Social Media Marketing Tips

How can you accomplish your online branding goals as efficiently as possible?

Social Media Marketing (SMM) has become a popular alternative for online business branding. Companies don’t think of social sites (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin) as “websites for kids”. They are valuable Internet marketing and networking resources for business. On the other hand, there are 4 major issues involved with diving into SMM without the proper knowledge and strategies. These can “make” or “break” your success in social media marketing:

GETTING STARTED IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Make wise choices from the beginning and move forward with a “plan of action”!

Prior to getting started in social media marketing, you need to nip the urge to join every single social site on Google. It does not hurt to have a presence everywhere on the Internet, though there is no advantage in wasting time setting up a social account that is not used. The site owner may delete it – OR – it will get outdated and look unprofessional. Plus, there is no way that you can “work” them all unless you have a team to help you. You will still want to be discerning and make a “plan of action”. You need this to properly brand your business through social media marketing. You also need this “plan of action” in order to “position” your company correctly from the beginning. This concept holds true in Internet marketing in general. 

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November 26th, 2010 by admin
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10 Tips for a Successful Entrepreneurial Pitch

One of the hardest presentations to make is the entrepreneurial pitch. You have a great idea for a business and you want someone to give you money to make it happen. The problem is that venture capitalists, angel investors, and even rich uncles are heavily predisposed against you. Why? Because 99% of the pitches they hear sound like sure-fire prescriptions to lose money!
If you are pitching investors to give you money for a new venture, you should subscribe to the following rules:
1. Explain exactly what your business is within the first thirty seconds. Many entrepreneurs waste valuable time giving loads of data, background and other info—all the while investors are left scratching their heads thinking “What does this business actually DO?”
2. Tell your audience who your customers will be. Paint a vivid, specific picture of these people.
3.  Explain why your customers going to give you there hard-earned money.
4. Explain who your competitors are. (And if you say you have no competitors, that is a certain sign you are unsophisticated and deserve no investment money!)
5. Explain why you are the ONE to make this happen.
6. Give your presentation with confidence and enthusiasm. Investors want a founder/CEO to be a chief salesperson; they want to see that you can convince the world of your dream—not just them.
7. Explain what star you can hitch a ride to. Has Best Buy or Radio Shack agreed to distribute your new product? Investors feel much more comfortable knowing you have an established player willing to distribute your wares.
8. Ask for a specific amount of money. If all you do is ask for money, then you can’t complain if an investor gives you $3.25 for a cup of Starbucks coffee.
9. Tell prospects exactly what you are going to spend the money on (hint:a trip to Maui for you and your friends will not impress)
10. Dress well, act confident, and put on the air that you don’t really need their money, but would be willing to accept it if they bring enough to the table to be a strategic partner for you. Sad but true regarding human nature, but people are much more likely to give you money if they feel you don’t really need it.
Finally, make each pitch presentation serve as a focus group for your next presentation. When one group of investors asks you a series of questions after you pitch, write down all of those questions and make sure most of them are answered in your next pitch so that the next group doesn’t have to ask them. Keep pitching and keep improving your pitch and eventually you may get funded.
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June 6th, 2010 by admin
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Media Advertising Must Adapt to Survive in 2009

Broadcasters, marketers and media buyers agree that, because we now live in a video-on-demand world in which consumers control what they watch and when, the broadcast advertising model is broken.  And while the media industry is still sorting through their predicament on television, perhaps the even more troubling news is that, due to the tough economic conditions the world faces going into 2009, all indications are that online ad spending will dip over the next year.  What can media companies and advertisers do in this floundering ad ecosystem?  The short answer: they will have to change the way advertising is bought and sold, measured and delivered.

Traditional television audiences are eroding.  In October, the four biggest broadcast networks reported declines in audiences between the ages of 18 and 49.   Many analysts believe that those eyeballs are moving from television to online.  Advertising Age, in a study on social networking and its impact on television, found that 25% of users of social networking sites like Facebook indicated they were spending less time watching TV because of the time they were spending online.  And more than a third of all 12 – 64 year olds online indicated they used social networking sites regularly.   With audiences being siphoned away from television, and using time-shifting digital video recorder (DVR) technology like TiVo to skip ads while they are watching TV, advertising dollars to be had in the broadcast medium are on the decline.

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March 29th, 2010 by admin
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