Engaging brands on Twitter and Facebook and other various social media channels have a unique challenge when it comes to truly building community and support behind their brands. Do brand managers monitoring their social media experience engage every tweet and post that mentions their name, product, service or industry? How appropriate is it to “chime in” on conversation streams with advice and “promotions?” And when is the line crossed from Good Social Media Practice to Something Dangerous? Below, we’ve put together four helpful tips to remember when it comes to being a good steward of your social media brand. While
More Marketing News →WHAT IF… and just go with me for a second, here… WHAT IF your current email marketing campaign offered more than a 10% discount on your damn widget? WHAT IF your email marketing, in times of crisis, offered HOPE… offered UNDERSTANDING… offered RELIEF?
Food for thought…
More Marketing News →Do you know how to protect your brand on social media? In a recent Lunch-n-Learn for The Clarke County Development Corporation (CCDC), SPOKE Communications was honored to guide a very engaging group through some of the ups and downs of protecting information and the development of business best practices for social media marketing (2nd session in the interactive marketing series for CCDC). The group consisted of independent entrepreneurs looking to find their bearings in the world of social media marketing to financial institutions looking to protect their brands, their employees, and their families from the risks associated with social media.
More Marketing News →With the the latest changes in SEO algorithms, Google, Bing and Yahoo are FINALLY catching on to ever-evolving black hat “questionable” SEO tactics. With that, “Content Marketing” (some prefer to call blogging) is becoming less effective and harder to measure success. So what is a digital marketer supposed to do? Email Marketing is a tried and true way to reach your target audience, drive traffic to your website and grow brand, authority and market share for your company. In this still young digital age, email, just a spry 20-something, still has it’s grip on businesses and consumers alike. What do
More Marketing News →Last week I worked up a quick post to prove a point. It was a simple demonstration that, with laser-focused SEO, results can be achieved MUCH FASTER than expected. Often times we hear, “With time and patience, we can get you to the first page of search engines within a few months…” Yes, in most cases, I have to agree, but, who has a few months to wait?!? For certain terms, broad-based and popular, getting results on search engines does take time. But think about your brand. Think about the specifics that make you unique to your target audience. If
More Marketing News →Do you want to understand interactive marketing (social media), or do you want someone to handle it for you? It’s an important and honest question you should ask yourself. It can help you decide where your time is best spent and what’s most important to you. We have clients that know they need interactive marketing, but don’t understand what it is and where they will find value. It’s important for us to educate our customers on what interactive marketing is and how to measure the value. We should note that not every business will use interactive marketing the same, along
More Marketing News →Technology has been integrated into our daily lives thanks to smartphones, tablets, and social media. A new era has begun and could drastically change the landscape again. Wearable technology provides a way to extend the user experience and put even more data around your wrist or on your head. The line separating the lives we lead and the technology we use has become thin. It has enabled us to do even more with less. A View From Google Glass With the advancement of tools like Google Glass, a wearable computer that rests on your face like a pair of glasses,
More Marketing News →HEY, social media marketers, are you doing your job? How do you measure the effectiveness of your services to your clients? Hours billed vs. profit gained? Sure, but measuring ROI is often a tricky game. Do you take the client’s sales reports and compare them to the activity you’ve (hopefully) documented for every campaign, or do you have a tracking mechanism that works within their e-commerce workflow? Measurement is Important All of the above questions are those that should be asked when embarking on a serious social media marketing campaign. Unfortunately, many clients have yet to understand how to ask
More Marketing News →When it comes to SOCIAL media, I’m often asked by customers and peers alike “What can I do to really manage my brand’s reputation through social media?” (Yes, somewhat a redundant question, but I’ll get to that in another post…) Well, a lot of that answer depends on the circumstances in which your “reputation” finds itself. In the case below, I had a conversation about a peer’s client wanting “Edit” reviews on FourSquare… Hmmmmm As always, I try to keep my advice “Above The Line” and beneficial to all parties, but the implications of what the client wanted to do
More Marketing News →Trying to control social media is like trying to drink the ocean one cup at a time. For successful marketing and communications, companies need to TARGET their social media efforts to their local level to better engage with their audience. Using Twitter Hashtags, Facebook Groups and Events as well as some common sense, the following video explains how to create a more focused social media marketing approach. Focus Your Social Media Marketing Hat tip to our friends at The Des Moines Social Media Club, including Tom Brazelton (@TomBrazelton on twitter_ and the whole @SMCDSM crew as well as a BIG
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