Tips on Writing an Effective Social Media Marketing Request For Proposal (RFP)

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Tips on Writing an Effective Social Media Marketing Request For Proposal (RFP)

About a year ago, I wrote an article with guidelines on writing a website design and development Request for Proposal (RFP), which received a great response. Now I think it’s high time to do the same thing for those wishing to engage an agency for Social Media Marketing and other Online Marketing and Advertising consultation and implementation.

Below are my suggestions of how to prepare an RFP for social media projects, retainers and campaigns. I also suggest doing research online and viewing other Request for Proposals to see what works best for your organization. Keep in mind that whatever format you choose will determine not only how long the responses are, but also what type of focus you are looking for from the respondents. Each section of the RFP is outlined below, along with some explanation and suggested questions. Have fun!

Information about your organization and project

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to give a brief overview of the company issuing the RFP and the social media project or desired work relationship between the company and the vendor. Provide as much information as you feel is necessary to allow vendors to prepare an accurate proposal. If you feel that there is certain proprietary or other information that you do not wish to make public, require a Non Disclosure Agreement be signed before receiving that information. This may limit the participation of vendors, but it is oftentimes necessary to protect private information.

1. Company Overview

Organizational history
Your business objectives
Your company’s history using social media or reasons why your organization intends to begin to participate in social media

2. Overview of Project

State the project objectives and how they relate to the business objectives stated above. Explain the type of vendor relationship desired i.e. Project-based, Agency of Record, etc. Explain the current involvement your organization has with social media channels and how they relate to both your organization’s primary presence and any related campaigns
Explain the social media channels you wish the campaign to involve, unless you are looking for suggestions of which to use, then please specify that to the vendors
Explain how the project fits into your overall marketing strategy (online and offline) and if there is another vendor involved in other aspects of your Advertising and Marketing initiatives
Explain the measurable outcomes you would like to see
Explain the duration of the work – is it a temporary campaign, or an ongoing organizational marketing platform?

3. Overview of Audiences and Stakeholders

List primary audiences for the company, i.e. demographics, psychographics, etc
List primary information needs of each audience group
Identify if any market or audience research will be necessary in the execution of the campaign

4. Overview of Response

Make it clear the type of response you are looking for:
Are you looking for a hypothetical approach, or an explanation of the vendor’s process of how they will come to create your campaign. Many times a hypothetical approach is not the best way to approach an RFP process simply because a vendor will be missing several key pieces of information that might negatively affect their ability to propose a specific solution. We suggest looking for more general responses and weighing the effectiveness of past client work heavily

Guidelines for Proposal Preparation

In order to give all qualified vendors a level playing field, it’s important to set up an easy to follow schedule for both when your RFP is issued, when and to whom questions are allowed, and when and in what format responses are required
Specify the date the RFP was issued (Month, Day, Year). If your RFP is publicly listed, it will help those searching for RFPs on Google or by other methods to find relevant Request for Proposals
An optional requirement is to specify that all interested vendors register their intent to submit a proposal by a certain date – usually within 1-2 weeks of the RFP issue. This is a good way to limit the potential number of vendors who respond if you anticipate a large volume of proposals and would rather receive a smaller amount
We recommend allowing a question and answer period that ends at least 1 week before the proposal is due. It is up to you whether to allow questions by email, conference call or individual phone calls. We do recommend that you share all the questions (and answers) with all interested vendors in order to keep things as equal as possible. Always specify which format -phone call, email, and to whom these questions should be addressed. We recommend identifying a single person in your organization to be the point of contact. Just make sure vacation schedules, etc don’t interfere with this process, and if there is any other reason why the primary point of contact might need to be out of town during the process, specify a secondary point of contact
Responses from issuer to be sent by 20XX in the following formats (specify whether electronic submissions, hard copies or both must be either emailed, mailed or hand-delivered)
On the basis of the replies to the RFP document, a short list of potential vendors will be selected and this group will be asked to present demonstrations of their capabilities and vision for the project. These meetings will be completed by XXth, 20XX
Awarding of the contract to selected Vendor by XXth, 20XX
Work to commence by 20XX and to last until (if applicable)

Vendor Questions and Qualifications

The following is a series of questions that, if applicable, we suggest you ask the vendors submitting proposals. Some may not apply, but it is a great idea to get as much of an idea of the vendor’s approach and philosophy on social media as possible. Compare the responses both among each other, and to the research and reading that you have done to make sure that the vendor is up to date with the latest thinking and best practices.

COMPANY DETAILS

Company name and parent company name
Ownership structure
Years in operation
Mailing address (headquarters)
Other office location(s)
Primary phone
Fax number
Website and blog URL
Primary point of contact (name, title, phone and email address)
Total number of employees
Number of vendor employees whose primary function is social media
Current client list with those engaged in social media work identified
Percentage of total revenue that is social-media related
Three references for social media work including; company name, primary client name, contact details and brief explanation of services provided
Any potential conflicts with existing vendor client base and this RFP
Senior social media staff bios and links to social media profiles where applicable
Please provide a complete list of relevant social media platform and technology partners
References from clients currently engaged in social media work with the vendor

CAPABILITIES & EXPERIENCE

List all social media and online marketing capabilities
Do you have any proprietary tools or products related to social media?
Please list any experience you have with integrating social, paid and/or earned media
Is there a specific industry or type of work your firm specializes in?
Please list and provide links to primary social media communication channels for your company (i.e.company blog,Twitter account, Facebook group, blogs authored by principals, etc.)

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

Please outline your social media strategy process
Which stakeholder groups do you typically include in a strategy engagement?
Describe the final deliverable of a strategy engagement
What is your approach to risk management in social media?
How do you incorporate existing applications, websites, microsites and newsletter programs into your overall social media strategy?
How do you ensure compliance with client legal requirements?
Please describe your approach to integrating across client marketing, customer service and corporate communications departments. Please provide an example of your work in this area
How do you approach adapting a traditional brand into a two-way dialogue?
Please provide a case study of your strategy work that resulted in a social media initiative and the business results achieved

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT & SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING

What is your brand/reputation monitoring process (i.e. proprietary tools used, methodology, etc)?
What is your opinion on automated sentiment analysis?
What technology do you use to assist in online monitoring?
How long (on average) between a potential issue being posted online and being flagged to the client?
What volume of mentions has your organization handled in the past (e.g. 2,500 mentions per week)?
What is your quality assurance process to ensure that the large volumes of data gathered in the monitoring process are handled efficiently and representative of the overall online conversation?
Please detail your methodology for handling online crises
What services do you provide in support of online crisis management?
Please describe the structure of your crisis management team, including bios and relevant experience
How do you assess which mentions require immediate responses and which do not?
Please outline your general approach to sourcing and responding to comments
Please provide a case study detailing your work for the purposes of managing reputation or online crisis management, including outcomes and lessons learned
Please include a sample of your monitoring report format and/or a link to appropriate dashboards (specifics should be removed)

METRICS, MEASUREMENT & REPORTING

What methodology do you use for measuring the success of your social media programs for clients?
Please provide specific examples based on past work
Have you developed any proprietary metrics? How have you applied these for clients?
How have you defined Return on Investment (ROI) from a social media perspective in the past?
How do you take data points generated from various social media channels and measurement tools and combine to give an objective/comprehensive view?
What is your approach to server analytics and community analytics for program measurement?
Do you have the capability to measure cost per lead or cost per acquisition? Please provide an example of a project on which you have done so
What platforms are you unable to measure accurately, or able to provide only limited measurements from?
Please provide a sample of a measurement document or final report (specifics should be removed)
What percentage of the budget do you recommend be dedicated to metrics and measurement?

CLIENT EDUCATION & TRAINING

Do you offer social media training services for clients? If yes, what formats are they available in?
What internal processes do you have in place to ensure that your staff is kept current on social media innovations and best practices?
How do you measure progress and evaluate training effectiveness?
How do you recommend that clients keep up to date on the latest social media innovations and best practices?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER DIGITAL CHANNELS

What are your design, creative and community management capabilities?
What percentage of your staff is dedicated to building and deploying social media solutions versus management and consulting?
Please describe your experience with the following platforms and tactics:

- YouTube or similar video sharing sites
- Blogs, Podcasts, Vodcasts, Forums
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- E-mail Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing(SEM)
- Facebook Pages, Apps, API integration
- Mobile application development
- Twitter
- News sharing sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, etc.)
- Virtual Worlds and Augmented reality
- Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr) and other content sharing sites (i.e. Scribd, Slideshare, Delicious, etc.)
- Social Media press releases(SMPRs)
- Crowdsourcing or Wikis
- Real world events organized via social media (e.g. Tweetups)
- Ratings/Customer service sites (i.e. Yelp, ePinions, etc.)

Please provide examples of social media channel development work completed within the last two years

COMMUNITY AND INFLUENCER OUTREACH (SOCIAL PR)

What is your process for identifying influencers within various social media channels?
How do you determine and define “influence?”
What is your outreach process for communicating with identified online influencers?
What tools and approaches do you use for Influencer Relationship Management? (Third-party, proprietary,etc.)
How have you integrated Influencer Outreach with traditional communications and/or marketing campaigns?
How do you approach seeding conversations within stakeholder groups?
What is your exit strategy with influencers once the initiative is completed?
How do you ensure authenticity and transparency when conducting outreach on behalf of a client?
Please provide a case study of an online community outreach project

CLIENT SERVICES & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

How is a typical client engagement with your firm structured?
How do you structure your account teams?
Please outline your internal communication structure. If your account staff is separate from your project management staff, please detail how these teams work together
If you are selected to provide social media services, who will be assigned to our business (please provide names, titles and short biographical notes)
What percentage of senior staff involvement is structured in to your projects? What role do they play?
How are your projects priced? Using an hourly rate? Blended agency rate? If the former, please provide a rate card
What change management practices does your agency employ?
What reports will be provided to the client in order to communicate project milestones and overall project health?
What is the frequency of these reports?
What is your process for gathering business requirements?

Writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a good first step when considering Online Marketing and Social Media work as it takes thoughtful planning to specify and construct an effective, integrated campaign. A well thought-out, quality RFP is essential to a successful endeavor because it helps you to focus on your goals and exactly how to achieve them.

==> Dumb kids on Facebook make 9,833.57!

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How To Use Social Media Marketing To Build Your Legal Business

admin    Social Media     Build, Business, Legal, Marketing, Media, Social

How To Use Social Media Marketing To Build Your Legal Business

During an unstable economy, many people are looking for ways to ensure that they not only maintain their lifestyles, but simply keep their jobs. Many people are even out looking for work before knowing for sure if they will even need to begin supplementing their income. Even professionals like lawyers might find it difficult to drum up some business in these unstable times, especially since their services can sometimes cost a pretty penny. In 2010, though, attorneys can actually take the hint from many other industries which have jumped on the Social Media Marketing bandwagon to utilize the many technological tools available online. Many of these formats are actually free, meaning that not only can you promote and grow your business in the most efficient way ever created, but you can do without expending any of your funds.

First of all, law firms will do very well to utilize Twitter, blogging, and Facebook to develop a fan base where they can remind their community of their presence.

Blogging has helped many people create web penetration for their bands and businesses and lawyers can use this same idea to educate people about the many intricacies of America’s laws. This builds their credibility and creates a brand in themselves that many people will remember in case they need legal counsel.

Similarly, podcasts and YouTube channels can provide the same result for those who may be a little more performance savvy, and will simultaneously create an image that people will quickly catalog in memory.

Finally, Twitter helps to connect all of these technologies through frequent updates to an entire community of followers, inviting them to respond and allowing you to openly communicate with many people on very specific topics.

Of course, all of this social media marketing is pointless if you are not out in the community connecting with new people. This is why attorneys should also increase their usage of smart phones, especially the web apps they provide.

Mobile technology allows you to keep up to date with all your internet applications easily and efficiently no matter where you are. Not only does this free you up to spend more time out of the office, but it helps you expedite the many tasks you need to perform throughout your day for the purposes of marketing. Trying to stay in contact with your firm partners along with clients and a handful of followers is extremely difficult if you aren’t organized.

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Adult Social Networking Tips to the Social Networks

admin    Social Media     Adult, Networking, Networks, Social, Tips

Adult Social Networking Tips to the Social Networks

I realize that for adults on the social networking sites, many of these tips are common sense. As I point that out, I also know that nothing is “common” about common sense. The tips are not listed in order of importance. Here they are!…..

1.) Decide on the type of networking you would like to engage in.

Most people that are new to social networking are nor aware that different sites cater to different groups of networkers. Some sites are for people in particular age groups, others are for people with specifics hobbies and interests. Still other sites cater almost exclusively to business networking. Before you join a site, spend some time getting a sense of what type of networking is most popular. For the newbie to the networks, MySpace and Facebook are good choices. Generally, these sites have wide appeal to a large cross section of networkers with a wide variety of interests.

2.) Have A Plan When Putting Together Your Profile

Virtually all social networking sites provide members with a personal profile page. Unfortunately, many people spend very little time planning the content to be included in their profile.

WRONG!
Remember, people will usually review your profile before deciding if they want to contact you. The information that you supply can attract quality networking opportunities. Let people know, via your profile, exactly what type of online relationships you want to pursue. Answer ALL profile questions honestly, with no hidden agendas. Oh, and by the way, include your picture. People want to “see” fellow networkers!

3) Let The Online Relationship Develop Naturally

One of the biggest mistakes made by social networkers is to “force” their agenda on new contacts. This type of selfishness does not work in the offline world, so why would it EVER work online? Become acquainted with your contacts first. Let them know that you intend to be a useful resource. During this process of getting to know each other, both of you will discover if you have mutual intentions. Do not rush this process of discovery. It could provide the foundation for a very beneficial, long term, relationship.

4) Do Not Get Too Personal Too Quickly

This tip is in the ‘common sense” category, and is similar to tip #3. Personal experiences have prompted me to include this tip. I have been contacted by individuals, and within the 1st EMAIL, they are disclosing very personal information, even inviting me to come meet them!! This approach is dangerous and leaves a bad 1st impression. It is a definite “red flag” if individuals give you “too much information” too soon.

5) Do Not “Hit And Run!”

Many people make the mistake of joining too many social sites. In their excitement to begin networking, they fill out profiles to every site under the sun! These same individuals spend very little time navigating each site. They will also make the mistake of adding a bunch of “friends” at first, and never following up with them. This “hit and run” approach is not a good way to form online relationships. Only become a member of a site if you plan to become an active member of the community. Without active participation, you will never achieve trust within the group.

In Conclusion….

Hopefully, these tips, and your common sense, will make social networking more productive. If you are specifically interested in the adult social networks for business, the FREE curriculum at Renegade University is a perfect training ground. It is possible to earn while you learn marketing with video, articles, email, and even marketing to the Web 2.0 communities.

You will also learn how to brand yourself in the social networks, and how to gain access to FREE social media tools.

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How to Make Money With Social Media

admin    Social Media     Media, Money, Social

How to Make Money With Social Media

The earning potential in social marketing is something you shouldn’t ignore. If you’re thinking the market is too oversaturated for you to get a piece of the pie, you couldn’t be more wrong!

Those looking to market online to make money can expect to see a lot of ways that promise to help them turn their online efforts into cash. For instance, social marketing sites which are what Web 2.0 is all about…

Make Money With Social Marketing

Can you really make money by socializing online through pay per post and paid forums, etc? With many of the new social media platforms you can in both direct ways and in indirect ways as well. Sites like FaceBook and MySpace are hard to beat. Those new sites who want a piece of the population of people who spend a vast portion of their spare time online are incentivizing their sites so that people will want to join and use their site too.

Maximizing Profit Potential For Web 2.0

How much time you spend on a site and how much value you bring to it will ultimately determine how much money you can make. How-to sites are particularly interested in having you share advice on how to do something and may be willing to share their ad revenue with you. Because so many people now search the web for information on how to do things, sites that provide that information can have huge income potential. Some people make a monthly income with sites like these by spending time every day on that site. At the same time, a lot of people invest time and effort into a social marketing site and don’t make a dime.

The thing is, you need to learn how to maximize the site’s potential with minimum effort and if you learn how to make money indirectly from these sites as well as directly through ad revenue, you can laugh your way to the bank.

Those with a large online circle of friends can use their wit and charm and guru status to make online sales through those friends as well as get paid as a contributor to that site where revenue programs exist. Micro blogging sites can have imbedded urls to tell people about the great product you’ve heard about. Free blog networks can help you build your search engine optimization up for your money making blog as well. There are many ways to exploit social media to your advantage.

Here are a few tips to help you:

- Don’t spam. Build a circle of online friends by being social and being helpful. People will see through a blatant spam attempt

- Visit sites often but don’t let them become productivity vacuums either. Allocate a set amount of time per day to play on social media sites.

- If a site isn’t proving to be worthwhile very soon, put your efforts elsewhere. While it can take time to build a following, you might want to shift your efforts elsewhere if you’re spending a lot of hours and not getting any good results at all.

Milk social media for all its worth as it can help you make great money while also having fun.

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Social Media Strategy versus Tactics and the Tools to Use

admin    Social Media     Media, Social, Strategy, Tactics, Tools, Versus

Social Media Strategy versus Tactics and the Tools to Use

Facebook and Twitter are not a social media strategy. These are tactics within a social media strategy.

But what exactly is a social media strategy?

A social media strategy is a messaging platform and defines the perceptions, issues and tactics. A social media strategy needs the same preparation as a speech that is prepared for a politician.

In the movie, “Our brand is crisis,” James Carville explains these principles which should be considered for political candidates as well as companies social media.

- Simplicity – the ability to simply state, in a single phrase, what you will do for your clients.

- Relevance – the ability to tell the story in the eyes of your clients.

- Repetition – the relentless effort in telling the story over and over and over again.

So once you have your messaging platform, content creation becomes easier as you can listen to social media and engage in the conversations that are most important by following others, listening to thought leaders, publishing blog post, commenting, creating media and sharing opinions on an industry. Every company should think about defining a strategy so they are consistent with their message, brand and product marketing within all of social media.

Buzz Mouth has built a tool for mid to large companies to integrate their entire online presence in one place. We have clients managing over 500 places where their brand, content and messaging touch. Every time they publish they create a huge impact on their marketplace and have a large voice. This is great as the tool also allows for companies to listen to competitors, thought leaders and the media to engage in the conversation. This is great when they are a 3-person consulting firm with a waiting list of clients. Yet, often small business does not have the werewithall to implement such a dynamic social media strategy. So they outsource it to us.

Otherwise, some nice alternatives are TwitterFeed, HootSuite and Ping.fm to manage multiple channels of social media content.

For 1-5 person companies:

Minimally, we recommend Twitterfeed integration with a WordPress blog that automatically post to Facebook fan page and their Twitter followers. We then suggest using Google Alerts and Social Mentions to monitor what people are saying about you, your employees, your brand and your company. Now with an integrated messaging platform, a small company can be growing a social media strategy. Keep the content focused to your overall goals and you are set.

I often share a couple more analogies about a social media strategy, first it is like writing a book and second like sharing your vision for your company in 3-5 years. What do you want it to be? If you are writing a book about your company, what would it say and why? What do you stand for? What is really interesting to your clients about you?

For 5-25 person companies or aggressive 1-5 person companies:

We recommend using HootSuite as it allows more robust tactics. Although not scalable as a Professional Social Media Management tool.

For 25 or more employees in a company, we recommend a Professional Social Media Management tool where 100′s of tactics can be managed simultaneously. Our goal of the software is to be able to manage your entire online presence from one place.

More tools to come as Buzz Mouth shares their social media strategy through the next 150 blog post. Check back soon.

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Using the Internet and Social Media to Get Hired and Gain Business

admin    Social Media     Business, Gain, hired, Internet, Media, Social, Using

Using the Internet and Social Media to Get Hired and Gain Business

The Value Exchange

The first thing to be understood is that business is all about exchanging value.  You go to the store and buy a sandwich, and both you and the shopkeeper win, because each got what they wanted or needed.  In the case of you being hired, you are exchanging your abilities and your time for a salary that the employer provides.  Again, both parties win.

In order for this transaction, or value exchange, to take place, two things must be present:

Ability Trust

In the case of the sandwich, the shopkeeper must have the ability to make a good sandwich, and you need to trust that he made a good sandwich.  In the case of getting employment, you need the abilities and skills to get the job done, and the employer must trust that you can and will get the job done.  If one of these elements is missing, the value exchange doesn’t take place, and you don’t get hired.  In this article we will assume that you already have the abilities, and so will focus on how to build trust.

There are many traditional ways if accomplishing the task of building trust in order to get hired – resumes, referrals, recruitments, interviews, essays, etc.  All of these things help the employer get an idea of your abilities and the kind of person you are; and all are viable and can be effective in helping you get hired.

In fact, in the past those methods would have sufficed; but now you need to do more.  It’s no longer sufficient to write a killer resume or have stellar interviewing skills, because the channels that are being used to communicate and build trust are changing.  And they are changing fast.  This shot video below shows just how fast social media and web 2.0 are becoming mainstream.

The Power of Community

This new medium makes it easier than ever to leverage one of the most important elements of building trust – the power of community.  We’ve all heard in the business world that “It’s who you know, not what you know.”  Although this is not always the case, it carries great truth.  If people don’t trust you, (and they can’t trust you if they don’t know you) then you will never be able to exchange value with them.

The idea of a community is that people know and have had valuable interactions with each other.  Not only can you interact with and form relationships with more people using the internet and social media than was ever possible with traditional methods, but these connections can also be more relevant and targeted.

If you can leverage social media and the web to be an active participant in a community of people, both by helping them and receiving help yourself, the community you are a part of will be able to bring you more business and opportunities to get hired than traditional methods could ever hope to do.

As with anything that brings great opportunity, however, there is also a danger.  Make no mistake, without a good strategy your efforts online will largely be a waste of time.  There are so many opportunities, channels, networks, and people, that if you try to go in and appeal to the masses it won’t work.  You simply won’t be noticed, and you won’t be able to help or get help from anyone.

Strategy

Good strategies for using social media and the web have two major themes, broken down below:

1. Choose your specialty

2. Build Trust in that specialty by:

1. Listening
2. Helping others succeed
3. Being consistent

First, choose a specific niche that you would like to specialize in. You can ask yourself the following questions to help find a good niche for you:

What am I passionate about?

What do I want to continually learn about?

What will bring value to other people?

Where is there a need that I can fill?

Once you have an idea of the niche you are going to serve, you need to start building trust. The first step to doing this well is to listen. Find out what’s being said about the topic, what people are doing about it, who is talking about it, etc. The list below are just a few tools you can use to listen:

Blogosphere: Technorati, Google Blog Search, Blog Catalog
Twitter: Twitter Search, WeFollow, Twellow
Search Engines: Google, Squidoo
Social Sites: LinkedIn, Facebook
Other: iTunes podcasts, TED, YouTube
Alerts: Google Alerts, BackType

Once you have a feel for what people are saying about the topic, it’s important that you stay caught up on your specialty by aggregating information. Using a reader is one of the best ways to do this. Simply have the RSS feeds of important blogs or twitter users or news sites funnel into your reader (we use Google Reader) and you can stay up to date on daily of movements in your industry.

Finally, you need to start participating in the conversations that you find. The best way to do this is to help other people succeed. Answer questions, share expertise, offer suggestions, produce valuable content, etc. Do this through creating and writing a blog, participating on Facebook and LinkedIn, producing videos for YouTube, uploading pictures to Flickr, and so forth. Most importantly, be helpful, and be consistent.

Through using these tools and specializing in a niche, you will be able to help out others and build a strong community of people that fosters real human relationships, helps business grow, and builds trust.

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How to Quickly and Easily Leverage Social Media to Build a Big List

admin    Social Media     Build, Easily, Leverage, List, Media, Quickly, Social

How to Quickly and Easily Leverage Social Media to Build a Big List

Social media sites are the best tools to drive traffic, get links and build your list. Mastering the right ways on how to use them in order to drive traffic to your sties is a must. This is a core skill any marketer should master. Below is how to use them wisely to drive traffic to your sites. Only in this way, your lists will boost immediately. Below are the details how you can implement your social media marketing strategy.

1) Register and Start Networking ASAP.

Social media sites are by their definition places where you network, socialize and get in contact with those of like minds. That means you can’t hold a one-way conversation where you “lecture” to your prospects and participate in activities that will directly benefit you.

As such, that means you need start networking and participating on these sites before you start doing those things that directly benefit you. For example: Comment on and rate videos on video-sharing sites like YouTube before you start posting your own videos. Next, comment on and rate other people’s content before you start bookmarking your own content on Digg, StumbleUpon, ReddIt, and similar.

And then your want to put comment on and rate other people’s content while you are building your own Squidoo Lens or HubPages.

If you become a part of the community first, then you’ll be able to grow a good reputation quickly. This makes you more authoritative and influential when you do start submitting and bookmarking your own content. And that means more traffic, fast.

2) Start Sharing Quality Content

Once you’ve helped other members and contributed to the community, then it’s time to start contributing your own quality content. That means you can share videos, bookmark your pages and build your content sites. You can also run a blog on these sites, start niche groups and similar.

3) Network with Like Minded Others

You may find plenty of prospects on these social networking sites, which is why you should work to get people on your mailing list. But don’t forget that you may also find potential joint venture partners on these sites – so network accordingly.

4) Commit to Doing Something Every Day

Finally, you should commit to doing one social media marketing activity every day. For example, load a new video, create a new Squidoo page or answering five questions on Yahoo! Answers.

The reason for this consistency is because the more you do, the more traffic you’ll get and the faster you’ll build your list. See, you can’t just “do” social marketing for one day and expect it to pay off for months. But you can do just a little bit every day and watch as it pays you handsomely every day.

You’ve seen just the tip of the social media iceberg in this article. That means you need to check out “Smartway Social List Building” to discover what the gurus know about building their lists using YouTube, MySpace, Digg, Squidoo and other social media sites!

How Coca-Cola is Reinventing their Marketing Strategy with Social Media

admin    Social Media     CocaCola, Marketing, Media, Reinventing, Social, Strategy, Their

How Coca-Cola is Reinventing their Marketing Strategy with Social Media

Coca-Cola created a new office of digital communications and social media earlier this year. Clyde Tuggle, senior vice president of corporate affairs and productivity at Coca-Cola, explained why: “Mass media is declining in importance. Our future success depends on our continued ability to connect people to our brands and our company all around the world, one person at a time. Our new office of digital communications and social media will help us become even more comfortable and effective in these new spaces.”

This is very big news for a company who used to spend over a billion dollars a year on traditional advertising alone. But what Coca-Cola has learned – no matter how catchy your slogan is or how spectacular your TV commercial looks, you must still work diligently to ensure that you remain number one and a viable, competitive force.

One interesting social networking idea Coca-Cola has developed is a site called CoketTag. CokeTag is a Facebook widget for sharing links. It allows you to make a customizable widget including links from anywhere and share it with your friends.

“This Facebook effort was in pure viral form,” said Phil Mooney, Director of Heritage Communications, one of CokeTag’s creators. “Today, our Coke Facebook community has 3 million members. The only larger community out there on Facebook was for Obama for President,” he added. “Coke made the decision to ‘not go corporate’ and let the group remain in the fans’ hands.”

Mooney cited the example of the Coca-Cola Facebook community that spawned virally, a result of “two guys in LA who created a fan page.” Facebook asked Coke to take-over and manage the Facebook group — as per its policy that brands own their named real estate. Instead, Coke contacted the two group creators and let the fans decide where to take that conversation.”

Phil Mooney has some advice for other companies: “Don’t be afraid to let your community, not the corporation, take ownership of your brand identity. They can be the customers who form more naturally to develop brand attributes.”

Coca-Cola has spent a lot of time building their presence and that has made them very popular. What Coke is doing is what every online corporate entity should do: embrace the effects of an internet presence and capitalize on it. Even if you don’t “get” the platform at first, try try again.

Learn core benefits of social media and how IntelBuilder Social Media Platform can help your business grow by calling 1-866-855-0966. We also have a Power Point presentation on how IntelBuilder can help your company grow

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A Few Thoughts On Social Media Marketing For Dentists

admin    Social Media     Dentists, Marketing, Media, Social, Thoughts

A Few Thoughts On Social Media Marketing For Dentists

If you own your own business, then you know how difficult it can be to get the kind of exposure you need to move forward towards success. With the current state of affairs, it is even harder to fit the uncertainty of advertising into your shrinking budget. Fortunately for you, social media marketing has created many avenues that allow you to use free online tools to develop a simple and effective strategy for communicating with potential and continuing customers. While this will require less monetary investment from you, you will need to learn how to adjust some of your time, but in the end you will find it very easy to do.

Blogging has been around for a long time, but it wasn’t until somewhat recently that people started using it to make money.

In your dental business, you can use blogging to create not awareness for your office but also the credibility you need to develop rapport with a handful of new clients.

Share the results for some research you did on a new product, give your opinion on different kinds of procedures and their benefits or explain the intricate details of a new controversial treatment.

All of these things can pique the interest of savvy web users looking for a modern doctor with their finger on the pulse of science and technology.

Take the time to learn proper Search Engine Marketing strategies, organize your thoughts into a well written SEO article, and let the search engines work for you for free. Compose a few entries every week or so to keep your name fresh in the indexes and on the minds of your potential clients.

Another age old strategy for drumming up business is to do what other successful businesses are doing. You can actually use the search engines to find out what your potential clients are looking for. Since search engines produce the most popular results first, it will be glaringly obvious to you what type of information your audience finds pertinent.

Take this information and begin to cater a new social media marketing strategy which will direct more traffic to your dental office. You can use Facebook, Twitter, or any other of the many networking sites available to build a subscriber base of followers and update them on a regular basis. Take them with you on your mobile web apps where you can keep in touch with them on the go and update them with new information as it becomes immediately available to you.

Social media needs to move from promise, talk to rigor and action soon

admin    Social Media     Action, From, Media, Move, Needs, Promise, rigor, Social, Soon, Talk

Social media needs to move from promise, talk to rigor and action soon

Social media needs to move from promise, talk to rigor and action soon

Social media is the in thing nowadays. There is not a single day that passes without a story on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube or the stars of the social media space making it to the airwaves or the ink. The success of Obama and our very own Pink Chaddi campaign is fresh in our memories and already spoken to death in social media conferences and seminars.  On the other side, every other day, witness a new venture or foray into the space. If one adds up all the hype,  then social media should have already arrived from a brand communication and marketing perspective. Well, not really. Here is my take on what it will take to get social media which I agree is hot and presents profound new ways of touch, communication and engagement, can get there.

Need to go beyond piecemeal and one person service providers

Yes, it is the most democratic medium or platform. Yes, the young are more comfortable with the Orkuts, twitters and facebooks than the old and yes there is no geographical constraint as internet is universal. But let us not forget that brands or the process of branding (except for a few categories) is not something special or separate for social media. Social media needs new ways of adoption and customization to suit its’ unique ecosystem and ways but it is not that the branding process itself, is in for a radical change. This means that successful social media initiatives can be executed consistently over a period of time only with firms or players who have an understanding of how brands and the branding process works and then combine this understanding with social media expertise. While social media is powerful, combined offline and online campaigns will create higher impact.

Need to go beyond tracking or listening

Am not sure how many know this. Software or tools that are meant for listening in social media are growing in abundance and at last count had 18 such URLs or names in my database. Am talking only of players who are visible and this number by itself seems to be growing at a brisk pace. While it is useful, let us understand that it is only the first step in a formal process a brand needs to undergo in social media.

Need to go beyond blogs

There is an urgent need to look beyond blogs, though blogs show a lot of promise, what with mobile blogs, video blogs and more. Am saying this more from the perspective that there are evolved tools like Twitter, Maplib, social bookmarking sites, besides the Facebooks, that truly offer immense potential. For example a friend of mine had done a campaign for a movie using twitter and maplib that was both creative and engaging. I also saw a website which is a wiki with the feeds on YouTube linked. A great idea, simply because these two tools have combined reach which is smartly being utilized. Heard someone recently tell me that Dell extensively uses Twitter for its global customer support.

Need to break the myth of complexity
Social media is not as techie or geekish or complex as many think or make it out to be. There are couple of thumb rules which work fairly well for starters. For example just focus on starting a blog and then use all the social media tools available to promote it. Also social media is not about just getting in but using it smartly to be heard and be visible.

Need to experiment
Let us be clear that all that is happening in social media is experiments and there are bound to be successful and bad experiments. The best is to learn from it and move on, as the space itself is exploding fast and learning is the most precious commodity around in the space. Much like a battle scarred veteran who wears his scars on his sleeve.

Need to be choosy
Not all brands and companies are suited for social media since it is a different world out there.  While it is exciting and great for some, it will be out of bounds for many. A company and its entire organization needs to be ready and be prepared for what social media entails and can assure of a surefire disaster if one is not prepared and goes around thinking it is like advertising which one can control. Even firms who play in the space would be well advised to do the diligence as too many failures or  bad starts is bound to speed derailing enthusiasm, to adopt the media.

There are many more need to do lists and hope what I have said and listed makes for a good start and gets us cracking into a cracker of a space called social media.

(Xavier Prabhu is Director & CEO of PRHUB, a customized communication solutions firm. He can be reached at xavier@prhub.com)

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