social media Archives - Page 2 of 4

August 8, 2013 by Stan Robinson, Jr. Leave a Comment

SoLoMo Marketing – What Is It and Why Should I Care?

SoLoMo marketing refers to the use of social media and mobile marketing by local business. Try to ignore the order of the letters in the acronym. I think LoSoMo makes more sense, but SoLoMo does sound better.

If you are a local business relying foot traffic to generate revenue, then the SoLoMo marketing concept should be of interest because it can significantly impact your profits. In other words, you should care mainly because you will be left behind by your competitors if you ignore this trend.

One premise that applies to all marketing, including SoLoMo, is that you need to be visible where your customers are. The growing tendency of customers to use social media and mobile devices as part of their daily lives, combined with their impatience with advertising is driving the need for a SoLoMo approach.

In addition, social media and mobile marketing can be relatively inexpensive compared with traditional advertising and other forms of marketing.

Today’s consumers rely extensively on peer recommendations both offline and via social media when making purchases. Social media is so popular in part because it simplifies the process of asking for and receiving such recommendations. From a business owner’s standpoint, social media makes it easy for people to share promotional and other information that you provide.

Consumers also rely on their mobile devices especially when they are out and about. Many of the searches on smartphones are for nearby locations to make purchases. The geolocation capabilities of smartphones is a game changer for local marketing. You want to make sure that customers can easily find you and get the information they need when searching for your product.

A mobile optimized website is essential to make sure that viewers can easily see essentials such as your location, hours of operation and phone number with Tap to Call capability.

Beyond the ability to be found in search, mobile enables businesses to push messages to customers and subscribers. For example, local businesses can provide promotional information to mobile subscribers when they are close by, helping to increase foot traffic.

Today a large percentage of social media interaction takes place on mobile devices. If you are using social media to market your business keep this in mind. When sharing information about promotions, for example, it is best to keep them brief and to the point so your customer who sees your Facebook post on their iPhone understands why they should stop in today.

As this generation of digital natives gets older the importance of social and mobile technologies will continue to grow. The platforms may change but the shift from physical to digital media will accelerate in the foreseeable future.

How are you using social media and mobile marketing for your business?

May 24, 2013 by Stan Robinson, Jr. Leave a Comment

What’s Happening in the Social Media Marketing Industry.

Social Media Examiner recently released its latest report on the state of the social media marketing industry. These are a few of the results that I found interesting. [Read more…]

May 7, 2013 by Stan Robinson, Jr. Leave a Comment

Highlights of the New LinkedIn Contacts Format

The new LinkedIn contacts format offers a number of useful features. LinkedIn is making an effort to keep users on the platform as long as possible by providing additional functionality.

While LinkedIn is not intended to replace CRM systems, it is making it easier to organize your contacts and your interactions with these individuals.

In order to get the most use from the new features you need to give LinkedIn permission to access information from your email address books and calendars. You can do this simply by following the instructions that they provide.

The new look of the Contacts section is pictured below.

The new and revised features that are now under the Contacts tab include:

1. It is not clearly marked, but a drop down menu in the upper right section (next to search box with By name) enables you to search contacts by name, company, title, location or email.

2. Your Day – brings up a reminder to “Start your day by staying in touch with your contacts”. It highlights your connections who have updated their Profile with a new position, are celebrating a birthday, and with whom you have recently met (based on your calendar). You can also select the Calendar icon to see your schedule for the day.

3. All Contacts – shows all of your contacts, even those in your address books but not on LinkedIn. They are listed in reverse chronological order based on when you are last in contact with them through LinkedIn.

Connections – shows all of your LinkedIn 1st degree connections in reverse chronological order based on when you are last in contact with them through LinkedIn.

Saved – shows connections you have saved.

Tags – shows all of the tags that you have set up.

Companies – shows which companies your connections are employed by.

Titles – lists the current titles appearing in the Profiles of your connections.

Locations – shows all of the locations for your connections.

Sources – shows where you have imported information from, e.g., Outlook, Gmail, iPhone address book, etc.

Potential Merges – helps you clean up your connections by showing possible duplicate records.

Hidden – this includes contacts imported from your email address books both individuals and companies, websites

Other Features

You have the ability to take notes (Relationship section), record how you met contacts, and schedule additional contacts. For me, the Note feature has been particularly useful.

Tagging contacts is simple, when you mouse over a contact you have the options to Tag, Message, Hide or Remove a Connection.

In addition, your emails with each contact to are reflected under the Relationship tab.

How are you using LinkedIn’s new Contact features?