Social Marketing Theory
15 Jun How to Hire a Rock Star Community Manager
Contributed post: Michelle Berg, President & CEO of Elevated HR Solutions.1. Don't search for a “guru” or an “expert”
There really is no such thing considering social media really hasn’t been around long enough to garner such titles. You wouldn’t go outward and say you are hiring an Accounting Expert or a Sales Guru. You hire an Accountant with personality or a Sales Executive that is driven. Typical titles in the social media world are as follows: Community Manager, Manager of Interactive Communications, Social Media Specialist, Social Media Advisor, etc. I typically advise Community Manager because of how encompassing it is. But at the end of the day, it does come down to business preference. They can be rock stars and/or kick-assed but you don’t need to place that in their title.2. Define the role
Sure seems like a no-brainer, but in my experience, this is overlooked all too often. Title aside, you need to know what it is that they are going to do. If you don’t know – then it’s almost impossible to manage them and more importantly to ensure you can measure their results and make sure they are doing what you need them to be doing.14 Jun Do You Know How to do Demographic Targeting?
[caption id="attachment_553" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Online Marketing Solutions"]
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Demographic targeting has long been a major part of pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. Google AdWords has provided demographic targeting tools for years. From age to gender, ad platforms have made providing the opportunity to target specific audiences a priority.
Facebook Ads introduced an even more extensive demographic targeting process. Unlike Google AdWords, Facebook has access to the specifics, which makes targeting quick and simple. So, why is targeting so important?
First, it's always important to know your audience. Second, targeting means less wasted time and money. Why pay for clicks from people you know aren't in your target audience? It's clear that demographic targeting is both common with, and effective for, PPC marketers.
Unfortunately, targeting specific demographics in other areas of Internet Marketing is less than common. The fact is that demographic targeting can be used effectively for all forms of Internet Marketing, especially social marketing. Choosing the right people to spend time building relationships with is vital to social marketing success.
To get you started with demographic targeting, here are three groups that are big this year. You'll also find out how you can use social marketing to target and connect with each audience.
1. Mommy Bloggers
This is definitely not a surprising demographic to mention. Mommy bloggers have been a growing demographic for quite a while now. This group is comprised of mothers who are looking to earn a supplementary income online through blogging. [caption id="attachment_554" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via PMG Blog"]
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Connecting with mommy bloggers is easy if you know where to look. Of course, you should be searching for, and commenting on, their actual blogs. Most of them self-identify as mommy bloggers, so a quick Google search will go a long way. What's great is that mommy bloggers are social media savvy, so they will most likely be connected on Twitter and Facebook as well. For real-time conversation, Twitter is your best bet.
Some mommy bloggers we like:
Suburban Mom
Pretty Pink Momma
Shop With Me Mama
2. Young Professionals
Did you know that 50% of the world's population is under 30? That makes young professionals a great demographic to target. Marriages are occurring later in life while young adults focus on their careers. This means both young men and young women have purchasing power.09 Jun Kill the Hype and Create a Buzz
Going viral is the Holy Grail of social media marketing. It represents the ultimate achievement of a marketing campaign launched through the Internet: popularity that skyrockets into legendary status. However, unlike the irreverent quest for the Holy Grail depicted in a certain cult-classic film, reaching that goal isn't merely an exercise in light-hearted entertainment. It takes a good helping of know-how, some marketing finesse, and a lot of buzz.
Buzz is a marketing term that was once a mere footnote in campaign strategies, but with the advent of social media, has become the "make or break" element of any successful marketing plan. Buzz is the force that can carry a message across the globe, reaching beyond target demographic groups and regions. It's easy to see why marketers are scrambling to create buzz for their brands and products, but there are pitfalls to watch out for. Like a cinematic twist, buzz has an evil twin that it's all too commonly mistaken for called hype.
So how can you tell the difference, and what's really so bad about hype, anyway? Hype is an ad campaign whose momentum is self-generated, getting aggressively promoted and boasted about by its own source. It is the brand itself telling customers that it's entertaining and exciting, hoping for a trickle-down effect through the audience and their networks to achieve popularity. It should go without saying that this type of marketing rarely, if ever, reaches viral status.
That's why buzz is so important to strive for. Buzz is consumer-generated, which means it relies on content capturing attention and encouraging authentic sharing. It might seem like a gamble, but it's one that can easily be rigged in your favor. After all, studies have shown that up to 89% of adult Internet users in the U.S. share content amongst their contacts, and 63% of those users do so at least once a week. Incredibly, 25% of those users are sharing on a daily basis. While it may seem counterintuitive to avoid hype, blatant branding within content had little impact on whether the content was shared or became viral.
26 May Clay Hebert on Social Media ROI
Recently, Spark Boutik had the chance to sit down with a leading thinker on social ROI to ask him about the industry. He spoon fed us some awesome information we just had to share. Below is our interview with Clay Hebert.
1. Please tell me a bit about your background. How did you get into social media and, specifically, into understanding social media ROI?
Back in 2003, I was working for Accenture, flying around the country working on large-scale consulting projects. During a layover in O'Hare, I needed a book to read for the second leg of my flight and saw this strange looking purple book in the airport bookstore. It was Purple Cow by Seth Godin. It was the first business book that really spoke to me. When I got home, I immediately subscribed to Seth's blog, and ordered everything he'd ever written and devoured it.
Soon after that, I read The Cluetrain Manifesto and Naked Conversations. I knew that the changes these books spoke of were imminent, but I didn't know how they would end up impacting my life.
In 2007, I dabbled with blogging and in early 2008, I discovered Twitter. Later that year, I read Tribes and then got a chance to move to New York to participate in Seth Godin's Alt-MBA program. While the program didn't focus on social media specifically, it was a lens through which I looked at many of the concepts and ideas.
After the program, I founded Tribes Win, a marketing and innovation agency based in New York City. We help brands lead their tribes using the social web.