Challenges to consider with social media marketing:  In-house, or outsource?

There is little question that a well-executed social media program will generate new business by engaging your customers, increasing your “Google rank” and turbo charging word of mouth.  As an example, in a recent study of over 1500 businesses by Hubspot, a social media research company, they discovered that
business to consumer companies have a high degree of success finding new customers.

A critical question for many businesses is simply should we do this ourselves?  Or should we outsource it?  There are pluses and minuses to each approach but no matter how you proceed — here are the critical success factors that you need to consider.  It is not as simple as throwing up a facebook fan page and hoping for interaction.

1.    Setting up a well-designed blog and linking it to your other social identities (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is an important first step.  This is not exceedingly difficult, but does require a focussed effort and for someone to learn basics and best practices around blogging and your specific blog.  There is absolutely a learning curve

2.    Staying current with technical changes in social media platforms.  New features are constantly added to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the various blog platforms.  Someone needs to stay current, and have it be part of their job.

3.    Creating ongoing content is the single most important key to success in social media marketing. Someone needs to be focussed on the creation of fresh and relevant content (blog posts, Facebook posts, Tweets).  Without it, there will be no engagement, no “Google juice” and no benefit.  There are countless examples of companies starting with the best intentions, getting setup, and then failing over time to continue to create posts and content.

4.    Tagging tagging and search engine optimization (SEO) tasks need to be managed, as this is one of the key benefits of social media marketing.  Whomever is creating content needs to be saavy to making that content as findable as possible by Google and the various search engines.

5.    Measuring results. Traffic, visits, comments, engagement can and should be measured.  Part of any social media program should be measurement and analysis to gauge program effectiveness and make adjustments.

More and more businesses are finding social media highly valuable for generating new customers, and retaining existing ones.  Your next marketing plan should absolutely contain some basic social media marketing efforts — bearing in mind the key success factors outlined above.

If you have a person on staff that has the time and expertise to handle your companies social marketing needs, that’s great.  If that is not working for you or if you seek a more professional perspective, outsourcing might be the answer.

For additional information, contact Bill Pryor at Digital Sherpa, bpryor@nci.com  781-254-3677

Given the explosive growth of facebook —- over 500 million worldwide users, it is very interesting to note that over a third of those users interact with brands. What drives this? The offer of coupons, specials and discounts. That is an amazing number considering Facebook was considered almost exclusively a personal networking tool not that long ago. Companies are becoming more and more innovative when it comes how to communicate through social media, but the real “aha” is that consumers are also evolving in the way they think about communicating, sharing and interacting online. The online behaviors learned initially for personal use, have broadened to other (practical and commercial) areas of people’s lives. For more reading on this topic check out a post called “brands and social media”.

Consumers are engaging with businesses and brands they follow through social networks and media platforms. A recent study by Razorfish entitled “FEED: Digital Brand Experience Survey” polled users that were active “friending” businesses as summarized in a recent report.

The research showed a dramatic increase in awareness or inclination to consider the brand when in the market to buy, and then to ultimately purchase or recommend the businesses’ service or products for consumers following those businesses through their online social communities. Here are some of the highlight results:

DigitalSherpa programs allows companies and brands to integrate social media into their marketing plans by simplifying the process and doing all the heavy lifting at an extremely affordable monthly cost. Just email us at ajapko@nci.com and let us help you put the social web to work for your business.

DigitalSherpa is a service of Network Communications, Inc. and the company’s Chairman & CEO, Dan McCarthy, has been an early adopter of social media as an internet marketing strategy. In his blog, ViralHousingFix, Dan has shared many of his observations about the application of social media to marketing and has articulated some foundation principles.  To better understand DigitalSherpa’s approach to social media marketing and to gain additional perspective, you may want to read Dan’s following posts:

ROI of social media marketing: 3 case studies

Winning at search (small and medium sized businesses)

Explosive growth of social media: A visual experience

Demographics of online social behavior

Video: Fact-based, compelling — social media growth

About DigitalSherpa
Welcome to DigitalSherpa, a social media and internet marketing service for companies of all sizes ready to build and participate in communities that  influence and directly contribute to the success of their business. Created by Network Communications, Inc., an experienced social media services provider, DigitalSherpa is a turnkey custom social media marketing program that helps your company grow through consistent quality engagement.

Social Media Marketing
What is it? Increasingly people are engaging and connecting around businesses, brands, and issues that interest them. The explosion of social media tools and networks, like blogs, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, has created a unique opportunity for you to engage desirable audiences around your company’s voice. This has real and measurable business benefits: increased visibility, new leads, referrals, reputation enhancement, and more.    By outsourcing the heavy lifting involved in deploying effective social medial programs to DigitalSherpa — for an affordable fixed monthly fee, you get all the benefits of a powerful Internet marketing  campaign without the major time investment that is usually required. Your customized program will:

- Improve Google visibility

- Drive web traffic in new ways

-Create community engagement

- Unearth new clients

- Enhance client retention

- Turbo-charge word of mouth and referrals

- Build brand and online visibility

DigitalSherpa: An Experienced Partner
Using the latest social media tools, DigitalSherpa programs engage communities of interest, including your customers and prospects, in ways that benefit your business.  NCI’s Sherpa services have helped hundreds of businesses deploy social media marketing programs in a variety of markets. With DigitalSherpa, you have an experienced partner to help you leverage this exciting new marketing channel. We recognize the incredible potential of social media marketing to improve your bottom line; we also recognize the challenges that social media marketing present: the complexity, the costs, and the time.

DigitalSherpa: A Turnkey Solution
DigitalSherpa offers a monthly subscription service that provides a turn-key solution to create active, engaged and effective virtual networks. Creating this engagement results in outcomes that are clear, beneficial and measurable.  We help you create and define your audience, locate your potential clients, build social relationships with them, and promote your brand and website.  Together, we tailor the program to meet your business objectives to maximize your time and financial commitment.

The blog is a core element behind your DigitalSherpa program.  Customized for your business, most of your content and postings will originate here.  The blog is a key foundation application for engaging your customers, driving web traffic, and serving as a repository for content that is linked to all of the social identities we create and manage for DigitalSherpa clients. It can also serve as your primary website.  There are several templates to work from, an array of functionality and plug-ins,  and ample flexibility to achieve your company’s own unique look and image.  Here are a few sample templates and examples of how they can be customized for different business identities.

NCI Chairman & CEO, Dan McCarthy, has been an early adopter of social media as an internet marketing strategy. In his personal blog, ViralHousingFix, Dan has shared many of his observations about the application of social media to marketing and has articulated some foundation principles.

To better understand our approach to social media marketing and to gain additional perspective, you may want to read Dan’s following posts:

Explosive growth of social media: A visual experience

Winning at search (small and medium sized businesses)

ROI of social media marketing: 3 case studies

Demographics of online social behavior

Video: Fact-based, compelling — social media growth

Your social media presence, and the active engagement of an involved community, will have a significant and measurable impact on your “Google Rank”, and your prominence in all the search engines.

As people connect and engage around your various web identities, the activity level is viewed as a positive by Google. This is one clear and measurable benefit of a social media marketing initiative.

Small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) are embracing social networking in growing numbers. A recent survey by Internet2Go outlines just how prevalent social media based internet marketing is ultimately going to be for small businesses.

While it is indicative of where saavy business owners are focusing and where the overall market is heading, the study is most likely not a current representation of the broader population of small businesses. The 2000+ businesses surveyed are out ahead of their competitors and selected from a pool the most active content contributors to a business- to-consumer social network site. Internet2Go says:

45 percent of respondents have a presence or profiles on Facebook and Twitter to promote their businesses…… [yet SMBs'] marketing efforts have lagged consumer adoption of digital platforms, because of inertia, confusion and a lack of resources.

Here are a few highlights outlined in another report on this research that underscores the attractive budget characteristics of social media marketing compared to other forms of internet marketing. Most importantly, it points to the importance of a fully developed social media system in order to realize the benefits of the kind of engagement and marketing outcomes social media tools enable;

79% of respondents report annual marketing budgets of less than $5,000 per year with the 44% spending “less than $1,000” annually on advertising and marketing

Asked about their “biggest complaint” regarding online marketing the top two were “too costly” (26%) and “there’s not enough time to do it well and still run a business” (15.9%)

Despite its popularity social media showed the biggest gap between SMB adoption and perceived effectiveness as a marketing platform.

DesignSherpa has begun helping local home design businesses, through an affordable turnkey social media based internet marketing system, realize the benefits and outcomes of a well executed social media program. For more information on the trends and power of social media for local design businesess contact Adam Japko at ajapko@nci.com or your local NCI Home Design Magazine representative.