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Technology has changed the way brands communicate with customers. Rather than relying on archaic print advertising, small businesses must be on the front lines of all social media platforms. But as a small business owner with finite resources, how do you successfully use social media marketing? In this whitepaper, we'll teach you how to target local customers, manage your brand reputation, and utilize analytical tools to seamlessly integrate social media into your marketing strategy.
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© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
Table Of Contents
• The Age of the Social Consumer. – Page 1
• Principle 1: Social, Local, Mobile Marketing. – Page 2
• Principle 2: Reputation Management. – Page 3 & 4
• Principle 3: Measurement and Continuous Improvement . – Page 4
• Conclusion. – Page 5
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
In the Age of the Social Consumer
Before the existence of the internet, a
company would ask, “How can we integrate our
various marketing tools – radio, print, TV,
billboards, publicity, and direct-mail – to achieve
the optimal marketing mix while maintaining a
cohesive and unified message?”
In digital marketing, we ask, how can we integrate
social media into our online and offline marketing
mix? It's really the same question, just updated for
the digital world. And it's a question on which the
success of your marketing efforts could well
depend.
Some companies regard social media as a
silo cut off from traditional marketing
programs. This is something to avoid,
given that social media can be particularly
powerful when integrated into your larger
marketing mix.
Many small businesses, it appears, already got the
memo. A new study by Constant Contact confirms
that more business owners are now integrating
social media marketing into their mix. In fact, 77
percent of the survey's respondents reported that
they regularly conduct social media marketing
campaigns using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Whether you’re a fledgling small business just
getting a taste of social media or have a fully-
integrated social marketing strategy, here are three
tried-and-true strategies to achieve complete social
media integration for your small business.
Source: Constant Contact
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
1. SoLoMo: Social, Local, Mobile Marketing
Businesses today are faced with an impressive
challenge – meeting the wants and needs of
increasingly sophisticated, empowered, and
impatient consumers who are armed with
smartphones and tablets. This has led to SoLoMo,
a marketing concept that keeps businesses
relevant by:
A growing number of small businesses are
achieving true social-media integration by adopting
the SoLoMo model.
They are able to micro-target prospects and
consumers at a hyper-local level based on real-
time customer data. Businesses that satisfy the
immediate needs of consumers, whenever and
wherever they are, are rewarded with customer
loyalty.
There are a number of SoLoMo applications,
including Foursquare, Yelp, and Around Me, that
enable businesses to target potential customers
based on their geographic location. What's more,
SoLoMo is even influencing search engine results,
which now take into account user location.
Businesses are getting the message.
According to the Constant Contact study, 66
percent of small and medium-sized business
owners are now using mobile devices as part
of their marketing strategies.
What's more, a third of them already have mobile-
optimized websites and 18 percent employ mobile,
tablet-based point-of-sale systems.
A new study by the Pew Research Center reports
that 25 percent of mobile phone owners look up
pricing to see if they can get a better price
somewhere else.
Businesses that adopt the SoLoMo model are in
position to engage these consumers at the right time
– the moment they are motivated to buy. Businesses
that don't are at significant disadvantage.
• Being social
• Thinking local
• Investing in mobile
% of SMBs
Mobile Technology Adoption
34% Have a mobile optimized website
18% Use mobile POS systems
Source: Pew Research
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
2. Reputation Management
How do small businesses protect their reputations?
Until recently, it was mostly a matter of providing
quality products and services, and counting on
customers to spread word-of-mouth buzz. When
encountering a customer complaint, they
addressed the issue privately.
This was before the advent of social media --- now
customer feedback, both negative and positive,
spreads in real-time through Social Media's echo
chamber, which includes sites like Yelp,
TripAdvisor, Google+, and Foursquare.
According to the Pew Research Center’s In-Store
Mobile Commerce Study, 28 percent of mobile users
check and monitor online reviews of a product or
service while inside a store location.
These reviews help drive purchase decisions. With
so many consumers posting, reading, and sharing
online reviews, it’s now critical for small businesses
to proactively manage their online and offline
reputations.
A recent study by consulting company
YouGov reveals that as much as 21 percent
of Americans who have written reviews on
the Internet did so without even buying or
trying the product.
Add to this the popularity of fake online reviews, and
you can see the problem. The key is to monitor
everything that is being said about your company
across multiple social media platforms.
A good online reputation is the result of effective
social media integration.
Sources: Pew Research, YouGov
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
Planning and coordination are
essential to effective social medial
integration – the right hand needs to know what the
left hand is doing. When your well-intentioned staff
members post comments without authorization,
reign them in. Companies can exercise control over
their employees, but they cannot control what their
customers say about them, nor should they try.
When confronted with a negative comment, start by
reading it slowly and carefully. Don't get mad or
defensive and try to see it from the perspective of
your customer. By addressing a customer issue
promptly and professionally, businesses can turn a
potential crisis into an opportunity to connect at an
even deeper level with their audience.
Are you looking to get your arms around
your company's online reputation? For
starters, try Google Alerts.
For a more comprehensive solution, consider
investing in online reputation management
software and social media monitoring tools. These
platforms collect millions of social media posts daily
from Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and forums. You
can search for any social-media conversation that
contains mention of key brand names, competitors,
industry jargon, social hash-tags, and trending
topics, among others.
Finally, remember that no review – good or bad,
real or fake – should be ignored. Listen, be
vigilant, and always respond promptly and
professionally.
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
3. Measurement & Continuous Improvement
Integration involves making the various social
media tools you have at your disposal work
individually and collectively for maximum marketing
performance. This raises a question: What does
success look like and how do we measure it? By
utilizing the “Feedback Loop”:
Experimentation
Willingness to try new approaches in social media
and content marketing is essential to your
company's success; without this, your brand may
grow stale and unable to compete with more
innovative companies.
Measurement and Analysis
Use data and analytics to measure your progress.
Social analytic platforms like HootSuite, SocialBro,
Facebook Insights, and Visible can provide small
businesses with insights into campaign
performance. Other common metrics include
visibility in SERPs, total impressions generated by
PPC ads, clicks, and conversions. During this
phase, key inquiries include:
• Who is our user base and how are they being
referred to our site?
• Where are we engaging and where are we
practically invisible?
• What is working and with whom?
• Where are we losing conversions?
Modification and Adaptation
Actionable data should guide any changes to your
social media strategy. Maybe Twitter isn't driving
traffic to your website; armed with this knowledge,
you can reallocate resources. Perhaps you'll find that
Pinterest, though wildly popular, is not a great match
for your business if you are mostly targeting men.
It could be that your content is not
connecting with folks and is therefore not
being shared.
More positively, you may identify content that
passionately engaged your followers – and with this
feedback, you can repurpose, recreate, and retarget
your most popular content.
Given how rapidly technology is changing, what
works today may not work tomorrow. A focus on
measurement, continuous improvement, and
adaptation through the feedback loop is essential to
remaining relevant in the social media space.
Don’t let the rapidly changing social climate leave
you in the dark, scrambling to communicate with your
potential customers and failing to maximize your
social media efforts. Take the time today and follow
these three steps to a seamless social media
integration.
Experimentation Measurement
Analysis Modification Repeat
© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466
Harmonize your social.
Thanks and come back soon.
Whether you’re still discovering the power of each social media
platform or you’re already seeing the benefits of an established
online community, follow these 3 principles to a seamlessly
optimized small business social marketing strategy.
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