Social Media Marketing and You

Over the next few weeks, I will be delivering a sort of white paper on social media marketing, including definitions, current stats, frameworks, most popular tools, ideas, and how to develop ROI and measuring tools. This can be a good basis for building your own socialm media marketing strategy.

Check out my “social media” and “marketing” tags for more entries on on this topic.

Social Media Marketing Strategy: Adding it All Up

STATISTICS

Use of Ads in SMM

• Highly receptive to leisure ads (not receptive to necessity ads)
• No longer push toward banner ads
• Push is for ads on SM networks, such as Facebook
• Google adwords still used

Social Media Marketing Strategy: Online Ups and Downs

STATISTICS

Overall fastest and slowest growing categories in Canada online:

Top

1. Services

2. Search/navigation

3. Conversational media

4. Photos

5. Community/women

Bottom

1. Online trading

2. Genealogy

3. Incentives

4. Lotto sweepstakes

Social Media Marketing Strategy: By the Number

STATISTICS

Online behaviours

• Almost 24 million Canadians online in a month, spending an average of 46 hours online per person
• 94% of online population perform searches, conducting 33 searches per person in a month
• 85% of online population stream a video, viewing an average of 120 videos per viewer per month
• 85% of online population visit a social networking site, spending 6 hours per month per visitor
• 63% of online population visit a blog site in a month
• Social networking attracts all demos

Social Media Marketing Strategy: Why use it?

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

Why use Social Media Marketing in campaigns?

Primarily, SM acts as brand filter – whether we’re out there in the SM netw0rks or not, our brand is being shaped in this environment. It is better we help shape it. Second, people are 80% more likely act (in our case donate) based on a friend’s recommendation. It is important that we encourage the influencers in the SM networks to convince their friends that supporting CWF is the way to go.

During a SM campaign, the goal is to move visitors down the conversion funnel by engage them in meaningful dialogue which in turn will hopefully cause a shift in brand awareness.

Social Media Interivew

Check out the interview of Tobi McIntyre, editor of Dragonfly Media Publishing on the use of social media in businesses for the June Editor’s Association of Canada conference.

Social Media Marketing Strategy: What’s It All About

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

Definition & Framework

Social media marketing (SMM) is an engagement with online communities to generate exposure, opportunity and donations. The number-one advantage is generating exposure for the organization, followed by increasing traffic and building lists of possible donors.

SMM exists within the Web 2.0 world, which follows the concept of “eyeballs versus hands.” Essentially, users of the internet are no longer satisfied with just viewing content we push at them – they want to be the creators now. It is called the “Conversation Nation” since it utilizes online social networks to spread the message of a brand or organization. The idea behind this concept is that third party promotion is the best method for delivering your message.

This can be seen in the web activities that are on their way up: Social Networks, Viral/Word of Mouth Marketing, Friends/Influencers/Trend Spreaders, Building Community, Widgets/Widgads (replacing banner ads for Web 2.0). What are on the way down online are banner ads, keywords and blind blasting in email campaigns.

Check out more definitions:

• Wikipedia
• YouTube

The Low-Down on Mobile

Considering bringing your organization into the wonderful and daunting world of mobile marketing? Here are some quick points for your research:

• Ensure your destination site has WAP (Wireless Access Protocol).

• Texting is still important. The new and improved trend toward iPhones and smart technology is still only 1% of the general Global population.

• Carriers tend to charge roughly 4.5 cents per text.

• To develop and push a simple text delivery campaign costs roughly $1,500 (one-time fee) and $500 a month.

• To develop and push a slightly more advanced set up such as a contenst costs roughly $7,500 (one-time fee) and $1,000 a month.

• Make sure you know all the facts before you get started – you don’t want to deliver a half-cocked plan that confuses and ultimately smudges your brand.

• For your first attempt, make it small – focus your plan on a small event looking for a specific outcome.

Get Your Own Google Alerts

For those who do not have these, Google alerts are a neat way of staying in touch with specific content posted on the Internet. You register for a Google alert using specific keywords and then any time those keywords are posted online, you are sent a link in an email. Check out two Google alerts I received over the weekend for Hinterland Who’s Who (in this case, they were blog postings):

• Remembering Hinterland: By Bundy(Bundy)
  If you’re Canadian and over the age of 30, chances are at some point growing up you’ve seen the Hinterland Who’s Who commercials on TV from the Canadian Wildlife Service and Environment Canada. These informative vignettes first appeared …
  Bundy’s Blog – http://bundysblog.blogspot.com/
• I saw you on TV!: By Mongoose(Mongoose)
  I knew right away that it was a red-breasted nuthatch, because it looked and moved exactly like the red-breasted nuthatch in the Hinterland Who’s Who vignette. Well, I suppose that’s a big “duh,” but then, people in real life are …
  Trucks and the City – http://trucksandthecity.blogspot.com/

To get your own Google alerts:

1. go to www.google.com/alerts,
2. enter your search term in the box provided (don’t forget to add quotation marks around a specifc phrase, such as “Hinterland Who’s Who”),
3. set the type of search you’d like Google to make,
4. the frequency of alerts and
5. your email.
6. Start again if you’d like more than one alert!

And you’re all set! Enjoy this easy way of staying in touch with the buzz online.

Q & A with Windigo Author

Michelle Hamilton

What’s behind the minds of Lily and Will, lead characters in recently published book by Dragonfly Media Publishing, Windigo? Find out in this recent interview with author Michelle Hamilton.

Q: The heroine in your most recent novel, Windigo, is a witch. Why foray into the mystical for this character?

MH: The mystical world has always fascinated me – adding it into my books isn’t new for me. In Child of Chaos, the statue of Seth, the Egyptian god of chaos, is imbued with mystical qualities, and in that book’s sequel, Child of War, which I’m currently writing, that mystical world will be even stronger. I wanted to explore that world even more with Lily in Windigo. I wanted to portray a modern “kitchen” witch, her day-to-day activities and thought processes and then contrast her with the person she becomes: a witch with substantially more power.

Q: Will is an interesting blend of soldier, labourer and woodsman. Which do you feel identifies him most closely?

MH: It was kind of the point with Will to show a split persona. That’s part of his struggle in the novel, a fact that’s highlighted in Chapter 12 when he tells Lily about the “skin name” his Native American uncle had given him: Man-split-in-two. Part of the resolution in the book has to do with his ability to find a balance with these two people within him – just as Lily needs to find that balance between being a witch and being an everyday citizen of modern-day Munising, Michigan.

Q: The reader learns right from the start that there is a history between Will and Lily. Why is this important to their adult characters?

MH: I’m not sure if it was necessarily important to the characters when they became adults – it definitively affected their relationship when Will and Lily met again but I think they would have been drawn to each other regardless. They both have old souls.

Q: What did you like the most about Lily? Least?

MH: I think what I liked most and least about Lily is the same: her ability to self-sacrifice. She is constantly sacrificing herself for those around her – even those who do not think well of her – because that’s the kind of person she is. While noble, at times I wanted her to chuck all the responsibilities and simply tell the ignorant townspeople to deal with their own problems. But then she wouldn’t have overcome those issues later on. I think it is a good lesson in perseverance and acceptance.

Q: Is Will your favourite male lead in your books?

MH: That’s hard. There are parts of him that I like better than Jozef in The Sleeping Assassin or Alex in Child of Chaos, but then parts of those characters I like better than Will. For example, I like Will’s steady calm and the way he woos Lily, but then I also like Alex’s temper or Jozef’s commanding presence.

Look for more upcoming Q&A with the authors or check out these novels.