This was a great way to get insight on how larger companies are utilizing social networks. It would leave me brainstorming on how to scale it down to work for small businesses. Stay tuned for 2012, In this ever changing industry you’ve got to stay in “the know” and these seminars are such a convenient way of doing it!

But, have you really taken a look at the real importance of short links? So many different providers out there offer these convenient little tools and the best part is that most of them are free. To help you narrow it down go for the ones that aren’t throwing up advertising. To narrow it down even further go with one that offers tracking and analytic tools.

I have found that if you’ve got event specific banners that you can really zoom in how effective it is and when used simoultaneously with your web analytics you can really trim off the “fat” and know what’s really working. URL shortening services even offer social toolbars to help  enhance your business or personal social media efforts. One that I particulary like using is Visibli. Super call and totally customizable with great analytics, well at least for being free. if you want some more advanced tracking simply upgrade to pro.

Well happy marketing!

Ciao,

The A.D

I was listening to talk radio in the car on my way home when a discussion came up about how a dentist was trying to get patients to sign a disclosure saying that they would not be able to post or say anything about him or his practice! I couldn’t believe this guy and listening to the callers who phoned in were with me! It makes you think that, wow is the service really going to be that bad? Not to mention the freedom of speech topic.

Long story short that didn’t fly so well in the legal sense of course. And we all have to face it, no business is going to be perfect. But as a consumer if see that a business or product has hundreds of reviews and small number of negatives it makes you think what that customer did differently to have such an off the wall experience. And in most cases it looks more credible anyway, because we all know no one is perfect.

So just keep building your reputation by offering the best customer service ever and just learn and grow from negative reviews to help you become better!

Ciao<3

The A.D

These are pretty much the Social Network 7 Commandments to live by and thought I would share it.

Enjoy!

1. Give Your Customers a Place to Talk

Some companies are afraid to set up Facebook pages because they allow customers to comment, which means someone might write something negative. It seems counterintuitive, but you should actually want customers to complain on your company’s Facebook page. If your customers are complaining about you on their personal, privacy-protected Facebook profiles, you have no way to know if they’re complaining, much less reach out to them and make it right.

When customers complain on your brand’s Facebook page, you can respond and resolve issues. If you do it right (and get a little lucky), unhappy customers will turn their opinions around and recommend you to friends because of your fantastic customer service.

2. Integrate Social Media Into Your Customer Service

Neglecting your social media properties when they’re full of customer complaints is suicide for your brand. It’s like publishing a customer service hotline phone number that no one ever answers. (Except worse, because the whole Internet can see your negligence.)

Don’t open up the floor for complaints without a plan to handle them. Predict the complaints you may get and construct policies for replying to them. You should also plan on responding to fans who compliment you. At the very least, you should thank customers for the compliment. But if you really want to make customers happy, show happy customers your appreciation with coupons or other rewards.

3. Activate Your Existing Customer Base

Most brands have more customers than they do Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Start building your social media fan base by reaching out to your current customers — after all, they already “like” your brand in real life.

Think about how you currently contact your customer base and how you can use those communication channels to draw customers to your social media properties. For example, you could run a contest or promotion on Facebook and then include that promotion on your product’s packaging, in your next email, and in any touch point you have with your customers.

4. Be Proactive

Don’t just wait for someone to post on your wall or tweet your account. It’s especially easy on Twitter to monitor for mentions of your name and reach out when someone has a problem, even if they haven’t mentioned your account. Set your brand apart by proactively interacting with customers who are talking about your brand, whether you’re thanking them for a compliment or helping them solve a problem.

Think about why your customers use social media sites like Twitter — it’s because they want to “connect” and to have a voice out there. Make them happy that someone, most importantly your company, is listening to what they have to say.

5. Reward Influencers

Find the social media influencers for your audience and give them extras. This could be as simple as giving them advance notice of a special promotion, or complex as giving them a free trip and tour of your facilities. For example, check out what Musselman’s apple sauce did for its blogger network. Making people feel special will help turn them into advocates for your brand. Reward your brand ambassadors when they least expect it and you’ll see some pretty phenomenal results.

6. Create Compelling Content

Give your fans something of value on your page. For example, Nordstom’s “Beauty Central” on Facebook provides a ton of relevant, useful content. You can do something similar to this in every industry. If you’re a movie producer, post behind-the-scenes photos, and if you’re a bank, write money saving tips. It’s hard to get people to engage with your brand when you don’t have anything interesting to say. Every brand can (and should) create quality content.

Social media can be a channel to make customers or followers feel special, like they’re in an exclusive club with your brand because they follow you. Make them feel this exclusiveness whether you have ten social media fans or 100,000.

7. Stand Out From the Crowd

Some of the most memorable social media experiences are created by going beyond text. This can be as complex as Starbucks’s Pumpkin Picture app, or simple as using voice applications to let your brand’s spokesperson actually speak to your fans. The more interactive and engaging your social media presence, the better. In part, social media is a little anti-social because there can be a lot lost in plain text. By giving your fans a true voice on social media, or encouraging participation through photos and videos, you humanize the experience that much more. You’ll be doing so when most of the other companies out there aren’t really participating effectively this way.

Cheers,

Your Diva

Source: mashable.com

Foursquare and yelp seem to still get a lot of hype, but I came across some interesting stats.

Despite all the hype that is still going on about location based social networking. It’s found that not a lot of people are engaging in these platforms. But, trust me I’m not saying to ignore them all at once, but rather  just be aware of them and keep them updated because you do have consumers that love to be mayors, and have all the badges in the world! Just by making it known that you have check in specials could show you check-in increases up to 300%! So have fun with them, but don’t spend too much time thinking to deep with trying to incorporate check-ins into your strategy.

Ciao,

your Diva!

I came across this blog article on Twitter this morning and thought this was great food for thought auto dealers who aren’t quite sure how to put together a solid strategy using Facebook. These are great 5 steps so be sure to click the link to read all of them!

As B2B marketers work to connect with customers and prospects through social media, one of the keys to those connections is to create remarkable, compelling content. That content needs to provide value to your followers and fans, rather than push your products or services. The following tips can help you create better content, more compelling content and content that provides value.

1. Develop a Monthly Theme
B2B marketers hear over and over that they need to act like the best trade publication in their industry. Usually this means things like cover the industry and create an editorial calendar. But what if you add to the list developing a monthly theme as part of the editorial calendar? Many trade publications have themes to their monthly issues. This means that the majority of blog posts for that month are about the theme. It doesn’t mean you can’t write about anything else, but it provides focus to the content you create in a given month. If you create ebooks or webinars in that month, they should also follow the theme.

I was reading some pretty cool facts about QR codes. I know being in the retail automotive industry you try to adopt these new technologies and you have to ask yourself is this just another fad? Well the QR code bandwagon is here stay and all I can say for automotive is you’ve got to be patient. Qr codes are uselful for bridging the gap between offline and online and well Hello! That usually has been a struggle for dealerships to transition this in there marketing. Just like every other technology that comes into play people have adopted it and it becomes mainstream.

Here were some of the stats that I came across:

the latest comScore figures on QR codes reveal that this is far from happening. The company reported that more than 14 million mobile phone users in the United States scanned a QR code in June 2011 alone. The typical scanner would be 18 to 34 years old, male and have a total household income of more than $100,000. And contrary to what people believe, more than half of those 14 million scanned the QR code at home!

The rising numbers on QR code usage is attributed to increasing smartphone use. Nielsen estimated that as of December last year, a third of US mobile phone users would be using a smartphone, while Coda Research Consultancy predicts that by 2015, around 2.5 billion people would be using a smartphone.

Now with figures like that who could argue the value of a QR code. Just like any marketing do your A-B testing and watch your analytics.

Stay True,

Yours Truly

As Facebook keeps banking from ads and facebook credits, and Google + can just nurse off the search engines. Where does that leave Twitter on the money making machine. I could live with the promoted tweets, but now they just got downright sneaky. Now we will be promoted from brands that we don’t even follow! Yeah seriously if you don’t follow Burger King, but maybe you look like someone who would, yup they’re going to clog your stream! Well I guess this is just the start of the ad-invasion.

Ciao,

Yours Truly <3