Home Marketing

PostHeaderIcon Marketing

PostHeaderIcon Is going viral enough?

PostDateIconFriday, 23 March 2012 06:11 | PostAuthorIconWritten by Paul | PDF | Print | E-mail

In her recent interesting column in the Chicago Tribune, Arianna Huffington states that "Going viral has gone viral" and that businesses seem obsessed with with the use of social media and less obsessed with the actual content of the messages. It “Doesn’t matter – as long as it’s social. And viral!”

Businesses are more concerned with the means that are being used than the ends that are being accomplished.  This is a recurring theme in technology implementation where the means are often put before the ends themselves.  Then tech. stock bubble in 2000 showed this mentality and reinforces the view that the use of texchnology itself does not give you a competitive advantage.  It is how you use technologies that produces that advantage especially given the saturated, information overloaded social media landscape.

'You get what you measure' is an old business saying and will ring true on most managers minds.  There is a danger that a business will become obsessed with the quantity of clicks and views more than the quality of the messages that are broadcast.  In other words, dont lose sight of your true objective and remember that traditional marketing rules still apply.

Add new comment

Last Updated (Friday, 23 March 2012 09:33)

 

PostHeaderIcon Social Media Objectives

PostDateIconTuesday, 08 November 2011 00:00 | PostAuthorIconWritten by Paul | PDF | Print | E-mail

 

Recently both LinkedIn and Facebook updated their privacy settings and I received e-mails from friends who were worried about the consequences of their private information being compromised.  

The debate on consumer privacy continues, yet companies rely on this information to do business.  Look at Google and you see Social Capital being maximised for the financial benefit of the company.  Here are some short insights to how to improve your company's use of social media.

  • Prioritise your social media exposure based on what you want to achieve.  For example, if you are trying to achieve better search engine rankings, YouTube exposure will produce better results than Facebook.
  • Engage your audience through participation.  Successful social capital is created through interaction which means customers respond and become engaged.  Customers expect more interaction in the transaction so ask their opinion or request creative input.
  • Respond promptly to customers service issues.  Engagement works both ways and a quick, helpful response to an unhappy customer will hopefully turn them into a satisfied customer. Not knowing you have a disgruntled customer does not mean they don't exist.
  • Track results both in terms of income generation and engagement so you know what is worthwhile.

 

Add new comment

Last Updated (Friday, 16 March 2012 09:06)

 

PostHeaderIcon Mac versus PC

PostDateIconMonday, 07 November 2011 00:00 | PostAuthorIconWritten by Paul | PDF | Print | E-mail

The Apple Inc. advertising has out-played Microsoft for a very long time.  Stereotyping the Mac and PC users has been a very powerful message and has rung true for many people.  It will also endure for many years as I am mid-forties and even though my mirror tells me different, I still see myself as the younger and funkier computer user.  I will probably continue to do so until my sixties.

The honesty of the marketing is one of the strengths of the message and is why it still endures and is why Microsoft should fight back.  I myself have been a PC user since before windows, I have even owned a few windows mobile phones.  I quickly dropped the windows mobile for apple iPhones a long time ago and I admit to owning an iPad and really liking it.  However I have not successfully left windows behind on my PC (yet) because when I have tried, unless I only want to do image and movie work I have found Mac a nightmare.  I do agree that stricter control over application capabilities improves reliability, hence why the iPhone and iPad are so good.  However, that is not for everyone and the last time I looked, everyone is not buying Macs.

The battle continues - and long may it so - and we the consumer get better systems.

Add new comment
 

PostHeaderIcon Using Google Adwords

PostDateIconMonday, 21 March 2011 00:00 | PostAuthorIconWritten by Paul | PDF | Print | E-mail

 

Beyond search engine optimisation is paid for advertising.  Google have brought online advertising to the masses with the Adwords application https://adwords.google.co.uk

Here is a quick walk-through to get you advertising your services online.

  1. Create your Adwords Account: You will need a Google account (if you don't have a Google account, shame on you!)  Go to adwords.google.co.uk and log in.  You will be asked a few simple settings.  Set your time-zone and local currency.
  2. Navigate to the Adwords homepage and create your first campaign. Click the new campaign button and you will be taken to the campaign settings page.
  3. You need to set your locations and languages to suit your desired audience for your site/products.  The smaller the area the smaller the audience but also less budget required.  Using both region and language settings help Google target your adverts.
  4. Next choose the networks you want to reach.  For simplicity you can leave the option set to all available sites.  Advanced users can use target pages that match your specific keywords.
  5. Now choose which devices you want your adverts to be used on.  Firstly ask whether your website works on smartphones or non-flash devices.  If not, you may wish to not advertise on them.  Secondly, consider your potential customers, are they more likely to be needing  your services whilst mobile?  Otherwise just stick with the default option.
  6. Now set your bidding options.  Adwords is managed like an auction; the companies with the highest bid get their adwords displayed. Remember you pay-per-click only.  You can either set your maximum manually and come back and change it depending on the number of impressions you get or let Google set it automatically for you.  You will need to still come back and review depending on the results.  You can set a maximum advertising budget per day so that the automatic system doesn't break the bank.  Start off small and see how things progress.
  7. You can add advanced options to expand your adverts and add details.  Remember these increase the cost-per-click so use wisely.
  8. Now create an advert by clicking on 'create new advert'.  You can choose the type of advert; text, image or mobile.  Text is the least expensive.  For text adverts, fill in the details for your headline and two line description (17 characters).  You can enter a different display url to the actual link it goes to.  Preview it and check for errors.  Bear in mind that Google has to approve your advert for accuracy and to prevent abuse of the system.
  9. Now add the keywords that will decide where your adverts will be displayed.  Enter a few keywords and you can use the suggestion box to the right.  Google will estimate the traffic based on your current settings so you can update your decision.
  10. Once active, make sure you monitor your campaigns.  The campaign dashboard screen allows you to monitor all your campaigns, pause them and update them.  After your adwords have been active for a little time, use the Tools & Analysis tab to see how you can improve your results.
Add new comment

Last Updated (Friday, 16 March 2012 11:02)

 
Marketing
feed-image

Copyright © 2012
All Rights Reserved.

Designed by Paul Elvidge