5 Steps to Include Social Media in Your Marketing Plan This Year

Social media has blown up in the past two years. One must consider who to Friend, Follow, Connect or Link to their social network not only in an every day basis, but sometimes every hour.. The business card rolodex has become a list of profile pictures with contact 'status updates' being added at the blink of an eye.

With so many tools, one must now consider which to use with a full-blown marketing plan. There are several steps to go through to make sure that you are taking the correct action and corrective action if necessary.


Step 1: Gather Information
Utilize an aggregator such as Firehose or Yahoo Pipes to collect similar conversations into one feed. Monitor this conversation to know how your audience is discussing your product or service and from this information prepare your message.

Step 2: Define Your Message
Work within the overall marketing theme to ensure that you are sharing the same message in all marketing strategies. Social media efforts should match your other activities without fail. Be consistent to help build your brand. Additionally, you might consider ensuring that all staff you are delivering the message (either in social media or traditional marketing) strategies are trained in how to do so to represent the company image well.

Step 3: Spread the Word
After defining the clear message, and ensuring everyone knows how to handle the message, start spreading the word. Create a Facebook business page, twitter profile, and/or YouTube channel and start building a network of friends or followers by offering a fun competition to attract a network. Then post status updates, videos, and tweets about your product and related content. If this is done well, your message will spread like wildfire.


Step 4: Network in Person
Don't forget that social media or internet marketing is still just one piece of the pie. Your larger marketing plan, face to face networking, and personal touch will continue to grow your internet marketing impact. While out there, ask your connections if they've use those social medias and if they've seen the posts. Be careful not to OVER do your social media marketing and become a nuisance to your audience, or they begin to avoid you in person too.

Step 5: Measure!!!Always measure the return on your investment. Social media has become increasingly easy to measure by utilizing analytics tools like Google Analytics or analytics that are provided by your service provider or web host. The results of these measures will indicate which social media efforts drive the most web traffic to your site. The reports will also indicate the navigation path of the visitors, how long they stayed, what they visited while they were there, and which page they decided to 'exit.' This step ensures you are always reallocating your efforts to the most effective social media tool.

Five steps, seems simple, right? You can't imagine how much time can be spent on these steps, so don't underestimate the amount of effort necessary. Be sure to measure your results so that you aren't wasting time. Make the most of the power of the web - be sure to include it in your marketing plan.

If you are already using social medias to market your brand, post a comment letting us know what seems to be the most effective for YOU - and also post a link so we can 'follow' you and your example.

WAVE hello...the Google way

H E L L O ....Have you heard the buzz? Google Wave is the 'thing.' Do you have it? Have you tried it? No? You must not be on the invite list. VIP only, ya know...Don't worry, some might say you're not missing out on a lot because it's still in beta phase, still rough around the edges; let the others work out the bugs before you give it a try.
But you're still curious, aren't you? What's the big deal anyway? Why the 'invites' only, what is it, and what in the heck does it do?!?!

It's allows us to email, collaborate, thread and track conversations, and replay all of the steps along the way. It changes the way we work together and even the way that we think about our work. It changes the way we communicate with each other...and in that communication comes a few warnings:

1. Expect the unexpected - it's new and so there are bugs. We might expect a certain service or action, but remember that some things aren't worked out yet, so the Wave might work differently than we first expect.


2. Test it and test it again - try creating waves and collaborating with a trusted colleague so that you can determine the nuances of the tool and understand who sees what, and when.


3. Manage your waves - use folders and tags to organize your waves and any attachments just like you would manage any other content


4. Know when to fold - in theory Google Wave may be the new way to communicate, but we must also know when it's not working out so well for us. It's still new, be sure that if you're using it to communicate about a certain project, and Google Wave isn't helping the collaboration, you may have to revert back to the 'old' way of doing things until the Wave has it's bugs worked out.

So, do you think you are ready? Wanna give it a shot? I have several invites left and would be willing to share. Afterall, it's a collaboration tool - and without others to collaborate with - waving H E L L O is pretty difficult! Post a comment with your email address ~ and I'll send you an invite as long as I have them.

Happy Waving!

The Google Analytics Cheatsheet | Internet Marketing Strategy: Conversation Marketing

Once upon a time, in a a land far, far away...many different websites were born. Little websites and big websites, websites designed for young and websites designed for old, websites to track breaking news, and websites to uncover historical archives. Websites, websites, websites...everywhere a website.

As the land far, far away became more crowded with websites, it became evident that optimizing a site is essential for an improved page rank and higher Google results listing. Strategic internet marketing efforts can assist the digital 'word of mouth' as it relates to the promoting your company, brand, or image. Mnitoring how the search enging optimization is working is even more critical.

Inserting Google Analytics is a smart, easy, and free way to monitor the traffic in your web site. Some tips about how to insert analytics codes and where you should begin tracking is featured in The Google Analytics Cheatsheet Internet Marketing Strategy: Conversation Marketing. Take a look at the cheat sheet and see where YOU might begin your tracking.