Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
Setting Social Media Goals for 2012
Posted by 
on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 
at 6:09 AM 
in Did social media help you to grow your business in 2011?
We certainly hope so. But we also know that many companies may be wishing they could have experienced more success through that channel.
Of course, simply writing “succeed more” on our 2012 marketing plan will only take us so far. We need to establish more specific goals. What could those goals be? You may find some inspiration in the chart below from eMarketer:
If the items in that survey are ones that you’d like to accomplish in the near future, then your business will no doubt benefit if you do!
Here are a few tips on how you can do some of those successfully:
Development of a Clear Strategy
If you have ever seen John Foley, Jr. (my boss) speak about social media, I’m sure you would agree that he loves talking about the importance of strategy!
Some of the key items that John lists that need to be part of your social media strategy are:
- Define Your Business and Its Goals
- Clearly understand your target audience
- Identify “the one thing” that truly makes you unique
- And more…
If you’d like to learn more about how to successfully develop a clear strategy, check out this presentation from John Foley, Jr.
Executive Buy-In
If you happen to work at a company where folks from the management actively use social media, then this may not be a big problem for you.
However, this may not be the case. Not only will you need to show how social media is helping you accomplish the company’s business goals, but you may also need to spend time educating your management team about how key social media tools actually work!
By putting in the effort to clearly identify the what, why, and how, you may find that people’s buy-in may come a lot easier when you present them the results.
P.S. If you’d like a bit more help crossing social media goals off of your to-do list, I know some great folks at our sister company, Grow Socially, that can help.
Tags How Publishers Can Benefit from Social Networking
There is no doubt that social media has changed the way that people consume information. Many publishers have certainly felt the effects of that. People are searching, finding, and reading content on more channels than ever before.
However, there is a way for publishers to use social media to actually grow their business. How so? I’m happy to provide ideas and inspiration in the presentation below:
I hope that you find the content within the presentation helpful.
Some of the main topics covered included:
- Why You Should Care About Social Media
- How Publishers Can Use Social Media
- Best Practices, Strategies and Tips
Follow Along at the Printing Survivor 2011 Event
On Thursday, October 13th, interlinkONE’s CEO John Foley, Jr. will be speaking at the Printing Survivor 2011 event up in Toronto, Canada.
I personally will not be able to attend… but I must say that I think the line-up and schedule look pretty impressive! Here are the 21 Concord Street office, we recognize that many of our customers, prospects, and friends might be in the same boat and feel the same way.
Thus, the crew that we have sent up to Canada has promised to do one heck of a job to keep us updated throughout the day. They will be taking and posting pictures, recording video interviews, tweeting quotes and highlights, and more.
If you’d like to follow along, here is what you should keep an eye out for:
- The #PrintingSurvivor2011 hashtag
- John Foley, Jr.’s Facebook page
- interlinkONE and Grow Socially Twitter accounts
To everyone that does attend the Printing Survivor event, I say thank you! And to everyone else at home (like me), I’m looking forward to participating and learning via social media.
When is the Best Time to Tweet?
Much like any other marketing campaign, Twitter shares one critical ideology: maximum exposure. When you Tweet, are as many people seeing it as possible? If we put in the effort to carefully craft influential and noticeable Tweets, we certainly would want to make sure that they are being sent out at the times of day that will have the most impact.
A blog on theSocialMediaGuide.com says that the best time to Tweet, as a general rule, is 9:00 A.M. Pacific time. This is because West Coast workers are just arriving, East Coast workers are on lunch break, and the work day is ending in Europe, specifically London. If you have that much reach, this certainly sounds like an effective time to Tweet.
Of course, there are many studies and statistics on this topic. Fast Company posted a graph that indicated the best time to be retweeted is at 4:00 P.M.
It may be worth taking the time to review tools such as whentotweet.com for possible suggestions as to when you personally should be tweeting.
Guy Kawasaki has also had many things to say on this subject. Here’s one quote: “Try this experiment: take your most interesting tweets (as measured by how many people retweet them, perhaps) and post them again three times, eight to twelve hours apart. I used to think that people would complain about repeating tweets, but I’ve never had a complaint. My theory is that the volume of tweets is so high and most people check in at about the same time every day, so people don’t notice repeat tweets.”
Mediabistro.com offers another perspective on the subject. “Of course, often this stuff is more art than science, and you could argue that it’s more important having the right people reading your content, inasmuch as influencers and power retweeters, and they might be active at a completely different time.”
If you thoughtfully select who you follow on Twitter, then that may alleviate some of the stress of this notion. If you follow professionals and influential personalities, then someone of value may see your Tweet no matter what time of day it is.
Take note of when people reply to your Tweets and when you are retweeted, and take these figures into account when you are planning out your Tweeting schedule. You may want to save certain Tweets for these certain times, depending on how much you want it to be seen. A consistent and steady Twitter stream is always your best bet for reaching the biggest audience, but it might work in your benefit if you know when your audience is most engaged.
Use Social Media for Online Press Releases
Not long ago, when a company was looking for affordable, broad publicity, they would turn to a newspaper and a press release. Those days have certainly changed, as social media has now become one of the greatest weapons in a PR practitioner’s arsenal. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networking channels all can be used as an inexpensive way to spread company news to a wide audience, and as a way to disseminate your uniform mission statement to all of your targeted publics.
How Social Networks Can Help Your PR Efforts
A social media press release can do the job that two printed publications are needed to do. Social media can reach an external public by promoting new offers, announcing new products or store openings, and also garnering followers and Likes. It can also act as a corporate newsletter. Announce new hires, retirements or promotions with an email blast, or a Facebook message to all employees.
And social media allows for more aesthetic value that traditional press releases sorely lack. A normal press release is often stuffed into the bottom of a newspaper page, replete with hyperbole and plain font that make it look like printed spam. An article on social media can be interactive, filled with examples and pertinent information that a reader will actually want to read. And you can optimize your headline and keywords for search engines to pick up. Your scope is far wider than any local newspaper could ever encompass. You can also take advantage of sites like Digg that compile news from all over the Internet.
PR professionals can also utilize social media as a conversational tool. They can tune into conversations that consumers are having as a result of their press releases, and they can participate and offer information on behalf of the company they represent. There are multiple tools out there for monitoring Tweets, use them to track feedback about your company and thank those who are praising your efforts and work to pacify those who are upset.
Moving Forward
The old idea of a press release may be fading away. But the general principle of a press release will always be a staple of classic public relations. Your company, like any other, will always need affordable ways to reach an audience without using an elaborate advertising campaign that can cost boatloads of cash.
Being social media savvy and knowing when to send out a message, to your internal and external audiences, can be a highly effective and efficient tool for you to use.
