Archive for the 'Social Networking' Category

18
Apr
12

How franchisors capitalize on social media – help your baby prosper

By Mark Plumb 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, customer service, Facebook, Franchise, Franchising, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter and Uncategorized
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Its free, its accessible, and it reaches billions of people.  Social media is providing three key factors that should be putting dollar signs in the eyes of franchisors.

Being active in your marketing efforts while maintaining control over how your brand is portrayed is a key for franchise success. Creating awareness, engaging customers, building customer loyalty, and boosting sales are all goals for franchisors, and social media doesn’t just accomplish these things; it does it with a smile.

Smashburger, a fast-casual, gourmet burger franchise is a prime example of how a small business can catapult into the big leagues via social media. Birthing from three Denver locations, this restaurant became a smash hit with its expansion to 150 locations nationwide. With more than 77,000 followers on Facebook, reaching out to bloggers and their tweeting prowess, they have solidified the social media tools for expanding a franchise.

Just how did they do it?  Here are a few suggestions they have for your franchise success:

  • Get on the same page as your customers

People like to talk about themselves and what they want and like.  Give your customers the chance to feel like they are a part of how your product or service is expanding. Use queries relating to feedback on a new product or answer their questions and complaints. If your franchisee is going to prosper, they have to listen to the desires of their target market. Take these examples from Smashburger’s Facebook and Twitter:

 

  • Make your interaction enticing

Posting information about a new product or service can be effective, but allowing the customer to be a part of the decision is even better.  Trivia contests, voting pools and giveaways allow the customer to feel like their opinions are creating your brand.  Interactive coupons also keep customers engaged and coming back to your page to check out what is being offered today; keeping your business in the forefront of their mind.  Smashburger called out for votes and shared a link where they could vote to help their burger make it to the final round of the Dallas Morning News Burger Madness bracket:

 

  • Keep it interesting

Consistency in updating your social media profile will keep people interested.  That said, humor and playfulness should not be overlooked. Simply creating a chuckle from your customer will improve their retention of the message you are conveying.  Check out how Smashburger used humor to reach their customers:

 

Moral of the story, if you aren’t using social media you aren’t gaining the best exposure for your businesses. It is an opportunity to engage customers and that engagement can lead to loyal customers. Be sure to allocate enough resources to effectively manage your social media presence. Your franchisee will thank you. And even more importantly, they won’t go rogue.

A big thank you to Bre Wolta for her research and help uncovering Smashburger’s social media success.

20
Mar
12

And it Has Changed…Again.

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Brand Loyalty, Business growth, Business Strategies, business to consumer, Facebook, internet marketing, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Social Media and Social Networking
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Just when we all have gotten used to the “new” look of Facebook, the beast has evolved once again.

It seems that Facebook is trying to keep people on their toes with the endless face-lifts, and while most of us struggle to figure out how to simply maneuver to view photos, businesses are using the new Timeline to their full advantage.

How you ask? Here are a few perks of the new Timeline that will get your company ready for the switch:

  • Cover photo and profile image

Instead of just one small image to represent your brand, you can now also use another image as your cover photo. This photo spans the top of your page and is the background for your smaller profile image.

  • Large pinned posts

 Timeline will not allow you to create a default-landing page, however you can manage the posts that appear on your wall.  By moving a pinned post to the top of your wall, you can keep the most important and intriguing information and images in the forefront.

  • Ability to set company milestones

 The Milestone section of your Timeline can update your fans about big events in the life of your company.  People can visually see the history of your company and relate past experiences to themselves and other companies similar to you.

  • Facebook Offers

 Similar to the Facebook Deals seen on the old Facebook format, the Facebook Offers are sent out to your fans via the news feeds.  Not only is this more visible, but it is more personable when they click to claim the offer and it is sent directly to their email.

Whether you are a new company or a mature one, the new Timeline can help to increase awareness of your brand and expand your network.

Give it a go, and let us know how the re-facing of Facebook is working for you, or if you need help adjusting- give us a call!

27
Feb
12

Move over Facebook, there is a new social media channel in town

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business growth, business to consumer, Creative, internet marketing, Marketing Trends, PInterest, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking, Top Web sites and Web sites
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Pinterest has turned the act of “pinning” into a downright obsession among its 10 million users, providing never-ending pages of images that suck you in and leave you scrolling for more.  Needless to say, this site has taken procrastination to the next level.

Maybe it is the ease of pinning a variety of interests to your own boards that other people can “like” as well, or maybe it is just simply enticing because of the wealth of diverse images at your fingertips.  In any case, the female fan base has found reason to take up pinning as their new hobby.

Not only is Pinterest surpassing Facebook, Tumblr and the like in driving traffic to top websites such as marthastewartweddings.com, cookinglight.com, and self.com but according to The Week, it is doing so at an exponential rate unseen in other social media channels.

Once an image is repined, it is exposed to an entire new circle of people.  A cycle of advertising exposure that is essentially never-ending.

It makes sense, then, that businesses should jump on board this speed train.   And that, my friends, is exactly what is happening.  Because when it comes down to it, this is target marketing at its finest.

Businesses considering Pinterest can:

  1. Create their own pin boards that represent their company and their values. Think past and future designs, products, interesting product uses, ect.
  2. Smaller companies can even go as far as pinning interests that its employees have, making their company more personally relatable.
  3.  Add pin buttons (similar to the Facebook “like” button) to their website so people surfing their site can follow their boards on Pinterest.
  4. Feature new and upcoming products on these boards so the company can get a feel for the popularity based on the number of repins.  In short, it is test marketing without the legwork.

Obviously Pinterest is a great social media channel for any company who is advertising products that can be represented visually (food, magazines, fashion, automobiles, home improvement, art, etc.).   But it doesn’t have to stop there.  For instance, travel agencies can use visually enticing beaches or monuments to capture attention and fitness centers can use images of fit models to make people stop, think and click for more.

When it comes down to it, the basic psychology is this: people want to share their interests, but more importantly they want what everyone else has.  The higher the repin number, the more appealing that product becomes and the more attention it gets.

What do you think about Pinterest and how is your company including it in your social media efforts?  Have you pinned today?

06
Dec
11

Find Blood via Facebook

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Communications, Digital Media, Facebook, Health and Wellness, Health care marketing, healthcare, healthcare marketing, Social Media and Social Networking
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Most treatments depend on blood. And finding a matching donor can be a problem for many hospitals and clinics around the world.

Now in India, a project called SocialBlood.org is saving lives. The Facebook-powered campaign encourages blood donations and enables potential donors and recipients to make contact with one another through the online forum.

Social Blood connects people who has same blood type. Choose your blood type from the website and join the Facebook group. It’s that easy. After you become a  member of your blood type group, you can invite your friends, post a message in emergency or respond to requests for blood donations.

“A recent post from a man asking for blood for his daughter received 74 responses in 24 hours,” said 22-year-old Social Blood Founder Karthik Naralasetty.

This simple idea of connecting via Facebook is taking social media to the next level. Could your health organization benefit from a similar campaign?

Let us know what you think about Social Blood, we would love to hear your feedback and comments here on The Side Note, or via Twitter @Weise_Ideas or on Facebook.

19
Oct
11

How influential are you online?

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Facebook, Flikr, Foursquare, Google Plus, Klout, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter and YouTube
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Have you ever wondered what presence you have online? There is a way to find out. Klout.com is a website that will measure your influence across your social networks. It takes your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and any other social media sites and gives you a score. It uses variables from these sites such as friends, followers, retweets and posts. It measures these variables and gives you a score in three areas. Your true reach (how many people you influence), amplification (How much you influence them) and network impact (The influence of your network). It then combines the three scores and gives you a final score on a 1-100 scale with 100 being most influential.

Your True Reach is the number of people you influence. When you post a message, these people tend to respond or share it. Your Amplification is how much you influence people. When you post a message, how many people respond to it or spread it further? If people often act upon your content you have a high Amplification score. Your Network indicates the influence of the people in your True Reach. How often do top Influencers share and respond to your content? When they do so, they are increasing your Network score.

I’m sure by now you are at least a little bit curious about what your score might be. You should go play around on Klout.com and find out what your score is. Link it to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, blog, LinkedIn and all your other social media sites to make sure you can get a score for all the sites you use.

Your score isn’t always going to be the same. You may sign on one day and be up a few points because more activity has been going on in your social media world and other days it may be down a few points because of lack of activity. You need to be consistently active in your social media to keep your Klout score increasing.

What is your Klout? Mine currently is 37. Share with us what you think of Klout and if there are other services that you think are more valuable.

14
Oct
11

Next Trend in Social Media – Editing Social History

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Communications, Facebook, Quora, SMM, Social Media, Social Networking, trends, Twitter and Uncategorized
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Someone tags you in an unflattering picture on Facebook, you are incensed about something and you tweet a response, you answer a question on Quora without a critical piece of information, wouldn’t be great if there was a social media EDIT button?

Whether it is potentially personally embarrassing or taking an action to protect yourself from an employer, we expect to see a service in the near future for people who want to selectively edit their social history. A Silicon Valley smartie is undoubtedly working on a tool to delete photos from other people accounts, an automatic clean up of your Facebook wall and other actions to sanitize your social history.

With the controversy over Mark Zuckerberg and questionable privacy policies, we believe there will be a fundamental shift from hiding information to cleansing information. The interest in electronic brainwashing will increase and will have impact and influence for the foreseeable future.

For example, what politician would like that picture from the long, lost college days deleted from view and access well before they make the run for political office.  Wouldn’t President Obama like to have the famous picture of him smoking (right) when he was in college stricken from the public record.

In a world where perception is reality, former Iowa State head basketball coach Larry Eustachy lost his job over pictures (left) that surfaced about him drinking beer (well, Natural Light) with underage college coeds.  Some might argue that the choice of “Natty Lite” is the greater offense. Wouldn’t he like a social media cleanser?

According to the survey by Marist College in New York, half of all users on Facebook and Twitter polled say that verbal or photographic miscues lead them to believe social media does more harm than good.  We’re fairly confident that former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner agrees.

Let us know what you think will happen when someone from the ‘Millennial Generation’ runs for President. Without selectively editing social media history what do you think will happen to every tweet, Facebook status or blog post they ever wrote? Share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

22
Jul
11

Capitalizing on the Daily Deals Trend

By Mark Plumb 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business growth, Business Strategies, Foursquare, Groupon, Marketing, Marketing Trends, mobile marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, trends and Uncategorized
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Living Social, Daily Deals, Woot and the growing beast Groupon have struck a chord with the public looking for ways to stretch discretionary spending in a down economy.

In general, the one deal per day concept is simple enough to understand. Everyday an email with a highly discounted deal from a local business is promoted. Customers go to a secure site and purchase the daily deal. Once the deal promotion has ended, the coupon is available to be printed and redeemed.

The business model is pretty simple as well. The daily deal provider collects the money and for each redeemed coupon will send approximately 25 percent of the coupon value to the business. The daily deal provider keeps all the revenue on coupons not redeemed. Yipit, a daily deals site aggregator estimates that 15 percent of purchased coupons are not redeemed. Overall revenue growth for these sites has increased more than 40 percent between 2010 and 2011, according to a report from BIA/Kelsey, a media research and consulting firm.

For local businesses, the daily deals phenomenon is attractive because there is no upfront marketing costs. Daily deals offer an opportunity to reach unknown customers, introduce products and services to new markets, reward loyal customers and purge old inventory. For this opportunity, the daily deal sites are looking for items that will sell. A deep discount on something that nobody wants will not see the light of day on these sites. Also, any business interested in participating must be prepared to put together a great package as discounts typically range from 50 to 90 percent off retail price.

However, there is one critical success factor that often goes overlooked. In order for the daily deal to be successful, the business must convert the deal seeker into a long-term customer.  This means providing a high-quality experience when a customer redeems a deal.  This is especially important in a service-based business. For example, restaurant servers has expressed how much they dislike these coupons because they are working much harder than usual during the redemption rush on the restaurant, yet they are most likely to be tipped on the reduced amount of the bill.  Keep staff motivated by giving them an opportunity for upsell or an ancillary product/service contest.

What’s next: the combination of mobile with the daily deal. Foursquare recently announced that it will distribute AT&T’s Deal of The Day. In the future, we will see daily deal immediacy, like your phone buzzing if you walk past a store with a deal of the day.

By the way, if you have daily deal buyers’ remorse, you can resell coupons on CoupRecoup. Let us know if you are addicted to the daily deals and if you’ve had any negative experiences. Share your thoughts with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

06
Jul
11

Google+: New Social Media Platform or Massive Waste of Time?

By Mark Plumb 1 Comment
Categories: Business Strategies, Facebook, Google, Social Media, Social Networking and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Google+ launched this week as Google makes another attempt to gain traction in social media.  While Google is the top search engine and even surpasses Facebook on number of visits, it is still missing out on the thing people and businesses want most, which is social media.   David Goldman from CNN Money reported on Tuesday in his articled titled Google Launches Google+, a quasi-Facebook competitor, that with Google+, their new social media platform, Google is allowing users to “group their contacts into smaller categories, such as relatives, co-workers, or members of a yoga class.  Information can be shared selectively with each group.”

Google’s senior vice president of social media, Vic Gundotra, discussed that Google is trying to fix the “awkwardness and brokenness” between online sharing, meaning that human interaction is hard to imitate in an online generated arena.  Google+ wants to make online sharing more like a natural human experience.  This platform is also intended to be a part of your established Google experience by just branching off of the things you already do in Google.

Google is taking an approach similar to Gmail when it comes to rolling out Google+. When Gmail debuted, it was a closed field trial that required invitations. A Gmail invitation was like gold. Similarly, Google+ invitations are a hot commodity. An eBay search has more than 50 auctions for the invitations.

There are two features that gives Google+ an advantage over Facebook:

1)    Video conferencing is the most innovative aspect of Google+ (However, speculation over what Facebook is calling an ‘awesome announcement’ is integration with Skype, watch the announcement live on the FacebookLive channel – July 6, 11:00am mountain time)

2)    Google+ is paying closer attention to privacy concerns that has plagued Facebook, by basing the service on sharing information only with the people you invite.

So the real question here is, will Google+ be any kind of competition for Facebook?  Is it going to be the next big social media platform?  Or is it as the Miami Herald calls it, Social Media for Geeks.

A huge thank you to Natalie Kleopfer for her contributions to this story.

Tell us if you’ve received an invitation to Google+ and if you think it will be a Facebook killer. Share your thoughts with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

 

 

 

01
Jul
11

Better Health Care Communications: Tracking Disease Through Social Networks

By Tracy Weise 4 Comments
Categories: Health and Wellness, Health care marketing, healthcare, healthcare marketing, Social Media, Social Networking and Uncategorized
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Social networks allow users to share their entire lives with those around them and actively engage with the world at large. Status changes and twitter feeds are continuously bustling with news of pending engagements, birthday celebrations and even illness. Individuals, companies and professionals from all verticals of life consult these networks for the latest news, gossip and information. Recently, epidemiologists have begun taking special notice of social networks as a new tool to help track and monitor the spread of infectious disease within society.

Social media is changing the tactics of the scientific health community and how they discover and track the spread of disease. These tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare are now used in coordination with traditional methods of tracking to produce faster results. In monitoring social networks by region, widespread illness can be detected quickly and this knowledge could potentially prevent a pandemic.

According to a recent article by the New York Times, “A growing cadre of epidemiologists sees social media as a boon. Future hunts for pathogens may rely as heavily on Twitter streams and odd clusters of search queries as on blood tests and personal histories.”

In recent years, these scientists have studied patterns of illness through online searches and have identified regional spikes illnesses like the flu. Thanks to social media, they have made predictions a week or more in advance of those scientists who strictly consult traditional forms of disease tracking.

The use of unconventional data sources continues to increase. It can be predicted that more tools and applications will emerge to help in this research. One such tool is already in use. HealthMap is “An ambitious website and mobile application that constantly trolls the Internet for emerging outbreaks of the flu or a new respiratory illness.” HealthMap is an outstanding breakthrough for the medical community.  “Researchers recently used HealthMap to illustrate on a world map the location of new cases of E. coli infections as they were identified, following a massive illness outbreak that was eventually linked to German sprouts.”

Contagious diseases spread extremely easily and quickly within society, social networking tools allow for disease surveillance to be just as instantaneous.

To share with us your thoughts on how social media is transforming epistemology or other socially based research efforts, contact us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.

16
Jun
11

Health Care Marketing: Taking the Social Media Hippocratic Oath

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Communications, Facebook, Health care marketing, healthcare, healthcare marketing, Marketing, Public Relations, SHSMD, Social Media, Social Networking and Uncategorized
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Three key tips for physician-based social media

All physicians have a stake in their public perception; overlooking or minimizing the impact of social media in maintaining that presence is a recipe for disaster. With HIPAA regulations to consider, physicians are in a unique situation regarding their online persona. Here are a few tips designed to help physicians maintain a professional online presence and preserve the integrity of their relationship with patients. These tips are consistent with the American Medical Association social media policy released in November that highlight some of the things physicians should consider when focusing on their online presence.

Regularly monitor privacy settings – Facebook recently came under extreme scrutiny for unleashing face recognition software that provides identity suggestions for tagging people in photographs. A Los Angeles Times story describes the concerns which are part privacy and part the decision of Facebook to release the facial-recognition feature as an ‘opt-out’ feature. Massachusetts Rep. Edward J. Markey, co-chairman of the Congressional Privacy Caucus expressed his frustration, “Requiring users to disable this feature after they’ve already been included by Facebook is no substitute for an opt-in process.”  The only way to disable the feature is to update privacy settings.

Positioning information from a qualified source – The public needs information from the health care community. Providing information from a trusted, qualified health care professional will balance the misinformation gathered from outside sources including the Internet. The best way to do that is to be informative about medical conditions, research, and treatment options in general terms. It is much better to say ‘Adults with the ____ syndrome typically display ____ symptoms, ’ than it is to say, ‘I saw a patient today with _____ syndrome and he/she displayed ____symptoms.’ Even inadvertent disclosure of patient’s health information can be a violation of HIPAA.

Maintain separate personal and professional social media accounts – This tactic has the benefit of allowing for more candor in a personal account and information sharing that is more relevant to that specific account. The professional account will have more work-related messages, inquiries and information. One of the challenges is managing multiple accounts. The solution is to use a social media tool like TweetDeck or HootSuite. Just be sure you know which account you are using to send information at all times.

Most importantly, recognize that online actions and posted content can negatively affect physicians’ reputations and may have career consequences.

Tell us if you’ve implemented policies to guide physicians in their online reputation. Share your thoughts with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

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