Posts Tagged ‘Interactive Marketing’

Extremely Basic Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips You Should Be Doing

March 1st, 2011

Think about when you last needed recommendations for a dentist, dry cleaner, florist, mechanic, plumber… ah, you get the point. If you’re all 2.0 and everything, we’ll guess you went to a social media platform (probably Facebook) and posted that inquiry for your X number of friends to see and, hopefully, respond. (Note – you may have checked Yelp, though you’re probably troubled by the allegations of that site shaking down businesses, thus tainting its value as a referral service.)

We know in real life that the best recommendations are from family and friends. But what about today’s social networks, with less hand shaking but definitely lots of online chatter? The social media goldmine is waiting for you to harvest the conversation and turn tweets, status updates, and other online praise into dollars.

So businesses of all stripes, listen up! How about doing some research to see who your biggest fans are, what they’ve been saying, and monitoring online sentiment about your company? The best social media marketing consultants can certainly get you started, and also plan the larger outreach strategy. It’s not enough to know what people are saying, you have to act on that information – and ideally in a creative way that puts your business rivals on edge.

We hope this provides a very simple snapshot of the potential that social media marketing has. Basic, but powerful nonetheless.

Tags: Digital Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Social Media Marketing
Posted in Brand Management, DC Interactive Agency, Interactive Marketing, Public Relations Strategy, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

A Little Social Media Love for Greek Yogurt

February 18th, 2011

What is love? If you take a look Chobani’s new social media campaign you might be convinced love is yogurt – Greek yogurt, in particular.

Chobani shows how social media marketing can tie together a PR package by kicking off its growing “Love Stories” campaign. They’re using their website, Facebook, and Twitter to harness all the positive energy from their product and put it on display for potential customers. KellyOlexa tweets, “Totally down with Chobani now! Mmmmm.”

Chobani is also doing smart digital recycling. They’ve taken some of the better digital marketing content and made television ads as well. When you watch the commercials you can tell it’s not an actor right off the bat (no cheesy lab coat – check) and that these people have some real love for this product. They also put out a standard PR release just to cover all their bases.

But like we mentioned before, the real star here is the social media element, which is the string tying all these elements in one neat little package. And in the process Chobani is turning a niche market (Greek yogurt) into the market. Chobani has seen a “225.9 percent” increase from the same 52 week period a year before. A budding business/client romance… A competitor like Yoplait is going to have to flex its social media marketing muscles a bit more, if it hopes to compete.

Tags: Business Twitter, Digital Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Small Business Facebook, Social Media Marketing
Posted in Brand Management, DC Interactive Agency, Interactive Marketing, Media Aesthetic, Public Relations Strategy, Social Media

The Social Bite at the Apple

February 15th, 2011

Ever heard of a vicious circle? It’s not the kind of routine that appeals to a business, particularly one seeking publicity. We get smiles, instead, by thinking about “social cycles” — that is, how we can use social media business to reinforce traditional media publicity.

One of the hardest parts of public relations is delivering the theme or narrative that entices the media. The nice thing about interactive marketing is that when it’s done well, the digital strategy translates into a traditional media strategy. At least that’s how Spot Dessert in New York (ahem) baked their smart social media business strategy.

The bakery recently used social media to boost its sales — and along with that new business activity comes attention from larger media sources. In this case, the Wall Street Journal profiled the bakery, and we’ll bet the reason why is that the social media business narrative is quick, direct, easy to understand, and applies to basic business fundamentals.

The lesson: Hooray for you if your business succeeds in getting customer traction through social media… but don’t stop there! Pitch the business growth to traditional media and see how far you can ride the social media wave.

Tags: Interactive Marketing, Media Strategy, social media, Social Media Business
Posted in Brand Management, Corporate Communications, DC Interactive Agency, Interactive Marketing, Public Relations Strategy, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

How to “Socialize” a Focus Group

February 14th, 2011

… and no, we don’t mean funding an interactive marketing campaign with a government bailout! Ford Motor Company’s newest marketing campaign for the Explorer model has gotten a major kick-start with a very effective Facebook marketing strategy. The lesson is simple but powerful: any business can use Facebook to replace traditional, expensive marketing focus groups. Here’s how Ford did it, and your business can too.

Instead of relying solely on the traditional focus group model, Ford embedded a Facebook tab on the Explorer’s dedicated Facebook page. The tab asks site users to imagine a dream adventure with the Explorer, thus letting people create their own brand narrative. With this feedback, Ford then generated content and a theme for their regular marketing campaign.

Imagine the creative input your company can get – for a fraction of the cost of old school focus groups – from thousands of fans, thus giving them a share of brand ownership over future marketing messages. When consumers see their input as part of the business, they develop affinity in a way that personalizes the product beyond what regular TV commercials or print ads can do.

Praecere specializes in developing intuitive digital strategies for businesses of all types, and can design a similar interactive Facebook campaign that fits your needs. We’ll show you how to have an ongoing dialogue with your target customer base, one that becomes an integral business component and benefits your bottom-line.

So in conclusion, bravo Ford! Sort of like Elvis, 140,000+ Ford Explorer fans can’t be wrong!

Tags: Interactive Marketing, Interactive Strategy, social media
Posted in Brand Management, Corporate Communications, DC Interactive Agency, DC PR firms, Interactive Marketing, Public Relations Strategy, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

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