Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Profile Setup, SEO, Content Management - maximize your Marketing potential with Say WOW Marketing of New Jersey
QR Codes are the next wave of smart marketing. Why is it smart? Because your customer actually WANTS to get content. They electively pull the content that your brand wants to serve them. Whether it’s an ad, or some other educational piece of content that engages them, that’s completely up to the customer. No strings attached – have smartphone, will travel.
I created a QR campaign for a restaurant. The restaurant is an ethnic restaurant, of a very ancient culture (Ethiopian). To have QR codes throughout the restaurant sharing multimedia of different aspects of the culture is far out. People are actually engaged with the culture in a way that was not possible before smartphones.
The alternative for serving video to your customers is to install a television, and feed it with content that you want to share. Now, installing and hardwiring the whole system is quite expensive. Especially compared with the free tools available to us all to create them.
Marketers can invest alot of time into creatively crafting content, and making sure it’s persuasive enough to have an ROI that warrants the action, but when your customer actually invests their own time and energy, and dives deeper into the relationship of their own free will, isn’t that a win win?
To learn more about the QR code campaign at Mesob Ethiopian Restaurant, click here.
After my recent appearance on a social media panel discussion at Columbia University, I was asked to write a paper to be published in an international publication.
I want to share a clip of the article, so I chose a piece that I can really speak to, as I am very passionate about the subject of just what skills are needed by new media professionals, especially in the social media space. Through no fault of my own, I was laid off in my role as social media coordinator. There are definitely more skills necessary to the survival of an organization than building loyalty and brand awareness, which of course, cannot be ignored. And it’s because I have skills in other areas of internet marketing, especially in e-mail marketing and SEO, that companies need so much in this new media age, that I’m able to stay afloat in this sea of unemployed competition.
The economy is going through a troubled time right now, and we all need to keep on top of the skills most important to our profession, even if that means, learning new ones. Maybe you might pick up on something with this piece I wrote.
What skills do YOU think are necessary for an internet marketer, which I really am, I just really love and believe in social media!
Skills of the new Media Professionals
It is very important that new media professionals understand how to analyze basic usage metrics, such as open rates, click-through and conversions. While reporting on these metrics might not be part of their responsibilities, it is important for the professional to understand how the media they are producing is being consumed. This way, they can produce the most persuasive copy and the most engaging headlines. Using these metrics will help them to become better content producers, necessary to overcome distraction, one of the main challenges in the age of new media.
Knowing how to analyze metrics will allow social media professionals to be able to contribute to reporting on social media marketing efforts. It is imperative for management that the social media professional understand the impact they will have on the bottom line. They will need to be, and to be able to report on click throughs and conversions which is crucial to management to understand how social media marketing efforts impact ROI. Since social media is best served for long term marketing goals and building brand awareness, it can sometimes be difficult to show an immediate impact on sales through social media efforts such as Facebook and Twitter. If the social media professional keeps an eye to quantifying their results, not just in how many followers they have gained or lost, but in how they can measure the financial impact of their efforts, they will be successful.
As technology continues to rapidly develop, virtualization and cloud-based applications will keep vastly increasing its development rate, as people are able to share their ideas across a flat playing field – instantaneously. And social networks will continue to evolve with a long-tail approach, in that the social networks will continue to aggregate users of similar interests, and more specialized knowledge, providing platforms for similar information to be shared more among a sea of users who wish to share similar ideas and thoughts.
When the economy is suffering through hard times, companies must do what they can to survive. Because of this, companies will want to tighten their belts and will want to add new media skills to the tool belts of their already existing employees. They might need to bring on a new media professional as a consultant, particularly in the area of social media, to train their employees to keep the new media work in house, and increasing the responsibilities of their current employees. Project management and learning how to motivate team members is a crucial skill for new media professionals, as they might be in a situation where the only work available is on a consultant basis. Because virtualization leads to a disconnect between human beings while connecting them at the same time, new media professionals needs to understand the driving factors that motivate human behavior if they are brought on to work with a team within a corporation.
When speaking at Columbia University recently on a social media panel discussion, we were asked to relate how we could break through the noise and actually market in a social media environment.
As a social media manager for different industries, one thing rings true for all of the audiences that I have set up communities for. Communities are savvy. They get it. They know you are a brand and there’s gotta be an ROI in there somewhere. Watch this very brief clip for my thoughts on the topic.
This short clip is from the panel discussion, a series of 4 videos available on the SayWowMarketing Youtube Channel. I invite your comments and questions, especially with how you TOO can break through the noise!
It’s not that much different than being on stage. As a former jazz vocalist, I completely understand audiences that are distracted. You have to keep your eyes on the audience to really get that feedback – you need to know whether your set list is right on track, while keeping your attention with the band to make sure they have cues to know when it’s OK to solo or when you’re going to come in after the bridge.
Ok, just got distracted there…now where was I?
As a jazz vocalist, I had to keep all hands on deck, engaging the media with press releases to get coverage, engaging people with my performance, (and hopefully they would purchase a CD!), e-mail marketing, and always building website content.
If you’re a social media marketer, or involved with any kind of internet marketing, you should know that people have VERY limited time to hear your message, let alone click through to find out more. And conversion? That needs to be even more engaging.
To really lead someone down the “marketing funnel” we need to completely engage them at the start…Because in this “age of distraction,” there are too many things that fight for our attention.
Even writing this post, I was distracted by e-mail, by an RSS alert that came in, AND by the phone.
So, it’s a pretty safe bet that as you read this, you are probably distracted in some way, too.
If you want to get someone’s attention, really understand your audience (and every audience is unique!).
To start:
“What am I trying to say?”
What is the goal you are trying to accomplish? Keeping it to one idea per communication is best. Whether it’s an e-mail blast, or a Facebook fan page post – limiting the content for each broadcast is to your advantage.
Don’t know which idea is best? Use the Google Keyword Search Tool to check your global monthly search rate for two keyword phrases. Which phrase do people search for more?
Or if you’re a local business, check the local Google search numbers right alongside it.
Now that you’ve figured out ONE thing that you want to get across to your customers,
“What’s the best way to say it?”
This means not just writing the copy, but thinking about the platform on which the copy will be – if it’s a subject line in an e-mail marketing campaign, keep the text short and sweet – benefit up front. Think of it like a tweet – this is your one shot to hope for a click through to drive traffic.
It’s crucial to LISTEN to your audiences so you can understand their needs and evaluate opportunities.
But you must also COLLABORATE with your team (or band?) so you can really understand your audiences and get the right message out to them, as quickly and streamlined as possible.
Vickie Smith-Siculiano is the founder of Say WOW Marketing.
She is a Social Media Marketing Strategist, Marketing Communications Specialist and Internet Marketing Consultant. Through her years of working with audiences and marketing channels, Vickie's motto has become:Audience, Market, Value - make 'em say WOW!
Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Profile Setup, SEO, Content Management - maximize your Marketing potential with Say WOW Marketing of New Jersey
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QR Codes are the next wave of smart marketing. Why is it smart? Because your customer actually WANTS to get content. They electively pull the content that your brand wants to serve them. Whether it’s an ad, or some other educational piece of content that engages them, that’s completely up to the customer. No strings attached – have smartphone, will travel.
