Volume 98: January 25, 2012
California
May 14 - 18, 2012
July 16 - 20, 2012
September 10 - 14, 2012
December 3 - 7, 2012
Sydney, Australia
1-Day Training
February 29, 2012
July 31, 2012
September 4, 2012
November 6, 2012
Milan, Italy
Conference Training
San Jose February 27, 2012
Toronto April 24, 2012
Seattle June 7, 2012
New York October 5, 2012
New York March 23, 2012
Toronto June 13, 2012
San Francisco August 17, 2012
Chicago TBD, 2012
Social Media Marketing
Social media has changed the business world. Suddenly, marketing a business isn't just about talking to people, it's about talking with people. The one-sided sales pitch is now a multi-directional community conversation. The power to control the brand message has largely been removed from a business' hands.
Social media marketing, or SMM, is all about engagement. It's a business's opportunity to connect with clients and build a long-term customer relationship built on communication and trust. Today, the customer-business power relationship is skewed toward the customer, with every individual able to publicly voice concerns and garner media attention, as every person is now a media publisher.
As a result, businesses must do their best to keep the conversation positive through their participation. A business can't quell all public displays of dissatisfaction; however, by following SMM strategies, a business can promote a message that speaks to its customer service successes through attentive awareness and genuine dedication to serving customers' needs.
This is why SMM is a powerful and necessary tool for all brands today. Education and services provided by SMM professionals can help a business improve their presence and develop a positive reputation online.
Making Social Media Work for Your Business
A business that is not interacting with clients through social media may be hurting their brand in several ways: the risk of fading away from their customer base's top-of-mind recall; missed opportunities to reach new clients; and falling out of public favor by missing important conversations taking place online. So what's a business to do?
With the help of qualified SMM experts, a company can optimise their social media presence. Social media marketing is executed through many platforms, with a few of the popular platforms being a blog, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and YouTube.
However, before a business engages in any particular platform, research must be put into locating the places where the intended audience is active online, and creating a social media strategy to reach them in relevant spaces. SMM services begin with research to identify those social media platforms where participation will produce the greatest pay off.
Developing a Social Media Strategy
An SMM company must tailor SMM strategies to the needs of the individual business. Take a local bakery, for example. A bakery may do well to optimise their presence in Yelp and invite customers to review their cakes and pastries on the social review network. The bakery may also find value in Twitter by tweeting a word of the day that will get the first 10 customers a free cupcake if they come to the shop and say the "magic" word.
In this SMM strategy, Yelp is used as the platform for building up reviews that reflect the brand as an established business with reliable products and services. Yelp has the added benefit for the business because it's a trusted signal for the local map service of Google, the most popular search engine. Meanwhile, Twitter is used to entice people to visit the shop via rewards. Furthermore, Twitter is a conversation driver, encouraging people to become friendly with the brand's representatives and share worthy tweets with their connections.
Users of social media platforms use each differently, and the rules of engagement are largely defined by the users themselves. This is why SMM professionals understand that SMM services are not one-size-fits-all. SMM experts at Bruce Clay, Inc. help you navigate a community's expectations and the value of brand presence as you decide how to devote resources to social media platforms. A strategic SMM company can help you develop and execute social media policy and practices that aid in community outreach, reputation management and brand loyalty for your business.