Tough economic times call for innovative solutions. I’ve heard it said that some of the strongest companies are started and flourish in economic recessions or depressions. Our current economic climate is no different: the companies that thrive right now are the ones that are approaching their problems with original solutions that allow them to develop greater ways to bring their products to their consumers.

In his article “Local Merchants Utilizing Social Media More as Confidence Remains Flat”, Chris Crum talks about how companies are using today’s internet marketing tools to increase their business profiles, while still keeping an eye on their finances. He points to MerchantCircle’s “Merchant Confidence Index”, which shows that the levels of confidence a group of 10,000 merchants have in the current economy is pretty flat, but that these same merchants are “more prominently using social media as a free online marketing tool to increase their customer base and revenue.”

And why not use social networking? Social networking will cost your company manpower hours to set up and monitor it on a regular basis, but not much more. Large audiences are available to your company through a variety of social media offerings. And with cost to benefit ratio on the side of the merchant, it makes sense to direct your limited marketing budget towards modern solutions. As the vice president of marketing for MerchantCircle, notes “we were pleased to see that most aren’t planning for layoffs or pay cuts for employees. Small business owners are continuing to become web savvy in their marketing by increasingly augmenting traditional advertising with free methods like social networking to generate additional business.”

With growing options in social media tools, it is interesting to watch which ones are growing and which ones have matured over the last few years. It seems like most people know about Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter these days, but merchants are reaching out for even newer solutions. Location-based services are reaching higher levels of familiarity with merchants. “For example, MerchantCircle says today, 16% of merchants are familiar with Foursquare, whereas in Q1 of 2010, the number was only 8%. Likewise, 32% of merchants that are aware of Foursquare are using it to promote their business, compared to 25% in Q1.

It seems that the key in uncertain economic times is to be creative and take a few risks. Merchants are doing just that, as proven by Crum’s observation that “It is worth noting that this is the first time social networking has eclipsed all other marketing channels to become the most popular among survey participants since MerchantCircle has been doing the survey.” So, as a merchant, your can be part of the past or create new solutions with the growing tools of the present.

Whether you are a small business or a giant conglomerate, it is fairly common to have some hesitations before embarking on social media marketing. From the CEO and board of directors to the single owner of a small shop, the main concern is “show me how this will make money”. It’s a valid question. After all, businesses want to make money. Marty Weintraub talks about some strategies to address the wary business’s concerns about social media marketing and how to see the results it brings in his article “How to Turn Your Social Media Averse Boss into Your Champion”.

Expand your English-speaking market: there are substantial number of English-speaking internet users who are not American, British or Canadian. Social media marketing is a great way to access this international market.

Build a community by connecting with users: Whether your clients are long-time clients or new to your business, there is no better way to connect to them than by building a place to interact with them. Companies like Pizza Hut have employed social media to grow their markets successfully.

Increase your brand visibility: Expanding your community via social media marketing will increase your brand visibility. As Weintraub points out, “We’ve not met a CMO yet who does not understand the benefit of enhanced keyword rankings, traffic or improved presence in universal search verticals. Most business leaders understand the value of creating measurable syndicated content channels to disseminate information if the result is new and retained users. To many it’s not a very far reach to justify the value of 47,000 Twitter followers, compared to the value of a focused customer email list.”

Drive customers to your customer service tools via social media and PPC: Both social media and PPC advertising can be used to drive traffic to various customer service tools. Your company can use “a moderated fan page on Facebook, Twitter community manager or YouTube video FAQs, the only limit is creativity”. And no one will argue against improved customer service for their company! Happier customers come back again and again.

Social branding increases sales: Paid search campaigns through Facebook and LinkedIn ads can target specific demographics, resulting in big impact for low costs.

Measure the results of your social media efforts: There are a number of ways to measure your efforts and prove that social media marketing works. Weintraub provides us with these measuring tools:
• Measure new and retained unique friends at measurable CPUF (cost per unique friend).
• Measure proclivity to become a customer.
• Measure e-commerce lift without branding compared to e-commerce lift with Facebook and LinkedIn Ads branding in different geographic areas.
• Measure SEO prominence as indicated by traffic to social assets and feed from universal organic search.
• Measure customer service usage on social assets.
• Measure engagement in participation threads, both on and off site.
• Measure inbound traffic to and from the feed and divisional site (churn).
• Measure socio-global expansion as indicated by traffic, sales and support tool usage.
• Measure whether users return on any of these nodes.

Back in the day when businesses first decided to tap into the explosive growth in social media sites for marketing purposes, most efforts failed miserably. One of the many problems was that staid old businesses failed to recognize one of the core concepts driving social media participation – it’s fun! Most businesses have a hard time thinking “fun”; preferring instead to think “money.”

In addition, businesses failed to understand another core concept – involvement and participation. Social media enthusiasts aren’t interested in being “told” things. They think they have something to say as well and want the chance to contribute and participate in a two-way conversation.

Businesses have begun to crack the social media code and companies like Dell and Starbucks report generating millions of dollars in revenue from their social media marketing campaigns. They and others like them have achieved success by recognizing that social media sites are communities and to benefit from the community you must first join it by contributing with something of value and inviting the participation of others.

If your business has reached the level of being a recognized and valued member of the community here are two relatively simple things you can do to excite and involve others – Contests and Discounts

Contests

There’s nothing more fun and exciting than a challenging contest that allows members of the community to get involved and compete with each other, having a good deal of fun along the way. You’ll need a little creativity to come up with something interesting, involving, and exciting, but here are a few thoughts about things to include.

First, keeping the contest on the site opens the possibility of going viral. For example, suppose contestants are asked to post their answer to a question like “Why I love (fill in one of your products); or “Ten ways I use (fill in one of your products)”. The winner is determined by the number of comments received. In concept this contest is simple and elegant and potentially very viral.

Although you’ll have to come up with an interesting prize, a contest that goes viral can be its own reward. People feel like winners because they have a good time joining in and following the contest. There are endless variations on the kinds of questions you can pose for the contest. For complex products you might want to use something like “5 Things I’d like to see added to (fill in one of your products).” With a contest like this you could involve some of your own employees as judges, with the contest winner being determined partly by the highest number of comments received from the community and party by judges’ scores.

Everyone likes to get a special break on things, especially when the discount or special offer they get is not open to everyone – only to those members of a select group. Discounts not only reward visitors for being a part of the community, they also drive sales!

Even a year ago, if you had talked about searching on a blog or in an SEO article, you’d have been talking about searching on Google or Yahoo or one of their competitors. Search for information was almost exclusively in the domain of search engines and linking for SEO purposes was done to increase your visibility on those search engines. These days, searching and linking have become more and more prominent on social networking sites, like Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook, and the acknowledgement of this change is becoming apparent through rankings on Google, which are taking some of these social networking links into consideration. Discussions of these features, both as stand alone features and as part of the bigger picture seem to be cropping up all over the place.

Using Facebook likes and Twitter retweets to build awareness of your business will not take the place of traditional linking entirely, but it can be another avenue to explore for SEO purposes. So it is advisable for us to remember to keep an eye on the progress of these features and the link between social media and search. I was especially interested in a discussion between WebProNews and Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz about this issue:

LINK:

More WebProNews Videos

Chris Crum sums it all up succinctly by saying that “the way people are obtaining information online is diversifying…Google’s real competition isn’t coming from other search engines. It’s coming from different avenues of information access.” With social networking playing a far greater role in linking and information in general, it is important to keep in mind that in all of your business endeavours, including SEO, you have to maintain and grow your social connections. While word of mouth was the best advertising for pre-internet business endeavours, social media is filling that spot handily these days. It’s the electronic version of word of mouth! Acquiring likes for your Facebook page, retweets on Twitter and links to get the attention of Google’s search parameters are all about the same thing: exposing your business to customers and potential customers.

No matter what your product or service, you have to remember your audience and focus on their needs first. If you are marketing to an audience of 10 year old American girls, you will need to have a completely different approach (from language to usage to packaging) than if you are marketing your products to 45 year old Australian men. This is true of print and television marketing, so we need to keep in mind that when promoting social marketing not every group will find the same features and functions appealing.

This is exactly the case with social media in Europe. Although on this side of the pond, we North Americans tend to think that our way of approaching and using social media is the only way it is done, those who create the programs we use for it need to be aware that Europeans do it a bit differently. Bas van den Beld writes about just this issue in his article “How Europeans Engage With Social Media”.

Although Europeans are online and do use social media, they “are using social media in very practical way, they are looking for news updates, to do research before shopping or for their jobs, and to find “how-tos.” The actual “social element”—staying in touch with friends online—is only the third most popular activity (behind search and email) when looking at what Europeans are doing online.” And although Europeans do use sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Friendster and LinkedIn, they have a definite preference for locally grown social media applications.

And, broken down country by country, Europeans have different tastes and needs for their online experiences. While the UK, Russia, and Spain are the most active in the social media scene, Italy uses social media for education purposes, and both the UK and Germany use it mostly for research. Germany and France are the least active social media users in Europe.

Bas van den Beld points out that when attempting to make inroads into European markets, social media creators need to keep the following points in mind:
- Europeans like to research, so make sure they can find that information they are looking for, and use searching to funnel traffic to your social media efforts.
- It might initially be difficult to get Europeans to share, but if you get them involved they will.
- Create social applications that provide a benefit and be there with a purpose; Europeans want to see a reason for committing their time.
- Give Europeans relevant news and information.
- Europeans like to see European initiatives, so try sponsoring local efforts.
- And finally, don’t think every European is the same—we’re all different and you need to satisfy our different needs to be successful.

By now, you know that I love when challenging a preconceived notion or showing that a tool can be used for more than you might think on first glance. Those ah ha moments tickle me, so I am hoping that you’ll have one of those moments today as I explain the newest features on LinkedIn.

Normally, LinkedIn is seen as a business and networking tool, often a way to get a job or pass your resume around. It certainly doesn’t have the social networking reputation that Twitter and Facebook have developed. But with changes to the site itself, the high-income demographic that uses this site, and some entrepreneurs coming forward to prove that it does drive significant traffic to their blogs, there is now evidence to show that LinkedIn can, in the words of Chris Crum, “bring a different brand of relevance to the table.”

Here are some of the newest changes to LinkedIn:

- Users have the ability to control who sees what they are sharing, either by individual, groups, or connections.
- Facebook has proven that images and article excerpts increase traffic to a linked site or discussion, and LinkedIn now has this capability too. According to LinkedIn, “The chances of someone clicking through your shared article are greater when you’ve images and brief excerpts pulled from the news article or blog post.” Plus, you can customize it completely.
- Users can now see, edit, and delete their status updates.
- Re-sharing content has become pretty common on social sites, and Twitter even has a term for it: retweeting. LinkedIn now allows its users to share content with the click of a button. This is a perfect tool for “making content go viral”.
- Off-site sharing has been improved, so that content sites can “offer a similar sharing process for LinkedIn to its own internal re-share feature”. You can share directly to LinkedIn when you find something that intrigues you from a popular news site or a great blog post.
- LinkedIn has implemented a URL shortener (Lnkd.in).
- When posting an article, users now give credit to the source they got it from by employing a “via-style” credit.

- Keeping your profile in the eye of an audience who will help drive traffic to your business is important. Now, when you choose to make shared items

I was reading an article this morning about iPhone apps. This particular article, entitled “PayPal iPhone App Hits One Million Downloads”, was basically about the popularity of the PayPal app on the iPhone and how “One million downloads shows just how ready people are to live a cashless and card-free culture with their wallet living safely in the cloud.” I find that idea compelling as a consumer, but even more compelling as a business person.

But, just like the blog post on Pizza Hut embracing Twitter this is another story about using new technology to promote your business. Someone recently told me that there is a little iPhone app that allows the comic of the day from your favourite web comics to be viewed on your iPhone. Handy! Seems like pure fun too, doesn’t it. But if you get the comic regularly on your mobile device and don’t have to go searching for it or remember to go online each day to read it, then you are never behind. And that is a step that will build a loyal fan base, for those who do web comics. The free comics don’t make you money in and of themselves, but fans buy the printed collections, t-shirts, and memorabilia. They also attend conventions and pay to see their favourite artists. Providing an easier way for your fans to keep up with your work is a stroke of marketing brilliance.

So, with the popularity of iPhone, it may be in your company’s best interest to develop a little application for it to open another channel for your customers to connect with you. A book store could have a list of the latest releases or authors reading at their stores. Grocery stores can send ads, perhaps in an app that allows you to customize your top 20 items bought in a week. A freelance service business could even post tips related to their business interests. The list is endless and depends on the business you are running and what will interest your customers the most. Think of this as an opportunity to talk to them and entice them with the best of your products and services.

Rather than thinking about new technology as simple tools, remember that these apps can become personal touches. Over the past few decades, marketing was about reaching the most people at once: billboards, television commercials and print advertisements were all about mass marketing. With mobile device apps, avenues like Twitter and Facebook, blogging, and business websites, we have the ability to reach out in a much more personal way, which is a phenomenal opportunity to grow your business and develop brand loyalty among your customers.

Advertising Age makes 11 Predictions on how Social Media that will affect marketers.

From an SEO perspective, here are the top 3 that predictions that are we are already seeing taking shape in our field.

3. Our interaction with search engines will be different

Real-time information in Google search, e.g. from Twitter, blog results and user reviews, will be more prominent. Google’s Social Search will change the way we interact with search engines by pushing relevant content from our personal networks to the front of search results, making them more personalized. The importance of digital-influencer marketing will increase significantly.

6. Influencer marketing will be redefined

As social media continues to permeate more and more aspects of not only the way we interact with digital media but also other channels such as digital outdoor, commerce or online TV, we will see the significance of influencer marketing grow dramatically. As a basic example, the inclusion of Twitter in Google search results or Google’s soon-to-be-released Social Search will permeate search results with content that will not be managed by Google’s infamous PageRank but by social influence and relevance to your social network. Discovering people that can help you to reach your desired consumer will become exponentially more effective and important.

7. Ratings everywhere

In today’s world, having a commerce site that doesn’t have user ratings could actually prove to be a detriment to sales. In the near future, brands and businesses will more frequently place user ratings and accept open feedback on their actual websites. User ratings will become so common that marketers should expect to find them woven into most digital experiences.

We are already seeing search engines provide Real-Time search results by adding Twitter or Facebook updates to their results pages and it is clear that social influence will become a more prominent ranking signal. And other every day we consult with clients and potential clients on reputation management on Google Local and review sites like Homestars.

So althought the predictions are made for 2012, there is no time like the present to start considering the consequences and planning strategies right now.

I have young children, so one of the things I have noticed about younger kids is that there is strong marketing that targets them. I am sure I remember having television commercials and radio advertisements aimed at me when I was small, but these days I sit on the parenting side of that coin and watch it all with a business knowledge too. There are products and services that are heavily marketed to kids. Once they become school age, most kids have an allowance, friends who influence them, and personal preferences; a perfect combo for higher end marketing.

The question then becomes whether or not there are avenues to market to this sector online. Mike Sachoff just wrote an article called “UK Kids Ignoring Facebook Age Limits”, in which he reveals that ”a quarter of children in the UK aged 8-12 who use the Internet at home say they have a profile on Facebook, Bebo or MySpace, although the minimum age is 13”. We can be sure that if kids of that age group in the UK are on social networking sites, then the kids on this side of the pond will also be there. As well, 21 percent of kids from 8-15 download or watch TV or movies on the Internet. And 18 percent of kids from 8-11 visit blogs.

So, we know that kids are on the internet, but how much are they engaging in social networking sites? Even if 93 percent of the kids on social networking sites are being monitored regularly by their parent, as reported by Mike Sachoff’s article, it doesn’t mean that marketing through these sites is unavailable to them. In fact, there may be evidence to show that this age group is actively engaged in propelling social marketing. Take the case of 16 year old singer Justin Bieber and his increasing fame that is being fed by a mania of tweeting on Twitter. Chris Crum writes about “Twitter Business Lessons from Justin Bieber” and he notes that “Bieber has frequently been a trending topic for over a month straight. The tweets just keep pouring in, and they’re generally not spammy.” Of course, Justin has also been releasing new songs (including one that was for relief efforts in Haiti), made plenty of television appearances, and had a birthday this month. He’s been busy and interesting, so there is lots for his fans to tweet about. And tweet they do! Considering his fan base is primarily young girls, it’s not a big leap to assume they are the ones who are engaging in conversations about him on Twitter.

Knowing that there is a growing presence of kids and preteens on Twitter, Facebook, and more, means that including online engagement as part of your developing marketing plans for products and services for these age groups is becoming even more important.

There is an idea out there among some of us that we need to choose one avenue for a presence on the internet: social media, like Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace; blogging; or a website. Some will say it is overkill to have two or more. Others will talk about the time it takes to keep up with more than one. And still other people believe that the newer technologies are taking over, making a business website or blog obsolete. All of these perspectives are narrow ones.

Although a website is a large undertaking (or can be) when first put up, it really is the face of your business online. So, for convenience and argument’s sake, I am going to take it out of the equation and we will assume that your business has a great website and that it is bringing clients to you. So, you have clients coming in and your website is fantastic…do you need social media and blogging? Or has social media made blogging obsolete?

In his article “Blogging vs. Twitter: It Shouldn’t Be About the Format” Chris Crum argues (and I completely agree with him) that social media and blogging fill different, complementary niches. As Chris says, “Social networks drive traffic to blogs. Blogs drive followers to social profiles. If a reader is interested enough to read your blog on a regular basis, there is a good chance they are interested enough to follow you on Twitter, and likewise if they care enough to follow you on Twitter, they may be interested in what you have to say on your blog.”

And really, that about sums it up: social networking (be it Twitter, Facebook, or otherwise) can drive traffic to your blog. Where Twitter and Facebook allow you small, catchy bylines and quick conversations with people, a blog is a place to flesh out ideas and write out more complex thoughts. To me, it’s a little like the difference between the short answer tests and the essay question tests (if you are interested, yes, I was one of the students who was extremely good at the essay questions).

The best news is that we don’t have to choose one over the other. Social networking can take up time. Blogging takes up more time. And inspiration can be found for both forms, but then recycled into an interest in your presence on the other. For example, I can write a catchy phrase into Twitter about how I am contemplating blogging and it’s relationship to Tweeting. Then I link it to this blog post.

In the end, it’s good business to have all of your online efforts working together.