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Social Media Strategy and Internet Marketing

Social Network Advertising is a Waste of TimeNovember 19

Don’t waste your time and money advertising on social networking sites. People just aren’t receptive to it. Social media ads suffer from extremely low click through rates and just disrupt the flow of social media users. It’s true that there are positives of social media advertising but I think the negatives outweigh them.

Positives of Advertising on Social Media

Demographic Targeting
This is the strongest point for social media ads. Since sites like Facebook and Myspace invite users to share what they like, advertisers are able to target users by terms found in their profile.

Obviously you can use this at the most basic level targeting users by age, location, and gender. You can also go beyond that by thinking outside the box and targeting TV shows, products, books, and movies that a demographic that parallels yours.

Huge Audience
Social media users are amazingly loyal. They spend a lot of time on their corresponding sites and tend to check their profiles often throughout the day. Because of the number of page views, an ad on the site gets seen multiple times meaning great branding potential.

According to Compete’s figures for every unique visitor to YouTube there are 54 pageviews. With Facebook, a unique visitor creates an am

Social Media Campaign Tracking: A Basic OverviewNovember 18

One of the hardest things to do is convince small business owners to invest in social media. The problem is that good social media strategies involve an investment, a payment ahead of time for a return that isn’t always accurately measurable. How do you measure good customer relations?

But for those with the insight and strength to explore new media the question still remains; what is social media doing for me?

If you’re business has an online aspect, measuring the effect is easier than for your brick and mortar brethren. Use Google Analytics to track visitors to your site. Create conversion points at contact forms, this way you know who’s sending you messages and where they came from.

For more control over your tracking install the Social Media Grease Monkey Script. It lets you differentiate social media traffic and track it separately.

To make your life even easier, Google just released a new feature called advanced segmentation. With it you can track who did what on your site, and now you can see what social media users like and don’t like on your site. To better understand how to use the feature check out this series on

Social Media: The Next Step in MarketingNovember 17

Social media is a new field. It’s relatively untested and is considered the Wild Wild West of online marketing. It’s still in its youth and because of that many businesses are afraid to take the plunge.

Not only is this an obstacle to adoption for many businesses, but the fact that social media costs are front loaded (meaning you invest up front in the hopes of turning a profit in the future) creates an even larger hurdle for many.

Recognizing that there is value in social media is a marketing first step. Business owners need to know that social media is the next evolution in marketing.

It’s next after direct mail campaigns, after tv or radio advertising, and after ads in your newspaper. Except it’s better than all of the above. Instead of the one way communication of traditional advertising, social media has made it a conversation.

No longer do you have a 30 second piece to convince consumers to use your product, but now you have a community at your disposal. Build a relationship and convince customers to stay with you and advertise for you.

Is It Time to Hire a Social Media Consultant?November 13

Not everyone needs a social media consultant. Hell, not everyone needs social media; but it can be extremely useful and also give you a healthy return on your investment. So how do you know when it’s time to hire a social media consultant? Here are some tell-tale signs to stop trying yourself and to get an expert.

No Strategy

You know you want to increase your sales, get better branding, or create a community; but you have no idea how to do it.

A good consultant will be able to create a plan and explain it can help you leverage the web. The strategy might be as simple as creating a blog or as complex as building a social network.

No Tracking

Building a coherent social media strategy is no easy feat, but some do it without the help of a consultant. However, once they’ve implemented the plan, they realize they have no idea how to measure success.

Outsourcing your social media tracking and analytics might not only save your sanity but also save a lot of time.

The Campaign Has Stalled

You had a strategy and were following the right metrics, but where you saw growth you now see a plateau.

If your campaign has stalled, sometimes a social media expert can breathe new life into i

An Unlikely Case StudyNovember 10

Watch the video then see why it’s important…