Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

Relationship Marketing vs Social Media Marketing: Oxymoron or Redundant?

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Clarifications, first.

We all know a typical oxymoron, right? Words and phrases that seem to cancel each other out: military intelligence, jumbo shrimp, old news, practical joke, peace force.

We also know about redundancy, or saying the same thing twice, as in: basic fundamentals, actual experience, advance planning, free gift, frozen ice, general public.

These two odd word pairing categories are opposite sides of the same coin, so I will flip the coin, and you can call it in the air….

Are Relationship Marketing and Social Media Marketing the same or opposites?

You might be surprised at the answers I found!

Redundant (Heads)

Mari Smith, speaker, author, and social media guru, has recently written a (not yet released) book titled, “The New Relationship Marketing”. Considering the source’s area of expertise, it would appear that the book will be about nurturing relationships to social (online) connections and turning that into a profitable business, at which Mari has been extremely successful. Mari shares some of her life story in this video, and talks a bit about her new book which has the subtitle: “How to Build a Large, Loyal and Profitable Network Using the Social Web”. It is clear as she describes her approach to relationship marketing (in a beautiful Scottish / Canadian accent) that she would be of the camp that this is a redundant relationship. She talks about how she believes that social media marketing is about building those relationships with all people online and leveraging (my words) that relationship to be ethically profitable.

Oxymoron (Tails)

On the other side of the coin, would be Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz, who is decidedly less glamorous and more punk than Mari Smith. However, Naomi is very passionate and (apparently) knowledgeable as she has become an expert at being overtly honest and downright open on how marketing for small businesses works. Naomi’s guest blog on Copyblogger.com about Relationship Marketing, “7 Ways You’re Screwing Up Relationship Marketing”, is in line with the oxymoron stance on our topic.

The 7 ways, are easily the complete opposite of the (widely accepted)point of social media (to engage, connect, build relationships), in that she feels (strongly) that relationship marketing is solely about what makes the customer make a purchase of your product and how can you get them to do it again. It has nothing to do with relationships, communication, being social, authenticity, transparency, equality, or having a connection. It is about THE relationship of a customer to your product and their purchase of same. Period. That’s it.

What do YOU think?

What is your take on this question? Is all marketing becoming social? Should it? Or are we too caught up in this ‘relationship’ business with online media that we are incapable of talking about marketing without describing some inner bond between brands and consumers?

We’d love to hear your side, so leave us a comment!

Tags: Marketing, reno marketing, Reno Social Media, Social Media
Posted in Online Marketing, Reno Marketing Meanderings | No Comments »

Social Media Pays it Forward

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Social media has opened new doors for people and businesses alike.

Whether you are a large corporation, like Skittles, or a startup looking to expand your audience; whether you are a motivated individual looking for a way to stand out from the crowd during our currently challenging economic times, or one of the many computer savvy people looking to be your own boss, social media can help.

In Brad McCarty’s blog post, 6 stories of life-changing social media connections, 6 stories are shared about how social platforms positively affected someone’s life or career. As marketers we understand the importance social platforms can play in business.

Social platforms have the ability to change everything.

It has already changed the way businesses interact with their customers, the way families stay in touch, the ability to get honest and unfiltered feedback on a host of topics, a transparency for human and business interaction and the idea that all businesses have people behind them. Social media goes beyond the idea that a business has a ‘culture’ – it reinforces the idea that even large corporations are made up of people and that all business decisions and interactions with consumers are done on a human level.

More now than ever, social platforms use the power of communication to create honest interactions between businesses and consumers. As a business owner – why wouldn’t you utilize these new tools to get the most from your life and your work? It reduces the gap between ‘professional’ and ‘personal’ but in a good way. Social media promotes the underlying belief that not only are we all ‘in this together’ but that we are all the same – human – and we should connect on that level. The implications are endless.

So enjoy the stories that Brad McCarty wrote about – and then, we invite you to go make your own success story – isn’t that still the American Dream?

Tags: internet marketing, Marketing, reno marketing, Reno Social Media, Social Media
Posted in Do Good in the World, Inspiration, Online Advertising In Reno, Online Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Innovative Marketing

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Recently, I came across a blog post that got my attention. 9 Ways to Keep Innovation Alive in Your Marketing Organization, posted by Matt Heinz from Innovation Excellence, he writes about Innovation and Marketing, two things I find very useful and interesting.

Several of the ‘9 Ways’ are things that most (successful) companies are already doing – things like tracking progress, predicting trends (or at least watching them), and focusing on teamwork as a way to brainstorm diverse ideas. My favorite, though, is number 5 – let everyone contribute, even (or especially) employees outside of the marketing department.

Why is cross-contributing so important?

Because, as Heinz describes, many of these employees have ideas about how to reach your audience. I would specify that the user-facing employees know more about what the customer is looking for or what things push them to buy your product over another brand than your marketing department. This is valuable information that is available to your company! However, the company culture has to be supporting it, asking for it, rewarding it and following through on the ideas they get for this to be truly successful.

As any good marketing professional would tell you – knowing what your target audience wants is imperative for creating a marketing strategy that will tell the story of how your product or service can fit into the lives of your consumers and why they need to purchase what you have to offer.

Innovation Speaks to All of Us

Innovation is something that speaks to all of us – we are all interested in the newest, shiny, tech savvy bauble; the more bells and whistles (or functionality as we have come to know it), the better. Humans are observant and have a relatively natural ability to look at something they are doing and see how it could be done better. Utilize these instincts and ideas to find new things that will resonate with your audience in a new way, or explain the use of your product or service in new terms.

What kind of innovation does your marketing need?

Give us a call at 775-322-3663 and we can help you find out!

For the full blog post from Matt Heinz, please click here.

Tags: blog, internet marketing, Marketing, reno marketing, Reno Social Media, Social Media
Posted in Inspiration, Online Marketing, Reno Marketing Meanderings, Social Media, Uncategorized | 24 Comments »

How Can YOU Be Social In Just 10 Minutes A Day?

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

In this fast paced, busy world, we all have to make decisions on how to best spend our time. We prioritize our lives based on several factors, including: the most ‘bang for our buck’, the urgency of the situation, and the level of scrutiny by people to whom we are held accountable.

Often, we hear that the number one reason why social media isn’t a ‘main focus’ is the time involved. That is why we are sharing this e-book from HubSpot that we read: How to Monitor Your Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day

In the article, your 10 minutes of social media monitoring starts with 3 minutes to check the Twitter chatter about your company and your competitor (set up a search and save for your own and competitors names); next, take 2 minutes to scan Google News and Blog Alerts for important articles; third, use 3 more minutes filtering and flagging industry related questions so that you can be the first to correctly answer them in a timely manner; finally, use the last 2 minutes to check your Facebook wall and comment where appropriate.

In order to be successful with this strategy, you must set very specific goals: ask yourself what you want to accomplish and which of the social media platforms will help you reach those goals. Then see if you can use any of our ideas below to further decrease your time investment and increase your productivity while on social platforms.

Blog Integration

If you post a blog, you can save a lot of time (and energy) by setting up your blog to feed directly to each of your social media platforms. This level of integration across your platforms will not only save you time, it will also show that you understand how the various social media platforms work together.

Social Media Management Software

Rather than taking the time to log in to each of the platforms you wish to review or post on, you can set up one of the many free Social Media Management tools (HootSuite, TweetDeck, TweetMe, Seesmic, etc.) to do all the heavy lifting for you. These platforms do essentially the same task – they compile your accounts from the various social media platforms in a way that allows you to see what you are most interested in, comment, post, tweet, retweet, search, etc., from one tool! How great is technology?!

Manage Your News

Rather than going to each blog you appreciate to read their newest posts – why not use a tool that will bring all that information to you?! This tool, usually called a “reader”, works much like the social media management tool – but it pulls information to you from other websites and blogs. These tools (Google Reader, Netvibes, among others) are fantastic ways to pull in the most recent and relevant information automatically.

Tags: marketing online, save time, Social Media, social media managment
Posted in Social Media | 22 Comments »

Best Practices for Reno Business
and the Local Social Media Scene

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Reno Business & Reno Social Media…
Friend or Foe?

Is Social Media important to your customers?
Then use it (wisely)!

Social Media: Marketers love it, social butterflies love it, the cool and the hip love it, young people love it and traditional business models are experimenting with it, and trying to figure how, and if, they should love it.

As you can imagine, Social Media is not everything to everyone and there are definitely naysayers out there. But if you listen to the ongoing buzz of Social Media, it pretty clear there are a lots of reasons to embrace it and its not going away anytime soon. But like all things that are new, it is best to approach with patience, common sense, an attitude for learning and maybe a sense of adventure.

And if you have a tight calendar with lots of tasks and activities, then limit your time for engaging and be clear about your reasons for being involved. Otherwise you will drown in a seemingly endless sea of tweets, posts, tips, rants, links, “What I had for lunch” (Like I care), and thinly veiled self-promotional hype.

No Question… Social Media is here to stay

There are thousands of people, noted experts, self-proclaimed experts and social media minions, who endlessly preach and glorify social media while basking in its endless surge… yes endless.. (as long as we have electricity and the internet I guess).

But what about the rest of us?Does it really matter? Are customers listening? Well I think Social Media just a new way of delivering info and connecting with people? Just a larger scale of older technologies. that used to be the realm of real face-to-face interactions?

My Advise: Keep it Real, Honest, Inclusive, Enjoyable, and Value-Rich. And remember to get, or keep, you life intact… There is more to living than being online.

Social Media Basics: Tremendous and helpful information from Mashable.com

Start here for the basics on how and why your business should be implementing a social media campaign.

Sign up, stay on message, and utilize some leading sites and apps that can give your business a social edge.

These posts have real-world advice and examples of how businesses have succeeded on social networks. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn and beyond, here are the resources you’ll need to get started.

– Social Media 101: How to Avoid Alienating Your Customers

– Why Should Traditional Businesses Care about Social Media?

– 10 of the Best Social Media Tools for Entrepreneurs

– Putting Social Media in Real Life Context for SMBs

– Why Your Business Needs to Be on Facebook

– Making Social Media a Tool, Not a Distraction

– How to Use Twitter Hashtags for Business

– 5 Mistakes to Never Make on Twitter

– 5 Small Businesses Successfully Using Social Media

– 3 Great Social Media Policies to Steal From

– 5 Secrets From Social Media Insiders

– Social Media: What’s Next

Tags: Social Media, social media for business, social media for reno businesses
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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