Digital

Wondering how to engage with your target audience and tap into a larger audience of potential customers? TV is a great way to do it. “But wait,” you say, “isn’t this about Twitter?” The following Twitter case study will show you how Arkside Marketing can use Twitter to harness an engaged TV show audience and make it work for you!

22.1% of adults text friends/family about content while watching it.

By now, you have probably heard of “live tweeting”. Fans from around the world can connect in real-time over their favorite TV series or live event. For advertisers, it is a great way to connect with an audience of loyal, interested fans. Go on Twitter during a Monday night showing of The Bachelor and you’ll see hundreds of thousands people tweeting their dramatic reactions and raw emotions to what is happening on screen. Shows like the Biggest Loser, Scandal, and The Walking Dead have huge audiences that follow along on Twitter.  These are called “multi-screeners”. They utilize two or more screens simultaneously; Twitter and television, in this case. Some shows take matters into their own hands and have cast members live-tweet during the show to enhance the conversation. You can participate and join the conversation as an expert! When done professionally, your involvement can expose you and your business to a new, captivated audience of potential customers.

12.3% of adults Tweet about a show’s content while watching it.

Our goal with this Twitter case study is to show we approach Twitter live-tweets and the benefit it brings our clients.

THE CLIENT

A medically-supervised weight loss program in Riverside, CA.  Their program uses a combination of high quality meal replacements, appetite suppressants, exercise guidance, and dietary management.

THE SITUATION

Part of our strategy for the client was to increase their brand awareness and explore opportunities with new markets. Shortly after the strategy was approved, we learned that the TV show, My Diet Is Better Than Yours, would be airing their season finale. This was a high profile opportunity to introduce the doctor (proprietor of the business) to his unreached audience. The client was briefed on the logistics and agreed.

THE SHOW

My Diet Is Better Than Yours is a television show on ABC that pits weight loss experts and their diets against each other to see who really has the best diet technique for their “patient”. The diets combine diet and exercise to see which diet can yield the highest percentage of body fat lost over the course of 14weeks.

LOGISTICS

The client would watch the show live and text his thoughts to a member of our digital team. These texts would then properly condensed and hashtagged with appropriate account tagging to be tweeted. Our team member would then monitor the account for engagement: Likes, Re-tweets, and inclusion in conversation. They would then reply as appropriate from the client account.

LIVE TWEETING

We live-tweeted the finale of My Diet Is Better Than Yours, which lasted 2 hours. The client was prepared by our team with what type of reactions would work best and how our team would convert his reactions into tweets. Our team member made sure that every tweet contained the hashtag for the show, and made sure to tag appropriate parties in each tweet.  Each tweet went out no more than 60 seconds from when the doctor’s reaction was received. If someone mentioned the client in a tweet, our team member would then engage in a conversation with that person on behalf of the clinic. If any questions came up that needed an expert opinion our team member would promptly text the doctor.

RESULTS

Over the course of the 2 hours we:

• Sent 82 Tweets
• Received
  • 66 Likes
  • 23 Re-tweets
  • 4 Replies
• Generated
  • 12,376 impressions
  • 5 new followers
  • 7 ReTweets and 9 Likes from a Twitter Verified celebrity account
  • 11 Retweets from other stars of the show
  • 13 Likes from other starts of the show
  • Engagement rate of 1.76% (event)
  • Engagement rate of 1.08% (entire month)

This is the highest monthly engagement rate achieved on the client’s account as of this live tweeting event and nearly double the engagement rate of the previous month.

Summary: As you have seen in this Twitter case study, engaging with your target audience can be achieved when done professionally. It takes an understanding of Twitter best practices, experienced staff, and a strong relationship with a client. Most importantly, it can be enjoyable for everyone involved. Seek out the interests of your target market and align your efforts accordingly. Doing so creates a better relationship with your current audience and can help earn new, relevant relationships.

If you would like to learn more about how Arkside Marketing can help your business find success on Twitter and how to integrate with your other marketing efforts, contact our office today. The first consultation is free and we will analyze your social media at no charge.

Tired of posting to Facebook and not getting results? This Facebook case study is here to help. Good social media is not something for your receptionist or “any young person” to handle. Facebook for your business is different than having a personal profile. You have goals to sell more widgets, promote your brand, earn new customers, turn loyal customers into fans (more on this later), and increase traffic to your website. To achieve these goals -or any others on social media- you need to understand what works.  You must also be prepared to dedicate multiple hours per day to finding content, sharing images, promoting posts, replying to comments, finding new audiences, and analyzing previous results.

Our goal with this Facebook case study is to show how we approach Facebook management (along with other social media networks) and the results we create for our clients.

THE CLIENT

Craig & Sons Termite & Pest Control, Inc., located in Redlands, CA. Their service area is approximately 35 miles from their office. They are a family owned business for many decades and provide all pest removal and prevention services to residential and commercial clients.

THE SITUATION

Craig & Sons had been working with a national media company (who will go unnamed) that built their website and “managed” their social media. After failing to see any meaningful engagement on Facebook and no other social accounts being used, Craig & Sons was seeking alternatives.  After explaining our approach to Facebook and other social media, we were honored to earn their business.

PRIOR FACEBOOK RESULTS

Posting Schedule: The previous company had no posting schedule. Content seemed to appear randomly: sometimes four posts a week (still less than half of what it should be) and other times once a month. In all cases, the posts would lack any images or video. Just a few sentences of text. This is completely insufficient. According to some studies, the average life of a Facebook post can be only 2.5 hours!

Audience Reach: In the six months preceding our takeover, only three posts ever reached (not engaged, simply reached), more than 100 people. This was on a page with over 250 fans. Two of those posts were posted directly by the client so they can’t be attributed to the media company.

SEO Performance: In the six months preceding our takeover, only four clicks from Google went to their Facebook Page. One substantial benefit of a successful Facebook Page is search engine ranking. Beyond linking to your website and encouraging search engines to boost it on page one, you also have the capability to have your Facebook Page rank on the first page of Google (and other search engines) to knock out a competitor.

Audience Engagement: Reaching an audience is one thing. Getting them to engage with your content and your company is another. Only ONCE did they get an engagement level of 10 people or higher. Half of that engagement was directly attributable to a post from the client.

Summary: Despite having thousands of employees and millions of dollars to develop effective social media strategies for their clients, this company approached social media as less than a hobby. Their client suffered from a wasted investment.

Remember Arkside Rule #1: Always treat marketing as an investment!

THE NEW SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

1) Understand the target market: home owners and property managers, age 35+, located within 1-35 miles of the Craig & Sons office

2a) Create accounts on Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest
2b) Optimize their existing Facebook Page (and the other networks) to include keyword-rich bios and easy-to-find contact information

3) Capitalize on the creepy factor of bugs with visual content and include educational elements so the audience becomes more aware of bugs and other pests, how to prevent infestations, and how Craig & Sons can take care of pest problems

4) Build a posting schedule focusing on the days with the most social traffic, optimizing time-of-day placement

5) Utilize social profiles for engagement, customer retention, and SEO value

6) Posts need to be image and video heavy while still maintaining the traditional “80/20 Rule”

7) Employees were trained on engagement and encouraged to Like the Page (if they had not already)

Date work began: June 6, 2015

NEW FACEBOOK RESULTS

Posting Schedule: As most people don’t want to hear about bugs on a constant basis -especially a sales pitch about bug killing- we identified the days of the week most relevant to the client’s target audience. On those days, we create 1-2 posts per day. These are scheduled during “prime time” when the audience is most likely to be on. Approximately 20% of those posts in a given week link directly to the client’s website. The remaining 80% are funny, creepy, educational, or otherwise relevant content for the intended audience. Hashtags are included when appropriate as they are now searchable on Facebook.

Beyond Facebook, we also create unique content for Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. These platforms were selected due to their user demographics, capability for visual presentation, and popularity.

As a combined group, all four social channels receive relevant content customized for the intended audience. Twitter receives more posts and Instagram the least. This is based on substantial research regarding how users interact with brands on each network. All four work together to promote a cohesive brand presentation no matter which social network a potential or current customer may discover.

Audience Reach: Beyond taking their number of Likes to over 300, our relevant organic content now reaches more people each week than previously achieved in a month. This is without a single paid ad or otherwise promoted post. The goal is to provide information that matters to the audience so they Like, Comment, and Share with their friends.

It is worth noting that this new approach, which put much more content in front of the audience than they had seen previously did not result in a single Unlike, Hide Post, or Report as Spam action!

SEO Performance: The SEO improvement was extremely fast. In just six weeks we saw at least eight clicks to the Facebook Page directly from Google search results. We also began to see traffic from Bing, Yahoo!, AOL, and even LinkedIn. These demonstrate moments in which a competitor may have appeared but had been outranked by Craig & Sons’ Facebook Page.

Audience Engagement: We often describe our “Useless Army” concept to potential clients. It is the idea of having thousands upon thousands of Facebook Fans but none of them actually engage with the Page. No Likes, comments, or shares – or at least very few. So what good is an army of Fans who don’t interact with your posts? In one word: useless.

It is our goal to encourage engagement so that the Page and its content rank highly on Facebook (i.e. – Recommended Pages) and search engines.

As you can see here, the new content immediately achieved greater engagement across all three measurements: Likes, Comments, and Shares. Such interaction helps Craig & Sons demonstrate expertise in their field, passion for their industry, and a commitment to truly engaging with their audience.  Where the previous company only achieved an engagement level of 10 people or higher one time in six months, we have done it more than a dozen times without any direct client posts. When people have great content to share, you empower them to become “brandvocates”.

What is a “brandvocate”? The term describes anyone not employed by the company that promotes your product or service without compensation. They advocate your brand to their friends and family for one simple reason: they like what you offer. They are a valuable marketing asset because they are genuine, loyal, and provide free word-of-mouth advertising. Social media gives them the ability to do this on a massive scale.

Summary: Success is a direct result of multiple efforts. It requires an understanding of the intended audience, posting schedules based on research and demographics, relevant content curated and shared by people, better search engine optimization, and new levels of audience engagement.

If you would like to learn more about how Arkside Marketing can help your business find success on Facebook or other social media, contact our office today. The first consultation is free and we will analyze your social media at no charge.

Cardinal sin of advertising: racism.

Divine blessing of advertising: a good ad agency.

The law firm of McCutcheon & Hammer seems to be the unfortunate victims of advertising that they didn’t want. According to them, they didn’t even pay for it. Or ask for it. A commercial production company created the offensive ad below using a horrible Asian stereotype character and it was uploaded to the firm’s YouTube channel. Check it out below (on the production company’s YouTube channel) and then scroll down for updates since the video was discovered last week.

Things got weird once the video went viral. The law firm claimed that it never commissioned the video and that their YouTube channel was hacked. It is a fair assumption that a local TV production company doesn’t have the ability to “hack” YouTube (which is owned and secured by Google). So let’s assume the law firm is using some legalese and hinging the accuracy of their statement on the first part of the statement. They never commissioned this particular video and, therefore, never authorized it being uploaded to YouTube.

Since both sides make opposing claims and the ad involves a very derogatory portrayal of Asians, the Natiaonl Asian Pacific American Bar Association has looked into the situation and made some odd discoveries:

1) Neither party is willing to produce documentation to support their claim.
2) Neither party is eliminating the idea that someone pretending to work for the law firm is responsible. (If this is true, the production company is disastrously negligent in their client authorization process!)
3) The video is still online.
4) The law firm has not followed through with any threat to sue the production company.
5) This is still very bad PR for the law firm and production company.

All that said, the judgment on this one is bad all the way around. The production company makes junk, and racist junk at that. The law firm has done terrible damage control. If this were professionally handled at the onset, it would have been cleanly wrapped up and the reputation of the firm would still be in tact. Such is not the case today.

It isn’t a rumor, nor is it a conspiracy. Facebook organic reach has been slashed. Facebook has admitted to changing its algorithm so businesses (or anyone else with a Page) are forced to pay if they want their posts to be seen. While most businesses saw a decline to about 15-20% organic reach last year, many are now reaching only 2%. In the case of the Arkside Marketing Facebook Page, we are seeing 5-8% consistently.

Facebook has become the bridge troll with a pay-to-play model.

General Motors Called Facebook’s Bluff

The origin of this change reaches back about a year and a half. Facebook had one billion users and was the place to be. Many Fortune 500 companies were clamoring to get on the bandwagon but still hadn’t figured out how. Even at the end of 2012, only 66% of the F500 were on Facebook, let alone using it effectively.

But in May 2012, General Motors’ firebrand CMO, Joel Ewanick, made the decision to fire their social media agency of record and stop all advertising on Facebook. Quick way to save $10 million. The stated reasoning was that they didn’t see any substantial return on their investment so they would stop advertising and continue with their organic Facebook Page fan base of a few million followers.

Even with Facebook making it impossible for brands to reach 100% of their followers, most were still seeing what you posted. Why advertise? Faceb0ok was cannibalizing itself. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

Not only did they just eliminate themselves as a top Facebook advertiser (and revenue source), but they did this the week Facebook had their IPO. Ouch.

We believe Joel was right.

Ewanick and General Motors exposed the flaw in Facebook’s plan. Spending wasn’t necessary because people were organically finding, Liking, and sharing brand content.

Facebook had to fix the giant hole in the ship. Now you have to pay to get on board.

Effect on the Facebook Page for Business

Post-IPO, Facebook has been under immense public pressure (especially from our own Founder who has had issues with the platform). They have been busy addressing their failure on mobile devices and an unfriendly ad platform. Organic results were odd also. For many years, it has been frustrating for businesses on Facebook because they are treated badly. Even when a customer says they “Like” a business, Facebook doesn’t see that as permission to show your content. In their belief, just because a customer says they “Like” something, that doesn’t really mean they want to see anything from it.

In high school, guys wanted “no” to mean “yes”.
On Facebook, “yes” actually means “no”.

Now, “yes” actually means “no way in hell”. So what is a business to do? According to Facebook, a business is to pay for ads.
“Your brand can fully benefit from having fans when most of your ads show social context, which increases advertising effectiveness and efficiency“.

Perhaps the most offensive and glaring admission is this:
“We expect organic distribution of an individual page’s posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on the site.“

If someone tells you they like something and you block them from seeing it, how does that equal a meaningful experience?

Social Media Sharing Options

1) Save Money and Reach Fewer People
There are many social media agencies and managers that we have spoken to whom have told us they will be focusing less of their time (and their client’s money) on Facebook Pages. In their view, the task of reaching a fan base is so time consuming and expensive that better results can be found on other social media or even traditional media.

2) Spend Money and Reach More People
Other social media agencies and managers have said they will pay, if necessary. Facebook wants to command paid media and may be a force that is too large to ignore. For those companies with substantial followings in the thousands or hundreds of thousands, a marketing investment may be a wise decision.

At Arkside Marketing, we have  saying, “advertising is an investment. If it is only an expense, you are doing it wrong.”

3) Leave Facebook
Yes, we’re serious. For some businesses, the Facebook Page organic reach may have provided a nice bump in social interaction, but their new model decreases the return that could possibly be achieved. Could that time be better spent on other social platforms such as Twitter or the SEO-friendly Google+?

In the spirit of full disclosure, we have not recommended that any of our clients abandon Facebook. Each of them can continue to successfully reach their audience, but to a smaller degree. We also plan to continue our own Facebook presence, but will reduce our advertising to large announcements.

Facebook In The Future

Although we agree with his decision, we blame Joel Ewanick for this. Ultimately, it would have occurred anyway. Facebook had to realize their shortcoming. But now that it is here, what will your business choose? The pay-to-play model is here to stay, mainly because it doesn’t seriously infringe on Facebook’s main product: its users.

Contact Us

If you would like an objective evaluation of your social media presence and strategy, contact our office.

By now, it is no surprise that Facebook has launched another feature without much explanation of how it works. They do this with EdgeRank updates and advertising options. Of course, privacy glitches features have been repeatedly changed without explanation as well.

Almost Nothing Added to Facebook Help

In this case, Facebook unveiled a new 5-star rating system for business Pages and at least two weeks have gone by since any details have emerged from the Menlo Park headquartered company. The star ratings appear under a business name on their Page and seem to be visible to all Facebook users.

This is what we know from the two questions Facebook has added to its help section:

• For a business to be rated, it must add an address to its profile
• Businesses can remove their ratings by removing their address from their profile
• Comments can accompany ratings, but they are not required

Unanswered Star Rating Questions

Other than showing the rating to the public, Facebook has not shared what this means to the Page owner.

1) Does a score impact how a Page appears in search results?
2) Why not show how many ratings have been received?
3) Are mobile and desktop ratings scored equally?
4) Are any filters applied to “score” ratings? (i.e. – John Smith has 1,000 friends and reviews many businesses…will his rating be worth more than Jane Doe who has 100 friends and rates 1 business a year?)
5) How are false reviews flagged/responded to/deleted?

As we said, these important issues are not being addressed so the system is of little value to businesses today.

Another Voice for Customer Service

However, there are some noteworthy elements about the project in general. The Facebook star rating seems designed to infringe on the business models of companies like Yelp and FourSquare. By connecting a rating system to a business’ Facebook Page, it reduces the need of someone to leave and see how they rank on another site. It also mimics the Page/Places/Local integration currently being attempted by Google on their Google+ social media platform.

It is the integration that is key. Social media sites are continuing to explore new options to integrate themselves into a user’s daily life. It also puts another focus on customer service within a business and making that reportable to the public. More and more, businesses are being forced to provide better experiences because each customer has a voice.

Facebook alone has 1.1 billion voices.

The new rating system is yet another element that must be incorporated into a business’ reputation management and overall social media efforts. They must solicit reviews from current customers, monitor their star rating, and promote a four or five star score.

In case you haven’t heard, Twitter plans to go public with an IPO sometime in 2014. Cheekily, they made this announcement in a tweet. Now they are under intense pressure to prove their value. How can Twitter be profitable? Can it grow? Can it help business? How will it attract advertisers? With a recent blog post, Twitter has set out to prove that tweets drive offline sales.

Majority of Sales are Still Offline

Twitter partnered with Datalogix to determine the impact Promoted Tweets (and tweeting in general) had on offline sales. Despite the surging popularity of social media with businesses and their consumers, 94% of purchases in America are still made offline, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

So how can businesses use Twitter to impact their offline sales?

Promoted Tweets, according to Twitter.

How Twitter Impacts Offline Sales

The logic is fairly simple but execution is key. Tweeting is about condensing any idea or action into a message of 140 characters or less. The people that see those messages have just become a branding audience and, in most cases, the goal is to move from branding to action. You want people to act on the information or call-to-action you provide.

When 35 CPG brands were studied, it was determined that Promoted Tweets (one of Twitter’s advertising products) directly correlated to a 12% sales lift offline. Also impressive, organic Tweets helped push an 8% offline sales lift.

Impressed? Wait, there’s more. (We’re not cheerleaders for Twitter. This just happens to be excellent marketing data that we believe can help our clients achieve great success in social media and gaining incremental sales. You want to sell more, right?)

Twitter’s data also showed that customers exposed to Promoted Tweets bought 29% more than customers who were only exposed to organic Tweets.

Measuring Social Media Impact

Twitter has helped advance the measurement metrics of online promotion affecting offline sales. It is a critical tool for any brand who seeks to grow their business with the inclusion of social media in their marketing mix. Verifiable sales are an element of measurement, just like website traffic, online buzz, or media coverage.

Facebook also had a recent announcement about conversion from online ads to offline purchases. This segment continues to grow and should not be ignored.

Summary

It is becoming more difficult for skeptics to deny the importance of social media in marketing. Its importance has been documented for SEO objectives and its genuine dollars-and-cents value is being better quantified every day. If you would like to learn more about effective social media and how it can lift your sales, please contact Arkside today.

It was recently reported by Searchmetrics that Google is strongly prioritizing social media activities in their ranking algorithm. This knowledge should have profound implications in the SEO strategy of your company and how you include social media in your overall online plans. The SEO strategy you have built with your Arkside consultants incorporates this information already and we encourage you to utilize these best practices in your social media efforts.

Social Media Factors for Google SEO

Seven of the top 10 factors in a website’s rank involve social media. They are:

1) Google +1
2) Facebook Shares
4) Facebook Total
5) Facebook Comments
6) Facebook Likes
7) Pinterest
8) Tweets

The importance of social media elements has been a growing trend in Google’s SEO algorithm and 2013 seems to reinforce that notion. Although backlinks continue to remain vital, there are other factors which have decreased in importance such as keywords links and domains. It is interesting to note that Google is specifically including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, while ignoring LinkedIn which is a hub of deep knowledge on nearly every possible industry. We’ll have to see how or if this evolves over time. When sharing your content on social media, remember that people don’t want to see you talk about yourself all day. For every 7-10 social media posts you make, one should be about you.

Content is Still King for On-Site Google SEO

Also of note in the report are the on-site elements Google is looking for. It is no surprise that “content is still king” and Google wants websites to create unique content that is valuable to the intended audience. As a contrary example, the Arkside Marketing blog is filled with information about the company, areas of marketing, best practices, and client profiles. If we suddenly began blogging about fishing or the latest updates to IRS tax code, Google might devalue our site for being grossly off-topic. Ensure your website has fresh, unique, and quality content in order to build your authority on your topic(s). These are the on-site factors examined by Google:

1. Number of internal links
2. HTML length
3. Keywords in body
4. Keywords in external links
5. Text character length
6. Internal link is self-referential
7. Keyword in internal link
8. Number of external links
9. Image count
10. Keyword in H2

Backlinks Required, But Remain Cautious

Missing from the first list in this blog post is #3 – Number of backlinks. Google still considers this to be a critical metric of your authority on a particular subject. If you have good content, Google assumes people will like it, link to it, and share it publicly via their own site or social media channels.  This does not mean you should implement any “black hat” SEO techniques and create blog farms filled with backlinks to your site. White hat techniques are still the unarguably best way to achieve Google SEO success.

Summary

While Google hasn’t made many dramatic shifts in their ranking priority from last year to this year, social media has climbed in importance and must remain a key factor in your online strategies. Use social media to promote the high-quality, unique content on your site and encourage people to distribute that content via backlinks and social media sharing. This is how you will achieve digital success.

When the doors to the office are locked for the evening, that never means you have to stop receiving phone calls, generating website traffic, receiving emails, or educating your customers. There are many ways that your direct response advertising campaign can continue to sell after hours. Advertising is an investment and, like your money, it should always be working for you.

Let us pretend your company sells mattresses. You have three showrooms within 200 miles of each other and they are open 9am – 6pm seven days per week. Your website shows your full product catalog along with information about your company and how to contact any store.  You are currently running a radio ad campaign and 20% of your commercials are running from 8pm – 12 midnight. (Don’t worry. You got these for free as a result of our negotiating.) You also have a television campaign running from 4pm – 12 midnight, a YouTube channel, Facebook Page, Twitter feed, Google AdWords, and a long-term SEO strategy.

How do you continue to sell after 6pm?

After Hours Call Center Services

Your radio and television ads include a phone number. But after 6pm, you don’t have a live body in the office to answer it. That is no reason to stop your customer from calling after hours. There are many call center services with locations around the world (remember the time difference) that can provide professional operators to take calls for your business after hours. They speak proficient, sometimes fluent or native, English, and can be trained to follow your company protocol for greeting and working with after hours calls. This can include instruction on what to do with urgent calls and whom to reach. Messages can be taken and delivered via fax or email for convenience.

They can also direct customers to your website and/or social media networks, which we will cover in the next sections. Always remember that your staff and marketing media should be a resource to the customer.

Website Live Chat

Your direct response advertising should include a reference to your website. And your website has a live chat operator, right? If your answer was “no”, we hope there is a great reason because a live chat operator can help you move more mattresses when your brick and mortar is closed. According to a 2010 Forrester Research study on live chat, “44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a Web site can offer.”

In addition to answering questions just before or even during someone’s purchasing process on your site, live chat also offers specific after hours benefits. If most or all of your competitors are lacking a website live chat feature, you are in a unique position to help your customers AND sell to them while your competition waits for 8am the next morning.

Live chat is also a great means of reducing cost-per-sale.

1. Online conversations cost less than a phone call.
2. Call/chat center employees can handle multiple chat sessions at a time, but only one phone call at a time.

Customers hate waiting. By allowing your employees to multitask, you can substantially reduce the backlog on your phone system during the day (not to mention reduce call volume dramatically) and increase the overall number of customers who received support.

Finally – use it in your advertising! Promote your competitive advantage of having help available 24 hours a day, especially if that is when your advertising is running.

Social Media Conversations

It isn’t wasted time or space to include social media in your direct response advertising if you can help questions and sell mattresses via social media. In much the same way live chat can help you sell after hours, so can social media, but with more opportunities. Live chat requires initiation by the user on some level to begin the relationship. All of the social media sites give your business the opportunity to start a relationship, answer questions, promote a new mattress line, or offer advice.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A recent study showed that Google prioritizes social media factors in its calculations for search rankings. Seven of the top 10 factors involve social media. If for no other reason, make sure your company is using social media to enhance its own rankings in search. Never make it a challenge for customers to find you, especially after hours when customers have plenty of time to search and choose between you and your competitors.

Content is also critical for SEO and customer engagement. No one wants to see a Facebook Page or Twitter feed filled with self-promotion. Talk about events in your community, share interesting and RELEVANT photos and videos, and create contests to prompt customer engagement. These are a few of the things you can do that will earn a customer’s attention while they try to learn more about you and your mattresses in the wee hours of the night.

After Hours Staffing

Ensure that your staff or an outside vendor are monitoring your social media networks after hours. They should have the ability to respond to messages, reTweet, share information, and assist customers with making purchases on your website. The goal is to be far more than an answering service taking messages for someone to handle in the morning.

Your social media team should be thoroughly familiar with your website. This is vital so they can direct customers to the right page at the right time. For example, a customer wants to know how many years a mattress will last. Your social media team should send that person to a Testimonials page about the mattress line, not a description of the features. (Of course, if your product page has testimonials on it, that is okay.)

Summary

There is no reason you need to wait for your doors to open to sell. Utilize your after hours direct response advertising to direct your potential customers to the places they can find answers. With these three techniques, you can successfully and cost-efficiently sell your product or services after hours.

“The best time to collect referrals from customers is at the point when they realize and acknowledge a good job was done.” –John Jantsch

That moment when a customer realizes and acknowledges when a good job was done can happen at any time. Your challenge is to solicit referrals at that moment.

The world has changed for every industry. Business models have been modified and adjusted to meet new demands and new opportunities. Most importantly, companies are no longer the most important factor in their own brand – their customers are. The wrong criticism on social media can force a company into “damage control mode” or, in some cases force the company out of business. Average consumers now wield tremendous influence through digital media and the enhanced power of referrals.

It is no longer enough to wait for a client to tell a prospective client how amazing you are. You need referrals on a larger scale. Assume your competitors are always looking for new ways to tap the power of referrals.

Referrals Have Always Worked

And they always will. Word of mouth remains one of the most powerful and trusted methods by which consumers choose a brand. Many businesses -even entire industries- have relied on word of mouth referrals for their existence. Lawyers are an excellent example of this. The traditions and esteem of the legal profession naturally lend themselves to a proclivity for clients to tell their friends, family, or colleagues about the great (or horrible) job their attorney did on their case. At a cost of $100-$500 an hour, people want personal stories of success.

But now referrals can be successfully generated through more than a phone call or a Chamber of Commerce mixer. There are means and methods to incorporate referral solicitations into your current or new marketing strategy.

New Power of Referrals Opportunities

The example you see here was taken directly from the Facebook Page of a celebrity friend of ours. He, unfortunately, recently went through a divorce and when it was done, this was what he said about his attorney. This celebrity has a few thousand social media connections. This simple post (which includes the attorney’s name and phone number) is far more valuable than if he had simply told a friend or family member. He told thousands of people. Instantly. People that value his opinion.

The name before the phone number is more than just a name. It is a link to the attorney’s Facebook Page. A convenient form of contact was just facilitated by a simple Facebook post. According to the Small Business Administration: “At the high-value end of the referral scale is an existing customer who facilitates a sale.”

As you look at your own methods of earning referrals, ask yourself:

• Can your referrals not only sustain your business, but enable it to grow?
• If you are the principal or a senior partner, would the firm continue without your referral network?
• Are your competitors including referral solicitation as part of their marketing?

Making Referrals Part of your Marketing

There are three steps to successful referral marketing and tapping the power of referrals:

1. Earning – As Ted Rubin says in his Return on Relationship™ coaching, “Provide the most value, you’ll get the most business.” Do your job so well that your clients will want to refer you to others.
2. Soliciting – Now that you’ve earned a referral, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Your Arkside Account Manager will give you multiple ways by which you can ask for a referral, review, or testimonial that is convenient for the client.
3. Promoting – Show prospects why they should choose to work with you…why others have chosen to work with you. Include your testimonials and other referral comments on your website, social media, and even presentations. Remember, part of online advertising is showing search engines what you want them to see!

Summary

Your business doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for one friend to tell another friend how great you are. You can not survive and expand by bread alone. You need to initiate activities of scale and develop new means by which referral business (the best kind of business) can be generated. Social media and search engines like Google and Yahoo! offer the tools to achieve a higher level of success with the new power of referrals.

Businesses large and small can encounter difficulties when integrating social media into their traditional advertising strategy. The opportunities to reach an audience are more diverse with social media due to the variety of sites, not to mention the methods they use to connect users together. The following tips will help you integrate social media with your traditional media such as print, radio, and television.

Maintain Marketing Responsibility

The same person responsible for your current traditional marketing should also be responsible for social media. They don’t have to do the work, but they should be accountable. You need someone to coordinate the brand, message, and schedule between all of your media properties. This will help maintain cohesion in your marketing.

Cross Pollinate Your Advertising

Show your customers that you are the same company on social media that you are in traditional media. For example, place the Facebook logo in your magazine ad with a call-to-action such as “Like Us On Facebook for Exclusive Coupons!”. Social and traditional media should be used to assist each other. Share your TV commercial on Twitter and other social media the same day it hits the airwaves. Make sure it is loaded on your website or YouTube channel so you can track interactions. Let people know what TV channels they can find it on. We brought a new level of cross pollination to our client, Precision Instrumentation, by including their YouTube channel on all of their product packaging. The channel offers a collection of how-to and self-help videos so their clients don’t have to call a support line for small, quick fixes.

Integrating Social Media on Your Website

Make sure to incorporate whatever features are appropriate: a “Like” or “+1” button, Facebook or Twitter feed, Share buttons, etc. Integrating social media into your website can give you four direct benefits. First, some social media elements such as Like or +1 buttons give you a search engine optimization (SEO) enhancement. Second, it can add dynamic content that keeps your website visitor updated on the latest news from your company or about your product without having to read a blog or press release. Third, your website visitors now have a direct and convenient link to your social media and can connect with you organically (thereby growing your contact potential in the future). Finally, with a Like, +1, or other Share button, you are enabling and encouraging your visitors to share your content with their friends and family. This is equivalent to handing them a bullhorn and providing a script about how amazing you are.

Promote Your Social Media Channels

You may use a newsletter or “email blast” to communicate with your customer database on a regular basis. (If not, please contact us NOW so we can help you get started on this vital marketing component!) But whatever you use to stay in touch, make sure to promote your new social media channels. Tell them to Like you on Facebook, Follow you on Twitter, Follow you on Instagram, Circle you on Google+, or whatever it may be they need to do on a particular social media channel. “If you build it, they will come” only works for strip clubs and open bank vaults. You not only have to tell people where to find you, but what to do when they get there. Make it easy by integrating social media.

Summary

Social media is an important opportunity to reach new customers, stay connected with current customers, and showcase yourself. It also allows public promotion and discourse so that your customers can help sell your product or service. Integrating social media correctly with your traditional media will bring new growth to your bottom line with minimal investment. Truly great potential for ROI!

If you would like to schedule a consultation or ask a question about social media integration, please call or email us today. We always promise a response within 24 hours.