ProfNet - an online public relations service - has just launched a social media site called ProfNet Connect. As Maria Perez, one of the chief architects of ProfNetConnect, and director of the ProfNet newsrooom, explains, "ProfNetConnect is like LinkedIn for subject matter experts in media, social media, PR and online marketing." We were given a sneak peak into the service, before it went public, and we really liked it. The site has a ton of really great functionality including audio podcast upload capability, video upload capability, group creation, forums, blog platforms and more.
On Twitter, we were asked by Sandy Azzollini, director of online content and communications for PRNewswire (@sazzolini on Twitter), if we had any ideas on how to get more comments on the content produced on ProfNet Connect. So, to give a more detailed answer, we decided to answer the question here on our blog.
The first point is that you have to have content on the site that is highly useful to get people to engage with it. A few of our favorite social media sites come to mind here.
1. "You're the Boss", NYTimes blog. The blog targets a very specific niche - microbusiness owners. And the posts are very practical. They give information, tips, and perspectives that can actually be used by the community. This is one of the reasons the posts get so many comments. In particular, posts centered around online advertising and social media strategy receive a large share of comments. But also posts about hiring and rights of laborers and managing employees get a ton of comments.
2. Business.Gov. This is an online forum published by the Small Business Administration. They provide any kind of info you might need about small business management - everything from how to register a trade name, to licenses, how to keep your books, taxes, business law advice and more. The forum posts receive a lot of comments. In a short time, Business.Gov has reached a newsletter subscriber base of over 60K.
3. @ProfNet on Twitter. Maria Perez is the newsroom director of the ProfNet service. ProfNet is a service by PRNewswire. Maria posts urgent reporter requests to her Twitter feed for her followers to see. She gets excellent engagement. We ourselves have asked her questions, had conversations with her, and responded to inquiries published on her feed. One reason she gets such good engagement is because she is providing a very useful service that encourages people to come back for more.
The Takeaway
The point of all this is that generating engagement in social media really depends a lot on how useful your content is. The more useful the content, the more engagement you'll have. It might be a good idea to do some surveys or focus groups to find out precisely what sort of content your users want to consume. Then, build your content around user interest.
Showing posts with label engagement in social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label engagement in social media. Show all posts
Friday, September 17, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Social Media (Re)marketing
I don't know about you, but I'm so tired of the "social media marketing" hype I can hardly stomach it. So many self-proclaimed social media "experts" are talking about how great social media is for marketing without a shred of concrete evidence to back it. Enough already!
Nevertheless, our firm has also concluded that, amid the hype, there is an ounce of real meat here. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook do have some use in online marketing, albeit it peripheral and tenuous. So, rather than talk about social media "marketing", here I'd like to talk about social media REmarketing.
*What Do You Mean, Social Media Remarketing?
A little background. Our firm has concluded that, in general, social media works better as a client relations and customer service tool than as a marketing tool. If you just pump your Twitter/FB feeds with advertising and self" promoting, you won't get very far. If you publish useful, interesting info, you're doing better, but still are a ways off from strategic marketing. But the biggest positive impact of social media for us has been as a client relations/customer service tool.
We define marketing in two main ways
1. Putting products/services in front of the people who will buy
2. Related to no 1, generating leads of potential buyers
Now, given these definitions, how well do social media sites accomplish these? Well, in our experience, not so well. Aside from the occasional, unpredictable, random customer you get from social media "marketing", social media doesn't top the charts when compared with some other online methods to generate consumers It certainly doesn't perform as well as PPC or organic SEO. Not even close.
*Social Media and Client Relations
However, social media works very well for operational functions such as client relations, business updates and customer service. This, we think, is were you should focus your efforts in using social media. That said, if we can somehow tie these ancillary functions into marketing, then we may be able to ascertain what is social media's most suitable role in marketing.
*Social Media (Re)marketing
That's where the concept of "remarketing" comes in. One instance of social media remarketing is locating your current customers on Twitter or Facebook. We've done this and found that this works better. Current customers already know and trust your brand. (If they didn't they wouldn't be customers.) Therefore, they are much more likely to respond to you on Twitter or Facebook than a random or disinterested follower.
This presents you with another medium to communicate your brand, product or service. And as your immediate customers engage with your brand, others in the second degree of separation will see that engagement. This remarketing to current clients via social media can open up avenues for additional marketing.
Of course, all this remarketing has to be done strategically, and with proper netiquette and style, to be effective. It requires thinking about social media in new, creative ways. Social media marketing succes - in our opinion - is not really about a one-way advertising dump, but rather a conversation with current clients for the purposes of building those relationships.
Nevertheless, our firm has also concluded that, amid the hype, there is an ounce of real meat here. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook do have some use in online marketing, albeit it peripheral and tenuous. So, rather than talk about social media "marketing", here I'd like to talk about social media REmarketing.
*What Do You Mean, Social Media Remarketing?
A little background. Our firm has concluded that, in general, social media works better as a client relations and customer service tool than as a marketing tool. If you just pump your Twitter/FB feeds with advertising and self" promoting, you won't get very far. If you publish useful, interesting info, you're doing better, but still are a ways off from strategic marketing. But the biggest positive impact of social media for us has been as a client relations/customer service tool.
We define marketing in two main ways
1. Putting products/services in front of the people who will buy
2. Related to no 1, generating leads of potential buyers
Now, given these definitions, how well do social media sites accomplish these? Well, in our experience, not so well. Aside from the occasional, unpredictable, random customer you get from social media "marketing", social media doesn't top the charts when compared with some other online methods to generate consumers It certainly doesn't perform as well as PPC or organic SEO. Not even close.
*Social Media and Client Relations
However, social media works very well for operational functions such as client relations, business updates and customer service. This, we think, is were you should focus your efforts in using social media. That said, if we can somehow tie these ancillary functions into marketing, then we may be able to ascertain what is social media's most suitable role in marketing.
*Social Media (Re)marketing
That's where the concept of "remarketing" comes in. One instance of social media remarketing is locating your current customers on Twitter or Facebook. We've done this and found that this works better. Current customers already know and trust your brand. (If they didn't they wouldn't be customers.) Therefore, they are much more likely to respond to you on Twitter or Facebook than a random or disinterested follower.
This presents you with another medium to communicate your brand, product or service. And as your immediate customers engage with your brand, others in the second degree of separation will see that engagement. This remarketing to current clients via social media can open up avenues for additional marketing.
Of course, all this remarketing has to be done strategically, and with proper netiquette and style, to be effective. It requires thinking about social media in new, creative ways. Social media marketing succes - in our opinion - is not really about a one-way advertising dump, but rather a conversation with current clients for the purposes of building those relationships.
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