Social Media Marketing: Getting with the Program

[As featured in Sigma Blog]

The shift towards social media today is huge. Numerous articles, case studies and statistics extol the myriad benefits of this powerful new marketing movement each day.  However, getting your feet wet in social media can be quite a challenge as social media is not just another medium or channel where traditional marketing messages can be pushed. Instead, it’s all about understanding the culture of participation. And then harnessing and incorporating that into all your marketing and business processes.

So, what is the best way for an organization to embrace social media?  Here’s some of our top-line suggestions:

Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn

The power and versatility of today’s online capabilities provide numerous new ways for marketers to tackle the economic downturn, diminishing budgets and changes in consumer habits that are happening everywhere. Many companies/brands have already cut back on their marketing/advertising efforts, while others are taking this moment to reassess, reinvent and revitalize their brands/companies.

I’m a firm believer that challenges open doors to opportunities, and opportunities bring innovation with possibilities to further advance and emerge as a leader – as many brands did during the Great Depression.

As eMarketer CEO/co-founder Geoff Ramsey puts it, “Consumers are still consuming.” They are still out there, looking for deals and recommendations to make product choices. They are relying on all available resources to find what is right for them. For marketers, the good news is there are more options than ever to make a connection with customers.

Below is a compendium to a presentation Geoff Ramsey gave at the Fuel for Thought event in November. It is based on his recent whitepaper Digital Marketing Now: Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn that is available for free at eMarketer.

That’s it for today.

10 Things in 10 Minutes

For some strange reason the #10 was following me today.  Everywhere I turn, I’m ran into this number.  It started with a call from my son’s teacher saying the school closed 10 minutes ago (yikes!), later 1010 News not working on my radio while on Rt 10, and then stumbling on the below list while on Twitter.  Anyway, I’m wrapping up tonight at 10PM with this great suggestion from C.C. Chapman.

10 Things in 10 Minutes to get you started on social media.

1. Google yourself, your brand, your competitors. See what is being said and where you rank.
2. Set up multiple Google Alerts based around anything you want to be automatically notified about when a post appears online.
3. Begin using Twitter . Even if you use it more to read what others are saying then saying much yourself. Use Twitter Search to see what you might have missed on a topic such as your brand.  Addictomatic is another great tool.
4. Join a social network. The two I recommend getting started with are LinkedIn and Facebook .
5. Sign up for newsletters. The three I recommend are MarketingVox, WOMMA and MarketingProfs as great starters to keep you informed.
6. Get a Flickr account even if you don’t plan on sharing photos. Search for events that you know are going on to start getting to know the people and faces.
7. Read constantly. Shelfari and Goodreads can both help you see what other people are reading and get your new marketing bookshelf started.
8. Attend events because nothing beats face-to-face. I love using Upcoming to see what is going on and what my friends are attending.
9. Evernote , my laptop and iPhone are what I use to capture everything that gets my attention.
10. Yelp allows you to review and discover vendors of all sorts anywhere in the world.