Social media marketing mix is a ubiquitous research tool. According to Parature, customers are consumed with getting: the best deal, service, and experience. They take the time to do the research using not only the search engines like Google, but also through via social media. As a business owner, you should be performing these type of searches as well. Social reputation is very important. Efficient competitor research begins in monitoring social media.
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For example, 52% of customers have praised a brand online while 33% have complained to a brand on social media. Sadly, only 59% got a response to their complaint or compliment. This is too bad because 51% of consumers who made the purchase based their buying decision on what they heard in the response from the brand.
The Social Media Marketing Mix
Over 2 billion people actively use social media each day while 3 billion are registered occasional users. From keeping in touch with far flung relatives to researching what to buy that special someone, social media is indispensable.
Each year, social media marketing mix usage increases by 8.7%, spreading into newsrooms, show floors and small businesses. Brands engage their avid fans and research dedicated communities. 40 million businesses actively use Facebook. With users spending 4 hours per day on their smart phones, small businesses can target local consumers at the right time in the right place.
How to Conduct Competitor Research
Social media is a long play, but a good play. It is also an effective way to conduct research on your competitors. You can simplify the information hunt by integrating a Twitter Search Stream directly into your website. Set it to display tweets of the name of your business and your products. Be sure that social icons are clearly visible on your home page and link to YOUR social media feeds. If you provide services, consider integrating a social proof site like Yelp with your page.
There was a time when e-mail marketing was the core of online marketing and over 70% of marketers see this as their mainstay. While email is overwhelmingly the preferred method to contact a business, email ads are almost universally ignored.
Consider yourself. The opinion of a friend is far more likely to grab your attention than a random sign on the street. In fact, unless the imagery is especially creative, the sign won’t even register in your mind.
A social media marketing mix campaign is akin to a room full of friends all discussing your latest product. While the variety of avenues may seem daunting and time consuming, there are a number of methods and tools at your disposal to help spread your message with only a small amount of time taken out of your day.
Every blog post you create needs to be a marketing juggernaut, especially in your social media marketing mix and the tools to achieve your goal are plentiful. The most effective tool is Sharing Buttons. By placing these buttons on your every post, you are allowing your readers to easily tell their friends about your product. One click and their circle knows your name. Those friends then continue the process, propagating your words further than you could ever achieve on your own. Make certain to create your Sharing Buttons to include identifiers that point back to your business.
Another option is to allow the creation of Tweets directly from your content with the free tool SumoMe. If you wish to control what gets quoted, there are programs that will allow you to select quotes that you wish to share.
With these and the many more options available, you can turn both your blogging and your email into powerful marketing tools that mimic the most trusted type of advertising of all; word of mouth.
A good social media marketing strategy brings customers and prospects together, qualitatively increasing individual authority, fostering positive relationships, and easing the promotion of a brand. But, even the best social media marketing strategy can be ineffective if improperly approached. Following are several strategies for social media marketing which can work if correctly conducted.
Non-Internet Events
Social media marketing strategies should include physical events. Everybody’s got a phone, they’re going to be updating it. Have your marketing team stay online during the event and monitor trending hash-tags. When your event starts hitting, reach out to prospective clients and invite them into a conversation. Promoting a brand, offering a giveaway, or sponsoring a competition can be organically brought to prospective customers thus. Also, you’ve got a springboard to reach folks when the event’s over. Modernity has given business owners the ability to order a report from TweetBinder for each of the people that tweeted your event. Order that report and reach out.
The Webinar
Webinars are live, and bigger than traditional social media putsches. Their focus is primarily educational, and speakers are always strong. These events allow businesses to build contacts, showcase talent, and promote services or products; not to mention prospective sales’ leads.
Economize a webinar by adding social sharing buttons to the landing page. Ensure they include your company’s social media handle, link(s), and title(s).
It makes sense to encourage attendees to “share” their involvement. Statistically, Zipf’s law applies on the internet as well as elsewhere, and you can expect about a 20% return.
Don’t forget a hashtag for social media in your social media marketing mix! This helps get your event trending positively. After the fact, be sure to encourage individuals to post about it on social media. Social media marketing strategy gets more in-depth daily; it’s inescapable. So use it to your advantage!