Social Media: Don't Talk, Just Listen

Social media is a wonderful tool for a person or a business to broadcast their thoughts, feelings, or products to a vast audience. The availability and simplicity of mediums like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging make social media marketing accessible to even the most limited budgets.

However, businesses commonly err by using the available platforms to constantly bombard users with advertising. Continuous harassment of consumers to purchase products or services serves only to create animosity and a general distrust towards social media advertising.

How then, should a business use social media to increase revenue? By listening!

Social media is commonly described as a “conversation”. That implies that there is dialogue between parties discussing multiple sides of an issue. Users connected to social networks love to post their opinions for their network (and the world) to see. They had a good time at the movies? Update on twitter before the credits are finished rolling. Found a great restaurant? Picture and maps are on Google by the end of the night. Finding conversations discussing issues that relate to your business or industry is simply a matter of listening.

Once you have identified where these conversations (good or bad) are taking place, the problem is how best to leverage the information. Instead of jumping in and adding your two cents to every thread, look for patterns in multiple conversations. Are consumers constantly complaining about a certain incompatibility with a similar product? Are users thrilled with the price of a service you offer? By simply listening, the quality of your products and services improve because the consumer is telling you what they want.

Listening and making constant adjustments is not just a short term quality solution. It creates a feedback loop between the consumer and the industry in general. When a customer purchases a product that solves a problem they tweeted about a few months earlier, they realize that they have directly impacted the industry. They are encouraged to continue posting reviews and comments, which generates more research for your business, and as you produce products and services that solve consumer problems, customers continue to post positive reviews for all their friends to see.

Social media connects users all over the globe in a community of conversation, discussion, and sharing. A business has a plethora of information available about the consumer, their likes and dislikes, and their behavioural habits. This information can be utilized to improve products and services, develop deeper customer relationships, and increase profits. And all you have to do is LISTEN.

Author: Mike Hwang

Marketing Intern at FP iMarketing

Tracking Your Online ROI

Coupons and discounting used to be the most common way for companies to track returns on print advertising investments. If a customer came in with a coupon in their hand, the company would know their campaign had worked.

Online advertising like Google AdWords, MSN AdCenter and Facebook Ads have similar ways of showing ads to targeted audiences with the goal to earn their website click. The problem with this type of advertising is that it is hard to gauge if those clicks are becoming sales.

Pay per click campaigns can act like a man in a gorilla costume with a sign reading “Sale!” We can assume that many people are seeing this ad, but there is little way to discern between visitors who did, and did not see the ad. To make things more complex, how can we measure which customers were influenced by the gorilla and which customers were not influenced by the gorilla? This same problem can affect online campaigns that are not setup correctly or if the administrator of the campaign lacks experience.

Here are a few tools you can use to better track your online campaigns:

Landing pages - A landing page is a specialized page separate from the regular pages on the website. The landing page is built to do one thing: to turn a “click” in to a SALE. Design a landing page like a flyer or a catalogue page that the user can buy from immediately. Embed graphics and video to emphasize the value of your product, and make sure it is EXTREMELY easy to purchase your product from that same page. The more clicks a user has to make will make it less likely they will finalize the transaction. The result? All sales from the landing page were directed from advertising campaigns and those metrics can be measured with accurate numbers.

Coupon codes – “Free Shipping with the coupon code BoxingDay2011”, or something similar, is not an uncommon offer to see on eCommerce sites. Just like in the old days of print advertising, these coupon codes can be tracked (as long as your eCommerce system supports it) and work as an additional incentive to make a purchase.

Software – A number of free and paid services/software will track your various campaigns. Integrating Google Analytics is a good first step, as it can integrate with Google AdWords and give you more intelligence on where visitors are coming from, and what they are doing once they get there. More powerful options are also available. Dedicated analytic programs, like ActiveConversion for example, will track and store information about users when they visit landing pages or your website. The details provided by these programs are very useful for designing more targeted campaigns for subsections of your customer base.

Simple steps, like the ones described above, are great ways to track where your customers are being directed from. Once you are able to track your ROI, you can tailor your campaigns to make the most sales, while spending the least amount of money.

Author: Jaron Whittingham

Online Marketing Specialist

FP iMarketing

How Facebook Uses Incentives to Bring Customers Back Again and Again

For businesses to survive in today’s challenging economy, it takes more than just a bargain here and there and a smile with your service.

Companies who offer customers an incentive are likely to have them come back time and time again.

One business who has taken the incentive route is Facebook, which recently unveiled a program that essentially provides consumers with a financial incentive to view advertisements on its site.

The program works wherein Facebook rewards users who view certain advertisements with Facebook Credits, which in turn can be turned in to acquire goods on Facebook Deals. For those not aware, Facebook Deals are the company’s new Groupon-like daily deals service.

Before any business owners think Facebook is going to go into the red over this, note that the company to start will only pass along one credit per advertisement, which is approximately equal to 10 cents.

According to Facebook, the bulk of the ads will be incorporated in games. Presently, Facebook is working with a number of game publishers to further the program. Company officials also note that incentivizing consumers to view ads is one answer for the company’s low banner click-through rates. Just recently, Facebook grew its Credits program in order to allow consumers to use the Credits for purchasing real-world goods promoted in Deals.

In the past, the credits, which were passed along to consumers who subscribed for different programs or purchased out right were only able to acquire virtual goods.

While Facebook’s recent move has great potential for the company given its name recognition, what about lesser-known businesses. What can they do to craft an improved relationship with their customers?

As many consumers continue to battle tough economic times, it should come as no surprise that they are looking for deals wherever they can find them. With that being the case, an incentive program of any size is a great way for you as a business owner to keep current customers and potentially reel in new ones.

If you haven’t thought about implementing a reward program for your customers, why is that? There’s a very good chance the competition is doing it, so don’t fall behind the eight ball.

Rewarding customers for their loyalty is something that just makes sense in today’s challenging economy.

Dave Thomas is an expert writer on business pos systems based in San Diego, California. He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as point of sale systems at Resource Nation.