Posts Tagged blog
OLAA Attends Los Angeles Times Online Advertising and Social Media Seminar
Posted by Alyse Vultee in Branding, Media, News on July 17th, 2009
Yesterday (7/16), OLAA member Megan Guerra and I attended the Los Angeles Times’ Online Advertising and Social Media Seminar. The Seminar included a great panel of speakers including: Facebook, Ning, LA Times interactive and Passenger. The panel provided interesting insight, thoughts and recommendations around the world of social media and what it can provide for your business.
Megan and I felt that one of the biggest take aways worth sharing with you, was the panel’s thoughts on how to best manage your social media presence:
Be Social With Your Social Media Followers.
Social medial is growing rapidly as more and more people are becoming connected online. For companies, social media provides a way to gain feedback from your customers and your target audience(s). Now many may argue that for a company/brand, this open environment for “feedback” is dangerous, because you are giving people the opportunity to voice the good and the bad.
And it’s the BAD that is feared…
As the panel explained, the worst thing to do is to not be social! In other words, don’t open a social media account and ignore it! So be sure to stay relevant and active with your social media – give your followers a reason to check your Blog, Facbook, Twitter and so on. And most importantly, remember to listen to your followers and be sure to respond (so they know you are listening)!
How to manage feedback…
If your followers’ feedback is good, be happy, it is a FREE customer testimonial! Be sure to respond with a thank you or what have you.
And advice for if it is bad…don’t panic, don’t press delete! Instead, explain your take on the feedback, answer the concern, provide rationale, etc – by responding, you are letting your social media network (your customers) know that you are listening, that you DO care and that their opinion does matter.
So, for those who are in fear or unsure about joining the world of social media, consider the above and remember that staying in communication is key with all business efforts, and now a days, this includes Social Media.
Some Social Media Tips That Will Keep You “Social”:
Take advantage of the FREE network that social media provides and consider ideas such as:
– run a campaign or special offer (incentive for followers)
- run a survey (gain feedback)
- send messages/exciting news to your followers (acts a free email blast)
How Social Are YOU?
Posted by Alyse Vultee in Media, New Business, News on April 24th, 2009
I remember when Facebook launched and at the time, Facebook was only for college students – and to all of us who immediately joined, Facebook was the greatest thing since sliced bread! It was a new way for us to stay in-tune with the “happening” of friends from all over. However, at the time, I don’t know how many of us viewed our Facebook activity as social networking…it was just Facebook: new, fun, easy, entertaining and addicting!
Since Facebook the social networking world has truly exploded and the opportunities are endless! More and more websites have surfaced and with this evolution, the term of Social Networking has taken on a whole new meaning. Social Networking is no longer just for pleasure and fun, but it has also built a professional presence for companies as well.
From a business standpoint, a lot of people are asking “Why would I have a Social Networking presence for my company?” Well it is exactly that, presence! Web presence is like gold these days. Social Networking not only adds to your overall online presence, but it also: helps drive traffic to your website, builds brand awareness, gets people “talking” about you online and shows you, your employees, your customers and your competitors that you are keeping up with the online world.
However, this “online presence” may be foreign to some and not as important to others (though it should be), so what if I were to say that it can increase revenue?! It’s true… One of our retail clients recently ran a “Mother’s Day Special” ONLINE Sale. The sale was promoted via email blasts and social networking mentioning: their BLOG and Facebook.
It was a 5-day sale and the test was to see how well their consumers responded to an “online-only” special. After sending out only 2 email blasts and promoting via social networking – their online sale got picked up by a OC Register Blogger– who posted the promotion on the OC Register BLOG. Suddenly, sales were coming in referencing the OC Register BLOG post. In the end, the sale was a success – and there is no doubt in my mind that this client will continue to offer online promotions.
Here at Orange Label, we were able to recognize the value of being connected and we have made the leap into the Social Networking: BLOG, Facebook , Myspace and Twitter. If you are reading this BLOG, it is fair to assume that you are connected to the online world – but is your company? Social Networking keeps people connected, its fun and its easy – - and I don’t know about you, but I hate to be out of the loop!
If you are ready to make this Social Networking Leap, here is a great article for reference: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/social-media-and-social-network-starting-points/
