30-03-2012 02:30 Social Marketing is the design, implementation and control of marketing activity intended to promote social causes or ideas within a target group in a society; a form of non-profit marketing. - created at
See original here:
Social marketing - defined - Video
Salem, MA (PRWEB) March 30, 2012
As we enter the second quarter of 2012, many companies have resolved to finally take the leap into social media marketing. According to Amy Grishman, CEO of Social Focus Marketing, "Social media provides smaller companies with the opportunities to market themselves in the same way major, global brands do. However, for small businesses with limited staff, the task may seem especially daunting as many questions undoubtedly loom. Where should we start? How do we start? How are Facebook and Twitter going to help my business? Who will take on the responsibility?" Here are five tips Grishman says will help any company get started:
1.Recognize the benefits and define goals. All too often CEOs and campaign managers are only concerned with how social media marketing will translate into revenue and ignore the other benefits. Often overlooked is the opportunity to connect with current customers and clientele, raise brand awareness and improve brand reputation, acquire feedback, crowd source new ideas and products, and the list goes on.
2.Join the following five networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn, and YouTube. It will only take a couple of minutes per network to sign up, and each is designed with step-by-step instructions to make the process as seamless as possible for even the most novice user. Companies skeptical about joining YouTube should consider that, according to Nielsen, 90% of all web traffic will be video by 2014. Taking advantage of the vast pools of Internet users who frequent these networks is essential, and companies should secure their names on these platforms.
3.Measure results. Although there are many platforms through which to track social media data, Google Analytics will provide a panoramic view of an overall marketing strategy. This powerful tracking software is free and will diligently monitor website activity, visits from social media profiles as well as other websites, visitor demographics and much more. This data offers insight into customers' activity, and measures the overall health of a marketing campaign, allowing a small business to rapidly respond to changes in consumer behavior, and to adjust their marketing strategies accordingly.
4.Companies should add social media links to their websites, blogs, email signatures, and business cards. Adding social media links in all the aforementioned places will help grow fan base in an unobtrusive and organic way. Once profiles are active, companies should spread the word to give their profiles an initial fan boost; letting their personal and professional networks know.
5.Outsource, if needed. Finally, it is important to keep fans actively engaged. Allowing accounts to languish will be more detrimental than not having accounts at all. If a small business cannot find time to log into their profiles more than a couple times per week to post updates, communicate with fans, answer questions, etc., it may be time to consider outsourcing social media management to an Internet marketing firm. For a fixed fee every month, one can hire a social media management team adept at engaging audiences and promoting brands effectively (most often this is much more cost effective than hiring an additional staff member). This team will represent a small business and provide sales, marketing, client/customer service, and PR all in one.
Social media is an organic and essential part of business today. Long gone are the days when people would see their local shop owners daily and stop by for a chat, but as the world has grown bigger, it has also grown smaller again through the connectedness of social media. Customers will be stopping by for a chat virtually, possibly from thousands of miles away, and they are talking about a product or service to someone else possibly thousands of miles away in the other direction. Small businesses cant afford to miss this opportunity!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
UNILAB Ideas Positive, the only social marketing congress and competition for college students in the country today, is expanding this year from Metro Manila to the entire Philippines, tapping students from the Mindanao region to join and become part of this campaign.
The nationwide expansion is a result of the encouraging response from universities and college students to the program, which was first launched in 2010 to serve as venue for Filipino youth to improve the health and wellness of their communities with their social marketing ideas.
Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.
The increasing number of positive ideas we receive every year and the passion the youth have shown in helping their communities have inspired us to open the venue to more youth in the Philippines, said Unilab Ideas Positive program lead Barry Barrientos.
By partnering with more youth on this cause, we believe that well also be able to help more communities become healthier and more productive, Barrientos said.
Fifteen communities all over the country will benefit from this expansion through the social marketing programs by 15 youth teams that will all receive P100,000 seed money for the implementation of their ideas.
The groups will also be flown in to Manila, with free hotel accommodation, meals and transportation, to attend a three-day boot camp, where they can learn social marketing approaches from a pool of experts through workshops and case studies.
Last year, the participants were trained by reputable leaders and experts which included social marketing guru Dr. Ned Roberto, CNN 2009 Hero of the Year Efren Peaflorida and RockEd Founder Gang Badoy, among others.
One of the participants to the boot camp, Jhanette Co of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, thanked the program for giving young people like her the opportunity to be heard and make a difference.
Read more:
Mindanao youth urged to join Unilab Ideas Positive
28-03-2012 12:55 Jeffrey Adelson-Yan of Levelwing (www.levelwing.com) and Robin Francis of AutoDesk discuss how teams within a company or agency focusing on distinct and often siloed disciplines can converge aspects of organic search (SEO) and social media marketing to become complimentary partners.
Read more from the original source:
Organic Search
27-03-2012 17:21 By Charlie Treadwell March 22nd is World Water Day, and water focused nonprofits around the world will bring to your attention that nearly one billion people on our planet still live without access to life's most basic need: clean, safe drinking water. These organizations need to capture your attention, access your network, and earn your dollars. Cisco supports many nonprofits with the shared mission of clean water (learn more here), but one specific organization caught my eye today, charity: water. charity: water has been transforming the world of nonprofit marketing through their dedicated focus to digital and social media marketing. Whether that's through MyCharityWater.org where you create a profile, start and manage a fundraising campaign and activate your network through Facebook, Twitter, and email. Or through WaterForward.org where individuals activate their social networks by paying it forward. WaterForward takes the individual's control and puts it in the hands of their friends and their network, incentivizing the social sharing many marketers dream of. Watch this video to learn more about WaterForward, and check out Cisco CTO, Padmasree Warrior's book. As you can see by these two examples, charity: water's unique strategies focus on the activating individuals and asking them to engage their network, because they know, like many marketers do, that the whole of a person's network is greater than the sum of it's parts. More digital and social marketers should take ...
Go here to read the rest:
Social Marketing Strategies from Nonprofit Charity: Water - Video