How To Build and Expand Your Online Social Network

Every business, however small or big, wants more customers and leads. Every organization, whether offline or online, wants to grow and cover the maximum ground possible. But the tricky question is – how do you take that first step? How do you figure out which way to go, when there are so many routes?

Most online businesses, who are dying to create a strong brand of their own, fail to answer these three questions:

• What is your expertise? What’s your goal?
• Why should customers choose you and not your competitors?
• How do customers know that your business exists in the market?

The answer to the first two questions depends on the type of business you have but the answer to the third question is universal. It is either organic or social.

Organic traffic is something which is beyond your direct control but you can leverage the power of online networks to drive a significant portion of targeted traffic to your website. The key to driving social traffic depends on how good your branding is and whether potential customers can find you on social sites where they are spending their valuable time, every single day.

If you want to grow your online network, here are some tips worth noting:

1. Find The Right Social Platform

There are a slew of social sites out there, each having a different focus and perspective. Do not jump in and try to build a universal social presence on every other social site at once. It’s not going to work and there is a high chance that you will fail without achieving anything, wasting a lot of time in the process.

Instead, find the right social platform that matches closely with the goals and objectives of your business. Start small, one social site at a time and gradually expand your reach into other social sites. For example, if you have an ecommerce site, start with Facebook and engage with your existing customers and fans. Add a Facebook fan box widget in your website, make life easy for fans to find you on Facebook.

Once you know your customer, you will have a clear idea what they are craving for. Next, create a Twitter account and promote it on your Facebook fan page.

This has two advantages. First, you are creating an alternative channel so that Facebook users who are also on Twitter, can connect with your brand outside Facebook. Second, you are using the power of one social channel to build a sub-ordinate social channel, without any added effort whatsoever.

The rule of the thumb is to pick the best platform first, grow it to its fullest potential and then drive your audience to other niche based social sites one by one.

2. Find Your Target Audience On Social Sites

To know your audience, you have to know your keywords first. What are the words that directly relate to your business? Make a list of important keywords and use them to track social users who may be interested in your product. I will illustrate this with an example.

Go to Twitter search and perform a search for your most important keyword. On the search results page, you will find a lot of tweets – some genuine users, a lot of spam and a few competitors. See what your competitors are doing, study their approach. Next, design your own marketing tactic and set up an action plan which will attract Twitter users to subscribe to your Twitter channel.

3. Engage With Your Audience And Start Conversations

Getting fans or followers is just half the work done, the other half which is equally important is to engage them via conversations. Listen to your followers and answer their queries. Solve problems and point them towards useful resources, this goes way beyond just your own site. User engagement can be in various forms e.g replies, re tweets, solving problems, organizing giveaways and so forth.

One good tactic which will give you a head start is to organize contests on your blog. You have to chuck out some money or organize sponsors for the giveaway, either way it is really worth going for. The simple answer is that giveaways have a viral nature and they spread the word about your brand in no time. To give you a hint, I gained more than 5000 Twitter followers in less than 24 hours after I announced a $100 giveaway on my blog. The giveaway was organized by a sponsor but I managed to bag a lot of attention in my niche.

But does that mean you have to regularly lure users towards cold hard cash? Certainly No. That’s cheap and probably won’t last forever. The catch is to organize something valuable which has a viral element attached to it.

You have to play with this tactic on different social sites, until you master the art of growing your online network

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CEOs Who Tweet Held in High Regard

Top execs slower then employees, customers to view social media as communications channel

There may be new reasons for CEOs and CMOs to join the Twittersphere. According to a study by social media branding firm BRANDfog consumers and employees regard company leaders who engage on social media platforms positively.

BRANDfog survey results indicate that consumers believe C-suite engagement in social media can benefit how they view a brand and its executive leadership. The majority of survey respondents, 78%, said CEO participation in social media leads to better communication, while 71% said it leads to improved brand image and 64% said it provides more transparency.

In terms of importance, 86% of respondents rated CEO social media engagement as somewhat important, very important or mission-critical. CEO activity on social networks also appears to influence employees’ faith in their company. The study findings indicate that 82% of employee respondents trust a company more when the CEO and leadership team communicate via social media.

A company’s social media presence also trickles down and influences purchase decisions. The majority of BRANDfog survey respondents (77%) are more likely or much more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media to clearly define company values and leadership principles. And 94% said C-suite social media participation enhances a brand image.

Selling social to the C-suite remains a challenge for many companies, though. According to an Accenture study of social media among B2B marketers, 31% of respondents said they need increased CEO conviction in order to make social media efforts more effective.

Another examination of marketer priorities, by The CMO Council, reveals that social media is a priority for engagement and buzz-building among 60% of senior marketers worldwide.

CMO Council survey respondents also said speed of adoption of new web technologies by chief marketers and top-level executives was a continuing challenge.

Financial services firm ING Direct Canada is known for its tweeting CEO, Peter Aceto. Aceto told eMarketer in a February 2012 interview that using social media helps him gauge how employees and consumers view the company and its products. “We saw it as a competitive advantage for us,” Aceto said. “There was no science. There was no ROI. We just needed to get going, start to build a community and learn about how we can use it.”

Source: emarketer.com

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Online, Offline Data Ad Platforms Emerge

Charging into the next phase of online advertising, a bevy of companies will begin to roll out platforms and services that integrate offline data with online to improve ad targeting across the Internet. Companies like The Weather Channel began offering data related to weather to improve product selection and ad targeting. Kenshoo, Proclivity Media, and others will soon integrate offline check-in and sales data with online search and other activities. Kenshoo, a digital marketing software company, will roll out tools that allow advertisers to combine check-in services with search and social data. Geoffrey Shenk, a managing director for the company, shared details with MediaPost and a handful of OMMA Global attendees who joined the conversation. CMO Aaron Goldman briefly mentioned the service and ability to add performance data in December. Shenk said the product ties into application programming interfaces, a source code specification, from Facebook, Foursquare and others allowing Kenshoo to pull in data to its search platform. It ties physical intent to search queries to connect the physical world with the virtual. It will also attempt to identify and combine electronic-wallet purchases from platforms like Google Wallet. A check-in on a mobile device, ad pixel and cookie in the browser helps Kenshoo's technology identify intent through a path to conversion of clicks and swipes. In this case, consider the conversion a check-in -– which Shenk called "pixel-less." The search could take place on the desktop or mobile. A unique ID that comes from Kenshoo ties it together. Near field communication, the technology supported in Google Wallet, will become the next "big thing for advertisers," Shenk said. It's a topic that Michael Liard, director of the Automatic Identification Business Practice at VDC Research, will highlight at the Search Insider Summit in April. Kenshoo isn't the only technology company building platforms that support online and offline data. David Kenny, chairman and CEO at The Weather Channel, during Tuesday's keynote at OMMA Global in San Francisco, described how several retail stores use the data to build statistical models to determine what should go on sale for the weekend based on the weather. Then there is Proclivity Systems. The company will rebrand to Proclivity Media within a couple of weeks when it launches a private ad exchange called FLX that offers the integration of offline and online data. Sheldon Gilbert, Proclivity's CEO, said the company is working with advertisers to buy media based on customer transactions in stores. The strategy aims to help advertisers better understand those customers looking for specific products by using a brand's or a retailer's online and offline data. The benefit comes from knowing that a 30-year-old woman recently bought a black dress and metallic gold purse at Nordstrom before serving an online ad for another product or service she might want.  

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/170736/online-offline-data-ad-platforms-emerge.html?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=#ixzz1qI551c4G

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Social vs Search [Infographic]

While there are many differences between search marketing and social media, and each has its strengths, both are essential in marketing today. Interestingly, they take on exponentially more power when marketers use them together. To identify what works best for particular goals, MDG Advertising created an enlightening infographic that distinguishes the digital supremacy between social media and search marketing, as well as the collective strength of this dynamic duo. Take a look at how these two online methods measure up on their own and in sync.

When comparing search marketing vs. social media, search is more effective for some online objectives while social is the hands-down choice for others. For example, lead generation is better achieved through the high-visibility, low-cost methods of search marketing. This appears to be the consensus among both B2C and B2B marketers.

Building brand awareness involves a completely different marketing approach that makes increasing exposure the primary mission. Most marketers agree thatsocial media is superior to search marketing for these scenarios.

When it comes to maximizing the visibility of local businesses, twice as many consumers rely on search engines. This statistic holds true for all kinds of local businesses, from professional service companies to establishments such as restaurants and bars.

Finally, most marketers prefer social media over search marketing when the goal is interactivity. Social media nurtures an ongoing online dialogue and creates a genuine sense of connection that simply cannot be achieved by search alone.

Today, marketers are realizing that combining these digital dynamos can lead to the greatest results of all. Our increasingly digital world is blurring the lines between social and search, with social networks adding search features, and search engines launching social components. The Web has gotten wise to their mutual power and now marketers are following suit for success.

Infographic by

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