The Social Marketing Spot

Social Media Marketing Business & Friends to Be Thankful For This Holiday Season

2011-11-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

Social media marketing brings us all so much to be thankful for. It brings us a platform to learn and grow business, with people who we want to work with.

A good friend of mine sent this to me. I met her through business, as she
and her husband own a company that is a client of Rostin Ventures.

I have never seen her face to face, just communicated through email, mail - yes people still use snail mail. We are real friends on Facebook, a social media application we both enjoy using to learn about fun things our families are doing, and yes, we - and our companies - do real business together.

We are two business owners communicating in social media to develop relationships and do business together - yes even on Facebook.

This year, she and her husband are going to spend about a month in Hawaii, two
weeks together alone and two weeks with their family joining them for the
holidays.

What a joy it is to work with people like we come in contact with.

Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy reading this.

Julie Ross
President, CMO
Rostin Ventures, Inc.

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Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because
they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't
know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who
passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut
back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women and men out there will eat at home because their
husband or wife didn't suggest going out to dinner until after
something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing
to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while
you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said , 'How about going
to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I
have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known
yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain' And my personal
favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have
lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule
our headaches.. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to
ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve
toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet.
We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of
college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter,
and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we
awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going
to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to
adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas.
Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five
minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of
Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's
just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a
spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped
the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the
way home, I would have died happy.

Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to...not
something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had
only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would
you say? And why are you waiting?

Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this
to you.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to
the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic
flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through
each day on the fly? When you ask 'How are you?' Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred
chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it
tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let
a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi'?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened
gift....Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the
music before the song is over.

Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider
a FRIEND including me if you consider me a friend. If it comes back to
you, then you'll know you have a circle of friends.

To those I have sent this to... I cherish our friendship and appreciate
all you do. We have some history together.

Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we
might as well dance!

Social Media SEO - Content is Driving Search Engine Optimization Value

2011-10-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

Social media is driving search engine optimization, as quality content is proving to add relevancy to search engine usability and relevant search results on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and hundreds of other search engines online.

Search engines are focused on driving the best possible user experience.

If you are marketing online, launching a new business online, or a brand social media marketing professional, you can not afford to ignore this. Building content which will feed consumer interests online in social media, is proving to increase B2B and B2C consumer interests of products and services online.

Content is driving social media and social media is driving content. Once again, the consumer is driving brand value, proven by social media interest.

Social Media + SEO = Brand Value in 2012

Food Sweepstakes Building Consumer Loyalty Through Social Media

2011-08-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

Food sweepstakes, free food giveaways and contests are gaining in response of consumers communicating in social media. The Free Grocery Giveaway offers consumers a chance to win free groceries for a year, with a dozen other free grocery store certificates and free food offers available to consumers who first download the sponsor company's free mobile grocery coupons app.

The Free Grocery Giveaway is primarily promoted within social media. A Blogspot blog on coupons, the Wordpress community blog on grocery coupons, Facebook and Twitter social media users are responding to these free food sweepstakes and contests. You will even find videos promoting food sweepstakes ranking on Google, Yahoo, and Bing within hours of distribution to video sites like YouTube.

Consumers are responding to campaign offerings, like "WIN free groceries for a year!" They are looking for ways to save money in a down economy, with a market threatening another recession. Grocery store brands, food and consumer products which are providing discounts, rebates, and promotional offers such as free food sweepstakes are building consumer loyalty. Consumers appreciate brands that are making the effort to help them in this down time. And - as always - they are telling their friends.

Social Twist Friend Referral Program

Friend referrals account for a high number of promotional registrations and consumer entries into contests. Platforms such as Social Twist allow brands to increase consumer loyalty by connecting to the social networks of their loyal consumers. Consumers who are loyal to a brand will spread the word and enhance the effectiveness of promotional marketing within social media.

See more case studies on brand marketing for social media at Brainy Blonde Brands. Get the inside scoop on how to obtain first page rankings in search engines to social media search and Video SEO.

Social Media Revolution Update

2011-06-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Social Media Revolution: Is social media a fad?

Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? This video details out social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore. This video is produced by the author of Socialnomics http://www.socialnomics.com

Social Media Outreach Leverages Social Media to Pay It Forward

2011-05-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Social Media Outreach is a program that uses social media to promote different causes dedicated to social justice and helping people who need it most. Social Media Outreach was launched in 2010 as a way to help different organizations and people around the United States.

Social Media Outreach participates in the Facebook Causes program, and encourages people on the world's most poplar social network to give, participate, and share their interest in helping these particular causes.

In 2010, Social Media Outreach helped organizations like the National Coalition for the Homeless, Child In Need Outreach, Art From the Streets, and Oak Lawn Community Outreach Center.

What Does Social Media Outreach Do?

Social Media Outreach uses its social media presence to help refer people in its network to various websites to make donations and give support to the various organizations. Through different promotions and outreach efforts on Facebook and Twitter, as well as its different blogs, Social Media Outreach was able to help solicit donations for the homeless; help grant Christmas gift wishes, feed, and clothe children in need; promote and sell art created by homeless people, which in turn benefitted them; and, helped raise funds to build a greenhouse at Oak Lawn.

The program was created to take advantage of the rapid growth in social media. Now that Facebook has topped 600 million members, Twitter has more than 150 million, LinkedIn has 100 million members, and 490 million unique users on YouTube, social media is clearly the best place to be to reach potential donors and volunteers for different organizations.

People are using social media to do more than just play Farmville or share funny videos. They are using it to share reviews of favorite restaurants or new products. They share heart-warming stories and urge their friends to support their favorite causes. Rather than trusting marketers and the mainstream media, people now turn to their friends (and even complete strangers) in their social networks for advice, news, and ideas. It is this citizen activism that Social Media Outreach wants to tap into. It takes advantage of the trust we place in the recommendations of our friends.

Social Media Outreach Is All About Building Community, Leveraging Social Media

Social Media Outreach is also a way to connect with people who want to help their neighbors, but may not have enough time to volunteer on a regular basis, so they contribute to the cause. Or the people who want to donate, but do not have enough money, so they either volunteer their time, or even spend some extra effort doing their own social media promotion.

This grassroots movement has turned into a larger community of people who joined to leverage their own social media communities. Rather than one small organization doing its best to raise donations and increase volunteerism, Social Media Outreach uses the power of its network members to use the power of their own networks to reach as many people as possible.

Helping Your Neighbors Is Just a Click Away

Whether it is a matter of posting a message and a link to their chosen cause, program members are encouraged to occasionally reach out and "ping" the people in their network. They are also encouraged to write about their own chosen cause on their blog, and share that with their network as well.

Just like the old "they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on" shampoo commercial, Social Media Outreach quickly reaches thousands of people to promote the different causes they choose to support.

Think of Social Media Outreach as a giant web of connectivity. If there are 100 people in the network, and they each have 100 people in their own networks, that means there are 10,000 people who can hear about the Social Media Outreach charities and participate and donate.

Social Media Outreach has tried to make a significant impact on different causes, by helping its neighbors in need, by leveraging the different social media networks it has joined. Although it is still early in 2011, they have already begun looking toward November and December to make an even bigger impact.

Is Social Media Marketing Right for Your Company?

2011-04-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Is social media marketing the right approach for a company right now? Everyone has been hearing a lot about social media these days as restaurants start asking fans to "like" them on Facebook, news programs want viewers to follow them on Twitter, or nonprofits asks donors to read their blog.

Social media marketing is everywhere, and a lot of companies are starting to wonder if it is right for them. How can companies, organizations, and even solopreneurs decide whether or not to start using social media as a way to reach their customers?

The first step to take in determining one's social media marketing readiness is to see whether customers are using social media. Do customers and visitors frequently ask about whether the company is using social media? Do they ask about a Facebook page or Foursquare discounts for checking in? If these questions are coming up, then chances are there are more than a few customers and fans who want to see the company have a social media marketing. On the other hand, if the customers are not computer users, do not have social media accounts, or are Amish, then a social media marketing campaign will not do well.

The next step in a company's social media marketing is to see whether the company's staff and culture is ready for handling social media itself. Does management believe in social media marketing, or are they still debating the pros and cons of using a fax machine? Do the employees have the time to manage the social media marketing efforts, or are they all doing the work of more than one person? If it is the latter, then social media marketing is probably not going to be a good idea. Conversely, if the company is a young company whose executives are always willing to try something new, or if the employees have an entrepreneurial spirit who take the initiative to insure the company's success, then a social media marketing program can have a positive effect both on company morale, as well as the company's bottom line.

Third, establish some goals for the social media marketing. Know what it is the campaign should accomplish, whether it is is increased sales, increased web traffic, reduced customer service costs, or even improving public relations coverage.

Once these goals have been established, then it's important to measure whether they are being met. Use Google Analytics or a similar web traffic measurement program, as well as a social media monitoring service like Radian6 or Vocus to see if the social media campaign is working. Measure sales obtained from social media, whether marketing costs shrank, or even whether the number of customer service calls have been reduced.

After 6 - 12 months, it is necessary to make some decisions. If the goals are being met, the customers are responding favorably, and it has been easily incorporated into the marketing mix, then it should continue as a regular part of customer marketing and service. If the goals are not, then the company needs to reconsider whether to put more effort and energy into it, or whether they should drop it completely.

For the most part, companies ought to participate in social media, even if they are one of the first in their industry to do it. Social media has grown exponentially within the last few years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. That means that even if other companies have not embraced social media in that industry, the first company to do so can completely own it and dominate what will undoubtedly become an emerging market. Soon, most industries will have companies that are winning at social media marketing, and making a big impact on their bottom line.

Apple Leads Smartphone Race, while Android Attracts Most Recent Customers | Nielsen Wire

2011-02-20T16:35:00.000-08:00

Apple Leads Smartphone Race, while Android Attracts Most Recent Customers January 3, 2011

The race for the lead in U.S. smartphone operating system (OS) consumer market share is tighter than it has ever been. According to November data from The Nielsen Company, the popularity of the Android OS among those who purchased a smartphone in the last six months (40%) makes it the leading OS among recent acquirers.

Apple Leads Smartphone Race, while Android Attracts Most Recent Customers | Nielsen Wire

The Social Media Outreach Gift

2011-01-14T20:26:00.000-08:00

Social Media Outreach brings American children home through a powerful platform from which to promote causes of interest to consumers and organizations who are communicating within social media. 85,000 homeless families and 770,000 homeless children: All of this, right here in America.

More than a mere outlet for philanthropy, Social Media Outreach is an attention-grabbing platform that helps causes raise awareness to consumers and businesses everywhere. Since Rostin Ventures’ launch of Social Media Outreach, the online reach has grown wider than organizations, particularly local groups, ever thought possible. The program lives on social media community pages such as Social Media Outreach Community Pages on Facebook, Linked In, Wordpress Blogs and Twitter and it continues to raise awareness for worthy causes.

Social Media Outreach : Home For the Holidays?

2010-12-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

Social Media Outreach brings American children home for the holidays through a powerful platform from which to promote causes of interest to consumers and organizations who are communicating within social media. 85,000 homeless families and 770,000 homeless children: All of this, right here in America. More than a mere outlet for philanthropy, Social Media Outreach is an attention-grabbing platform that helps causes raise awareness to consumers and businesses everywhere.

Since Rostin Ventures' launch of Social Media Outreach earlier this year, the online reach has grown wider than organizations, particularly local groups, ever thought possible. The program lives on social media community pages such as Community Pages on Facebook, Linked In, Wordpress Blogs and Twitter and it continues to raise awareness for worthy causes. - created by Rostin Ventures Video SEO

Elance Blog: How One Man Elanced His Way to Life on His Terms

2010-11-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

Elance Blog: How One Man Elanced His Way to Life on His Terms

Social Media: What Do You Want Them to See?

2010-11-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

Social Media Marketing Services are growing at exponential rates. Business and consumer use of Google Search, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, Wordpress, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, and thousands of other social media sites are in high demand. The platforms give you, and your online brand, new media applications to communicate directly with your consumer.

The days of one way marketing are over and marketers are now able to enter into two way conversations with buyers about their products and services. These 3 steps help you along the road to social media marketing success. Paint the world a beautiful picture of exactly who you want to be.

Social Media Strategy for Brick-and-Mortar Locations Includes Local SEO

2010-11-12T10:03:00.000-08:00

A social media strategy is necessary for those brick-and-mortar stores who are looking to expand and grow, even as the economy slowly recovers. The successful ones are using social media to bring people into their stores and increase their customer base, rather than finding new ways to cut costs or add new product lines. Here are a few ways to do this:

1) Identify your target customers

The first step of your social media strategy needs to be to identify your best customers, and then figure out how to find more local people like them online. There are several tools like Twellow.com and Facebook that will let you find only the people you want to connect with. Your social media strategy needs to be about strategic growth, not blasting your network with out-of-towners who will never visit you. Avoid those "get followers fast" websites, and focus on finding likely customers. Your social media strategy needs to be about bringing people into your store, not finding people who only want to sell you something and aren't interested in you beyond that.

2) Focus on two or three social networks

Your social media strategy should focus on just a couple of strategies, like Twitter marketing and search engine marketing. Create a Facebook business page if you're a B2C business, and a personal LinkedIn presence if you're a B2B business.

Follow the appropriate social media strategy for each social network. On Facebook, it's about providing useful information to, and having fun discussions with, your friends, customers, and fans; on LinkedIn, it's about making connections and providing value through discussion forums and the Question & Answer section.

3) Focus on providing value, not broadcasting ads

Your social media strategy needs to be about creating relationships, not sending out commercials. No one ever became a raving fan because of a commercial. They became raving fans because of the value and customer service you provide, and the relationship they have with you and your staff.

Create relationships with the people you're trying to reach. Talk with them about the things they're talking about. Treat them like friends, not strangers, and they'll come to your store just to meet you.

4) Measure Your Social Media Strategy

The great thing about a social media strategy is that you can measure it from start to finish. You can't do that with traditional marketing. If you put up a billboard, you won't know how many people see it each day, or how many people visit your store solely because of it. But with social media marketing, you can know how many people visited your website, read your Tweets, or "like" what you do on Facebook.

You can create special marketing campaigns and giveaways, promote them on Facebook and Twitter, and then measure the results. Best of all, you can see which campaigns resulted in higher sales. And because you know the end results, you can discard what didn't work, tweak what did, and make it more successful each time.

What Does Geolocation Social Networking Mean for Online Marketing?

2010-11-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Online marketing works best in partnership with buzz worthy promotions. The partnership between geolocation and social networking have had a positive impact on online marketing over the last couple years.

As search engines began to realize that a lot of search is local, sites like Google started focusing on local businesses. This has helped local business owners achieve higher rankings in search engines when users are in the same area as those businesses. Now social networks are taking their cue, and are focusing on geolocation, which helps local businesses boost their online marketing even more.

Location-based networks, such as Foursquare and Gowalla, are the leaders in this new online marketing social movement. Users "check in" to a location, telling their friends where they are. Businesses are taking advantage of geolocation by offering rewards programs to first-time visitors and loyal customers. Whether it's freebies, giveaways, or discounts, the businesses who include geolocation in their online marketing are seeing a payoff.

Geolocation apps like Foursquare use GPS technology that has been built into our smartphones — iPhone, Android, Blackberry — and will allow users to check in to a location just by clicking a button, rather than entering the entire address by hand.

The great thing about geolocation is that it works for the typical customer, on the tool they carry with them everywhere. And as silly as it may seem, customers are eating it up, and enjoying the fun of geolocation. If they think it's fun, they'll participate. And if they participate, they'll participate at your restaurant, store, or location.

Foursquare and Yelp, a restaurant review site, have even upped the ante by giving titles — mayor, duke, duchess — for repeat visitors. People go back to their favorite locations to earn that title. Imagine people coming to your restaurant again and again, just to earn a title someone else created.

Most recently, Facebook got into the act, offering Facebook Places as a tool to compete with Foursquare and Gowalla. Now, the largest social network in the world makes it possible for your customers to tell all their friends where they are, doing your online marketing for you.

Now, for good or bad, your online marketing is being taken out of your hands, and put into the hands of your customers. And because your customers trust their friends more than they trust any marketing you could ever do, your customers will want to try the places they keep hearing about — the places their friends are visiting over and over, in order to win titles and rewards.

The net result of this new online marketing tool is lower marketing costs and higher profits. But only if you take advantage of it. Join the discussion about geolocation marketing with unique online promotions for social media here.

We welcome your comments and promotional ideas at The Social Marketing Spot. Social Marketing Spot.

Social Media Marketing On Autopilot for In House Marketing Departments

2010-10-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

Social media is rapidly growing in consumer acceptance.

Google now reports over 34,000 searches per second. Twitter is seeing 50 million tweets per day. That is 600 online marketing messages per second. Facebook has a social media marketing stats page which shows Facebook users post 60 million status updates per day. That is 700 Facebook online posts per second. YouTube is now the second largest search engine online, followed by Bing and Yahoo.

The New York Times has more Twitter followers, than people subscribing to the paper.

Google Insight shows exponential growth in search for social media marketing. Online brand reputation and individual reputation management begins in social media.

So the question is:
How do we manage that growth in social media marketing?

A discussion was opened to social media marketing professionals, business analysts, and corporate executives, considering these options:

Social Media Marketing - In-house or Outsource? What do we do?

Marketers are learning that consumers are responding to conversation within social media - and consumer endorsements are likely to convert to sales. They are moving traditional media expenditures online, with higher allocations of budget going to social media marketing. Their decisions may depend on current skill-sets of their employees, consumer involvement in social media within the target market of the corporation, and budget associated with online marketing.

According to a recent study of How Americans Use Social Media by EPM Communications,
83% of consumer focused companies maintain an account on Facebook, and 45% do the same on Twitter.

Managing social media marketing campaigns takes time. It takes an understanding of the brand as well.
What would you consider in deciding whether to handle social media in house or outsource?

The social media - in house or outsource debate continues.

To follow are a few things you can do to save time - and billable hours associated with marketing employee expenditures, should you decide to manage social media marketing in house.

1. Contribute to Social Networks. For example, Ask and Answer Questions on Linked In, start and participate in industry related discussion groups on Linked In and Facebook.

2. Post updates to your status on Linked in, and link the profile updates to your Twitter account.

3. Offer promotional incentives, as part of your social media marketing strategy, such as Facebook promotions including promotional giveaways to fans.

4. Set up a blog within a social media community, where your consumer is, to build additional opportunity for communication with your customer. Blog and post in the blog weekly.

5. Set up a Feedburner Account and Bookmark your blog feeds. To follow is an example of what the feed looks like for this social media marketing feed.
Please comment with any other ideas to assist in house marketing departments in saving time, money and resources in social media marketing.

Social Media Marketing Shows Exponential Market Growth on Google Search

2010-10-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Google Insights shows us the category of social media marketing is growing exponentially. If you were in the business of traditional marketing, ignoring social media, I doubt you would be on The Social Marketing Spot Blog.

Large brands are on board. Small brands are on board. Social media marketing is here to stay. Traditional advertising channels are reporting lower revenue projections year over year. Television advertising is losing revenue to video marketing, print advertising to blogging, and the yellow pages have been replaced by Google.

Video advertising is now a $1B ad industry and YouTube is the second largest search engine online. Large company brands are participating in social media marketing at promising rates. They all have Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts, which are used to participate in conversations their consumers are having. Those conversations are about company brands, products and services.

This conversational marketing, taking place in social media, has migrated from what was less traditional to what is now the most direct form of branding. Marketers are now able to hold conversations with their consumers, while managing a much higher gross margin in advertising, marketing and public relations budgets.

The new C Title is CLO: Chief Listening Officer who has the sole responsibility of listening to the conversation within social media, in an effort to manage corporate branding. Online Reputation Management begins here. Intuitive marketing professionals began social media marketing early. Those marketers who do not jump on the social marketing train today will not have jobs tomorrow. My guess is many marketing VPs are catching on, because they are increasing activity of search for topics associated with social media marketing.

Chief Listening Officer - The New Title in the Social Media of Mobile Marketing

2010-08-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

The CLO: Chief Listening Officer in Social Media will drive marketing strategy in the evolution of business to serve the mobile consumer. Social media and mobile marketing efforts will allow executives to reach consumers when they are ready to respond. When they respond, the Chief Listening Officer will listen.

The previous profile of the EVP Marketing may have read: The experienced strategist in internet marketing and social media optimization, managing national accounts and brand marketing online with SEM SEO and a specialty in online reputation management and Reverse SEO.

The new profile reads: I listen to our consumers who are responding to our brand because I respond to them.

The CLO understands the evolution of online marketing and search engine optimization because that individual has experienced the evolution. In an industry which changes with the tides of consumer response, I believe social media has evolved to the top of online marketing.

Generation Y defines the future of the industry with an exponential buying power and a hand cemented mobile device. Partnership programs and vendor coop dollars for marketing promotions are driven through mobile marketing platforms. Social media builds interest and drives traffic.

We are in a position to finally listen to the consumer. Those marketing rather than listening will be short lived in this business. My dream job in social media would be that of a Chief Listening Officer. It is such a pleasure to respond through social media.

--Julie Ross

Political Advertising Use of Video SEO in Social Marketing

2010-02-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

Political Advertising doesn't just make the Superbowl these days, Politically Correct Blog uses video SEO in social media to advertise current events in politics. The blog carries on the tradition of social mainstream by marketing political views. The difference is this blog by Cameron Patrick Ross is accounting for both left and right wing perspectives.

A search on the video released to optimize the site within the search engines found ties to PR8 links to content on the subject of government and politics. Even the politicians are finding good use of social media through video. As demonstrated in the brilliance of the Obama campaign, the politicians are building social marketing into the campaign budget with great market share.

As seen in this Politically Correct video, politics today understand the value of video marketing as it relates to Gen Y and older demographics. Let's face it, who would not rather have someone communicate their point in graphic format with audio? Video SEO has made its way into social marketing and it is here to stay in politics as well.

Somebody in SEO Consulting Ranking Through Social Networking

2010-01-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

Search engine optimization services at Rostin Ventures rank top in the online business. Get ranked above your competitors and found by your online customers within first page search results on Google, Yahoo, Bing and thousands of others. Rank organically, without paying for keyword advertising.

These affordable SEO consulting packages were built to perform among heavy competition. If you are looking for some of the most aggressive online marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) in the World, you are in the right place. If you are starting a business online or already have an online business and need to increase website traffic, proven affordable SEO services are found with Rostin Ventures.

What is ROI in Social Media Marketing?

2009-09-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

What is ROI and how do you measure it in social media marketing? ROI is a common business term, used more and more as businesses and corporations develop online business ventures, social media campaigns, or dip their collective toes into the social media waters.

ROI means "Return On Investment." It measures whether the amount of money you spent was more or less than the money you earned. That is, if you spend $1,000 on a marketing campaign, and you earn $5,000, your ROI was 5:1. For every dollar you spent, you made five.

Although typically slow to embrace it, more and more management, marketing, and HR executives are starting to see the benefit. According to an article on emarketer.com, American executives are starting to value social media as a great way to enhance customer relationships and build their company's, or even their personal, brand.

The problem is that many of these executives are distracted by the latest shiny object, and see social media as the newest toy to be played with and discarded when the next shiny object comes along. (We saw the same thing happen in the 80s and 90s with management books. Every new book replaced the old one, and many corporations lost focus as they bounced from one management guru to another.)

This ultimately hurts social media because the execs don't fully grasp the profitable ROI that can come from a successful social media campaign. They don't take the time to measure the return on investment, and thus dismiss it with a wave of the hand, calling it a fad, saying it will never last.

But how can businesses start profiting in online business ventures? How can they know whether their social media campaigns are producing a positive ROI or not? And if you're the one launching the campaign, how can you prove to your managers that this is important and successful?

Measuring ROI starts with the goals of the campaign. What are your reasons for being on Facebook, on Twitter, or starting a blog? What do you hope to get out of it? Create real goals that can be measured and tracked. "Improve 4th quarter sales by 10%" is a good goal, "add 50 new names to sales pipeline in 60 days" is a good goal. "Enhance customer relationships" or "build our brand" are not.

Step two of measuring your ROI is to determine the tool you're going to use to measure it. There are several good free and paid analytics packages, including Google Analytics and StatCounter.com on the free side, or Yahoo Analytics, HubSpot, HitTail and Active Conversion on the paid side. Your web host may also have some basic analytics available too. Find one that will let you measure the various clicks and visits to your satisfaction.

Third, start looking at the conversions in your online business venture. How many people are coming to your website? How many of them are buying? If you have a good shopping cart software package, check out how many people abandon the shopping carts. If your conversion rates are low, can you add a Buy Now button or other call to action? If people are abandoning your shopping cart, is your process too clunky and complicated? Make some changes, keep an eye on the analytics, and see if your ROI improves.

The fourth step in measuring your return on investment is to see where your best results are coming from. Have you used social marketing applications like Twitter and Facebook to promote your online business venture? Check your analytics to see where your biggest results are coming from. Maybe 30% of your results are coming from Twitter, and the remaining 70% are coming from Facebook.

Now you have a decision to make: do you drop Twitter from your social media campaign and focus solely on Facebook? Or do you plow more time and resources into Twitter and see if you can bring the numbers up. Don't just make a rash decision. Do a before-and-after test to see which one yields the better results. Then, do another test, and see if you can improve on that. Once you find the formula that works, leave it alone, tweaking the minor details every once in a while.

Thanks to setting your goals, analyzing your results, and testing different variables, you can achieve your ideal ROI and show the success of your online business venture, which will hopefully keep company executives from the distraction of the next shiny object that comes their way.

Social Media Optimization Takes the Spotlight in SEO SEM and ORM

2009-03-27T15:40:00.001-07:00

This term is growing in SEO Consulting use:

Social Media Optimization, SMO, uses social media, online communities and community websites to generate publicity. SMO methods include; adding RSS feeds, social news buttons and blogging. Although social media optimization is related to SEM, its primary difference is that it focuses on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, thus creating a push/pull scenario to bring consumers to websites. For example, a company wishing to educate teenagers on the hazards of smoking would have a hard time getting a fifteen year old to type in “stop smoking” on Google. That company would be much more effective if it went into a social community such as MySpace and presented a company message within the community, with an end result of bringing the teenager to their website.

Read the article with this SEO SEM ORM SMO Expert. Better do it PDQ!

Search Engine Ranking Tied to Social Marketing and Backlinks

2009-03-10T22:50:00.001-07:00

Social Marketing Links to Backlinks and High Search Engine Ranking

Backlinks are valued by search engines because they demonstrate a website’s value of category content. Increased back links are linked to higher search engine ranking. Therefore, if your website is going to be listed at the top position in search engine results, it must be linked to other websites of like content. The links are called backlinks and the like content is termed theme relevancy. Theme relevancy means that the site that places a link on their site, driving traffic to you, should be relevant or related to your sites theme. Ideally, the linking partner’s site would not compete with your website, but would complement what your site offers. Mar 2009

You should read the whole article.

Rostin Reagor Smith Case Studies

2009-02-02T15:43:00.001-08:00

SEM SEO Case Studies are proving SEM SEO Expert Formula works in Search Engine Marketing.

With 20 years in marketing, advertising and 10 years in internet marketing, Rostin Reagor Smith has refined the strategic SEM SEO Expert Formula. Hundreds of internet marketing case studies have combined to build the seo consulting formula that drives search engine ranking through social marketing and web 2.0 communities and resources.Rostin Reagor Smith Case Studies

Social Marketing to Reduce Public Relations Budgets in 2009

2009-01-27T06:55:00.000-08:00

Social Marketing, SEO, SEM Expert Formulas: What does it all mean to you? How does it affect your business, both online and in your traditional marketing efforts? Stay informed through the following links and you realize the impact social marketing has on Search Engine Optimization and how that will reduce the money you are spending on public relations efforts in 2009.

Social Marketing, Web 2.0, social networks, RSS feeds, video and audio pod casts all are impacting marketing and public relations efforts in business. These new mediums are providing an avenue for businesses to communicate directly with consumers, something rarely provided through traditional public relations efforts. Web 2.0 now provides us direct access to the consumer. Focus groups, which were initially very costly and time consuming offline, then moved to a similar financial model in online focus groups, can now be conducted in social networks for less money.

These new mediums of social marketing through social networks, bookmarking, and creation of online content in social communities, provides direct access to the consumer, which is crucial to public relations, consumer relations and product development efforts. It is our prediction that over the next year, clients using this SEM SEO Expert Formula will reduce public relations budgets in 2009, and the following SEO SEM Expert Formulas could possibly replace public relations expense this year.

This search engine optimization strategy, including social marketing, impacts public relations efforts at an increased benefit to the client. The costs are lower and the results are greater in proper use of these SEO, SEM formulas, which use social marketing and web 2.0 applications to allow companies to directly communicate with their customers.

SEM SEO Expert Formula Updates: Learn how you can benefit from these new search engine optimization strategies:

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Social Marketing, SEM: An SEO Consulting Evolution

2009-01-11T15:33:00.000-08:00

Social Marketing, SEO, SEM, Web 2.0, should not apply to me and my business, right? Why is the history of search engine optimization important to our marketing efforts? Your questions make sense and are logical, but you may be surprised at the answer. The terms seo, sem, social marketing and web 2.0 are Internet Marketing terms, and they combine to do something very valuable for businesses. Not only do they apply to your business but they are crucial to your marketing efforts. The history of search engine optimization has made a difference in the quality of online content and keeping up with seo history can save you and your business money.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization, SEM or Search Engine Marketing, Web 2.0 or the new forms of online communities we find in social marketing and social networking, all form to create a valuable business formula. The right combination rapidly increases businesses search engine ranking. So if you spend money with search engines to get ranked, you probably could spend half the money and rank much higher through proven search marketing formulas. Search engine marketing takes less time to get ranked than old search engine optimization techniques and search engine marketing is less expensive than previous seo techniques. The combined techniques of SEM, using social marketing, social networking, and other SEO techniques build a structure that ranks quickly and stays ranked, so companies can spend less time predicting what competitors will spend on keyword advertising and more time managing new business they develop from leads generated online.

Internet Marketing firms have evolved over the past 10 years. SEO once meant mass producing webpages, linking those pages to a main website, then populating each webpage with copy which revolved around one specific keyword. Early on, the copy did not even have to make sense and the pages were all registered with search engines, but the visitor only could see the main page of the site. The pages were basically trash on the internet, which the search engines quickly found. Websites would quickly rank with that formula and Internet Marketers and search engine optimization specialists thought they had a formula which would stand the test of time.

One thing we all know is the internet is always changing and Internet marketing professionals began to understand that also applied to search engine ranking formulas. After all, the first priority of a search engine is to supply quality information to its users. The users or site visitors run the search engines through search of keywords assoicated to interests they have or information they need. Search Engines must supply quality information to the user, or the user will go somewhere else. It is that simple.

Search engine marketers began to understand the association of quality information to that of higher ranking within the search engines. Once that portion of the search engine ranking formula became apparant to the most savvy of Internet marketers, Internet marketing began to evolve to include search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques which both search engines and businesses would benefit from. Internet marketing professionals began to apply marketing techniques used in search engine optimization to increase quality content within the internet space and eventually began to apply those techniques within Web 2.0 applications of social networks.

Today, hundreds of online communities exist to enable specific communities of consumers and businesses to communicate. Consumers communicate with each other, businesses the like, and now we find consumers and businesses communicating with each other within those very communities. Online marketing professionals are moving toward direct communication with consumers in every aspect of product development, customer service, and of course search engine marketing for the purpose of everything we have outlined, as well as online lead generation. These new techniques bring value to all concerns of SEO, SEM, including internet marketers, Search Engines, business owners and consumers.

What are the Odds of You Winning the Social Marketing Game?

2008-10-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

The odds of winning are good in the field of promotions, especially that of the game of promotional risk. A good example of a social marketing network that works can be found in the field of promotions, and that of covering corporations against the riskiest of promotions, defined as promotional risk coverage.

As you see in the concept of an insurance policy, promotional strategy is taking new turns in covering large cash and prize giveaways. For a fixed fee, which is just a fraction of the prize value, companies can offer consumers and employees the chance to win life-changing prizes. When there’s a winner, the promotional risk coverage is claimed, which gives companies the prize money to award the winner.

See social marketing work in the truest form of lead generation for both business to business and business to consumer marketing. Then calculate your odds of winning. You have better chances in the game of promotion through social marketing!

Social Marketing Meets Brand Management

2008-03-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

Many accomplished and proven brand executives are expoloring the advantages of Social Marketing, when reviewing the trends of the subject, as we see it as an advertising medium. While participating in a disussions on the topic, within blogs and professional networks, many find evidence of a powerful brand management application.

What is now definded as Social Marketing, was previously thought of by marketers as a way to reach the 12-24 year old demographic, has become a definite line item of the brand management budget. Other than a necessary participation of brand marketing employees and time involved, the Social Marketing line item is one that will decrease costs to the budget. We are past the point of debate on whether or not Social Marketing should be part of the brand management advertising and marketing budget. Now we must consider the application as it is necessary to the education of company employees. Brand marketing and research employees will continue to use Social Marketing as a forum to communicate with consumers. Within that forum, brand marketers will continue education with no tuition fees!

http://brandecosystems.blogspot.com/

2008-03-02T18:48:00.000-08:00

Over the past 20 years, I have had the opportunity to work in marketing and advertising, both on the corporate and agency sides of the equation. The strategies are evolving, in every vertical market I have been exposed to. As with technology and media, which we see in the Internet evolution of Web 2.0
and Digital Convergence, advertising and marketing is driven by consumer demand.

Consumers are attracted to community driven content, which is driving the demand for niche markets in all areas of media.

Television has evolved from offering news and general network and cable programming to niche targeted offers in digital programming, specific to investments, sports, cooking, fishing, interior design, e-commerce marketing, etc. Now you can even watch financial news and investment programming specific to a younger demographic, on Fox Business Happy Hour.

Radio programming has taken the lead in XM and Sirius radio, with content we could have never dreamed of back in my Clear Channel Radio days in the early 90's. Today, with or without a merger of the two companies, I would bet on that one.

Now we see Internet applications moving to even stronger niches than previously launched in e-business efforts of 5 years ago. According to Google, 38% of Internet users used social networks at least once a month in 2007. Among 18-34 year olds, 25% visit social networks daily and between 9-17 year olds, 55% spend between 5-30 hours a week on social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.com. Consumers are demanding support of their buying decisions. They apply a greater value to that support, when it is given by a community of people with related interests.

Advertisers and marketers are following suit of media applications and providing consumers with the applications they are asking for. Strategies are accommodating these changes. Ironically enough, these new Internet marketing strategies seem to be introduced by niche experts in the fields of advertising and marketing, with specific expertise in Social Marketing .

Thisnext.com is a consumer targeted e-commerce application which provides unique community strategies and offerings, and products are served by popularity of demand.

Anoox.com is a search engine where the members, within a specific authority and qualification of skillsets, rank websites. These rankings provide a formula for the content to be served. Anoox.com has tagged it the “Wisdom of the Crowds.”

Social networks have transformed where Internet users spend their time on the web and they have transformed how users communicate with each other. Advertisers and marketers are making strategic changes to how they communicate with e-commerce buyers and Internet users.

Social marketing and social bookmarking is lowering advertising campaign costs and evolving a tired industry to what we all may end up defining as Internet Advertising 2.0

Julie Ross

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