Rosh Sillars Social media and digital marketing for photographers.

1) Whats new. News, updates and releases related to digital marketing:

• A) New Google Social
• B) Pinterest
• C) 46% of people think tablets will replace laptops

2) Topics of the week – digital marketing and social media.

• A) Are businesses missing out on mobile?

3) App of Week: http://www.evernote.com
4) link of the week: http://mashable.com/2012/01/09/increase-google-rank/
5) Action item: Re – evaluate your mobile plan?

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In the early days of current social media we really didn’t know what to think of Twitter. For most it was a great new chat platform.  Over time we discovered Twitter is not about chatting.  Twitter is a media stream.

Twitter is the people’s AP wire.  With the New New Twitter the company is beginning to show more signs that it is truly  embracing its media stream role on the Web.

The new hash tag symbol section Discover is the first easy to use function on Twitter designed for following what’s news.

You can set up the left column to follow trends based on location such as your city, country or worldwide.  The page displays top comments, blog posts, videos and photographs related to your selected subject.  A new feature suggests specific people to follow most closely related to the topic. You can use the search box at the top of the page to find just about any public information desired on the planet.

When the next disaster strikes all you need to do is flip over to the discover tab and click the related #hashtag or trending topic to keep up to date on the most current information in the world.

Twitter is by far the fastest source of news and information anywhere.  Now that they have a tab for that, it will help to secure Twitter as the go to source of information.

Rosh

Rosh Sillars Social media and digital marketing for photographers.

Some businesses are lucky.  They have a great product, share their story with the right people and the company grows via word of mouth (marketing).  Sadly, it doesn’t work that way for all businesses. Fortunately, podcasts can help.

To win in your industry continuous education is a must.  Podcasts are like going back to school.  There are thousands of amateurs and experts who share helpful business, marketing and industry information that can support the development of new ideas and business growth.   Many of these people blog.  Blogs can offer great information, but they take a lot of time to read.   Podcasts may be listened to while doing something else.

Business owners and marketers should listen to podcasts during their commutes, while working on repetitive tasks and during down time.  iTunes is an excellent source for podcasts.  Below is a list of a few good marketing podcasts to get you started.

Marketing Podcast List:

Marketing Offer Coffee

Six Pixel of Separation

The Bean Cast

Duct Tape Marketing

Managing the Gray

The Driven Business (Our Podcast)

Rosh Sillars Social media and digital marketing for photographers.

1) Whats new? News, updates and releases related to digital marketing:

• A) Foursquare rolls out new buttons
• B) New Facebook insights
• C) New YouTube Design
• D) New Google Drop-down menu

2) Topics of the week – digital marketing and social media.

• A) Social media – You are talking but are you listening?
• B) CEO bans email and encourages social networking

3) The Driven Business Tips: Create a list of blog, or social media topic to draw from.
4) App of Week: Mixtab
5) link of the week: The Top 25 Social Media Terms You Need To Know
6) Action item: Take a look at the new insights for Facebook and Linkedin.

It really doesn’t matter what mistakes you make and who you offend if you are not focused on the right target.

You need to know who your audience is.  Too many professionals focus on connecting with people in their industry.  It’s not a bad idea to practice social media with people you know or members of  your community.  You can certainly learn a lot from experts in your field.  When it comes time to develop business relationships you need to leave the nest and knock on doors that are not as comfortable.

The people who need your product or service are generally not leaders in your field.  You need to ask yourself: “Who is your target market and what would they type in Google to find you?”.  Once you answer that question you should start blogging about it.  What topics would your target market talk about to people in their industry?  Can you add to the conversation?

Adding to the conversation is not immediately placing a link in a specialty group declaring you have the answer.  Adding to the conversation starts with listening.  Then begin asking questions, answering questions and sharing helpful examples other than your stuff.  When appropriate, after earning a little credibility and trust you can share some of your solutions.  I say that with caution because every group and social media platform has different tolerance levels.

If you feel you don’t have the time and patience for this, then social media is not right for you.

Building relationships takes time online or off.  Make sure you are spending your time wisely with the right people who may actually buy your product or service.

Rosh

Insights are statistics designed for administrators to visually see how well their posts are doing.  The system has multiple indicators such as  the size of the purple circles (seen below) indicating activity related to the page posts.  Administrators can also review the weekly total reach and the average number of people talking about the content on their page.

Clients often ask me what does the new metric people talking about this mean on Facebook.  The answer is the number of people who have shared your posts or have taken an action related your page over the last seven days.

Individual posts are also listed with information related to how well they performed.  Metrics found in the list include reach referring to the number of people who have seen your post.  Next are engaged users who have clicked on your post.  The third statistic is talking about this representing the number of people who liked, commented or shared your post. Last is called virality the total number of unique post views divided by the number of people  who have taken action (talking about this).  All the metrics are based on the following 28 days after a each post is published.

Facebook displays demographics such as age and location of the people who like your page.  They offer graphs related to reach, how people found the Facebook page and how often people return to the page. Additional metrics include page views, unique visitors and what pages or tabs they land on.

Facebook has added a new series of metrics related to check-ins.  If someone checks in to your business location through Facebook,  the system will now display helpful statistics. The statistics include the visitors age, location and if they checked in via the web or mobile device.  Unfortunately, Facebook will only show statistics for businesses who have a minimum of 30 people checking in per week.  Another aggravating Facebook limitation.

Don’t get caught up in every statistic.  Look for trends that will support the growth of your page.  Use the demographic information as a guide confirming that you are attracting the right people to your page.  There isn’t enough demographic information to answer all of your questions, but it is a good start.

In the past Facebook insights have not been as insightful as I had hoped, but they are improving.

Rosh

LinkedIn has excellent new statistics available for their groups.  The stats make it easier to decide if you are attracting the right audience to your professional group.  If you are considering participating in a LinkedIn group, you can now check out the demographics.

There are a number of good groups in LinkedIn.   Unfortunately, there are many groups that are a waste of your time.  When considering a group you should look beyond the title and observe the conversations.  If you find value in what people are talking about take a moment to review the new statistics.

Don’t judge a group only by the stats alone.

The statistics will tell you how many members belong to the group and how many comments were posted over the last week.  The system also has graphs to help you visualize the growth or decline of the group over time.

The demographics display where the majority of the members are located, their corporate rank and the types of jobs they do or manage.

Make sure you don’t join a group full of people who are only concerned about selling you something.  At the same time don’t be that person whose only focus is selling their stuff.  Listen and participate by asking and answering relevant questions.

Once you have a quality track record, you may earn the right to share your product or services as a solution when appropriate.  Of course, it all depends on the group polices and attitude of the participants.

Rosh