When clients initially come to Blue Fountain Media, our team always makes a point of asking them if they are satisfied with their website’s performance. Many of them find this to be an intriguing question. They know their sites can be doing better, but they’re just not sure how.

In our years of launching and re-launching websites, we have developed some tried and true ways to enhance and increase the performance of the sites we work on.

But first, let us define what we mean by performance.

When doing business online, performance means:

• Increased conversions
• More prominent placement in Google search results
• Greater repeat visits and customer retention
• Ultimately greater sales and brand exposure

So, how do you go about increasing the performance of your website?

1. Create Effective Landing Pages

A landing page is a page designed to receive the traffic generated by a specific marketing campaign. The job of a landing page is to convert that traffic into actions, such as a phone call, sign up, download or a purchase.

Usually, the most effective landing page is not your homepage, but a far more targeted page focusing on a single message. Let me give you an example of how this works.

Focus your message

Say that you are a store like Macy’s, a store with hundreds of product lines and thousands of products. When Macy’s advertises or markets a specific product or vendor online, it will direct the traffic to the specific page of the product or vendor being promoted. So, if Macy’s is promoting a sale on handbags, it is far more effective to drive traffic to a landing page featuring handbags than it would be to send them to the Macy’s homepage. Think of it as eliminating the middleman.

Every step you can eliminate in the purchasing process increases the likelihood of nailing down the sale. Similarly, for a service provider, if you can direct someone interested in a very specific service to a landing page featuring that specific service, then you are far more likely to convert that individual into a client than if you sent them to a page featuring multiple services.

Provide value added content

The web has done an amazing job of empowering consumers. Online, brands no longer have the luxury of delivering a one-way marketing message. To message effectively on the web it is critical that you provide information that serves the needs of your target audience.

For example, if you are selling a camera, provide value added content educating the visitor on the features, ease of use and specifications. If you can, it is even more effective to add a brief video tour of the product as video is more effective in creating a conversion than just a picture and a price.

Similarly, if you provide a service, focus on providing your visitors with practical information that both demonstrates your expertise and serves your client’s needs.

When clients receive more useful information on a product or service, they are more likely to buy. This is the kind of information that enhances your brand, builds trust and makes people want to do business with you.

Provide calls to action

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make online is to forget to give visitors the tools to take the next step, whether it’s making a purchase or requesting more information. If you are using your website to drive business, then give your visitors the “keys” to the car.

If you want them to buy, give them a large “buy now” button. If you want them to request a quote, then put the button right in their line of vision and make it large enough so it can’t be missed or ignored. Even if you just want them to take a baby step, give your visitors the opportunity to “inquire about this service/product” or “learn more, share, forward to a friend, request contact, download now,” etc.

Whatever action you desire from your visitor, make sure that is simple and intuitive for them to take that action!

The SEO Value of an Effective Landing Page

An effective landing page will not only help you get immediate conversions, but is a great tool for SEO (search engine optimization). As discussed above, a well-targeted landing page should provide explanations and detailed information on specific products or services. This kind of information is filled with the keywords that search engines, such as Google, love. As users search for the kinds of products or services you provide they will be much more likely to find you if you are at or near the top of the search results.

2. Improving Your Message

Visitors to any website have a remarkably short attention span. To capture them and turn visitors into customers or clients, you need to deliver your company’s central messages clearly, quickly and convincingly.

This can be accomplished by keeping your message simple and not overwhelming your visitors with massive blocks of text. As a major user of the internet, I can tell you my eyes glaze over when I see large paragraphs of text on a homepage or on any other landing page.

I always advocate using sparse copy and large fonts to get a visitor’s attention. The main job of a homepage is to deliver your central message and then create pathways to the internal landing pages that best serve the needs and interest of the visitors.

A great example of this is the Zappos.com homepage. They Use large fonts, keep the copy to a minimum and provide clear paths to the appropriate internal pages (“Dresses for all Occasions” “Fall Catalogue,” “faux and fabulous,” etc.).

While the subject of online messaging is brings up too many areas to handle in a single article, let me focus on one tool that can be particularly effective in delivering your core company message: video.

A video gives you the opportunity to speak directly with current and potential customers. It not only puts a human face on your company, but it can be a great way of demonstrating your expertise and your value proposition.

Many businesses are reluctant to create videos because they feel as if they need to have Hollywood quality production values and feel that such production values require an enormous investment. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Creating a quality video today is dirt cheap. You can buy a decent video camera for about $100. You can post the video to YouTube and then use that video right on your home page. Deliver your company’s message honestly and passionately and you will find the video to be a very powerful sales and marketing tool.

3. Give Your Visitors a Reason to Come Back

There are millions of people surfing the Internet. It takes work, marketing and creativity just to get them to come to your website for the first time. Once you are fortunate enough to be on a visitor’s radar, then it is critical to keep them coming back to your site again and again. Why? Because studies show that visitors to your site are rarely converted on the first visit.

The key to getting repeat visitors is to give them compelling reasons to return. Some of things I see on successful sites include:

• Practical articles providing information of real use to your visitors (example, is a ‘how to’ or ‘benefits of’, ‘new technologies’, ‘best practices’, etc)

• A regularly updated blog or another content driven portion of your site. Don’t be scared to incorporate videos.

• Opportunities for user-generated content

• Sign up to newsletter and/or RSS feeds and make sure its informative

• Practical “how to” advice

4. Make Better Use of Social Media

It seems like most companies have finally understood the fact that you need to be involved in social media. Unfortunately, very few companies have a clue as how to use social media effectively on a company website.

Just putting a bunch of icons like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn on the top of your website is good, but is mostly ineffective as the vast majority of users don’t click on them.  So how do you use social media as a business-generating tool?

The key is to integrate these platforms with compelling content on your site. If you provide interesting articles relating to your business, articles that visitors would really be interested in sharing, then give your visitors the opportunity to share that content through a variety of social media platforms.

If you provide great content, your visitors will email it to a friend, Tweet about it and even “like” that content and share it on Facebook. By having your visitors do your marketing for you, you have created a path to a much larger audience.

5. Measure and Monitor Your Results

This final point is- by far- the most important point I will make in this article. When potential clients come to my office, I always ask them about how their website is doing.

• What kind of traffic are you getting? Where is it coming from?
• What is your conversion rate?
• What is your bounce rate (the percentage of visitors that see your homepage and leave before going anywhere else on your site)?
• How much time are they spending on your site?
• What is the last page they visit before leaving your site?

Amazingly, the vast majority have no clue as to how to answer these questions. These same people, if they have a brick and mortar store, can tell you exactly how many people come to their store, how many purchase and how many just walk out without buying anything.

Owners of brick and mortar stores watch customer behavior carefully and then adjust accordingly.

When you fail to monitor the behavior of the visitors to your website, you miss a huge opportunity to make the same kinds of adjustments that will enhance your business. If 70% of the people coming to your homepage leave without looking at any other page on your site, then you had better make some serious improvements to your homepage.

If people are trying to buy products on your site but abandon their purchases during the checkout period, then you had better fix the checkout process.

The good news is that this kind of information is not only readily available; it is free with services like Google Analytics. It is quickly installed and will immediately provide the kind of data and insights that will help you grow your business.

In Conclusion

Your website can be and should be your single greatest marketing and sales tool. By following some basic principles, you can greatly increase the performance of your website. At Blue Fountain Media, we implement these principles on our clients’ websites and marketing campaigns and enjoy sharing in their successes.

If you are looking to improve the performance of your business’s website, we would be happy to hear from. Please give us a call at 212.260.1978 to get the ball rolling.

If your company is looking for new opportunities to expand the reach of your business, your brand and its products and services, Tumblr is an ideal tool to incorporate into your social marketing strategy.

If you have useful and informative content that would capture the attention of potential clients or customers, Tumblr is a great venue for broadcasting that content.

A free micro-blogging service, Tumblr doubles as a social network with a built in audience of 6.6 million users and growing – many of whom may not have heard of your company, visited your website, read your blog, or followed your Facebook and Twitter pages.

Tumblr is gaining popularity among a younger crowd. For traditional companies trying to build relationships with that audience, Tumblr is winning points among social marketers and public relations in forging relationships with new consumers who they hope will become new customers.

With 6.6 million users, nearly 17 million blogs, and 1.5 billion monthly page view and growing by 400 million more pages every week, Tumblr shows no signs of slowing down.

Unlike traditional blogging platforms (e.g. WordPress, Blogger), wherein company executives, industry experts and individuals often post lengthy, deep-thought text about specific subjects, a microblog page is used to create a dialogue with customers by exchanging short bursts of content – sentences, questions, photos, video and audio links.

Creating a Tumblr page enables you to engage your intended business audiences, improve editorial coverage, augment your company blog and drive increased traffic to your website.

How Tumblr Works

Think of your Tumblr page as your own website and blog on steroids. Like your business website and your business blog,  your Tumblr page serves as a repository for information relating to your business and all of its offerings.

But unlike your website and blog, your Tumblr page is more about communicating with your target audiences and less about broadcasting to them. Somewhere between your Facebook and Twitter pages, Tumblr brings your brand’s reputation, products and services to the public arena, creating chatter that goes on every day in homes or around the office water coolers.

Designed for creative expression, Tumblr invites you to enter into a dialogue with your audiences by asking questions, posting individual items of interest, and making comments.

Using Tumblr can help establish you, and your team, as experts in your space or industry by providing valuable bits and bytes of information such as a link to an industry news article in which you are featured, a new service video at your YouTube page, or an audio clip of a recent conference speech.

Tumblr is a place people go to share things they really care about, and where audiences are moved to act.

Like Twitter and Facebook, Tumblr users decide who to follow. They can “like” an item, and re-blog it as you would “retweet” or “share”. The same way YouTube embedded links make it easy for a video to become a viral hit, the “reblog” button on all Tumblr posts allows a meme (a newly-coined term that identifies ideas, behaviors or styles that spread from person to person within a culture) to spread rapidly across thousands of blogs with just a click.

Your Tumblr followers also can ask questions and leave messages. If you wish, you also can create a group Tumblr microblog page so that your executives and employees also can contribute.

Since each Tumblr blog has its own URL, audiences don’t need to be a member of the Tumblr community to view your posts. The URL makes your Tumblr page available to everyone online.

Here are two Tumblr page samples:

Los Angeles TV station ABC Channel 7 uses its Tumblr page to update audiences with key news events and local happenings.

Renowned fashion designer Kate Spade, on the other hand, posts colorful and exciting images with brief descriptions that interest her clothing and accessory fans.

Getting Started

The simplicity and user-friendly interface of Tumblr makes using it a breeze.

All you need to do is create an account, choose a URL, select a design theme and you’re ready to begin posting.

It’s that quick and easy.

Once you’ve signed up, you will have the option to set up a custom domain name. If you have your own domain name, why not use it?  Not only will it make your Tumblr page look more professional, it will make it easier for people to find you and to remember your page.

After setting up your Tumblr account, you can begin to personalize your page’s appearance.

With Tumblr you don’t need to know code to design your page. The service boasts a user-friendly Dashboard and Customization options to make your page look professional.

First select from hundreds of themes in the Tumblr Theme Garden, or create something new and original with full markup and design control.

Once you’ve settled on your Tumblr page theme, you can begin to select the color schemes for your Tumblr page title, background, text, and links.

As with any sales and marketing presentation for your company, the more professional your Tumblr page looks and the fresher the content, the more effective it will be in helping your company achieve a high return on your Tumblr time investment.

You can choose to make your Tumblr page simple or elaborate. What’s most important is that you do it right.

Make certain that you clearly identify your business on your Tumblr page by including:

• Company logo and tagline
• Messaging that puts a human face on your business such as vision or mission statements, company culture, corporate giving
• Photos of company executives and staff, brand products and services, special events, community and charitable activities
• Brand messaging for your products and services
• Special sales, promotions, and events
• Industry honors and awards
• Testimonials

Once your Tumblr page is set up the way you want it, you can start posting immediately.

How to Post

Tumblr’s platform enables you to post your content from its Dashboard or by downloading the free iPhone, Android, or Blackberry applications.

With Tumblr, you can post easily from your web browser, mobile phone, desktop computer, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can post updates via AIM by messaging TumblrBot, or phone your TumblrBlog and leave voice posts. Tumblr also lets you automatically post from any other site or profile, or use the official Tumblr iPhone app to update your blog as well.

There are also other options including posting links from Bookmarklet and publishing via email and other third party applications that expand your options even further.

In addition to the free iPhone app officially available from Tumblr, you have access to applications for the iPhone, web, desktops, widgets, and browsers, which are all filed away neatly in the official Tumblr app directory.

You will want to add any analytics tracking code to your Tumblr page, as the site is optimized for Google in everything from the site plugs to the site map.

And with Tumblr’s built-in privacy system, you are allowed to restrict specific posts, or your whole blog to certain people. In addition, the FeedBurner support allows you to see important RSS feed statistics.

Content

Tumblr is where your content meets a captured audience. Where your conversations with potential and existing customers can take place by posting short-form, mixed-media posts that generate interest within the Tumblr community.

There are seven types of posts at Tumblr: text, photo, quote, link, chat and video. You can also ask or answers questions.

Like Twitter and Facebook, your Tumblr posts appear in a chronological stream on your Tumblr home page, known as the Dashboard.

Use your Tumblr page to target your audiences with fresh and exciting content.

Post a photo of a new product. Create text about a new value-added service. Pose a question to gauge public opinion. Upload audio and/or video links to a recent interview with the press, a radio or television commercial your company is airing, or an industry event in which you attended and/or won an award.

Don’t forget that your company’s Tumblr page is just one click away from your website and blog. Parlay your captive Tumblr audience into learning more about your company with direct links to:

• Corporate causes
• Products and services
• Mentions in the press
• Compelling sales offers and promotions

Be a resource to Tumblr users who are interested in your company’s area of expertise, your products and services, or the initiatives you are taking to better serve the community at large.

And take note: Tumblr is powered by tags. So tag your posts well.

In Conclusion

Tumblr can play an integral role in your overall marketing strategy, serving as a valuable a social media tool that can help empower your business “voice,” increase knowledge of your brand and traffic back to your website.

As with other social media tools and resources, Tumblr enables you to take ownership of your brand by sending out messages quickly to its community about what your company is doing, your brand and its products and services.

So if you’re looking for another quick and easy platform to target your audiences, start posting. Be visual. Strike up a conversation. Promote your own content and the content of others your audiences will find newsworthy and exciting.

It can happen to any business.

• A Tweet from an unhappy client that goes viral
• A nasty blog post from a disgruntled former employee
• An anonymous complaint written by an unscrupulous competitor.

On the web, it doesn’t really matter if the statements are true or false. Once they are published online, they are picked up by the search engines. It is a sad fact of doing business in the age of the Internet.

How do you fight back?

You can try to get the people who posted their nasty remarks to remove them, but that doesn’t always work. A far better way to go about it is to create a mountain of positive content to offset the negative. It is best to create the content before the negative comments appear online, because a trove of positive content can keep the negative content far, far away from the first page of search results for you or your company.

Here are seven ways to bolster your online reputation:

Your Business Website

If your business has a website, then, by all means, you should have a detailed personal profile in your “About” section. It should be search engine friendly with keywords emphasizing your areas of expertise. Your name should also appear in other areas of your business website. You will find that your business website will come up at or near the top of all search results.

Your Business Blog

If you do not have a blog, start one immediately! If you have the time and commitment, a personal blog is a great way of creating a significant body of content. This content is picked up by the search engines and will rise to a prominent place on your search results.

Beyond helping your search engine results, a blog can help humanize you and your business and help to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Social Media Accounts

Google and other search engines love the major social media sites and give them prominent placement in search results. As you can see from my personal Google results, my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts appear in the top 10 search results for my name.

Along with personal accounts, create company pages on social media platforms as well. Blue Fountain Media’s LinkedIn and Facebook company pages both appear in the top 10 results for a search for Blue Fountain Media.

Press

When it comes to online reputation management, having the press write about you can either be a great thing for your online reputation or a disastrous thing. No amount of content building will ever change the fact that a Google Search of Bernard Madoff will reveal pages and pages of negative press before you get to any results even mildly neutral.

Positive press mentions, especially from major news outlets, can provide a huge boost to your online persona.

I have been fortunate enough to receive positive press from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Crain’s New York, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Inc. and many other major media outlets. All of these press mentions serve to bolster my online reputation and have led to a significant increase in business.

Press Release

Distributing your press releases online can serve your business in numerous ways. Obviously is it a great way to get positive news of your business broadcast and it can lead to press coverage (see above), but press releases often get prominent placement in a business’s or executive’s search results.

Speaking Events

Speaking events provide yet another way to enhance your online reputation. The organization sponsoring the event publicizes you and you also have the opportunity to promote the event through emails and newsletters. All of these become positive fodder for search engines.

If you videotape the event, use a site like YouTube to get further positive links to your name and your business’s name.

Commenting

Yet another way to take control of your online persona is to comment on blogs and news stories. If you have something intelligent to add to the conversation, if there’s a way to demonstrate your particular expertise or insights, then- by all means- comment. The comments are treated like any other content and are picked up by the search engines.

In Conclusion

Your online reputation can either be a huge benefit to your business or it can destroy it. At Blue Fountain Media, we work with many clients on their online reputations. While we work with clients in “crisis management mode,” we prefer to build a solid online reputation long before there is any negative content to deal with. If you are interested in discussing your online persona, either as an individual or as a business, please call us at 212.260.1978.

I have been saying for a very long time that the future of business is mobile. I have also been saying that social media can level the playing field for small and medium businesses.

Virtually every business person has a Smartphone, iPad or other tablet device, allowing them to conduct business from wherever they may happen to be. Businesses that fail to jump on the mobile bandwagon today are digging themselves into a deep hole. One that will prove to be difficult to climb out of in the future.

My feelings on mobile were supported by a fascinating study conducted by AT&T and released last week.

In the study, AT&T surveyed over 2000 small business owners about their use of mobile technologies and social media. The results were enlightening:

• Nearly three-fourths (72%) indicated they use mobile apps in their business, with roughly four in ten (38%) reporting they could not survive – or it would be a major challenge to survive – without mobile apps
• 41% of small businesses surveyed have a Facebook page for their business, representing a 52% jump from last year
• Four in ten (40%) small businesses report all their employees use wireless devices or wireless technologies to work away from the office, a 66% jump over the past two years.

What does this mean for your business?

Mobile Applications:  Providing employees with mobile access allows them to conduct business anywhere in the world. Speaking of which, by far the most popular business mobile apps are GPS/navigation related apps, with 49% reporting they use them for their small business.

Remote Workers: Businesses are finding that employees who work remotely are often more productive. Telecommuters also save businesses the overhead costs associated with having staff on-site.

The AT&T study found that 40% of small businesses report that all their employees use wireless devices or wireless technologies to work away from the office.  This figure has grown from 28% in 2008 and is expected to grow to 50% by 2012.

Facebook: The study also found that small businesses are jumping on the Facebook bandwagon in huge numbers. No less than 41% of the small business owners surveyed reported that they have a Facebook page for their business, a 52% jump in the past year.

Not only are businesses jumping on the social media bandwagon, they are reporting positive results from their social media campaigns. Of all businesses reporting the utilization of social media, 41% claim to have had measurable success from their campaigns, including better communication and relationships with new and/or existing customers.

Wireless Technologies: The use of wireless technology has become nearly universal for small businesses.  Ninety-six percent of small businesses surveyed use wireless technologies and 64% said they could not survive — or it would be a major challenge to survive — without wireless technology.

“From mobile apps and smartphones to Wi-Fi hotspots and cloud-based services, AT&T enables small businesses to be more productive, efficient and successful on their terms,” said Lori Lee, AT&T senior vice president of Small Business Marketing.

In Conclusion

Mobile technologies and social media are invaluable tools for businesses of all sizes. The AT&T study shows that these tools are great for saving resources, reaching out to customers and empowering your workforce.

At Blue Fountain Media, besides designing, developing and marketing websites, we advise clients on all of their technological needs and social media marketing strategies. We would welcome the opportunity to help take your business to the next level. If you’d like to discuss your technology needs, your social media strategies or anything to do with doing business online, please give us a call at 212.260.1978.

What does this mean for you? Businesses that fail to stay on top of online marketing trends and don’t actively participate in a variety of online marketing platforms are doing themselves a great disservice.

What follows are just a few things every business should be aware of as it plans for 2011 and beyond:

Take Social Media Seriously

In 2010, businesses flocked to social media outlets. Some dove in, investing substantial time, effort, strategy and money into their social media efforts. Others just dipped their toes in the social media waters.

Those who have embraced social media marketing have found that it can be a tremendous tool for customer acquisition, customer retention and customer service.

While sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube may seem like “kid’s stuff,” social media should be taken as seriously as any of your other marketing efforts. It should be strategized and executed by professionals who understand the unique properties of each platform and who know how to exploit those properties.

As in any other marketing strategy, the more experience you have (and the more data and analytics you can work with), the better your marketing will be. In other words, the longer you hold off on social media, the further behind you will fall to the competition.

Old Spice has completely rejuvenated what had been a dying brand through a major online advertising and marketing campaign

Dive into Location-Based Platforms

While E-Commerce continues to grab a bigger share of the buying market, most purchases are still made the old-fashioned way: in stores. That doesn’t mean you can’t use the web to drive qualified traffic into your store.

Location-based platforms use GPS to identify the precise location of potential customers (through their smart phones or iPads) and then deliver targeted marketing messages to those individuals in close physical proximity to your business.

Take a long, hard look at Groupon, LivingSocial, FourSquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla as ways of driving local traffic to your business. These sites work with retailers and service providers to craft highly targeted marketing messages to individuals who check into your business.

As you can see, Living Social provides offers based not just on metropolitan areas, but to specific neighborhoods

Video

If your business isn’t using video as a tool for promotion, sales, and/or customer service in 2011, you are making a mistake. More and more, video is becoming the No. 1 choice for disseminating information online. It is also becoming more and more important as a search engine optimization tool. Fortunately, the cost of creating high quality videos has plummeted and the range of venues for publishing your videos has grown substantially.

YouTube is an obvious choice, but businesses are also looking to sites like Vimeo, Ustream, Viddler and Dailymotion.

Get More Bang for Your Online Marketing Buck

Ad targeting technology is getting more sophisticated by the day. When you go online, your behavior is constantly being tracked and mined. To reach a very specific audience, advertisers can use:

• Semantic Advertising: Where online content is analyzed to understand the meaning of a web page and then deliver ads of interest to readers of that specific content
• Behavioral Targeting: Where the user’s recent past browsing history is analyzed and exploited. For example, if a user has visited a number of smart phone sites in the past week, a business selling smart phones or smart phone applications can make an offer to a highly qualified audience.
• Keyword Advertising: Where businesses invest in “pay-per-click” ads, targeting visitors looking in search engines for very specific information. For example, if a visitor goes to Google looking for a “Midtown Restaurant,” a local restaurant can pay to appear at or near the top of the search results.

Your Customers and Potential Customers Have Become Empowered by the Web

All of these marketing platforms are meaningless if you can’t deliver what your potential customers are looking for: great products or services at the best possible price.

Because the web has opened the door to enormous competition, businesses must learn to provide the best products, at the best prices, and with the best customer service.  Not only is it simple to compare prices online, you can compare the quality of service through a variety of review sites.

The latest development in price comparison comes from Amazon, which just released the “Price Check” phone app. This app allows shoppers to get pricing on a product by either scanning the product, taking a photograph of a product or even saying the name of the product.

Amazon’s Price Check makes comparison shopping easier than ever

In Conclusion

In 2011, it is crucial for businesses to embrace the many opportunities presented by new and evolving web platforms. The Internet offers businesses ways to target qualified potential customers in ways that television, radio and print cannot.

Businesses that fail to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the web find themselves at a huge competitive disadvantage. At Blue Fountain Media, we counsel clients on the marketing and advertising opportunities presented online. We would be more than happy to discuss your business’s online marketing strategies. Please contact us at 212.260.1978 to get the ball rolling.

Because social media marketing is a relatively new field and because most of our clients were in business long before the advent of social media marketing, many clients and potential clients are skeptical about the benefits of social media marketing.

Because we can show potential clients the success we’ve had with our current clients, they generally come on board.

As a business, Blue Fountain Media actively engages in social media. We employ multiple platforms (including the Business Learning Center) to raise awareness about Blue Fountain Media and provide useful information to our clients and the business world at large.

A recent study confirms what we’ve known all along. Even a relatively small investment in social media marketing can have major payoffs for businesses of all sizes.

Michael Stelzner, Executive Editor of Social Media Examiner, produced the white paper: 2010 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING INDUSTRY RE PORT.

For the report,  Stelzner canvassed nearly 1900 marketing specialists and asked them dozens of questions about their use of social media marketing. He found that even with as little as a four hour per week investment in social media marketing, companies reaped significant benefits on a variety of fronts.

Not only is social media marketing on the rise, but that the marketing efforts are paying off, in a big way. In fact, 91% of all marketers are using at least one social media marketing platform, with the majority using multiple platforms.

Here are just a few of the findings:

Time Investment

• 76% of marketers spend at least 4 hours a week on social media marketing
• 56% of marketers spend more than 6 hours a week on social media marketing
• 12.5% spend more than 20 hours a week on social media marketing

Social Media Marketing Platforms Used by the Marketers

• 88% Twitter
• 87% Facebook
• 78% LinkedIn
• 70% Blogs
• 46% YouTube or other video

Other social media platforms utilized included Digg, Ning, Forums, social bookmarking sites and MySpace.

Payoff

• 85% said the social media marketing campaigns increased exposure for their businesses
• 63% reported an increase in traffic/subscribers/opt-ins
• 56% said the efforts resulted in new business partnerships
• 54% reported an improvement in search rankings
• 52% said it generated qualified leads
• 48% said it helped in sales of products/service
• 48% reported that it actually reduced marketing costs

While the payoff (above) may seem significant, it is really just the tip of the iceberg. The majority of the marketers participating in the survey (65%) said that they were just starting with social media marketing or had been using it for just a few months.

Because these campaigns tend to deliver an excellent ROI, the longer the marketers had been using social media marketing, the more hours per week they invest in social media marketing.

Conclusion

If your business isn’t already employing the tools of social media marketing, it should begin to immediately. Like any marketing campaign, it should be approached and executed in a professional manner:

• Strategize: Which platforms would best reach my business’s target audience?
• Budget: What percentage of my overall marketing and advertising budget am I willing to invest in social media marketing?
• Execute: Who will be responsible for crafting and delivering my message through social media marketing?
• Monitor: How will I quantify the success or failure of my social media marketing campaign?

The key to a successful social media marketing campaign is that the people responsible for the campaign should have the knowledge and experience to handle all of the above responsibilities.

The Blue Fountain Media social media marketing team has vast experience in this area and has delivered successful campaigns to clients in myriad industries. If you are thinking about starting a social media marketing campaign or want to expand your current efforts, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 212.260.1978.

Typically, they start blogging, Tweeting, building Facebook pages and checking in on Foursquare simply because everyone else is doing it.

In other words, they approach social media marketing as if they were a kid playing with a shiny new toy. Ask a six year old what his “strategy” is in playing the toy truck and he’ll look at you like you were crazy.

Ask a small business owner what his social media strategy is, and you are likely to see the exact expression.

“I’m looking to get more customers,” is the most common answer.

The only problem with that statement is that “getting more customers” is a goal, not a strategy.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

Effective social media strategy begins with self-reflection.

• What is the core of my business?
• What differentiates my business?
• Who is my target audience?
• Once I get an audience, what messages do I plan on delivering?
• (Most importantly) How can I turn my audience in revenues?

Once you have clear answers to these questions, then you will be able to look at a variety of social media platforms and see which ones are best suited to deliver your message.

For example, if you are looking to establish yourself or your business as experts in your field, blogging and social community involvement may be the best way to go. If you are looking to enhance your customer service or make specific offers to your target audience, Twitter may be the best platform. For businesses looking to work with other businesses, LinkedIn may be the best bet.

In virtually all cases, though, a combination of platforms and campaigns is the best option.

So how do you figure out what will work best for your business?

Unfortunately, many businesses go the “trial and error” route. They dip their toes in the social media waters and fail to achieve their desired goals. They fail for any number of reasons: misunderstanding the etiquette of a particular platform, poor messaging or, even a failure to commit of time and resources.

This “trial and error” method costs companies (especially smaller companies) time, money, and even credibility. Most than just costing your company resources, a poorly executed social media campaign can cost your company credibility and even destroy your company’s hard-earned reputation.

That’s why it is so important to either have social media experts in-house or to hire a company with social media experience—a company that has produced quantifiable results for clients.

Getting Started

When Blue Fountain Media works with clients on their social media strategy, we start with a detailed question and answer process. There is no single social media platform or combination of platforms that work for every business. In earlier Business Learning Center articles, we have discussed the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging.

The objective of this Q & A process is to understand the your short-term and long-term business goals, to see what your other current marketing and advertising efforts are, and to determine what results the you expect from the social media marketing campaign.

Some of the questions we typically ask are:

• What is your commitment to the social media campaign (manpower, time investment, budget and duration)?
• What are the goals of the campaign?
• What are the criteria for measuring the success or failure of the program?
• How do you plan on measuring the success or failure of the campaign?
• Who will be at the “steering wheel” of your social media campaign?
• Does anyone in your company have social media expertise?
• More importantly, does that person(s) have the skills to deliver your key messaging through social media?
• To what extent are you willing to outsource your social media campaigns?

Armed with the answers to these questions, we work with clients to build their social media campaigns. In some instances, we just handle the front-end work: creating a strategic plan and launching the campaigns. In many cases, clients want us to run all aspects of their social media campaigns.

Either way, we have helped many clients with successful social media campaigns designed and executed to enhance their reputations, their business and, ultimately, their bottom line.

In Conclusion

If you have any questions about beginning a social media marketing campaign or wish to consult about your current social media efforts, please give us a call at 212.260.1978 and we will be happy to work with you.

Love it or hate it, Facebook is here to stay. With over 400 million Facebook users, there’s a massive untapped audience for your company’s or organization’s message. Your current customers/clients are on Facebook. Your prospective customers/clients are on Facebook.

Here are some of the most recent statistics:

As Facebook evolves, companies are trying to figure out just how much time, effort and money they should be spending on their Facebook presences. While some major companies have dived in with multi-faceted Facebook campaigns, others have stood on the sidelines.

The problem with Facebook is that the great majority of visitors go to the site for personal reasons. Users want to communicate with friends, post vacation pictures and just tell the world what they’re up to. As a rule, they are not in a “business” frame of mind. This is in stark contrast to LinkedIn, which is heavily geared to the business community.

Does this mean that businesses should ignore Facebook? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Getting Started

The first thing to understand is that there are two kinds of pages on Facebook: user profiles and “Pages.” Individual profiles are the personal profiles kids and adults (i.e. individual users) create to keep the world updated on their activities.

Pages, on the other hand, are designed to create a Facebook presence for brands, organizations, businesses. Pages are commonly used by businesses as marketing tools. Facebook makes it simple to create these pages.

Pages can be simple or elaborate. Since the page reflects on your business, it is important to do it right. Elements of the Page should include:

• Clear identification of your brand
• Photos and logos
• Brand messaging
  • Your services
  • Your products
• Company messaging
  • Humanize your executives and employees
• Offerings
  • Sales
  • Special events
  • Facebook “exclusives”

Facebook offers a variety of tools to make your page look professional, including Facebook’s own version of HTML to help style your pages, called Facebook Markup Language (FBML). As in any marketing presentation for your company, the more professional and fresh content you can provide, the more effective it will be in helping your company achieve a high ROI on its Facebook marketing investment.

Direct Links to E-Commerce

Your company’s Facebook Page is just one click away from your company’s ecommerce web site. Parlay your captive Facebook audience into direct sales with compelling offers on your Facebook Page. Below is an example of how GAP uses Facebook to drive traffic to their store:

GAP on Facebook -> Click -> GAP Online Store

Deals

People are always looking for deals and Facebook gives businesses an opportunity to provide exclusive promotions to their Facebook fans. Not only do you reach a captive audience with each offering, you can measure the success of the campaign by having it exclusive to Facebook.

Modell’s sporting goods has embraced Facebook as a marketing and sales tool by offering a “Facebook Fridays” program where they offer discount coupons exclusively to their Facebook fans.

Integrate with Other Marketing Channels

Cooking.com regularly runs offers and contests exclusive to Facebook users, but promotes them across their newsletters. This allows the brand to connect newsletter subscribers to the brand’s Facebook presence, increasing the chances that future marketing efforts will reach them successfully.

User-Generated Content

Papa John’s has over 1.1 million fans on Facebook. They do a terrific job of engaging their fans both with special offers and with social engagement. Recently, they’ve encouraged Facebook users to click the “like” button (which connects users’ profiles to the Papa Johns page) in exchange for a a chance to “win a slice of the sales” and free pizza for life.

This is just one example of getting your visitors involved in your Facebook efforts. Other devices include contests, polls, lotteries and “featured fan” promotions.

A note on “Fans”: In mid-April, Facebook changed the “Become a Fan” button on Pages to a simple “Like” button. Facebook explained the switch: “We believe this change offers [users] a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which [users] are interested.” Nonetheless, “fans” (lowercase ‘f”)  is still used to describe users who “like” a page.

The Facebook Wall

Another major way of encouraging user-generated content is to allow fans make comments on the Wall. This has multiple benefits. It makes fans feel like they have a relationship with their brand. It gives them an opportunity to praise the brand, make criticisms, make suggestions and just let their voices be heard.

This, in turn, becomes a great vehicle for customer service. So long as the Wall is regularly monitored and the company is responsive to comments, then you have created a tremendous customer relations channel at relatively little cost.

While it may be impossible to respond to every post, when there are repeat concerns or suggestions, it is a terrific idea to reach out – directly – to your fans, listen to them and find solutions.

Facebook Ads

Facebook delivered more banner ads in the first quarter of 2010 than any other website. The reason for the explosive growth in Facebook advertising is that Facebook gives advertisers the opportunity to target ads with remarkable precision.

Advertisers can target ads based on myriad variables, including:

• Age
• Education
• Location (all the way down to zip codes)
• Sex
• Workplace
• Interests
• Relationship status (single, engaged, married)

Using multiple variables, you can actually use Facebook Ads to deliver an ad to a single individual. Facebook’s targeting tool will tell you the exact number of people you will reach with any specific group of targeted factors.

In Conclusion

We have tried to provide a small sample of the ways in which businesses are using Facebook to engage current customers and entice new ones. Before diving in to the world of Facebook, we encourage business owners to do a bit of research:

• What kinds of offers and services are companies providing on Facebook?
• What kind of presence do key competitors have on Facebook?
• What marketing tools are working for your company in other online platforms?

Any business that chooses to ignore a universe of over 400 million potential customers or clients is making a huge mistake. Blue Fountain Media counsels clients on how best to utilize their online and offline marketing budgets to their greatest advantage. For many clients, we find that Facebook advertising brings a very positive ROI on their marketing investments.

To discuss Facebook, Twitter, blogging or any other social media or online marketing, please give us a call at 212.260.1978.

Social media has grown exponentially in recent years and there is no sign that the growth is slowing down. As of the end of 2009, there were a combined 142 million social networkers on the top 10 social media sites. There are over 100 million users on Facebook alone!

What can social media do for established brands and for a new brand just trying to make a name for itself? Social media can:

• Put a human face on a big company
• Engage customers in meaningful conversation
• Engage visitors by having them contribute content
• Provide immediate customer service
• Inform the public about new products and services… and special offerings

1.      Putting a human face on a big company

Huge corporations can seem monolithic and impersonal to the general public. By putting a human face on a company, you can strip away the wall and make yourself far more accessible to the general public.

One big brand that does this exceptionally well is the Marriott hotel chain.

Marriott CEO Bill Marriott blogs regularly on a variety of topics. He talks about his travels, his customers, his employees. Readers actually feel as if they know him. This translates into greater brand loyalty… and more revenue.

Another way to put a human face on a company is through video. YouTube has become the web’s No. 2 search engine.

Ford Motor Company CEO Bill Ford effectively communicates with the public through a series of videos. Some are about cars, some about Ford employees, and others about Ford’s community outreach programs. In all the communications, though, Ford comes off as a “regular guy” and not as some fat-cat CEO.

2.      Engaging Customers in Meaningful Conversations

Businesses can’t afford to be arrogant. In the age of social media, businesses must be open to discussions with their customers. It is important to find out what they like, what they hate and what fresh ideas they may have.

Starbucks has taken this to heart with their “My Starbucks Idea” program. The program doesn’t just invite suggestions. It keeps a detailed list of visitor suggestions that were implemented by the company. This way, visitors can see that their voices are being heard.

3.      Engage Visitors by Having them Contribute Content

Another way of engaging the public is to have them contribute “content” to the social media site. A great example of this is Burberry, which created the “Art of the Trench” website to engage customers and potential customers.

The public is encouraged to take photographs of people wearing Burberry trench coats and then upload them onto the Burberry site. Visitors then can vote for their favorites and discuss which coats they like and which ones they don’t.

This kind of “stickiness” results in greater customer loyalty… which translates into greater sales.

4.      Providing Instantaneous Customer Service

Social media allows companies to instantaneously deal with customer service issues. This can be done directly, by offering clear channels for customers to register complaints, concerns and suggestions. This can also be done proactively, by monitoring what people are saying about your brand online.

JetBlue Airways has been ahead of the curve in using social media, especially their Twitter account, to provide information and answers quickly. They advise of delays, weather issues, flight cancellations, etc. so that their customers know what to expect long before they arrive at their gates.

5.      Using Social Media to Provide Exclusive Offers and Discounts

You don’t have to be a huge company to use social media to attract customers, serve customers and increase sales.

Shoppers Vineyard, a New Jersey liquor retailer, uses social media to provide information on new products and sales. They also offer exclusive discounts to their online followers.

Check out how they use Twitter to make immediate sales:

The links provided go directly to Shoppers World’s e-commerce functionality, meaning that revenues are just one click away from their Twitter account.

6.      In Conclusion

Any business that ignores the 140 million social media users is a business that doesn’t deserve to succeed. Companies of all sizes can leverage social media to enhance their brands, attract new customers, serve current customers and to generate nearly instantaneous ecommerce. No matter what the size of your company or how long you’ve been in business, social media can be leverage to enhance your bottom line.

At Blue Fountain Media, we work with clients to create multi-platform social media marketing strategies. Give us a call at 212.260.1978 to see if we can jump-start your business.

There are so many platforms, so many choices and so many misconceptions.

Companies that are smart and disciplined in all other areas of their business sometimes act irrationally due to their lack of expertise in this area.

Common mistakes include:

• Ignoring social media marketing because it is so foreign to them. Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities online, including beating personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites. On a daily basis, individuals are talking about your brand, so companies better listen.

• Assuming social media is a cheap and fast “miracle pill.” Entrepreneurs want everything (brand awareness, recall, more word of mouth, more business) and they want it fast. Digital market takes patience and timing. You can’t join an online social network and derive any value from it unless you take the time to meet the right people, connect, share, build, and grow.

• Assuming that any kid who grew up with the Internet is capable of devising, executing and maintaining a social media campaign. It’s not about technology or if you grew up in the digital age (even though you may have an upper-hand) but about effective strategy. There is no one size fits all, and ultimately it’s not about “What are we doing in XXX social media network?” but about why should you be in that social media network. It’s about choosing YouTube over Facebook or focusing on a blog instead of Twitter. It’s about adding value to your consumer and where they “reside” digitally.

The fact of the matter is, social media marketing works and it can work very effectively if done strategically. Virtually every major corporation is devoting significant resources to creating and monitoring social media campaigns for opportunities and what individuals say about their brand.

Smaller businesses and start-up businesses are also jumping on the wagon.

Social media campaigns improve your standing on search engines like Google, they enhance your brand, they sell your products, they drive traffic to your website and they can help you gain new customers and serve current customers.

A good social media campaign will cost you time, money and effort. It can take months, even a year for a campaign to pay off… but the payoffs are usually worth the wait.

Forrester Research did some research and have come up with figures that indicate that not only is it working for companies, but there will be explosive growth in the use of social media marketing in the next five years:

What Forrester is saying is that businesses are expected to spend 3.1 billion in social media marketing in 2014 and another $3.16 billion on search engine marketing.

Before embarking on a social media marketing plan, it is important to ask a number of key questions. Some of the questions you’ll be able to answer for yourself, others you’ll need the guidance of social media experts.

1. Is social media marketing right for my business?

1. Is my target audience using social media? If so, where?

2. Will I get a better ROI (return on investment) from social media and internet marketing, rather than traditional advertising and other marketing platforms?

2. What are your social media marketing goals?

1. Businesses often make the mistake of diving into their social media campaigns without sufficient thought or planning. Make a list of what you want to accomplish:

1. More sales leads
2. More direct sales (for ecommerce web sites)
3. Greater brand awareness
4. Brand engagement

3. Which social media platforms are best suited for achieving my business’ goals?

1. Blogs

1. Can I create valuable insightful content to potential and current customers about my business/services/products/industry that can delivered in blog format?

2. News and Content

1. Once I’ve created compelling content, how can I distribute it to the world?

An easy way to distribute your ideas is through social news sites where the content speaks for itself. Users are given the opportunity to vote on news stories, links, and content:

1. Digg.com
2. Reddit.com
3. Stumbleupon.com
4. Propeller.com
5. Delicious.com

3. Review sites

1. Am I so confident in my products and services that I want to promote them to sites that publish independently written user reviews?

1. Yelp.com
2. Epinions.com

4. Networking sites

1. The great social communities of the web present remarkable opportunities to market, promote and even create direct sales for your company.

1. Linkedin.com
2. Twitter.com
3. Facebook.com

4. Do you fully understand the “social” aspects of social marketing?

1. There is a reason they call it social media marketing. When you enter this world, you are entering a very real community. Unlike advertising, which is a one-way-street method (push marketing) of delivering your message, social media demands that you enter into a conversation with your current and potential clients and customers (push and pull marketing).

Your success in social media will depend on your ability to make valuable engaging contributions, beyond simply promoting your brand, to a community which may be challenging, questioning or even hostile towards your brand.
1. Do you have the time, resources and confidence to enter into such a conversation?

5. Time and personnel commitment

1. The company must commit to training an individual or team who will have personal responsibility for maintaining social media channels. It can’t be considered an add-on. Take the time devoted to social media as seriously as the time devoted to any other kind of project. In other words, do it well or don’t do it at all.

6. Cross-Pollination

1. Are your social media effort integrated and designed to support each channel’s efforts? What will you use to drive people to your Twitter account? Your Blog? Your Facebook fan page?

7. Budgeting for the long haul

1. Social media campaign results rarely happen overnight. Have you thought about your budget going forward? Will this work be handled in-house or will you outsource this to a company with social media experience and expertise?

8. Metrics

1. How will you measure the success of your overall social media campaign and the individual elements? What are the key milestones you are looking for?

9. Triage

1. Marketing budgets are finite. The money invested in social media campaigns must come from somewhere. Where are the sacrifices to be made?

Unless you are a social media expert, you will not immediately have the answers to all of these questions. You need to find to find experts who will discuss your current business, your business goals, and your current marketing and advertising efforts. Until a company understands all of these aspects of your business, they will be in no position to map out a social media marketing campaign that’s exactly right for you and your business.

Blue Fountain Media counsels clients on a daily basis on how to use social media marketing to achieve their business goals. We offer a wide variety of services including consulting, online campaign architecture and ongoing social media campaign maintenance plans.

If you are interested in learning more, please give us a call at 212.260.1978 so we get can you on the road to social media success.