UK Web Hosting Blog | by Pickaweb.co.uk

An increasing number of companies are planning to integrate social media marketing into their promotional campaigns. Whether you operate a large company or own a small business, the purpose of social media marketing should be clear: it is about developing relationships. The social media campaign should be treated as a long-term commitment and not as a marketing gimmick.

Testing and experimentation are important aspects of social media success. Organisations that are open and proactive won’t find the strategy difficult at all. It is a natural to them. However, for organisations that have a top-down approach, it may be something that’s worth getting used to.

If you plan to use social media marketing, below are practical approaches that can improve your overall strategy.

1. Determine company goals and objectives

When creating a goal, keep it does SMART acronym in mind: Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Also, it is important to assign a point person for the campaign to establish a trail of responsibility. The individual can come from the marketing, PR, or IT department. It actually doesn’t matter who “owns” it. What’s important is for the whole company to understand the goals of the endeavour. The strategy is implemented by a department should suit the end goal of the company.

2. Do your research

Rather than jump headfirst into social media, it is crucial to know what you’re getting into. Look into the strategies of your direct competitors and determine what works and what doesn’t. This doesn’t mean, however, that you should copy the strategies of other companies. Instead, the key is to mix and match different strategies to suit your individual purpose.

There are some sites that are likely to be more effective than others. Among the most popular social media sites today include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a few select blogs in your niche and discussion forums.

3. Build profiles and establish relationships

After determining the company goals, the next step is to create profits in the selected websites. Be sure to include the company logo (or product pictures) into the page help people easily identify with it. Then begin a strategy to establish relationships with the target audience (this can be done through the use of widgets, link building, social bookmarking, etc).

4. Measure results

In the first step, goals have had to be established. In this section, it is time to measure how well your company did in achieving its objectives. Did it reach the targeted number of fans or followers? Did the conversion rate improve? These are just some of the things that should be looked into. Analyse the results and improve on it.

In this economy it is critical to understand the dangers of overspending, particularly in the most prone budgetary environment, marketing, for small businesses. The average small business owner operates the entire enterprise on a fixed budget, and when any aspect of that budget, payroll, marketing, inventory, overhead, insurance, etc, suffers significant overspending, then one or more of the other budget aspects must be in turn be diminished to make up for the overflow.

Unfortunately, in the small business environment, that will quickly lead to under spending in other, even more critical areas, like payroll or inventory, which can lead to a downward spiral ending in a loss of customers and eventually, a closed enterprise. Therefore, it is critical that all aspects of a business’ budget, even online marketing, be monitored closely.
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Social media marketing has become a must for all serious website owners. It is an effective way to promote your website because it encourages interaction between the company and customers as well as among the customers themselves. This strategy is a powerful way to get attention, links, and visitor traffic. And because it is cheap, there is no reason why you shouldn’t pursue with this initiative.

Once you have established the importance of social media web marketing, the next step is to identify which websites you should focus on. Right now, the most popular sites include Facebook and Twitter. However, there are also lesser-known sites that focus on specific niches. For example, LinkedIn focuses on professionals who want to get connected on the internet. But in this article, we won’t focus on niche networks for your web marketing initiative. Rather, we will provide helpful information on the trends surrounding Twitter and its most popular applications.

When Facebook reached 500 million members, there was a lot of hoopla about it. At the background of all this is another social networking site, Twitter. This tool has become a very important part of social media marketing. Its distinction from Facebook is very much apparent. If the former focuses on encouraging people to share as much as possible about themselves, Twitter is a tool for influencers. In fact, majority of users don’t Tweet as much as they use Facebook. Instead, they rely on the information sent by the person they’re following.

Another notable fact thing about Twitter is that around 46% of its users can access the site on their mobile devices. According to Twitter’s CEO Evan Williams, the total number of mobile usage has increased by 62% from mid-April of 2010 and Sept. 2010. For any business that’s interested in web marketing to consumers while they’re on the go, this should be taken note of. Some of the most popular Twitter tools include the following:

• m.twitter.com – 14%
• SMS – 8%
• Twitter for iPhone – 8%
• Twitter for Blackberry – 7%
• TwitPC – 4%
• TweetDeck – 3%
• Echofon – 3%
• Google Friend Connect – 2%
• Uber Twitter – 2%

In addition to this, 16% of new users are using the sites micro-blogging service. There is no doubt that Twitter users are very active in using this medium. For retail stores, restaurants, and lifestyle centers, this is a great development. By Tweeting discounts, exclusive offers, and special promotions at the right time, it is possible to increase store traffic and sales.

If you have a mobile device such as a BlackBerry or iPhone, you can easily stay in touch with your customers, which in turn can result in increased sales due to your increased availability.

Even when you’re on the go, you can touch base with customers and potential customers by embracing the power of social networking, and the ability to update your blog on the go, whether through e-mail (a functionality available in several blog packages), or through apps such as WordPress’ BlackBerry app.
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Not everyone “gets” Twitter. If you don’t already have a Twitter page, you may be wondering what the point is, and why Twitter matters. The reason is simple: the social networking site is quickly becoming one of the most popular sites on the Internet, and that means you have a potential audience of millions, with no monthly fees.

A Twitter page affords you the opportunity do all sorts of things: post links to blog posts, advertise specials, and share company news. You can also interact with current and potential customers, which is something that many customers have come to expect in this new era of social networking.
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The search industry is highly dynamic. Frequent changes to search engine algorithms should be expected and companies should act fast enough to take advantage of web marketing opportunities. Some website owners saw their rankings take a nosedive after very minor adjustments. Meanwhile, it seems that others dominate the first three pages whether or not changes are made.

Whatever the case, no one really knows the exact formula used in the algorithm. What is important is to stay updated and conduct regular testing to find out the best SEO strategy for the website. Trial and error is usually important in web marketing.

Meeting the Demands of Today

The demands of the global marketplace play a big role in defining how search engines work. Aside from the pressure to deliver better service to users, search engines also need to react quickly to technological changes all around them. For example, the popularity of mobile internet will influence of web marketing. Right now, greater focus is also given to intent-based search and behaviour-based search. Let us take a look at these trends:

Intent-Based Search – basically, this is defined as the reason why people use the search engines. It can be categorized as either buying intent (ecommerce) or research. There are specific keyword phrases that are obviously for ecommerce and web marketing and there are others that are commonly associated with research purposes. But we won’t tackle how keywords are differentiated here. Rather the importance of using geo-targeting must be stressed. If ecommerce is the reason why the visited goes online, for example, the search engine results page (SERP) must display pages that is relevant to his needs, in his area.

Behaviour-Based Search – the behaviour-based search is tailored on the history and search behaviour of the user. “Java”, for instance, has many different meanings. However, if the user’s history shows a lot of interest in programming, then the results should be more in-line with this. “Java” is also associated with travel and beverage. Individuals who are into these should have results that are more relevant to their behaviour.

Blended Search – in any web page, there are a variety of different items that can be included. Among these are video, images, maps, news, books, and news. Since search engines want to improve user engagement, blended search will become more dominant in web marketing. It enables “blended search” (ie a number of different objects) to be displayed on the results page. This is considered to be better than text-based only results.