Last week I went to a social media conference called Free State Social in Lawrence, Kansas. One of the people that I met there was Chandra Stauffer (@kmuw on Twitter) who works for National Public Radio out of Wichita, KS. Out of our conversation came some great points that apply to social media and also to business in general. So, I want to share with you three social media points that I learned from National Public Radio (NPR):

1. Promote Your Good Work- Many of my classical music-oriented friends (and some who aren’t so classical music-oriented) will comment every so often on Facebook that they heard something great on NPR on their way to work in the morning.  Meaning to offer Chandra a compliment, I told her this in our conversation.  What she said was a  good reminder to all of us.  She basically commented that yes, her NPR station offers great content like that every day, but some may not attribute that content to the station that she works for.  You see there is another NPR station close by with an overlapping territory and most people aren’t distinguishing that station from the Wichita NPR station that has different programming.  How is your company distinguishing itself?  What makes you different from your closest competitor?  Promote your strengths through social media.  Announce your new product on Facebook and give a discount to your Facebook followers.  Did your company sponsor a food drive in the community?  Let people know about it through traditional advertising and Twitter.  Make sure customers and potential customers know that the good work came from your business.  Some businesses might be afraid to “toot their own horn”, but it’s OK to do that every once in awhile.  If you don’t promote yourself, your competitor might get those potential customers or customers might confuse your product with another company’s.
2. Sponsorship Can be a Good Thing-  As you probably know, NPR gets much of it’s income from those who underwrite programming.  A business can sponsor a specific program in return for recognition around that programming.  That same name recognition can be obtained by sponsoring events and community benefits.  As Sarah Evans would say, “do something for a cause”.  Don’t only think about social media advertising for your business, think about sponsoring a cause as well.  Customer’s appreciate a business which cares about community and often will reward that business with their patronage.
3. Facebook’s new “Like” system is going to be powerful – Another lesson learned from NPR is that, a Facebook “Like” is going to be a powerful social media tool.  Even I took notice and mentioned NPR’s interesting content here, based upon my friends opinions.  Now not only are your Facebook fans more likely to buy your products, your customers can now “like” your business and basically recommend you to their friends.  To quote an interesting excerpt from WebPro News, because of Facebook’s new “Like” system:  “It’s not just about getting links anymore. Links will always be of use, but social interactions may equal them in importance, and in some cases may be of greater use to your visibility, and ultimately getting people to your site, your content, your store, or your shopping cart.”A study by the social networking site myYearbook showed that:

• 81 percent of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site
• 74 percent of those who received such advice found it to be influential in their decision. (Click Z, January 2010)
  
• 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know
• 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy, July 2009)

So, there you have it, the top 3 social media lessons that I learned from NPR.  Get out there and learn some more from things in every day life.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is used to get people to a business’ website.  But, once the potential customer has been attracted, it is just as important to get those potential customers to convert (make the sale or perform the desired action) once they get to the website.  A conversion involves a combination of an ad that is fun/interesting and that post being relevant to the user.

If I love to shop and I see a cute dress on a Facebook ad, I might click on it and buy from a company that I have never bought from before.  (This actually happened)  If I have extra time on my hands and my kids see the “Elf Yourself” promotion from Office Max at Christmas time, I might click on the promotion and make an Elf.  Interesting/attention-getting message + item that I am interested in = conversion.

There’s is also another component with brands that people already know and like.  For instance, if a customer really likes to shop at Target and then signs up to be a Facebook fan of the company.  This customer is pursuing an on-going relationship with Target, potentially looking for fan-0nly discounts, and this will hopefully convert to a sale at a later date.

Google Analytics has a way to track conversions by setting up goals in the program.  Facebook also has analytics associated with Facebook fan pages which will show important information about visitors to the page.

Facebook users actually specify their likes through posting their interests in their Facebook profile.  By using this available information, businesses can buy Facebook ads that are very tailored to the demographic that their product or service serves.

So remember, search engine optimization components like an increase in website visitors and higher rankings are important…but, conversions actually make the sale and help your website to generate money for you.

The United States economy shows signs every month of a possible upswing, but not all companies are ready to jump back into the market with reckless abandonment. Many businesses are cautious until they see customers knocking down their door or visiting their website in droves. Hopefully, we will see this stampede of customers starting in 2010, but until then, what are some things that your business an do. How about advertise? Yep, I said traditional marketing, Internet marketing, social media marketing, traditional advertising.

While, I know traditionally marketing and advertising are some of the first things to go when a company is trying to trim it’s budget, but it maybe shouldn’t be that way. Marketing and advertising are often intangible pieces of the business which are psychologically easier to get rid of than the tangible things like employees, equipment, and products. But an article that I read the other day suggests that getting rid of your marketing and advertising budget, might not be the smartest thing that you can do during a recession, it could actually be the dumbest thing that you can do.

The article by Apryl Duncan points out that:

• A McGraw-Hill research study of U.S. recessions from 1980-85 showed that 600 businesses who continued to advertise during the 1981-1982 recession hit a 256-percent growth by 1985 over companies who decreased spending during that same period.
• An American Business Press study during the 1974-1975 recession showed that among 143 companies who advertised during that recession, the businesses saw their highest growth in sales and net income during the recession and two years that followed.

In the article, Duncan also goes on to point out that some of the reasons that marketing and advertising during a recession works is because:

• Your competition will probably stop advertising
• You waste no time in building your brand and standing out
• You can establish a more personal contact with the advertising channels because you have more exclusive access/less competition
• Your business gets a better deal on advertising because of the down economy
• Great discounts can lure bargain-ready new customers into your door or to your website

The great news is now your business has even more advertising options than businesses did in the 1970′s and 1980′s. From search engine optimization (SEO), to Google Adwords, to Facebook, to other forms of Internet Marketing….there is an array of ways to keep your advertising going no matter what the state of the economy.

There are people with varying levels of SEO, social media, and Internet knowledge out in the world today. For some of the younger crowd, Facebook and all-things-Internet are old hat. For some of us that are a little older, all-things-Internet can be kind of….err…new hat. Here is some actual information about how different age groups use social media. As you can see:

• 12-25 year-olds tend to use more mobile devices
• 25-45 year-olds tend to prefer E-mail and Facebook
• 46-55 year-olds tend to blog more but not use Twitter
• 56-65 year-olds do use social media but tend to stick with Facebook because they most often want to keep up with family

Because of the above statistics, we realize that not everyone knows as much about Internet Marketing as JenRus Freelance does, so we thought that it might be helpful to business owners and the general public to give you some ideas of what some of the main social media tools currently are and how they can be used in marketing:

1. Google – You probably know this one, but Google is a search engine (basically like the phone book of “old days”) that people use to find different websites and topics around desired keywords. This category also includes Yahoo! and Bing search engines. For search engines like Google, businesses want to rank high in organic keyword searches (non-paid, not Google paid advertising, more on that in a minute) because 79% of searchers click on one of the top three search engine results. This is why search engine optimization (SEO) is so important, to get you to rank in these top results. Google also offers Google Adwords, in which you can buy advertising on Google. Google Adwords is good for businesses who want to drive sales.

2. Facebook – There are now over 350 million people using Facebook. These people include people of all ages and a larger percentage of women than men. Users can post pictures, add friends and family to their profile (so they can see their posted updates), and follow their favorite things. Because of the shear number of people using Facebook, it is definitely the place to be for personal use and for business use. Businesses can set up a Facebook Page or if you are an organization, a Facebook Group page might be a better fit. Social Networking sites are better for building relationships with followers/clients. Google and search engines are better for direct selling. However, Facebook does offer advertising opportunities that can be very affective because they are extremely targeted to what Facebook users specify that they like.

3. Twitter – Twitter is all about saying things in 140 characters of less. The every day people that I have talked to about Twitter, usually don’t get why you would use the service. I don’t find as much meaning in Twitter for personal use, I guess that I am just not that interesting. What I am going to tell people? “I am sitting in the chair.” An hour later, “I am still sitting in the chair.” You see what I mean. But, I do find Twitter very useful in business. I like to use Twitter as my news stream (think your national newspaper or specialty newspaper of the “old days”). Instead of going to say CNN, my regional newspaper, and all of my favorite websites, I just follow all of those organizations on Twitter so that I only have to go to one place to stay informed. Alternatively, Twitter can also be used by a business or organization to aggregate news to people who are interested. Even people that don’t follow you might find your content by a search and start following you, thus getting your more people who might be interested in what you do.

4. Blogs – Blogs are basically on-line journals. Studies have shown that often, high school age kids don’t blog, mostly because they often don’t have the life experiences to talk about. A blog can be a great way to keep your website current and to keep your customers informed about happenings around your business or organizations. Paired with a Twitter account and a Facebook presence, this can be a winning combination in building the community around your brand.

There are many other social media tools out there, but the above are a few of the main ones. We hope that we have taken some of the mystery out of what all of these tools are and what they can do for you.

Google, the main player in search engines, is constantly changing how it ranks websites. To start out 2010, here are the main changes for the year and what this could mean for your business (Source WebPro News):

1. Site Speed
Google is going to place more emphasis on site speed and rank faster sites higher. If your website is on a slow server and/or if your website pictures are not sized properly for web, this will adversely affect the website site speed.

2. Personalized Search
Search Engines, especially Google, will start showing users search results based on their history and what they like. So, if a potential customer has searched for your competitor before, those competitive search results might be shown before yours. That is why it is important that you pay attention to your website search engine optimization (SEO) now.

3. Universal Search
Up until the end of 2009, Google only showed search results containing articles and web pages. In 2010, Google will now show videos, blogs, pdfs, and other pertinent “non-traditional” items among search results.

4. Real Time Search
Up until the end of 2009, Google only showed search results containing articles and web pages. In 2010, Google will now show results from Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and other social networking sites in search results.

5. Local Search
People will increasingly stop using YellowPages and go to the Internet for looking up local services.

These changes mean that SEO, Social Media Marketing, Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, YouTube, local search, and regular news updates to your website will become even more important. A static website that doesn’t change regularly will no longer be as affective.

If you need help navigating the new 2010 world of Google, contact JenRus Freelance.