marketing
5 Tips On How to Filter Through The Fluff!
Marketers are constantly inundated with information on the #digitalmediasphere – felt like a hashtag was appropriate for this post! The amount of information our brains have to consume on a daily basis is mind blowing, literally. According to Mail Online, each person is drowned with “174 newspapers’ worth of information every day.” FastCompany also published an infographic in September 2010 based on the book The 24-Hour Customer, indicating that we will generate more data in the next 4 years than in the history of the world, adding that the average person is connected 12 hours a day to some form of digital media which translates to 34 billion bits of information per day (an equivalent of two books).
The biggest concern for marketers is the ability to sort through all the fluff and not get bogged down. Recent studies are showing that the level of information we are being asked to break down can cause increased stress levels. So how do we keep on top of the abundance of information and still keep our sanity? Learn how to filter through the fluff and manage your time. Here are 5 tips that can get you started:
TIP #1. BE SELECTIVE. Don’t follow every single person on Twitter who follows you, or subscribe to every blog with the word “digital marketing” in it. Be selective to what you subscribe to and who you follow. Similarly, don’t feel the need to subscribe to every single news outlet, most likely they all end up publishing the same stories within 24 hours of each other anyway. By being selective you can start filtering through the noise and choosing what you really want to focus your brain cells on.
TIP #2. TAKE TIME OFF. Set aside certain time periods when you are active on social media, reading the news, updating your blog, and so on and so forth. We spend most of our waking hours connected to some form of digital media. Sometimes it’s nice to tune out. Take a break and set rules and regulations. For example, when you are at the gym don’t be the person on the treadmill who is replying to emails and tweets. It’s okay to not reply back right away. Let your body relax and do something else. You can set time limits for yourself of when you are on and off, even computers need down time.
TIP #3. UTILIZE DASHBOARDS. Dashboards help aggregate various accounts and create search tabs to sort through specific content. Hootsuite is a great dashboard that allows you to do both. You can add all your social media accounts to this one dashboard so that you don’t have to keep switching between tabs or windows to get up-to-date on all the new content. You can also create search tabs with specific keywords such as “online marketing” or “search engine optimization” and Hootsuite will then aggregate content based on that filter. That way you can sort through the fluff without actually having to do it yourself, the dashboard does it for you.
TIP #4. ACTIVATE GOOGLE ALERTS. There are a ton of free tools available online that help you filter through the data, Google Alerts is one of them. Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your queries. You get the most up-to-date information sent directly to your mail box.
TIP #5. CREATE YOUR OWN READER. Setup a RSS Feed Reader or News Aggregator by adding your favorite blogs, and websites to it so you can keep on top of the latest content without actually having to visit the site. Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use.
Hopefully these tips will help you stay on top of your content, and help save you a little time and stress!
Maryam Mehrtash @socialmaryam
Tags: data, digital, facebook, information, marketing, Social Media, stress, Twitter
The Internet is Dead & Social Media is Dying
During the last two weeks, the biggest interactive (technology & social media) conference of the year has been trending all over the marketing news. SXSW, held every year in Austin, TX, began as the birthplace for many startup companies in the tech and mobile scene. With the advances in technology and mobile, it now attracts many of North America’s largest companies from American Eagle to CNN and even Fox Sports from Australia. We weren’t able to attend this year’s conference, but we followed along with all the articles and tweets to find that the biggest take away from it is:
Tags: Business, customer service, Gary Vaynerchuk, marketing, Social Media
Your Choice. Your Voice.
One thing we have a lot of these days is choice.
Want olive oil? There are a hundred to choose from.
Want to host your website on a reliable server? There are many, many options at your fingertips.
Choice is great.. until there’s so much choice you feel overwhelmed. My brother had a great line in one of his films from a few years back, which was “Why is it there are hundreds of cheeses to pick from, yet only 3 political parties?”. The political parties seem to be catching up with the cheese these days.. but I digress.
I’m sure many an article has been written about choice paralysis… not being able to make a decision due to too many options. This is what makes personal endorsements so powerful. If someone I know and trust recommends something – I am considerably more likely to get it. A friend’s endorsement offers needed guidance in a world stuffed with multiple choice.
This is why the latest evolution in Facebook Ads is so brilliant. This month Facebook started experimenting with friend’s ratings of ads.
This means people in one’s personal network can like an ad, rate it (out of five stars) and leave a comment. This allows friends to see what each other has liked – personalizing the advertising and making it more relevant to the target audience. Products or services endorsed by a friend you respect and like, are more likely to get your attention and your business.
You can read more about that here.
Google Places has enabled reviews of ads for some time – but this too is evolving. Now, business owners can respond to the reviews people write and post on Google Places. Additionally, business owners can now post real-time updates to their Google Places listings – to offer customers timely specials or deals, or even coupons compatible with mobile phones.
Yelp is another directory all about customer reviews. (Interestingly, Yelp was almost acquired by Google in 2009 when the deal fell through.)
It helps too when businesses respond to reviews. It’s only fair and I, personally, appreciate hearing the other side of a story. However, some people need to be reminded of just how publicly permanent their written words are. This particular Yelp response to a review is one that should be a lesson to us all. The business owner blasted the reviewer and accused him/her of being the competition in disguise.
Well, at least such a vitriolic response helps to eliminate that business from your basket of choices…proving any voice can shape your choice.
Tags: ads, customer reviews, facebook ads, Google Places, marketing, yelp
A Vancouver Marketing Strategist’s Day in 20XX?
Photo Credit: skippyjon
7:00am
I woke up to my alarm clock, yawned and wondered what day it was today. Realizing it’s Tuesday, I brushed my teeth, took a shower and got dressed for work.
7:30am
I sat down at the kitchen table to eat my favourite cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios. As I poured out the cereal, a small holographic sticker fell out of the box. Picking it up, I thought, “They still make these?” and had a good chuckle at myself. Stretching out, I reached for my iPad across the table and opened up the Vancouver Sun. The Headline News was “Google Bought Another Country”…go figure. Right beside the headline I saw the Flash video playing an ad for our client. Yes, it was Flash!
8:00am
My iPad suddenly spoke, “It’s now eight o’clock”. I took a quick glance at the clock, hoping my iPad was somehow lying. I jumped off my chair, grabbed my MacBook Pro and darted for my car, knowing how bad the traffic would be in the morning.
8:30am
I slipped into my car, where the fun begins every morning. My Google Android equipped car powered up and gave me a report on any traffic accidents on my route. After that I told Jessie (Yes, I named my car, Jessie) to login to Twitter and read the latest tweets from my Twitter List. Hands-free of course, it’s great how voice-recognition technology has come along.
As always it’s cloudy and raining in Vancouver. Pulling up to a red traffic light I started daydreaming about what it was like back then, driving without a HUD windshield. The windshield is great especially while driving at night or in the rain when visibility isn’t that great…
“The traffic light has turned green”, Jessie spoke.
…or for drivers who are often preoccupied.
I drove past Cambie & Broadway and Jessie prompted me, “Moyra checked in at this Starbucks 15 minutes ago. She recommends the Chai Latte”. Jessie’s hooked up to Foursquare, of course, and all my other social media accounts. Location-based social media marketing at its finest wouldn’t you say? I was tempted to stop by, but I was going to be late for work.
9:00am
I arrived at work. (To be continued…)
Victor Chan
eMarketing Strategist
Tags: foursquare, google android, hud windshield, ipad, marketing, Social Media, starbucks, strategist, technology, Twitter, Vancouver
Social + Search = Marketing (Part 1)
The internet marketing, social media and search engine marketing scene in Vancouver is changing at a rapid pace. The industry, as a whole, is moving even faster. In the excitement of trying out the latest new gadget, developing a new profile and making that next connection, it is easy for a business to forget the basics.
Social media marketing, search engine marketing, internet marketing or online marketing all have one thing in common, and that boils back down to marketing. Frameworks have often been created to organize the thought process to help companies identify the best strategy to market a company.
Getting back to the basics may be the key to developing that next biggest and greatest campaign. I thought it would be useful to write a series on Marketing basics. In part 1, I will discuss the 4 P’s of Marketing.
4 P’s of Marketing
The 4 P’s of marketing are Product, Price, Place (distribution) and Promotion. It is important to have a clear understanding of each of these elements for your company and how these elements could work together in your marketing strategy. Here are some questions to consider.
Product (goods and/or services):
- What is your product?
- Can your product be changed to better fit your target customers?
- What is the single, most important benefit* your target customer gains from buying your product?
*NOTE: There is a clear distinction between a feature and a benefit. Your customers are not interested in product features. They are interested in the benefits they can get from a product. For example, cell phone plans with unlimited calling to a certain number of friends is a feature, being able to speak to your best friend anytime, all the time, without a massive phone bill is, in the customer’s perspective, the benefit.
Price:
- How does your product price compare with that of your immediate competitors?
- Would you offer price promotions?
- Would you offer different pricing strategies depending on your sales channel?
Place (distribution):
- Where can your customers purchase your product?
- Can a good or service you offer be more efficiently provided online? (Eg. after sales services).
- Is there an additional good or service you can offer your customers online to provide them added value?
Promotion:
- What is the key message you want to convey to your target customer?
- What perception do you want your customers to have of your company?
- Through which communication channels will your target customer be most receptive to to receiving your message?
This is only a sample of questions to consider when thinking about your marketing strategy. The 4 P’s is a basic framework, but is still applicable in the online environment. Do you agree?
Stay tuned for more of the Marketing Basics series.
Victor Chan
eMarketing Strategist
Tags: 4 P marketing, basics, internet marketing, marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Vancouver
