Are you using social media to promote your business successfully? Or are you still watching unsure of the advantage your company will gain? I only advise social media when a company has their other advertising plans working well. That includes that their website is built well and has optimized SEO and PPC marketing efforts.

I am going to make a statement you rarely, if ever, will hear. Social media may not be right for you, for your business, because you can get greater ROI elsewhere and/or you aren’t prepared to execute it regularly.

Social media success depends on regularly posting to the networks that your customers are on and developing a loyal following. In all honesty, it is not quick or easy though in theory it is simple. Determine which social media has the biggest audience of your customers and engage them there. Sounds easy but it can use a lot of time with difficulty in measuring results. Measuring results is more than how many people saw your post.

Coca Cola was one of the first brands to embrace and use Facebook and other social platforms to market their brands. 2 years ago they evaluated their efforts and Ad Age published that Coca Cola found the social media attributed to “0” sales. That’s correct. Their big efforts on Facebook did not achieve any sales of their product. They were ok with that because their efforts on Facebook and other social media sites is to increase brand visibility and engagement.

Please continue reading because you have to define the results you want from social media before interviewing consultants. If they tell you they can show results quickly it may not be the results you expect.

Read More

Inbound marketing solutions help businesses' websites rank higher on search engine result pages. Higher ranks help get more web traffic. The more traffic websites get, the more business leads they generate. The more business leads there are, the more e-commerce sales opportunities there are.

Basically, inbound marketing strategies lead directly to big profits. In fact, e-commerce generated about $1 trillion in 2011, and about $1.2 trillion in 2013, showing that it continues to grow and grow each year.

Read More

Visuals increase response rates for every type of marketing effort from direct mail and ads to emails and blogging. So visuals are highly effective in social posts.

Read More

We've all read and been told to have social icons in emails headers or footers to grow your fan base and followers. It's important to test subject lines and offers to determine which get the best response. Tracking marketing results is a no-brainer for experienced marketers and business owners. Besides these obvious activities there is more you can do to achieve social marketing and email success.

A well crafted email and social media strategy to current customers is built on quality data and measurable goals.

Read More

By 2015, it is expected that over $30 billion worth of sales will be attributed to social media network referrals. Social media platforms continue to grow and evolve. Facebook and Twitter are pushing to grow their adword sales and deliver relevant posts to their users. Facebook's IPO resulted in smaller organic visibility for everyone. This hasn't diminished the interest in using social networks to reach customers.

Chirpify allows brands to sell right on Twitter. With over 230 million users, it was a natural shift for Twitter to embrace eCommerce. Brands that can develop strong followings and push custom Tweets can include #BuyNow to conduct an instant transaction.

Big companies see the power of social marketing and social content. H&M used Twitter to reveal items from their collaboration with Isabel Marant. Nicki Minaj debuted a few of her creations on Instagram. Adding the "celebrity" facet to the social message heightens social exposure. But you don't need to have the big name to benefit. Small brands and companies can use social networks to do A B testing of their messages and delivery to find the style that gets them the best ROI.

Read More

A MarketForce survey over 80% of consumers cited the social media activity influenced their purchase decisions. Shopper stated they check social networks before to making a final purchase. For small brands fighting to gain their share, the shopper insight indicates a big opportunity to convert and close. For global brands the number may seem small.

Smart brands are leveraging social marketing to influence their consumers. The tone of social communication has a unique impact that adword campaigns can’t deliver. eCommerce brands connect with users through social networks. Social content can serve as an alternative to cookie driven advertising.

Read More

We have to accept that social networks are changing the way we shop. There are as many different networks as there are ways to influence some of your prospects and customers. A great number of people engage in several social channels increasing their sphere of influence as well as access to information. Technology combined with social media has allowed ecommerce sales to grow by double-digits in the past eleven months.

Read More