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Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Marketing’

Focus on Engagement, Not Friends and Fans

A small business owner was complaining the other day about their inability to get ‘likes’ on Facebook. They had set a goal to achieve a certain number by November and were way behind schedule. They had seemingly tried everything: continual status updates asking people to share the page with friends, signing up for services promising an increase in fans — even offering a large gift certificate for the person who could get the most friends to like them. The problem? They were spending a lot of money to acquire a minimal increase in ‘likes,’ which wasn’t generating any kind of return. Read the rest of this entry »

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Solving Traditional Problems with New Technology – The Online Recruiter

Online Marketing for RecruitmentRecruiting can be an interesting proposition at the best of times. Prior to getting into online marketing on a full time basis, I spent close to three years in the staffing industry. I specialized in light industrial personnel, industrial management and skilled trades positions. I was fortunate (or unfortunate… depending how you look at it) to work in an extremely hot economy. Qualified staff were at a premium and the competition to land quality candidates was fierce. It wasn’t uncommon to have 40 or 50 unfilled positions on our board at any one time.

Online marketing was still relatively new in our office. We relied on newspapers, job fairs and websites like Monster to bring in resumes. Our recruiting practices were very traditional and we were constantly being scooped by other companies that were willing to experiment with new online recruitment methods. Read the rest of this entry »

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People Are Talking. Are You Listening? – The Online Recruiter

Online marketing for recruitmentSocial media has completely changed how we communicate. Millions of online conversations are happening at any one time. A quick search of these conversations reveal a variety of topics – family, sports, pop culture and news being some of the most popular.

Employment is also a hot topic. People talk about their current job, their dream job or their lack of a job. They talk, rant and complain about their coworkers, their bosses, their customers and their competitors. Now many people are turning to social media to help find their next job. Read the rest of this entry »

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Social Media Marketing: Is There a Payoff for Non-Profits?

Social Media for Non-Profits

There has been a continuous issue facing smaller non-profit organizations. They want to reach out online but often lack the budget and resources necessary. Initiatives such as charity: water and organizations like American Red Cross have been quick to embrace social media. However, it could be argued that large organizations have the resources to experiment, take risks and wait for longer-term investments to pay off. What about smaller, locally-owned non-profits? Can they also leverage social media to raise money, attract volunteers and engage the public?

While it can provide amazing value for your organization, there are many issues to consider when making the decision to plunge into the social media realm. We’ve gathered ten key points to maximize the impact social media can have on your non-profit. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Okotoks Satellite Hoax – Lessons Learned

UARS Satellite

This is what all the fuss was about

Let’s continue our look at the Okotoks Satellite hoax and some of the lessons learned. Be sure to check out our Anatomy of an Online Rumour post for some additional background.

Rumors are started and consequently spread online all the time. Celebrities “die”, sports figures are “traded” and pictures of the new iPhone are “leaked” on a daily basis. People love gossip and social media helps feed their passion. The Okotoks satellite hoax has a lesson for everyone…

Joe Public – The lesson here is pretty simple. The internet is an amazing source for up to the second information but everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. As we’ve seen in this example, a misguided piece of information can take on a life of its own in no time. Take a common sense approach to your online news consumption and remember that even the most trusted sources can fall for false information too.

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The Okotoks Satellite Hoax – Anatomy of an Online Rumour

I don’t think I’ll ever call myself a “space geek” but I’ll admit that I got a bit excited when I heard about the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) and its plummet to earth. The story of the falling satellite was all over the news last week and the thought of seeing a giant ball of fire in the sky was intriguing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Stuff We’re Trying – Offerpop

OfferpopLet’s face it. Facebook is trying really, really hard to “be” the internet. It’s become the online hang out for you and your friends, it’s become a place that you share and store your pictures and videos, it’s your first stop when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you check before bed. Facebook wants you to spend as much time as you can on their site so they continuously introduce new features to help achieve this goal. Some of these features are great… others… well… not so much.

Facebook is also starting to really cater to marketers. They’ve come to realize that their site has become a goldmine for people like us. We’re the guys that buy the ads. If we’re happy and spending money, Zuck and the boys are bringing in the cash. Facebook is also working on making their platform more developer and marketer friendly. The work that they’ve done on their “tabs” application has opened up some new doors and it’s now possible to do just about anything within the Facebook platform.

Offerpop Contesting Twitter App

Sample of the Contesting App for Twitter. Click image for larger sample.

Facebook application development has become a hot market lately. The idea of hosting a photo contest, sweepstakes, download promotion, etc within a Facebook page is an intriguing idea for those of us wanting to use the platform as a marketing tool. Creating your own application can be a bit of a daunting task. Not only does the application need to work properly and look good, it must perform within Facebook security rules.

Enter Offerpop

There are a million different application developers out there but Offerpop is the one company that we’ve decided to run with. They have produced a series of Facebook applications that are both effective and easy to use. We’ve been able to use a variety of their applications with our clients and have been very pleased with the results.

Offerpop Tug of War

Sample of the "Tug of War" Offerpop app

I really like that Offerpop creates applications with a purpose. Sure it’s fun to run a photo contest but there needs to be a reason for doing it. Offerpop allows you to fan gate your promotions and they ensure Facebook comments and other sharing tools are integrated into their applications. They know that their applications are being called upon to grow Facebook pages and market companies so they make sure their products are up to the task.

We’ve used most of the Offerpop Facebook applications over the past few months. We’ve been very satisfied with them so far and haven’t had any major issues with them. The campaign prices are very reasonable and they have a trial period that allows you to try before you buy.

Looking for applications to spice up your Twitter profile? They’ve got those too!

Overall… If you’re looking for a way to take your Facebook page to the next level, be sure to give Offerpop a try!

 

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Stuff We’re Trying – Post Planner

The topic of automation always seems to come up during our social media seminars. It’s a bit of a slippery slope… automating Tweets and Facebook posts may be a good way to streamline your social media program but it takes away from the whole social aspect. Read the rest of this entry »

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How To: Twitter Hashtags – What are they?

How to Twitter HashtagsWhat are Twitter hashtags?

When Twitter started there was a fundamental problem. There was no real way to categorize and group similar tweets. Short of using the search function to find topics of conversation, there was no way to see trends in conversation. This is where the hashtags come in. Simply placing a pound key in front of a key word makes it a hashtag – say for example – #golf, #TigerWoods, #PGA. This simple addition allowed Twitter users to give a context to their tweets so people could easily find and follow what they were talking about.

Take this example:

“Did you see that shot? Wow, that’s gonna be the shot of the year!”

The tweet above doesn’t have any context, and therefore doesn’t make much sense to anyone – what sport are they talking about? Who made the shot? By utilizing hashtags, this tweet can all of a sudden provide some background info and context. See below for the revised tweet:

“Did you see that shot? Wow, that’s gonna be the #golf shot of the year! #tigerwoods #ryder”

Now, with the use of hashtags, your fellow tweeters all of sudden realize your talking about a golf shot Tiger Woods made at the Ryder Cup.
Tracking and monitoring hashtags is a great idea for marketers – simple typing in keywords preceded by a hashtag will give you an idea of the conversations going on in those topics. You can also use a tool like hashtags.org to search the usage of specific hashtags over time. Twittervolume.com allows you to search and compare up to three hashtags at a time.

A little tip with hashtags, do some research before using them, for example if you’re a Window Manufacturing company just searching #windows will bring up tons of info on Microsoft. By searching more than one hashtag you can get a better idea of how people categorize your company.
Start doing some research on #hashtags, and get in the know on Twitter.

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Why Social Media Will End the World of Advertising

social media will kill advertisingAdvertising is all about getting the right message to the right people. Herein lies the challenge – getting to the right people. Current advertising tactics like billboards could easily become a thing of the past. Billboards are not targeted and they cost a ton. Newspaper, radio, television ads are all in the same boat.

The beauty of social media is that it is bringing people with common interests together. There is a community and conversation going on for everything – golf, music, home décor, twins, clothing and millions more for nearly everything. You can find online communities everywhere, Facebook houses a ton, topic hashtags on Twitter, forums everywhere, and Youtube is another powerhouse. Businesses simply need to start listening, and tapping into these conversations.

So where does advertising see its end? Social media is free, people are grouping on their own. Getting the message to right people has become free, and easy. Here’s a perfect example, The Michael Jackson fan page on Facebook has nearly 25 million fans. One, free, simple little post on this fan page hits 25 million fans and their friends instantaneously. The more comments this little post generates, the further the message reaches, and the more exposure it gets. Tell me another way to hit this many people for free?

Our advice? If you haven’t already, start thinking about the power of social media for advertising. It’s not a fad, it’s here to stay, and if you’re an advertiser who isn’t using social media in your campaigns – you may become a thing of the past.

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