Social media marketing is an essential part of many businesses and organizations today – regardless of size. The Internet has grown so much more community-focused, so much more social, that if one were to truly establish and enhance the online presence of a company or brand, there’d be no way of doing it without social media marketing. Sure, to some people, sites like Facebook and Twitter are just a complete waste of time, but without social media sites like these it would be next to impossible to keep up with everything that’s happening online. This is why companies are beginning to recognize the importance of hiring social media managers, social media agencies, social media consultants and strategists. The titles vary, but one thing is clear: if – as a small business owner or an Internet marketer – you want to be able to engage the right way with an online audience and steer the conversation about your brand to the – Read the full article
Thanks to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, charity is moving beyond direct mail, newsletters, and door-to-door campaigns. It has gone “non-traditional” – and so have forms of giving. What d’ya know: social media has churned out something we may aptly refer to as ‘social good’. This came to record-setting light in the recent #BeatCancer campaign. You might have heard of it. Actually, you may have participated in it. Here’s how the fundraising effort went. For every Tweet, Facebook status update, or blog post containing the #BeatCancer hashtag, eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors pledged to donate one cent to cancer research. The campaign went viral, mobilizing raised social media users everywhere. On October 16 to 17, #BeatCancer raised significant money for several cancer charities – to the tune of over $70,000, actually – and set the Guinness World record for the most social mentions in a 24-hour duration: 209,771. Not all have set records, but more and more fundraising initiatives are – Read the full article
When I come across articles like the one posted on TheStreet.com last week, I can’t help but get excited. Titled “Business Owners Question Social Networking” the article quotes some research that finds that a majority of small business owners haven’t seen value from social media, and that most don’t even use it themselves. A key section of the article reads: Among the 500 small-business executives surveyed, 76% said social networking hasn’t help them generate leads or expand their companies in the past year. And 86% said they don’t turn to these Web sites for business advice or other information. The majority, 61%, depend on big search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, for business advice and information. Only 13% use social networking sites and only 10% rely on expert blogs. So why on earth would I be excited that small businesses don’t use social media and haven’t seen value from it yet? Opportunity. Plain and simple. For me, there is – Read the full article
As the Web grows increasingly social, so should you. Lakeshore Branding specializes in helping you tap into, initiate, and sustain engaging online conversations with your customers. Our social media consulting services build the foundation not only for greater online visibility, but also for richer social dialogue that’s guaranteed to make a direct impact on your bottom line. We offer a comprehensive set of social media services that are designed to show you where people are talking, what they’re talking about, where and how you can best get involved, and what you can do to propel your business and brand to the top of today’s social media user’s mind. Social Media Marketing Services Social Media Consulting Training on Social Media tools Management of blogs, podcasts, and social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare, Google+, Flickr, Tumblr, and more Social Media Marketing Strategy Social Media Identity Protection Social Media Implementation Guidelines and Social Media Policy Social Media Audits and – Read the full article
Internet marketing is a combination of the technical and the creative side of the Internet. It includes the designing of a marketing strategy for a product, including its development and advertising up to its sales. Internet marketing ties with placement of product in the virtual spheres of customer engagement and streams online. Social Media The growth of social media has given birth to new dynamics of marketing. These websites provide the vital interface between businesses and their target audiences. No longer is representation on all the major outlets a superfluous positive; it has now become essential: a necessity. Garnering a presence in the social media circles – such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest – is an effective marketing strategy as millions of users and potential clients log in daily into these channels of virtual interface. All that businesses have to do is maintain a regular, updated presence on such streams and make use of a free, resourceful – Read the full article
Like it or not, Instagram is pretty big right now. It’s cool. It’s cross-platform (available for Apple and Android devices). It has a lot of users (about 30 million – and growing). It takes beautiful pictures no matter what your level or experience in photography is. Let’s not forget, too, the fact that the photo sharing app was acquired recently by social networking giant Facebook for approximately $1 billion in cash. If you’re managing or marketing a business, it makes perfect sense to use Instagram as a marketing channel of sorts. The only question is: how? To answer that, Lakeshore Branding came up with this quick guide on how to use Instagram for your business – and enhance your visibility on the Web. If you’ve only gotten started with the app, we hope you find these tips useful; if you’ve been at it for awhile now, let us know in the comment section below how you think Instagram supports your – Read the full article
Twitter is a fantastic social media platform. The micro-blogging surface continues to explode in popularity in spite of all the haters who have mocked it from day one. With millions of users, Twitter is a fertile ground for effective Internet marketers. In this article, I will be discussing five Twitter marketing techniques. Before I get to those, let me briefly touch on an important concept, which is the synergistic nature of social media marketing. The best social media marketing campaigns incorporate multiple platforms. The three most effective are usually Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Facebook is great for posting photos, distributing content, and having contests. Twitter is great for having a conversation with your customers. YouTube allows you to effectively distribute video content. When you use all of these platforms, along with perhaps a blog, then you have a winning social media marketing system that reinforces itself. Keep that in mind as you build up your Twitter account. 1. Steal the – Read the full article
In today’s world, the Internet is being increasingly used for all kinds of business ventures. However, there is one industry – the health and fitness industry (fitness clubs and fitness professionals) – that doesn’t often make use of the Internet due to the mistaken belief that this kind of business can only be conducted face to face. As a result, they end up missing out on the enormous benefits that online marketing offers. Quite a number of fitness clubs, fitness specialists, and personal trainers promote their businesses mainly through word-of-mouth advertising. Some of them shy away from the Internet because they imagine it will be very costly to venture into online marketing, SEO, or social media marketing. This is the wrong mindset. Here to convince you (hopefully) is a list of ways you can immediately enhance your online presence. Blogging There are many free and easy-to-use tools available which can be used to create a business blog. For instance, – Read the full article
