Monday 11 January 2016

Social Media Tools for More Buzz for Your Buck

Whether you've been leveraging social media from the beginning or are just now boarding the Twitter train into the forbidden forest of Facebook, it's time to get a handle on your social media efforts. social media marketing applications With all the chatter, real-time updates and "Fail Whales" looming, managing a social media presence effectively can be a headache and a half.There are a few ways to tackle social media: in-house, through an outsourced agency or with short-term or ongoing consultants. If you've decided a full-fledged social media company doesn't fit your budget, there are some great and economical DIY solutions available to small businesses."We use a variety of tools to manage our social media engagement, including Actionly, TweetDeck, Google Alerts and Hyper Alerts," says Stephanie Bullis of Grasshopper, a virtual phone system designed for small businesses. "The analytics that these tools provide allow us to better understand the social platforms that our customers are using most."Shel Horowitz, a green marketing consultant and lead author of Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green, says one Twitter tool in particular is helpful in extending his tweet efforts. "TweetDeck allows a lot of functionality lacking in Twitter's own interface: reply to all, toggling link-shortening on and off, editing retweeted posts and a feature that allows longer tweets than 140 [characters]," Horowitz says. "What this means to me is that I can spend 15 to 30 minutes per day for all social media together and still establish a meaningful presence and brand."See below for a quick rundown on what some of the latest social media management marketing using social media tools have to offer.That value means different things for different clients. For k9cuisine.com, a Paris, Ill.-based online retailer of dog food, Marketing Zen established blog and Twitter presences and cultivated relationships with pet-related bloggers. For Arthur Murray Dance Studios in Boston, the company optimized a website to generate more targeted sales leads.
benefits of social media marketing

Mobile social networking is rising

While the majority of consumers still access social media through the computer (97 percent), more than a third nowadays (37 percent) are also doing so by mobile phones, with social networking apps gaining favor among such phoners. los angeles social media marketing And surprisingly, more than twice as many people 55 and older are visiting social networking sites on their mobile phones than did so last year.Marketing Zen wasn't always about social media. Kabani says her original plan was to start a general consulting agency. But she quickly realized her passions--and all the best gigs, for that matter--were in the social media space, so she tweaked her strategy.This modified approach was about consulting with clients, telling them how to better market their businesses online and letting them run with it. Meanwhile, Kabani learned two things: Clients wanted not just a consultant, but also a firm that could implement ideas; and social media is only part of a larger marketing puzzle that includes building solid websites and developing smart search engine optimization.That is how we went from being a consulting company to a company that takes over web marketing for our clients," she says. "Our value proposition is simpler now: We drive inbound leads for our clients and increase their online brand visibility.That thinking appears to be working. Kabani declines to share specifics, but she notes revenues grew more than 400 percent last year alone, and she expects Marketing Zen to be a "multimillion-dollar company" by the end of 2014.One of the secrets to Kabani's profit model is low overhead. She hired almost all her 30 employees virtually, and many key people work remotely. social media marketing university review At least a dozen Marketing Zen employees are in the Philippines.Another key differentiator: legitimate engagement. Kabani prides herself on having her clients engage with followers, rather than simply talking at them. For Dave Kerpen, CEO and co-founder of competitor Likeable Media, this is a distinguishing characteristic. "She understands the true meaning of community engagement," Kerpen says.

Peers are powerful

The report shows that active adult social networkers tend to place a premium on their peers' online recommendations when making purchases.Twitter button on your business Web page. Just choose a button, customize it, facebook social media marketing recommend up to two Twitter accounts for users to follow after they share content from your site, preview your button and get your code. Simply copy and paste the code into the HTML for your website, and that’s it.In case you missed it, last month I offered some additional tips for tapping into the social tendencies of website visitors. In an Entrepreneur Magazine article (see Get People Talking: Tap into the social nature of your website’s visitors to boost relationships with customers and your company’s reach), I alluded to three additional social sharing tools that are available for free to business. The first, Facebook’s Comment Box plug-in, enables your website visitors to post the comments they make on your website to their Facebook News Feed.Disqus, which we use to power the comments here on Entrepreneur.com, is integrated with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. And Intense Debate notifies your commenters when they get a response, allowing them to continue the debate/discussion easily through email. Besides email, these commenters can also send a tweet and share their opinion with friends on Facebook.And those are just the side projects. In 2009, at 24, Kabani founded The Marketing Zen Group, a social media marketing firm in Dallas. The company, which she launched with $1,500 of her own money, specializes in all aspects of web marketing for clients--from Facebook and Twitter to blogs and video. disadvantages of social media marketing We are in an age where people are tired of the faceless corporate culture," the Texas native says. "Every day, I ask myself the same question: What can I do today to increase value for our trusted audience (blog readers, TV watchers, Twitter followers, etc.), for our team and for our clients.

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