Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
Personality is Everything
Posted by 
on Monday, April 12, 2010 
at 9:28 AM 
in Which is better: “traditional” marketing or social media marketing? This debate may never be settled. What is certain is that marketing has become a whole new ball game, and the way we communicate has been drastically changed forever. Today’s consumer has been bombarded by a media explosion. Imagine, you wake up to a vitamin advertisement broadcasting on the radio, walk downstairs to grab a cup of coffee in your logoed mug, turn on the TV to catch the news and see a commercial for breakfast sandwiches, grab the newspaper from your stoop as a barrage of catalogs to your local retailers cascade out, you open your email to find that a co-worker has invited you to a dog grooming event through Facebook, then the phone rings with a telemarketer inquiring about your mobile carrier, once you hang up you get a text message from your local hang out saying drinks are half off tonight… you get the picture. Further complicating the issue of media overload is the demographic of today’s consumer. Today’s consumer is a multi-tasking, on the go, well informed, and savvy individual. They know what they want and seek out exactly that. So how then do we get their attention?
It’s very simple. No matter what type of marketing you use, old fashioned or social, you must have personality. What is going to make you stand out from the competition? How are you going to catch the attention of today’s busy and expert consumer? Consumers now have easy access to a countless supply of products and services available to meet their needs. Just promoting the benefits of your products and services is not enough anymore. Your personality is necessary to shine through the media saturation. If you want to grab the consumer’s attention you have to be engaging, authentic, and credible. So show your personality and say what you think! Be entertaining and provide people with something that they can talk about.
Tags Getting In Touch With Old Prospects via Facebook
Website-monitoring.com recently released a powerful time-line related to social media.
In regards to Facebook, the chart points out notable figures such as:
- 400 Million Active Users
- 5 Billion Pieces of content shared each week
- Average users spending 55 Minutes per day on their account
In regards to business, the following statistics were presented:
- 1.5 Million Local Business have active Pages on Facebook
- 20 Million people become fans of Pages each day
- More than 70 language translations are available for you to connect internationally
- More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect (http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php )
Social media sites have been known to bring together relationships, separated siblings, and long-lost friends.
This week, we witnessed a connection made between some old Navy buddies:
With so many success stories out there, it certainly is time for all businesses to ensure that they have a social media presence as well.
We all have prospects come and go from our sales pipeline. Perhaps months or years have passed since one of them decided that it just wasn’t the right time to buy from you. However, as time goes by, circumstances change. If they still have a need for products or services that you provide, will you find a way to get in front of them again? Having a presence on social media can help you to accomplish that.
Just like sites such as Facebook can connect us with people from our past, your previous prospects may stumble upon your company’s page over time. If you’re keeping it up to date, that may be just the push they need to take another look at what you can offer them.
John Foley Jr. speaking on Social Media at NAPL Conference
John Foley Jr., President and CEO of interlinkONE, inc. will be speaking at the NAPL Conference on Tuesday, February 16th on the subject of “How to Use Social Media to Build Your Business.”
The conference will be held in Marco Island, Florida
Here is an overview of what John will be discussing:
LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook- these sites are growing in popularity in all vertical markets and are being leveraged to promote printing and marketing services. In this session John presents advice on how to use these social media sites to grow your print and marketing services provider business. He presents real-world scenarios and shares the pros and cons of each of these popular sites.
For more information about the NAPL Conference , you can visit their website at http://www.napl2010.com/tmc/
Are you using these Headline Techniques?
Headlines are of the utmost importance when it comes to gaining the attention of your reader. There are some tactics that you can implement so that more people to click on your article and read it! Psychotactics.com posted an article about how to use headlines more effectively. When posting on Twitter and Facebook, I had always written a quick blurb about the article that I wanted to share with people and then posted it without much thought. I was intrigued to see how changing my headline could better capture my audience.
Psychotactics.com broke the advice into three psychological triggers.
1. Question based vs. Statement based headlines
This trigger simply means that humans are curious by nature. Give them a question and they will automatically want to learn more. Ex: Do you get the most out of your social media marketing?
2. Problem based vs. Solution based headlines
This trigger taps into a humans need to solve problems. When the target audience sees a headline with a problem, their brain wants them to read it so that they can then solve their problem. Ex: Are you struggling to manage all of your social media pages?
3. Curious vs. Non-curious headlines
This trigger explains how the word “these” can have the most impact on your headline. When people read “these” in a headline, curiosity makes them HAVE to read the article because life as they know it may come to an end if they don’t know what “these” are. Ex: Are you using these headline techniques?
After reading the article, I began using the triggers in my headlines for posts that I made to both Twitter and Facebook. Using ilink.me, I created trackable short URLs. Typically, when I would post a link to Twitter, I would get about thirty hits to my link each time it was posted. Within ten minutes of posting, “Are tough times causing marketers to promise too much?” with my link, I had over sixty hits. I began to write more headlines such as, “Are you doing these things to take search measurement beyond last-click metrics?” and “Do you know which marketing and selling trends that you should be paying attention to?” Not only are people reposting my tweets more frequently, they are also reading and clicking on my links twice as often.
Give your headlines a facelift and see more results from your posts! As said in psychotactics.com, “Better headlines mean better bottom lines.”
A link to the site to read the full article from Psychotactics.com is: http://ilnk.me/1569
Get your own ilink.me account (free!!) to track your links at: http://ilink.me
Tips for Using Facebook in Social Marketing
Facebook can be a quintessential tool in social marketing when used correctly. Facebook, a social networking site that was originally created for college students, has exploded on the internet. It is now open to everyone with networks including colleges, companies, and locations.
With more than 350 million active users, it is no surprise that Facebook revenue will be close to $600 million according to marketingpilgrim.com. That is 350 million people who could possibly be viewing your company’s profile, 350 million chances to wow someone.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of Facebook for businesses is that it allows you to connect to your audience in a more personable manner which is very effective at fostering trust and credibility for your company.
Things to Remember:
1. Keep your information contact information, web address, and any other pertinent information current and accurate.
2. Beware of over posting. It could be considered spamming.
3. Use events to get the attention of your fans, group members, or friends. Whether you are launching a new product, going to a convention, or having a company outing, use events to build excitement and share your news with a wide array of people.
4. People remember pictures, not words. Post photos whenever you can.
5. Take advantage of the option to “Message All Members” in a group when you have something special to share.
