Social Media Marketing

 

 

How social media impacts revenue, growth and brand

 
Social media is transforming the marketing landscape. Customers don’t want to be marketed to – they look for choice among the supplier they trust.

Winning their trust is now the foremost goal, which means your company needs a strategy that meets new expectations.

The first step is to become relevant, and then nurture a relationship.
 

Is your organization ready to have a relationship with its customers?

 
Learn what social media marketing can do for your organization!

It isn’t hard, but it takes a concerted effort where each and everyone in your company plays a role, not just the social media coordinator. Used correctly, social media provides a very cost effective way of building strong customer relationships and repeat business.

Making social media marketing part of your overall plan is easier than you think.

Let’s start a conversation! Call us now!

First, let us look at some differentiating factors:

media

  • broadcast 1:M
  • few publishers
  • measures impressions
  • pushes via advertising

    • social media

  • conversation 1:1, 1:M, M:M
  • anyone publishes
  • measures following
  • relies on pull via search

    • In short, social media is about people interacting with the help of a new set of online tools.

    An interesting phenomenon is that people using social media often develop online “ethics”, which can be very visible in some forums, that frown on attempts at self promotion and marketing.

    What is expected is instead sharing and helping.

    Social Media, which grew out of the Web 2.0 revolution, is having a fundamental impact on how we do marketing and the ways we connect with customers and partners. As a new phenomenon it undergoes constant change as new practices are explored, adopted or rejected.

    A major differentiating characteristics is that traditional marketing was seeking impressions (eyeballs) while social media marketing is about building trust and an ongoing relationship. Listening and responding are important activitiesy.

    While traditional marketing reach was mainly dictated by the amount of advertising dollars invested, social media doesn’t have to cost anything, but requires time and work. Success is often determined by the value of the content produced and how valued it is by the community.

    There is a strong trend away from traditional advertising – it is very expensive, people are learning to ignore it, and it gets harder and harder to get through the noise.

    Social media provides a new compelling way to reach customers. While many still think of it as yet another channel, more and more marketers realize it is not “just” another channel but a channel with tremendous potential, while it requires special care.

    Social media is also very powerful when it comes to retaining customers, and significant savings over time can be expected with a well executed social media strategy.

    There are two phases: In the Strategy Phase you prepare your activities through research and planning.

    In the Execution Phase you focus on Listening, Engaging and Measuring.

    The major danger with social media is to not be there – people will talk about your company, its product and brand. Only by being there to engage can you catch the opportunity and respond.

    However if the commitment to participate falters, the risk is that the customers who now expect you to be responsive, raise their voice even louder in complaint if they find that their expectations are not met.

    This can often be prevented by implementing a good listening mechanism and having a response plan that includes PR, customer service and other stakeholders.

    In some instances active reputation management must be deployed in order to control the amount of extent of bad sentiment that may arise from an unfortunate situation.

    Read: How Konsult Partners started with social media

    Drawing of a guy in front of a computer

    Our experience started a few years back when we were building a new recruitment strategy for engaging software companies in the Microsoft ecosystem. As we did research around the world, explored different tools and communities, launched portals and programs, conducted search engine optimization and search engine marketing, we learned a lot of things.

    Those learnings are now turned around to help companies of all sizes to understand what social media can do for them! This includes what a strategy may look like and what investments are necessary to successfully embrace this new paradigm.

    Social media offers many rewards but there are also perils. This is where our experience is available to help you!

    Services

     
    The following services have been put together to satisfy the end-to-end needs of any organization that wants to embrace social media as a strategic tool for reaching and engaging customer and partners. The services start at the core by bringing the executive team up to speed on the latest online social media marketing tools and techniques. The services also cover situational analysis, an environment for developing a comprehensive strategy, and alternatives for execution.

    Introduction to Social Media - short, high energy seminar

    This seminar gives an overview of how Web 2.0 emerged and enabled the social media revolution. We explore the most popular social tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and more. The objective is to bring the attendees up-to-speed on how social media marketing differs from traditional marketing, what is expected in the social media world and some of the key tenets for successful use of social media.

    Presentation: 2 hours seminar Cost: $800 plus travel and expenses

    Social Media Strategy - half day workshop

    This workshop educates the executive team on social media and outlines a framework for successful social media marketing strategy. The workshop provides a platform for continued social media strategy development and implementation.

    Presentation: half day workshop Cost: $1,000 plus travel and expenses

    Online presence review and evaluation - 1 day review and presentation

    This is a foundation project that investigates and evaluates the current online presence of an organization. The core delivery is a recommendation (document) and a discussion forum for how the online impact can be improved.

    Preparation: review of online presence; Prerequisite: complete pointers to current online presence (web-sites, blogs, social tools etc) Presentation: half day workshop to discuss results of evaluation, including recommendations Cost: $1,600 plus travel and expenses.

    Social Media Marketing Strategy Development - 1 1/2 day preparation and workshop

    The purpose of this workshop is to engage the executive team and to agree on an outline of a social media marketing strategy. The focus is on analyzing the current needs, set expectations on future impact, and outline recommended execution steps and associated investments. Preparations includes interviews with stakeholders, mapping of audiences and drafting of strategy.

    Preparation: 1 day preparation (may vary depending on size of project) Presentation: half day workshop Cost: $2,400 plus travel & expenses

    Social Media Strategy Retainer - ongoing

    The retainer project allows any organization to have an external consultant available for guidance including on-going strategy reviews, impact analysis and execution adjustments.

    Social Presence - ongoing

    Sometimes it just isn’t convenient for an organization to engage in all the social media activities needed for sustained impact. In order to facilitate a strong social presence during the building phase or during defined times, we offer an “outsourcing” model where we take care of most social interactions.