKR can drastically improve your Search Engine Visibility.
11. Consistent small business blogging pays the greatest returns.
12. Technology changes daily. Read often.
13. You should not fear customer review social sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. Rather, you should embrace them.
14. Helping people online when they least expect it can bring you great rewards.
15. Even on your worst day, you have to remember that every interaction counts.
16. Spamming and jamming your business down the throats of potential customers only drives business away.
17. Not everyone is going to like you, so be prepared to get flamed and read negative reviews.
18. Turn negative reviews into a positive by using them to help better define who your ideal customer is.
19. Your backstory matters and weaving it into your online business persona is important.
20. Social media is a lot like exercise. Doing a little bit consistently everyday will produce better results than one eight hour marathon session per month.
21. The people who criticize you the most for using social media to promote your small business are the one's who are most afraid of embracing change.
22. One of the easiest ways for small business owners to measure social media ROI is to ask every customer how they heard about your business.
23. When starting your social media marketing efforts for your small business you will get frustrated. Try to keep a long term outlook like six months to a year.
24. Don't discount the power of niche forums that are related to your small business.
25. Use Google Alerts to see who's talking specifically about your business and anything related to your business.
26. If you are using social media as a customer service tool, when something goes wrong (and it always does!), being sincere, humble, and apologetic will be greatly appreciated by your future potential customers.
27. Utilizing free email lists like Help A Reporter Out (HARO) can help you find valuable public relations and news opportunities for your business.
28. Social media in the short term does not work. You must be in it for the long term and be persistent, consistent, and committed.
29. Anyone who owns a small business can 'do' social media, but NOT everyone 'does' it. (And that is your true competitive advantage.) 30. If you have a spare hour or two everyday to aimlessly surf the net, or sit and watch T.V., then you have more than enough time to commit to using social media for your small business.
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Microsoft announced that the company would officially launch Facebook (and other social networks) into their Outlook product. Following the previous week’s announcement about Google Buzz, and rumors that Facebook would be launching their own email product, we found out details about Outlook’s new integration. The service will let you “view friends’ activities, photos, and status updates within Outlook—as well as grow your network by adding friends from the same view”.
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Microsoft announced that the company would officially launch Facebook (and other social networks) into their Outlook product. Following the previous week’s announcement about Google Buzz, and rumors that Facebook would be launching their own email product, we found out details about Outlook’s new integration. The service will let you “view friends’ activities, photos, and status updates within Outlook—as well as grow your network by adding friends from the same view”.
Yahoo for years was the world’s most popular website — its ubiquitous portal has dominated the web since the 90s. Two years ago however, Google vaulted past Yahoo and became the Internet’s most popular destination. Last month, it became Facebook’s turn to knock Yahoo down another peg.
In December 2009, Yahoo garnered 133.45 million visitors in the U.S. Facebook wasn’t far behind with 132.13 million uniques. In the first month of 2010 though, there was a role reversal: Facebook’s traffic rose to 133.62 million visitors, while Yahoo shrunk down to 132.00 million.
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In the few short years that social media has been a marketing vehicle, it has already had an enormous effect on the way companies do business. In the coming years there will be even more changes, as social media marketing extends from the marketing department to nearly every aspect of a company’s business.
In the Insight Brief “The Future of Social Media Marketing,” eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho
“Advertising—which
Instead, the strongest business models in the future will incorporate analytics, as social media becomes truly integrated into all marketing efforts. In addition, TV will become more social, as will search.
Location will become more important to social media, and brand monitoring will increase in sophistication so that companies can begin to understand the “why” of consumer chatter as well as the who, what and when.
What will not change is the source of social media transformation today: the users.
“The voice of the consumer is only going to get louder and stronger,” said Ms. Williamson. “It will shape what social media is and what it will become. Not too long ago, a company might have made major changes to its products or services based on a few focus groups, some financial planning and a degree of gut instinct. Social media has already changed all that. And more changes will come.”
Sourcs: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007513
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The company’s Mountain Dew division is several stages into its DEWmocracy campaign — a plan to launch a new Mountain Dew flavor with the public’s involvement at all levels of the process, and PepsiCo also just launched the Pepsi Refresh Project on January 13th. Rather than spending money on Super Bowl television ads this year, the company is spending $20 million on a social media campaign.
Jay Baer, founder of the social media strategy company Convince & Convert, said brands are realizing they need to market for the long haul. “I do think it’s a good move for Pepsi. I don’t know if every brand can pull it off,” he said.
The Pepsi Refresh Project and the DEWmocracy campaigns are part of a crowdsourcing effort that’s part of the larger PepsiCo plan to more closely integrate consumers with the brand. “Driving consumer interest and engagement takes imagination and often a certain amount of reinvention, so it’s fair to say we’re rethinking everything we do from product development to marketing campaigns across our entire portfolio,” said Bart Casabona, a Mountain Dew spokesman.
The first DEWmocracy campaign launched in 2007. This inaugural DEWmocracy effort let consumers choose Dew’s new flavor, color, name and graphics, and resulted in more than 470,000 people voting and an overall 1 million people taking part in some phase of the process, according to the company’s DEWmocracy media site. The winning new flavor, Voltage, hit store shelves in January 2009.
Brett O’Brien, Mountain Dew’s marketing director, said that for the first campaign a site was built for people to interact with, which made sense at that time.
Fast forward to July 2009, when the second DEWmocracy campaign launched. The multi-stage effort tasks die-hard Mountain Dew fans to narrow seven sodas down to one final new flavor that will become a permanent part of the Mountain Dew family, using social media platforms 12seconds.tv, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in the process.
O’Brien said that with the explosion of social networking, they felt it was best to interact with people where they are.
The second iteration of the Mountain Dew campaign is fueled by the 4,000-strong DEW Labs crew, an online community of die-hard fans. The DEW Labs are divided up into three Flavor Nations for the three Mountain Dew soda finalists: Typhoon, WhiteOut and Distortion. Once the three flavors debut in April, the Flavor Nations must talk up their flavor and get people to vote for it to become the permanent new Mountain Dew soda. That one winning new permanent soda flavor will debut on Labor Day, according to the company’s DEWmocracy media site.
O’Brien said the several stages involved are really part of the normal product innovation process. He said if they were going to be totally transparent the whole time in launching a new Mountain Dew flavor, they needed their customers to be there the whole time.
Every part of the campaign involves the fans and the public — from picking flavor names, to voting on the best user-submitted ad campaign.
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Stats published by Nielsen show that social media usage has increased by 82% in the last year, an astronomical rise. Facebook (), Twitter (), YouTube, blogs, and
We’re social creatures, so it was only
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Most of us have heard some version of "Social Media/Twitter is like a Cocktail Party" and while this is hardly a new meme, a party is not a party is not a party and social media is not community – even though it may share many of the same characteristics. To me it is like saying a cocktail party is not a dinner party – most people would agree. I like both as an individual but one represents my circle of acquaintances and the other represents people with whom I have more intimate relationships. For business, that is very similar to a marketing funnel – and depending on what type of business you are in, one may be more important than the other. In particular, if you are marketing to businesses rather than individuals, the deeper relationships engendered by "dinner parties" are critical to your marketing efforts. There are a few characteristics of a good dinner party that make it special and different:
Done well, the host of a dinner party makes their guests feel welcome, comfortable, interesting, and desirable. It is a pretty good 'tool' for establishing closer relationships with people and making them want to stay friends with you. What can businesses learn? Sure, throw a lot of cocktail parties (i.e. use social media tools), you have to get your name out and chat with the crowd… but make sure you also throw some fabulous dinner parties – or get invited to them – because those are the events that allow you to have a richer conversation. Niche communities are where people will trust each other, participate in deeper conversations about their needs, and really get to know you. Setting up a community to serve the same purpose as a dinner party requires:
You can throw the dinner party, which may cost more but you get to decide who gets invited, or you can work on being a sought-after guest – someone that helps hosts provide good content and/or energy. But beware: It is all to easy to provide an appealing location, invite people over and assume they will form a tight knit community. But think about throwing a dinner party, having people come over and then spending the evening in another room – maybe yelling out to them every once in a while. Awkward, no? People would chit chat a little but the conversation would be stilted because there they are, sitting in your living room… waiting for you and the food, eventually leaving in disappointment and annoyance. Communities are a phenomenal way of developing relationships with prospects and customers… but don't think they will effortlessly develop. Want to understand them a little better? Go home and plan a dinner party. About Rachel Rachel Happe (@rhappe) is a Co-Founder and Principal at The CommunityRoundtable and has over fifteen years of experience working with emerging technologies including enterprise social networking, ecommerce, and Bitpass, & IDe. In addition, as a technology analyst, Rachel initiated IDC's enterprise social software practice where she wrote groundbreaking research including The Power and Passion of Organic Communities: How Technology Can Be Used to Increase Discovery, Engagement, and Productivity; The Social Enterprise: How Social Networking Changes Everything; and U.S. Social Networking Application 2008-2012 Forecast: Enterprise Social Networking Takes Hold. Rachel started her business career at PRTM as a Business Analyst focused on helping technology companies understand and improve their product development operations. She writes at The Social Organization. |
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