Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Three tips to grow your Facebook Page without spending a dime

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

Picture 1Many small businesses are making the jump to social media and have already established a presence on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. If your business has a Facebook Page, you might be wondering how to attract a larger audience and fan base on a limited budget. Here are three tips to help increase awareness of your Facebook presence, in an organic and unforced manner.

#1: Add the link to your Fan Page in your email signature. It sounds so simple, but many businesses with social media accounts and pages aren’t promoting their outreach to the people who matter most: those that they talk to on a regular basis. It’s also important to promote your social media accounts in your other emails and bulletins, whether it’s a newsletter or a holiday email to your clients and vendors.

#2: Join relevant groups and Pages on Facebook, participate in the conversation and promote. We recommend joining groups and Pages, on your personal account, with audiences that are similar to those that you are targeting. Once you’ve joined, begin to participate in the conversation. You can leave comments, questions or compliments. Whenever it’s relevant (for example if you just discussed something similar on your Page), promote your Page by including its link. However, be warned, don’t do this too often, or people will start to view you as a spammer. You can also mention other Pages with similar audiences. We recommend borrowing their content and attributing it to them via a mention. This will allow you to show up on their wall as your Page, thus increasing your awareness.

#3: Promote your Page on your other social media accounts. Be sure to sporadically plug your Facebook Page on your Twitter account, YouTube channel and Flickr account to help promote growth. We also recommend including links to your social media presences in the description area of all your YouTube videos to help increase awareness and gain new members that found your videos via search.

Of course, there are many other ways to grow your fan base on Facebook, but starting out with these three simple steps will help you increase organic growth to your Page.

Photo: esanatha

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Super Social: Market for the People

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

pepsi refresh
Could a soda really help to make the world a better place? Countlessly we’ve read about social media campaigns that have proved to be beneficial to great causes. After all, social media is about the community, getting heard and getting people involved and sharing experiences.

Coca Cola’s Facebook Fan Page has over 4 million fans. Pepsi doesn’t even compete, with less than 300 thousand fans. Could you imagine a Super Bowl with no Pepsi commercials? No magnetic Justin Timberlake to drag in (pun intended) millions of impressions?

In the past, Pepsi has spent over $140 million on Super Bowl ads, telecasting to the nation. Not this year, though. Pepsi is switching up their strategy. The brand wants comparable levels of engagement with consumers and fans. The Pepsi Refresh Project will grant millions of dollars to fund great ideas. We think this is really great — supporting entrepreneurship! This is exactly the type of campaign that will get a lot of eyes, and has the potential to go viral. Choosing to be social over Super Bowl superstars…

Is this a gamble? Maybe — for a company that spends practically all their marketing and advertising dollars on television spots. But, we think the brand is getting into the right mindset. The campaign has the potential to connect a global community, and provide hope for entrepreneurs all over the world. The dollars that they’ll be spending will have further reach, but more importantly… lasting impact. Social media measurement can be a solid base for brand measurement.

Additionally, it makes sense, for the Internet (more specifically, social media) has proven to be a sound strategy for people and products alike, aimed at today’s generation. The massive brand should be embracing this opportunity, even if it does mean moving away from the appeal of the baby boomers or even the millennial generation. Way to go, Pepsi.

Is Pepsi redefining what important? What really brings out brand loyalty? What does this fight for marketing dollars mean? Share your opinions with us in the comments!

With that, do you know someone who has a great idea and can make a positive impact? Pepsi is collecting 1,000 ideas every month. You can submit & vote here until Jan. 13th.

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Posted in Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Utilizing social pressures

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Picture 2

If you’ve taken a social science course at any point in time, you’ve probably heard this exact scenario, or at least something similar, laid out before.

You’re standing in line at Starbucks debating whether you should just go with the skinny latte laced with a couple Sweet and Low’s, or totally splurge and go for Venti, 2 percent mocha with extra whip. You decide, with the holidays and all, it might be best to go with the slightly healthier option and step up to the plate to order. The young girl scribbles it down on the red cup as you hand over a crisp bill. As you get your change, you glance down at the tip jar. It’s brimming with coins and paper currency (because, again, it’s the holidays), so you nonchalantly slip your left over change into the jar to join the party.

Now, when the holidays are over, you repeat the exact same process (again, choosing the lower cal beverage option after devouring too many holiday party treats). However, with everyone out of the giving spirit, the tip jar is practically empty, and you follow suit, and slip your change in your pocket upon receiving it from the cashier.

So often, we rely on society to tell us what the social norms are that it essentially becomes subconscious. Just as in the examples above, society’s actions can dictate how we behave, and the same holds true for social media. Did you ever notice that you’ll almost automatically follow @Twitteruser1, with 508,970 followers, yet completely ignore @Twitteruser2, with only 32 followers? It’s because we associate a value message with all of those followers; the large following signifies that the user is providing content of value (whether it’s true or not is another story…). On the flip side, we automatically assume that the second user with the same amount of followers as there are students in a third grade classroom isn’t saying much that we could apply to our own lives, learn from or get a laugh out of.

While we will always promote organic, natural growth, it is equally important to focus on the numbers game, because it will send a strong message to potential fans and followers. Now how do you experience explosive, yet organic growth? Well, that’s a whole other story for another blog post…

photo: eecue

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Posted in Facebook, Measurement and analytics, Online Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized, YouTube | 1 Comment »