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Social Media Marketing

January 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s true the buzz phrase of the year is “social media marketing.”

Recently there has even been a new term coined called “social influence marketing.”

Are you still at a loss of what social media it is and why it may be important to your business? I understand, so let me see if I can bring some clarity and demystify the phrase that often causes business owners to get a headache.

Think of social medial like this – you enter a bar and there are conversations going on at each table. You hear one conversation about work, another about a brand new vehicle someone purchased and perhaps the other is a business meeting where co-workers are discussing the latest strategy in their industry. Are you with me? If so, good – let’s continue.

Think of the sphere of social media has this bar. All of these conversations are floating around. There is a lot of information sharing, opinions being broadcasts and relationships being created. Does that help?

Now, I want to show you how big these spheres are growing by sharing with you some recent statistics that were reported by Econsultancy. These statistics are recent, it will give you a glimpse of how quickly social media is growing and the impact it is having on businesses today.

  • There are over 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
  • One half of YouTube users visit the site at least once a week.
  • There are over 250 million users on Facebook and 120 million of them log onto Facebook once a day.
  • At least 30 million of the Facebook users access Facebook via their mobile phones.
  • Over the last twelve months Twitter has broken the 1000% barrier of year-over-year growth.
  • It’s estimated that there are 6 – 10 million global users on Twitter.
  • Tuesday is the most active day on Twitter, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.

Do you still think you can afford to ignore social media marketing?

Filed Under: Buzz Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Social Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,
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How Can Social Media Help My Nonprofit Organization?

January 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is a question I hear a lot, so I spent some time writing an article on About.com regarding the benefits that social media offers to nonprofit organization. I wanted to expand on that article by sharing how social media has proven successful for nonprofit organizations by using specific statistics. If you are a nonprofit organization and you are debating the use of social media, I think the this post will help you in your decision. It will also help if you need something to present to your board members on the validity of social media when it comes nonprofit organizations.

A report in Convio, The Wired Wealthy, published in March of 2008 showed that 2007 online giving for nonprofit organizations in the United States reached 10 billion, this was a 52% increase over the previous year 2006.

Why the increase?

It is shown that 51% of wealthy doners actually prefer to give online.

These donors can be found in various venues of social media. Consider the following statistics:

  • 52% use YouTube
  • 14% use Myspace
  • 12% use Flickr
  • 9% use Facebook

If that’s not enough convince you, perhaps naming a few of the nonprofit organizations that utilize social media might help. A few include:

  • American Red Cross
  • National Wildlife Federation
  • The Humane Society
  • GreenPeace
  • American Cancer Society

Does that help? Hmmmm, ok want proof it works?

Epic Change used Twitter to raise over $11,000 in just 48 hours. This money was raised to build a classroom in Tanzania.

Think about that – $11,000 in just 48 hours!

Over 98% of those who donated had never donated to Epic Change before.

Another success story is the 12for12k Tweet-a-Thon campaign that also used Twitter to raise funds. This campaign started by Scott Stratten,raised $13,000 in 12 hours. This money was raised to combat child hunger in the United States and obviously it works – $13,000 in 12 hours.

Would you like to know why social media worked for them in attracting new donors – after all isn’t that what you want?

It worked because:

  • There was a clear and achievable goal that was set and then broadcast
  • There was an urgency that was created by having a short deadline
  • They were able to leverage existing networks
  • They made giving easy and they made it clear what they planned to do with the money
  • They recognized top donors that gave.

If you are a nonprofit who still doesn’t think it will work for your organization, then there is not much I can do for you. I’ve given you statistics, references of those that are doing it successfully and proof that it works.

If you are a nonprofit organization that wants to get started in social media, but you are not sure where to start I understand and I can help. I can help you create a social media policy as well as a strategy that can help you in seeing success in social media marketing. Feel free to contact me to discuss these options – I’m always happy to help.

Filed Under: Social Marketing Tagged With: , ,
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Your Marketing Wakeup Call

January 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Times are changing. I read another article today that by the end of the year The New York Times will cut 100 newsroom positions. I write for About.com, which is a company owned by The New York Times, so this news saddened me.

I’m fortunate that I started in the online industry in 1997. As such, I’ve always adopted new media easily, but I think it’s because that’s where I began my career.

I’ve met with general managers of newspapers, editors and writers – our discussions always end up around the lack of adoption of new media when it was introduced by traditional newspapers. Unfortunately, those same newspapers are feeling the pinch during this time.

I’m not saying that traditional media is a dead-end, but let’s think about it. When was the last time you went out into the driveway to pick up your daily newspaper? When was the last time you pulled out the yellow pages to look up a telephone number?

We all knew that the Internet would change our daily lives – some of us slow to adopt, but now we can’t imagine living without it. There are many people who could handle a cable outage easier than an Internet outage. Need proof? Turn off your computer for 24 hours – cut off your access to the Internet. Did you just have a panic attack thinking about it? I did.

I find it amazing that companies still often depend upon the traditional means of marketing and look at the new media options as alternatives. They will pay more for a one time advertisement in a magazine than they will on their website design. They will seek out a radio spot before measuring the impact social media could have on their business. Do you see my point?

Put your business into check.

  • How is your website? Does it reflect your business accurately? What message does it reflect when it comes to professionalism?
  • Are you writing a blog and interacting with potential customers or is your website static and dull?
  • Are you doing search engine marketing? How are you ranking when customers type in keywords? Are you showing up?
  • What about social media? Have you dipped your toe in the water? If for no other reason than to monitor your online reputation and protect your brand?

Don’t abandon the traditional vehicles of marketing, but be sure to integrate it with online marketing and new media options; otherwise you may end up struggling like the newspapers are today.

Filed Under: General Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Social Marketing Tagged With: , , ,
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