The “T word” and the “F word” (no, not that one) were mentioned numerous times but Winfield and fellow presenter Tony Adam (@tonyadam) did offer some good strategies for businesses looking to enhance their marketing efforts through social media. Local media companies should be doing most, if not all of them. social media marketing

The key lessons:

- Find out where your customers are: Use traffic reporting tools like Google Analytics to find out where your current visitors are coming from. Set up news alerts on your brand and your competitors to find who’s talking/writing about them.
- Frequently update your blog(s): Winfield said it is “so important to reach out to your customers” this way. He also recommended becoming part of the community on blogs and news sites that frequently write about your topic area.
- Seek new sources: Check Technorati and Alltop to discover new blogs and news sites that are focusing on your topic area, too. instead of technorati to figure out what’s hot in your topic area. social media

- Niche social networks: Do a Google search for niche social networks and find one in your topic area. then frequent it and monitor it.
- Publish video: Make sure they are bite-sized clips, “short and sweet” according to Winfield. “They are great for awareness but the best ones contain little to no marketing messages.” (I’d love to see a media company try that!) Among the best examples mentioned were the Quicksilver dynamite surfing video, the Dove Evolution series and this …

- Don’t overlook forums: One of the most overlooked areas of social media, according to Winfield, is forums. “They’re not sexy, they’re kind of old.” But they have a tremendous amount of activity, including some in your topic area. Go to search.big-boards.com to find some that share your interest.

- Use Yahoo answers: Winfield called it “one of the only things Yahoo has done really well. There you can find your niche pretty fast and pretty easily. Once you do, you want to be pretty involved.” Why? Because answers rank so well in search engines. So more people will find your site. If you’re a local media company, think of all the knowledge you could be sharing by answering questions about your local area, either on Yahoo Answers or on a Q&A section on your own site.
]]> http://www.alisonnorrington.com/?feed=rss2&p=13 0 http://www.alisonnorrington.com/?p=7 http://www.alisonnorrington.com/?p=7#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:46:03 +0000 oritto http://www.alisonnorrington.com/?p=7 Comedian Jim Gaffigan has a suggestion for preparing a Hot Pockets frozen entrée: “Take out of package. Place directly in toilet.” Gaffigan is not a big fan of Hot Pockets. He doesn’t like exercise, either. But he loves bacon. “Without bacon, no one would even know what a water chestnut is,” he says. Gaffigan’s also a fan of social networking sites.

You’ll see him on Facebook, Twitter, and News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace. He keeps fans up to date on his concerts, albums, TV appearances—and naps. In short, he’s a social networking success story. For a one-man band like Gaffigan, who probably has a decent amount of free time between eating bacon and being on stage, social networks and blogs have proved effective vehicles for marketing his business and staying close to his audience. But for many business owners, social networking is as valuable as a Hot Pocket is nutritious.

We’ve been misled as to the benefits of social networking sites. Many of us are finding that these tools do not live up to the hype, especially for small business. Once we start digging deeper, we’re finding a lot of challenges. Are you thinking of using Facebook, Twitter, or the like in your business? Before you go any further, consider the following myths:

1. Social media sites are free.
Using social media sites isn’t as easy or cheap as many people think. Sure, most let you set up an account for free. And you can integrate other services, such as your blog or Google’s (GOOG) YouTube videos, at no charge. But there’s a significant cost: your time. Because there’s nothing worse than a site that’s not current. And to keep it current, someone’s going to need to spend time. This includes responding to visitors’ questions, posting brilliant thoughts, adding graphics, and monitoring activity—basically trying to generate buzz.

Comedian Gaffigan seems to peruse his sites all the time. Bacon is still yummy days after it’s cooked. But old information—a stagnant site, comments left without response—are death in the social networking community. I recently moderated a small business town hall forum. The company sponsoring the event had two full-time “social media writers”covering the event. They recognize that keeping a presence on these sites takes resources. Unfortunately, many of us don’t have that kind of time—or cash—on hand.

2. Social media sites are a great place to find new customers.
In fact, the major sites aren’t necessarily the best places for a business owner. Some of the most avid users of Facebook and MySpace are pimply adolescents and goth teenagers. Sure, there’s a growing number of fortysomethings—but many are merely nostalgic to check out boyfriends and girlfriends from youth to see how fat and bald they’ve become; whatever they’re doing on Facebook, it’s typically not engaging with a small business brand. Twitter has millions of users, but apparently only four of them actually understand what it does and spend much time updating their tweets. Are these the people who will buy the plastic polymer gaskets your company manufacturers? I don’t think so.

Where, then, should a small business owner go online? Often the best social networking sites are specific to business owners. For example, Intuit’s (INTU) social media people are on their own small business community. Another good one is Bank of America’s (BAC) small business community.