by Miriam Hara | May 30, 2013 | Business Success, Latest, Social Media
It’s clear that like all things in marketing you need to determine your objectives. Only then can you evaluate and assess if your Social Media efforts are performing well. Once you have determined your objectives, the most critical aspect of developing a community is creating a social media calendar that will provide you with clear and concise directions and strategy on writing of posts.
What is an social media calendar?
A social media calendar allows you to plan out your topics and initiatives by week, and by month. This provides you with the foundation to develop Facebook Posts, Blogs and Tweets by evaluating and considering the social media landscape as it pertains to your business or brand. It allows you to integrate all your efforts into one visual document to make sure that you have a holistic approach to your social media.
Here’s how you start establishing a Social Media Calendar.
1) Understanding your target audience…intimately. For starters, Facebook allows you to really niche your audience. So reaching the 1% of the 15% is totally attainable. And Twitter allows you to evaluate and assess trending topics….So put these 2 great abilities together and you can now get a dimensional view of your target. Understanding your consumer’s psychographics has never been more important. What do they like? Who do they like? What other brands are they following?
2) Visually map up your brand’s interests. That’s right. What subjects are important to your brand or business? It goes to follow that those are the same interest for your audience. Let’s say your brand is a Health Supplement, then fitness, health issues and nutrition are all top interests. This is a good starting to point to direct you in creating posts and engaging your brands with other relevant Pages.
3) Fill in your brand’s social calendar. It’s important to know when events that are key to your brand’s make up happen…and partake and engage in them. Taking my previous example of a Health Supplement, there’s a Nutrition month or Heart Health Month, or Diabetes Month. If your brand or business is within the Food Industry or Beverage Industry, then Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentines, Weekends and BBQs are all events that are pertinent which can fill your social media calendar.
4) Build excitement. Launch a contest, provide samples, offer coupons…get in the know with your community. While the excitement is on…or the contest, take advantage of their interest to provide relevant and thought provoking posts for them to engage in.
5) Be in sync. It’s important for brands to have all their marketing integrated. If there’s a product launch, make sure you plan for it, tweet it and promote it.The timing of posts and tweets is key to the success of your marketing activities.
A social media calendar is a plan…but its the sum of all its parts that provides a solid foundation for a Brand’s Social Media Initiatives. Having a social media calendar doesn’t mean it’s rigid. Quite the contrary, like all things social, it must be allowed to be fluid, to respond and react to twitter trendings, a newsworthy topic, or he latest and greatest happening that pertains to your brand or business.
by Miriam Hara | May 27, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest
Twenty five years ago when I started 3H Communications , the specialty question always came up. This was one main hurdle to constantly overcome. We are lucky to say, 25 years later, we specialize in a multitude of industries because we positioned ourselves as a marketing specialty agency. With that in mind, marketing is our specialty; the industry is only the playground.
It is our business to bring relevant and forward thinking to any project we undertake, whether it be branding, packaging, web design, advertising campaigns or corporate communications. And for all industries. Variety is key to a growing company, and getting caught in a silo of expertise can sometimes kill business, and new business, quicker than a negative tweet.
When I mention specialty agency, I don’t mean specialized as in digital agencies. This, in my opinion is not a specialty agency…it’s a channel. As I have said before modern agencies have to have classic techniques and a well-integrated digital front. Gone is the traditional media versus new media. The new media is now traditional. It’s part of every plan. It is important for your team to be creative, flexible and have a solid research base. The only limit is the one your set for your business. More than ever having a holistic approach is fundamental to success for business.
The specialty I refer to specifically in this post, is industry-specific – such as pharmaceuticals, food, retail, financial or apparel. My belief is that the more exposure an agency has to a variety of industries and mandates, the better equipped they are in exceeding objectives via creative thought and design articulation.
Before any specialized agency became specialized, they had to learn and understand the industry. At that point, they probably challenged the “norm”, By being too specialized, too niche, specialty agencies have a wealth of knowledge in one industry… and they risk becoming to complacent. They understand the issues that the industry is faced with, and its limitations…. and they stopped challenging because they did that already, and it didn’t work, or it wasn’t accepted. Not a good thing… especially in the marketing industry! .Agencies that are too steeped in one industry will begin to get a single/narrow focus, and creativity could be slighted.
If your agency constantly exercises in different terrains, you are flexing different muscles, working different cells…constantly learning The result? A strong marketing agency willing to be different, willing NOT to accept the norm…not just challenging it, but working within the limitations to exceed beyond the expected.
by Stephanie Fasulo | May 24, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest, Social Media
Have you created a Facebook page but not implemented Facebook Ads? If you haven’t, that’s okay, it probably means one of two things: you don’t need to or you don’t know how they can benefit you. In any social media platform it is important to learn the ins and outs before you leverage tools for your business. With that said, Facebook Pages and Facebook Ads go hand in hand when developed and monitored properly. Facebook Ads will literally add increased value to your overall objectives… and social community.
If you’re on Facebook regularly you probably see Facebook Ads 50 times a day. That’s because businesses use them as viral adverts; you can see them on the right side of your timeline, but more discreetly, a business can also create ads that post on behalf of its followers promoting predetermined content to those people’s friends. This is how a business online can reach outside its community and increase online growth just as you would with print ads or billboards!
The best part about Facebook Ads is how easy they’re to create. Once you log onto your Facebook, under Settings find “Manage Ads”. From there you’ll see user-friendly controls to manage and integrate your custom Facebook Ad. Design controls range from geographical location, interests, age to other vigorous targeting options. Once you’re done it can look something like this:
Currently I’m managing a couple of Facebook Pages with a strong community base for each. These communities set a strong foundation for a Facebook campaign because you can utilize your current followers “talking” about your content and recruit more potential followers when they visit your Facebook page from the Ads you put up. This just means if someone sees your ad and he or she clicks it, that person will be more intrigued to like your page if the community is exciting and vibrant.
Of course none of this is free; Facebook Ads are a paid service that allows you to set a budget for each Ad. Once your budget is maximized the Ad will end and you will be notified. Your budget does not have to be large, but just enough that the Facebook Ad algorithm can properly manage your daily hits and how much you are willing to spend for them. The budget is a very important factor to manage from your end as well, ensuring the numbers reflect the progress you want to make. At a price, governed by you, Facebook Ads also provide a detailed metrics system and billing reports to ensure you are always up to date!
These details are part of a much wider scope of what the Facebook Ads can do for your business, but having a background about some of the finer details can help ease into building your own Ad. Use these insights provided to help your online brand and Facebook Page talk! Because to me these seemingly small tactics can make a huge difference in driving tracking to your page and generating overall success.
by Stephanie Fasulo | May 23, 2013 | Business Success, Latest, Social Media, Uncategorized
If you decide to take your company online you’re joining a community of teachers, learners, explorers, and open-minded people who are trying new marketing communications tools that are changing every day. Just this week alone I received numerous emails about my analytics on Facebook changing… yet again. The most frustrating change Facebook Analytics did was remove the Social Reach reference when monitoring Facebook Ads, in the Full Report mode ! Working around this new development, I was still able to find the necessary metrics I needed, in a less efficient way… a needless to say, a tad more stressful! This got me wondering on how any of us can keep up with our work while the platforms we work on everyday change so often!
Don’t get we wrong, I totally accept that being in social media, it’s what we signed up for, this diverse, ever-changing, community of social people. But how do we keep it up when there are so many other priorities in the day-to-day business of doing? Rather than depending on email updates or announcements, there are a few ways we can deal with the ever evolving ground of social media. Based on your brand’s vision and more importantly, goals that you establish, here are a few alternatives in how you can manage your social media initiatives. Picking the right one for your business will make the difference between how well you navigate the many transitions that are sure to come!
Hire someone: Hiring a designated person to handle your company’s social media specifically regardless of company size is that you can maintain a steady, unwavering pulse on social media and all the changes that happen so often. You can start off my hiring a part-time full-time person. This will allow the person to get a read on the business culture and brand voice so that they can communicate effectively.
Outsource: Like everything else in business, if you outsource to your social media initiatives to the right partner, your social media becomes their priority…and seeing that they are in the business of social media, they not only have a pulse on the changes, but they are the at the forefront of the changes and their potential impact on your business’ social initiatives. More care would have to be taken to ensure that the business culture and voice is portrayed consistently.
DIY: . I’m not saying not to do it yourself! You can be successful if you immerse yourself. You just have to know that you need to be involved with the image and online brand being shared all over the world every minute of every day. If your company is small, it can be fun and exciting to do it yourself because you can see your fan base and community build…in real time! You have to ask yourself though… is the time you are taking to do it yourself, taking you away from “your real job”…and thus short-changing the business goals?
Don’t get involved: Let’s face it, there’s always those who jump in with both feet…that would be the early adopters. And then there are those that really take a long time to get on board…and that would be the slow movers. In some cases, there are those that don’t ever get on board! I ‘m not sure if that’s even an option in today’s marketing and business landscape. After all, social media isn’t just Facebook…it’s LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, MosiacHub, Reddit,Social Media Today and GuestBlog…to name a few.
If you are reading this right now you are already apart of the social media community where we all learn from each other. If there is a problem, challenge or question, online communicators… we social communicators don’t have to go very far for answers. Social Media has made us pioneers of sorts and we are all part of the same community, constantly learning and reaching out…and in fact keeping up with social media!
by Miriam Hara | May 22, 2013 | Branding, Business Success, Latest
Ever wonder how Google came up with its name? Did they think the name Google would become synonymous with information sourcing, referencing, mapping and everything in between? Is there some sort of history behind the name, or was it just a random choice?
Many business start-ups make much ado about what they should name their business… and so they should. Like everything else in business, you need to go through a process:
1) Define your business. What is it? What makes it unique?
2) Define your 3 to 5 year business objective. If you’re a consultant, it could be that using your own name is a good start…but what about after you start? If you want to eventually provide more than one to one consulting, maybe your name just won’t cut it.
3) Who is your target group? What’s their demographics…and don’t forget their psychographics.
4) Research the competition and see what names are out there in the same industry and geographical area. (Just Google it!)
5) Brainstorm and come up with a list of 10 names.
6) Take these 10 names and verify to see if the URL is taken, and if so by whom.
7) Verify if the name is trademarked within your industry and within your geographical area.
8) Get objective feedback for your top 4 names. Research for start-ups has become more affordable for business start-ups with software such as Survey Monkey and panel online advertising.
There’s much ado about the naming of businesses. I am of the opinion that the name is important, but what you do with that name is even more so. How are you launching? What media channels are you using? What’s your brand character, brand voice and how is that represented in your communications. Being first to market and being very visible when you are first to market is definitely the best approach to reap the benefits of longevity and recognition. Just to name a few: Kleenex, Coke…. and of course Google!
And just to close the opening thought of this post, I actually googled how Google got its name. Like all things in Google-like, I had many sources to choose from. The first link I clicked on was http://www.question.com/how-did-google-get-its-name-10903.html. Interestingly, I learnt that the definition of Google is quite appropriate for Google. The name Google is based on the mathematical term “googol”, coined in 1938 to equal 10100, a number larger than any practical counting operation would require.
From a wiki.answers.com, I also got more of an anecdotal story: In September, 1997, so the story goes, some Stanford grad students were helping Larry Page choose a name for his search engine. “Googolplex,” said Sean Anderson. (They’d already sensed how big this could become.) “Googol,” Page replied. Anderson, checking to see if the name was taken, typed g-o-o-g-l-e into his browser and made the most famous spelling mistake since p-o-t-a-t-o-e. Page registered the name within hours, and today, Google isn’t a typo, it’s a verb, one with a market cap of about $160 billion.
Fact or fiction, it doesn’t really matter…what matters is that Google provided an innovative product that revolutionized how information was being delivered to the masses… I doubt the notoriety or the business outcome would of been different if their name was Googol.
