Tag Archive for: social business

How Social Media Can Help Your Business [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Social media can mean big things for your business, and the numbers are there to show it.

Considering all the literature, statistics and case studies that exist to show how beneficial social media can be for your business, there are still marketers out there that are hesitant to adopt it. Whether it is a question of not knowing how to use it, or not understanding how to measure it, people still seem to be having a tough time crossing that last hurdle when it comes to implementing a fully integrated social media strategy.

Every second a brand does not have a presence on social media, it is losing out. There is an international conversation taking place and people want to hear from you! Don’t believe us? This infographic gives a short, sweet breakdown of just how active social media is and gives a good indication of how important social media can be for your business.

Read through the information and let us know which statistic you think is the most important when it comes to building your business through social media. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

social media fun facts infographic

Social Media: Week-in-Review, April 13, 2013

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In case you missed some of the topics we covered this week, here is the social media week-in-review!

social media conversationsSocial Media: 5 Methods to Convince C-Level Skeptics

Social media can be a tough sell when it comes to the corporate level. It is generally the last hurdle marketers need to cross, but the most important one of the lot! These 5 tips can help any marketers showcase the importance of social media, and get your program going by convincing your executives.

Pinterest Marketing: 7 Useful Tools

Pinterest has been an unstoppable juggernaut in the world of social media marketing these last few years. As such, several tools have been developed to help take you Pinterest marketing to the next level. Find out what some of the best Pinterest marketing tools are in this post.

Social Care: Customer Service on Social Media

More and more, people are turning to social media when they have an issue to deal with. As such, it is important for companies to be engaging in some form of social care. In this post, we explain why social care is an important phenomenon, and what some of the benefits are when it comes to engaging in customer service on social networks.

Social Media Case Study: Heineken

Heineken has developed an incredible social network worthy of being called the best of its competitors in 2012. In this week’s social media case study, we aim to pinpoint what it is that has made Heineken’s limited edition bottle redesign such a successful campaign.

social equity google plus google+Social Equity: How Google+ Adds Value to Your Business

Many people have written off Google+, suggesting that it is not an active enough network on which to engage. The fact of the matter is, Google+ is a fierce competitor in the social media world, and can have great effects on your Social Equity. Read this week’s Social Equity segment to find out how Google+ can add value to your business!

Have a look through some of these great articles and enjoy your weekend!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Equity: How Google+ Adds Value to Your Business

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Many people do not believe in the power of Google+, but when it comes to Social Equity, the network cannot be ignored.

social equity google plus google+With regards to Google+, a great degree of the power of the network is derived from the reality that Google+ is owned by Google. Anything with the Google backing is automatically worth your consideration, and there is an inherent element of Social Equity added to your business because of it. But to simply say that the Social Equity of Google+ is derived from the fact that it is operated by Google is superficial and, more importantly, a misstatement.

In this Social Equity segment, we aim to define where the value of Google+ lies, and how businesses can profit from a presence on Google’s social network.

The Power of Google

As noted above, to simply state that Google+ matters because of Google is both true and false. It is the favouritism that Google will undoubtedly show signals coming from it’s own network over others that marketers need to be conscious of.

In last week’s Social Equity segment, we discussed the value added to your business from a linkage of SEO and social media. Google+ plays a major role from this perspective due to the fact that +1s on Google+ automatically register to the network as social signal backlinks. That’s a powerful feature. The fact that activity on Google+ can increase your search rankings means an inherent degree of Social Equity. But where Google+ truly stands out is in its Communities.

social equity google plus communitiesGoogle+ Communities

One of the main criticisms of businesses when it comes to Facebook has to do with the EdgeRank system. Effectively, the EdgeRank system is a complex filtration algorithm that prevents “unwanted” content from appearing in your timeline. Why does “unwanted” have quotes around it? Well, the EdgeRank system determines, based on engagement rates and other factors, what that content is; not you. So essentially, a page may publish a piece of content that you might be interested in, but because of the EdgeRank system, it may not show up on your timeline and the company might lose out on a prospective customer. Bad for business.

With Google+ Communities, there is no risk of this happening. When people join these communities, it is because they all share a common interest. Thus, it is assumed that everyone wants to see all of the content being posted to a group’s feed. So where is the Social Equity? Every bit of content you post to Google+ is seen by those who have shown interest in said content, whether that interest is by joining a community or following your page.

An unlimited potential for exposure means that you can constantly be targeting individuals who have come to you. Google+ is a pseudo-inbound marketing funnel. Considering inbound marketing is 62% more efficient than traditional marketing, it is no wonder there is value added to your business from a presence on Google+.

Despite the wealth of criticism Google+ is subjected to, it endures. The fact of the matter is, with the backing of Google and highly valuable abilities when it comes to social media for business, there is a degree of Social Equity involved with Google+ that no other network offers.

How do you find value added to your business as a result of Google+ marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Media Case Study: Heineken

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Social media helps brands understand what their clients want, and few examples of that are better than Heineken’s limited edition bottle redesign.

social media case study heineken 1Social media is an excellent avenue when it comes to engaging with your fans, and if you can find a way to get their input, all the better. Late in 2012, Heineken decided to redesign their trademark bottle for a limited edition set to celebrate their 140th anniversary. Now, if we have learned anything from the numerous redesigns of the Facebook page, it is that, for the most part, people do not like change, particularly when that change involves something as timeless as the Heineken bottle. So how do you ensure that the backlash will not be severe, particularly when it is in celebration of your brand’s 140th year in business? Turn to social media.

The Campaign

Mark van Iterson, Heineken’s Global Head of Design and his team decided that they would create a limited edition Heineken bottle that incorporated past designs and contemporary twists to mark the company’s 140th anniversary. However, instead of using a small team of in-house designers, van Iterson decided to reach out to Heineken’s massive social network (measured as the top beer on social media by L2 Think Tank) and offer fans a chance to redesign their favorite beer’s bottle.

Tens of thousands of submissions came pouring in from all over the world, and five finalists were chosen for a vote. However, to further promote the efforts of those who contributed, Heineken plans to showcase 30 designs at the Milan Design Week (April 2013) and produce, promote and sell the limited edition winning bottle at the end of this year.

The Lessons

Social media is such a powerful tool when it comes to crowdsourcing. Heineken recognized that and used social media, Facebook in particular, to put together this campaign. A lot of intuition went into effectively executing this campaign, and marketers should be aware of the goals and lessons this case study showcases.

social media goal settingKnow Your Goals

Campaigns are fun, and some can be extremely successful. But in order to know whether or not your campaign was a success, you need to know what your goals are. For Heineken, the obvious goal was using their fan base to source a new design for a limited edition bottle. In an interview with ChiefMarketer.com, van Iterson states: “The goal is twofold. For us at Heineken it is fantastic to get ideas and designs that we didn’t think of ourselves. This unlocks huge creativity, and certainly will bring surprises, excitement and very fresh concepts. For a progressive brand like Heineken, always striving to innovate, improve and find fresh ideas, this is a great source.”

But what about the less apparent goals? Heineken gained a lot more than just a few bottle design suggestions. They gave their fans an opportunity to feel like they were important to the creative process. As we have noted in the past, engagement on social media builds your brand’s image. For Heineken, the goal here was to boost engagement with their fan base by offering them the opportunity to, in a way, join the Heineken team – and they succeeded.

Ask Your Audience

When it comes to social media, one of the reasons why people follow, like, or become fans of a brand is because they are already customers. In the beer world, there is plenty of competition, so when you have set of customers, your goal is to keep them coming back. How? Engage with them on social media.

Heineken had the opportunity to reach out to their audience for input when redesigning their bottle and the response was staggering. People are on social media to talk, so instead of sitting in silence, talk with them!

The New Survey, Poll and Focus Group

social media surveyWhy do programs succeed? Why do they fail? What would improve a program? Traditionally, these were questions answered by focus groups or surveys. But that’s marketing in the past. Social media is the new survey, poll and focus group, all in one place. Heineken capitalized on that fact and saved tremendously on both the cost of designing the bottle in-house and the potential cost of the bottle flopping in an unappreciative market.

Social media is a place where people lie to their friends and tell the truth to strangers. Do what Heineken did and take advantage of that.

Have you launched any campaigns asking your audience to participate? Tell us about it in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Care: Customer Service on Social Media

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Social care is of ever-growing importance when it comes to social media for business, and it is important to understand what it is and how it differs from conventional customer service.

The Social Media Report 2012 from Nielsen and NM Incite explained a relatively new phenomenon: social care. What is social care? Social care is the concept of handling a portion (or, in some cases, all) of your customer service using social media.social care social media customer service

This has been a growing trend in recent years and the majority of consumers have undoubtedly come across examples of social care when dealing with a brand. Perhaps the best known example of using social care to improve a brand’s client engagement and change client perceptions is Comcast.

Ever since Frank Eliason founded the @ComcastCares program, the company has seen a massive turnaround in terms of customer satisfaction and brand perception. That’s all thanks to social care.

Below are a few key benefits to note when it comes to social care, and a few reasons why it is of growing importance in the world of customer service.

It’s Popular!

According to the study by Nielsen and NM Incite, 47% of social media users engage in some form of social care. Furthermore, one in three social media users prefer social care to contacting a company by phone. With that high of a demand, it seems almost counter-intuitive to not have a department for social care.

It’s Convenient

If you ask anyone if they enjoy waiting on the phone for a customer service representative while listening to monotonous elevator music, the answer will almost certainly be uniformly, “No.” Social care eliminates this process and allows users to ask their question and go about their daily activities while waiting for a response. This also eliminates some of the pressure from the company. While it is important to respond in a timely fashion, customer service representatives are not faced with the potential of dealing with a frustrated customer who has been waiting an exceptionally long time.

social care twitterIt’s Less Expensive

Now we’ve got your attention! Social care offers a less expensive alternative to conventional customer service. Engaging with your audience on social media does not require as large a team as conventional forms of customer service. As noted above, the convenience aspect means that a smaller team can be engaging with issues as they arise as opposed to a large team dealing with a heavy volume of phone calls as quickly as possible.

It’s Public

@ComcastCares showed the market that Comcast really did care. The result? A huge spike in business and customer satisfaction. The fact that social media is a public medium means that people are able to see how you treat your customers, and if you really do care (and you should) it will show through social care. When people see that you treat your customers well, they are all the more likely to choose you when making their decision.

Social care is an important phenomenon and, slowly, becoming one of the most prominent forms of customer service.

Have you implemented any form of social care? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Pinterest Marketing: 7 Useful Tools

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Pinterest marketing recently received a boost with the integration of backend analytics on Pinterest. These 7 tools can further benefit your Pinterest marketing strategy.

pinterest marketing social mediaLittle by little, Pinterest is becoming more business friendly. First, there was the launch of business pages, and recently there was the announcement of integrated insights for businesses. This is an exciting time for Pinterest marketing, and for those evangelists, here are some great tools to help boost your Pinterest marketing efforts.

1. Piqora

Formerly known as Pinfluencer, Piqora is a fantastic tool when it comes to Pinterest marketing. With Piqora, users can build campaigns, track results, obtain more in-depth insights than those provided by basic analytics and measure both your influence in your community and the influence others have on their communities. This is an excellent tool for those serious about Pinterest marketing.

2. Pinpuff

Ever wonder how influential you are to your Pinterest community? Pinpuff is a fairly simple and easy-to-use tool that lets you know how influential you are to your community on Pinterest. Similar to the influence-measuring features in Piqora but without all of the technical elements.

3. Shopinterest

We have mentioned how to create catalogues in Pinterest, but what if you took your Pinterest marketing a step further and allowed your followers to not only see products you offer, but purchase them? Shopinterest, in beta at the moment, is currently offering users the ability to build stores and sell goods to engaged users – for free!

4. Reachli

Reachli is great not only for Pinterest, but any form of visual marketing. The tool allows you to build your campaigns and market them across a variety of networks. You can then closely track the progress of your campaigns with the broad analytics offered in the backend, and adjust your campaigns according to where you see the most success.

pinterest marketing tools5. Pinalytics

A great tool that takes the insights offered for free in the backend of your own profile and applies them broadly across the entirety of the social network. Use Pinalytics to search for a keyword, term or user and see all of the trending activity and analytics that go with that search. This is a great tool to see what topics are garnering high levels of engagement.

6. HelloInsights

This great Pinterest tool provides you with a set of helpful insights that allow you to ‘pin intelligently’. Use the information to find out what is working, what isn’t and where, when and with whom you are getting the best results.

7. Pinstamatic

Ever wonder why some people have better boards than everyone else? With Pinstamatic, you can be right on top with your competition. This tool allows you to customize your boards to maximize engagement with add-ons like quotations, music maps and much more!

These are just a few of the great tools out there that should help with your Pinterest marketing. Pinterest is still an evolving tool, so keep your eyes open for new changes and updates that are geared to help marketers.

What tools do you use when it comes to maximizing your Pinterest marketing strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Media: Week-in-Review, April 6, 2013

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In case you missed some of the topics we covered this week, here is the social media week-in-review!

Pinterest Marketing: Need-toKnow Updates [INFOGRAPHIC]social media pinterest

With the recent Pinterest updates, there is quite a bit social marketers need to be aware of. This infographic does an excellent job of outlining what new features exist, what features have been removed from the photo-sharing network, and how marketers should adapt to these changes.

Social Media SEO: The New Backlink Strategy

When it comes to SEO, social media is of ever-growing importance. Link-building has long been one of the foundational pillars of successful SEO, and with a proper social strategy in place, you can take your link-building to the next level.

10 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools

Success in social marketing is all about having an effective strategy in place, but tools can be a great compliment to your program. These 10 free social media monitoring tools can help you maxiomize your efforts in social marketing, and expand your reach considerably.

social media youtubeSocial Media Case Study: Gillette

In 2010, with the World Cup right around the corner, Gillette wanted to attract a new customer base in Italy – males under the age of 25. They knew that social was important, and aimed to expand their presence in this new market using YouTube. The results were outstanding and we highlight some of the key lessons for marketers in this week’s social media case study.

Social Equity: Social Media and SEO

Linking your social media strategy to your SEO efforts can have dramatic effect when it comes to Social Equity. In this week’s Social Equity segment, we look at the value added to your business as a result of having highly correlated social media and SEO strategies.

Have a look through some of these great articles and enjoy your weekend!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Equity: Social Media and SEO

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Social Equity stands to increase significantly as a result of the benefits social media has with regards to SEO.

social equity social media seo

The secrecy surrounding search engine algorithms has resulted in a great deal of conjecture when it comes to social media factoring into SEO. That said, allusions made by executives, such as Matt Cutts at Google, have led to inferences that social media is a major factor when it comes to optimizing your content for search engines. As a result, your brand’s Social Equity stands to benefit greatly due to the fact that SEO is still one of the most successful means of getting found.

In today’s Social Equity segment, we aim to show where Social Equity is derived from the incorporating of social media into your SEO.

Where Are the SEO Benefits from Social Media?

In order to understand how an intertwining of social media and SEO add value to your business, it is first crucial to understand where SEO stands to benefit as a result of social signals.

social media seo social signals

The chart on the left was derived from research conducted by Searchmetrics. What the data shows is how heavily social signals (data from activity on social media channels) weigh into rankings on search engines. (For the graph on the left, rankings in the U.S.) Last year, traditional link-building, one of the cornerstones of conventional SEO, had been surpassed by Facebook shares.

Essentially, social signals and sharing register with search engines as links (if, of course, what is being shared contains a link to your content or a landing page). Thus, as the popularity of social media continues to grow, the importance of factoring SEO into your social strategy grows with it.

This is where Social Equity comes into the mix.

Social Equity Derived from Social Media and SEO

A properly formulated SEO strategy that incorporates your social media will result in a tremendous value added with regards to Social Equity. This holds true for two reasons.

First, traditional SEO is an ongoing process that requires numerous man hours and ongoing expenses. With social media factoring as heavily as it does into the equation, you stand to save quite a bit of resources when it comes to your investment in SEO. Considering the strength of social sharing, the link-building process is both faster and collaborative. So there is a two-fold benefit here: both your audience and your search rankings are being built up as you invest in your social media strategy.

Second, for many verticals, SEO is still a major focus when it comes to determining market share. In fact, a study conducted by Optify showed that the top result on Google receive over 35% of clicks from a search. Social media activity allows you to rise through the Google ranks, and when you stand a chance to generate more than a third of all traffic for a given keyword (or better yet, multiple keywords) the value of your website and business as a whole stands to rise.

Traditional SEO is still of great importance to your business’s value. But when it comes to Social Equity and the value added to your business as a result of social activity, it is essential that you incorporate social media into your SEO strategy. Your shareholders will thank you.

Have you seen your search rankings rise since beginning your social media program? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Pinterest Marketing: Need-to-Know Updates [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Pinterest marketing underwent a major overhaul recently with the site’s re-design, and there are a lot of changes marketers need to be aware of when it comes to Pinterest marketing.

Pinterest has long been a favorite medium for the visual marketer. In fact, last week, our Social Equity segment focused on the value added to your business as a result of your Pinterest marketing efforts. Well, we thought we would start the week off in similar fashion by showing you exactly what (major) changes Pinterest has undergone in the last couple of weeks as a result of their site re-deign, and how your Pinterest marketing strategies might need to be tweaked as a result.

One of the most interesting sections in the infographic below is the ‘Features Removed’ category, which details what is no longer available on Pinterest. When it comes to Pinterest marketing, the three most important features to disappear are undoubtedly links, tweeting pins and liking boards on Facebook.

With regards to links, do not forget that embedded links still exist, so make sure to embed a link to your website or landing page in each of your images. It is the featured link in your description that is no longer included. The difficulty that arises with the other two lost features is that it makes one’s efforts to create a cohesive, interconnected social media marketing strategy somewhat more difficult. You’ll need to be a little more creative when it comes to your Pinterest marketing in order to maintain brand consistency across all of your social networks.

That said, the features added to the newly re-designed Pinterest make Pinterest marketing a whole lot of fun, and introduce an entirely new business aspect to the photo sharing social network.

Have a look at the infographic below and let us know what your favorite new feature is or what you will miss most from the old Pinterest design! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

pinterest marketing changes infographic

Social Equity: The Power of Pinterest

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Social Equity benefits from the hidden power of Pinterest.

One of the jewels of social media is Pinterest. Since its launch a few years ago, Pinterest has been an unstoppable juggernaut in the realm of social media, and the Social Equity your business can derive from Pinterest is as impressive as it is unique.social equity pinterest

Pinterest is not necessarily for every vertical, and it is important to understand that. While a presence on Pinterest can never hurt, it is not necessarily going to be your top generator of Social Equity if you do not meet the proper criteria – namely, that you are in a visual industry. Furthermore, if your business model is not necessarily apt for Pinterest (your average accountant may not be generating much revenue, Social Equity or referral traffic from Pinterest) you might be devoting precious resources to maintaining your account, when they should be focused on other social networks. Having said that, if you put together a social media strategy and recognize the potential for your business on Pinterest, the Social Equity you generate will be among the greatest of any of the networks we have discussed so far.

First, we should understand what makes Pinterest such a powerful tool when it comes to business.

The Business Potential for Pinterest

About a year ago, Shareaholic released a study that found something incredible: Pinterest was a greater generator of referral traffic than Twitter. Twitter. A month prior to that, it was discovered that Pinterest surpassed Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined for referral traffic. Since then, the social network has only grown in power, and with their recently launched Analytics feature, it is no wonder that we are discussing the Social Equity of Pinterest. Now Pinterest, too, recognizes the value it adds to business.

With the newly launched analytics and insights feature for your Pinterest account, you can monitor exactly how your audience is interacting with your pins and the images on your site. Though it is still somewhat new and in its infancy, this feature can mean big things for the future of Pinterest for business.

Other Important (Often Overlooked) Features

People tend to overlook a lot of the important features in the backend of Pinterest when it comes to generating referral traffic and building Social Equity. First, one should note that pins themselves do not register with crawlers to help with your search rankings, but your boards do, so optimize them.

Second, add links and meta descriptions to your images, because if those are shared outside of Pinterest, all the better for your exposure. And if someone clicks on the image within Pinterest, they are headed right to your site.

Third and finally, by simply adding a price to your pin’s description, you can add a price to the top corner of your image and create a pseudo-catalog (for minimal cost compared to traditional print) and share it with your followers, updating it regularly.

Now if you apply these simple measures, you can start to understand the Social Equity derived from a Pinterest presence.

Social Equity of Pinterest

Captivating images are a great way to build a following. People do not necessarily like text, but they love visual explanations. Just look at the jump in the use of infographics to simplify complex, often dull bits of content.

Pinterest can be a tool to develop a social image for your brand outside of your corporate image. Social Equity is as much about the likeability of your brand as it is the direct value added to your business as a result of social activity. Pinterest is an avenue through which you can make yourself very likeable, very quickly.

pinterest catalog social equityFurthermore, on the advertising end of things, Pinterest can, as noted above, provide your brand with a cost effective means of showcasing new products, providing links to an e-commerce store whereby those who like your product can purchase it and, more importantly, save you a tremendous amount of expense when it comes to printing new catalogs. Of course, a business with a physical location would likely do both, but for those who cannot come to your store, imagine the added value of having a virtual version of your catalog that not only features prices and availability, but links directly to the item in your virtual store.

In our social media case study about Burt’s Bees posted yesterday, we noted the increase in online sales Burt’s Bees experienced as a result of simplifying the buying process for their Facebook fans. (You can read the full article here.) Pinterest allows you to do the same thing, and a simple purchasing process with few or no hurdles means more customers and faster conversions.

Pinterest is a constantly and very quickly evolving tool. But with each step Pinterest takes, the Social Equity it stands to generate for your business goes a step further as well. Furthermore, because of its youth, there is still so much that has yet to be tried when it comes to Pinterest campaigns and promotions, and when it is something visual, it is often something intriguing. First to the social media market typically means biggest gains, and that goes both for financial and Social Equity gains.

Where have you found the value added to your business from Pinterest? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

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