Join us to hear David Murray discuss “De-Mystifying Social Media and How to Make Social Media work for Your Business.”
Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Time: 7:30 AM — 9:00 AM
Ravinia Club
2 Ravinia Club Drive
Suite #100
Atlanta, GA 30346
David Murray (@DaveMurr) is the Social Web Communications Director for re:group (www.regroup.us), a fully integrated marketing and communications firm in Ann Arbor, MI and member of SEFF.
David has created fully integrated digital and social media campaigns in the health care, franchise, nonprofit, and both B2B and B2C sectors. David is a national speaker on digital communications and social media best practices. He is a published author on the subject.
Come, learn, and share your ideas with the group.
Bring your questions, too!
Register online today at
www.SoutheastFranchiseForum.com.
Advanced Reservations Are Required***
Deadline for Reservations is Friday, August 5th at 3 PM. Non-Members of SEFF and Guests Pay $15 per Breakfast Meeting.
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May 24 – 26, 2011 – re:group will be heading to New York for Blog World and the Social Media Business Summit the world’s largest and most comprehensive new media and social media conference. re:group’s social media director, David Murray, will be speaking to business owners on building their content bubble. We have just been notified that our session is ranked in the top 50 sessions of this 250 session conference. This three day event is one of the biggest and best social media conferences happening to date. Follow #BWENY on Twitter. re:group will also be covering the event and posting updates to our website.
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From MediaPost, some new insights into social media usage.
According to a new study by Social Media Examiner, prepared by Michael A. Stelzner, social media has gone mainstream. And for businesses it represents an unprecedented marketing opportunity that transcends traditional middlemen and connects companies directly with customers. Two years ago, businesses were uncertain about social media. Now it’s here to stay and companies are rapidly responding to new social media opportunities.
Major findings from this report contain insight into how marketers are currently using social media and their future plans:
90% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business. One third of all social media marketers want to know how to monitor and measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media and integrate their social media activities. 58% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and more than a third invest 11 or more hours weekly.
77% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2011.
70% of marketers want to learn more about Facebook and 69% want to learn more about blogging.
The number-one advantage of social media marketing is generating more business exposure, as indicated by 88% of marketers. Increased traffic (72%) and improved search rankings (62%) were also major advantages.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in that order. Facebook has eclipsed Twitter to take the top spot since the 2010 study.
Only 28% of businesses are outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing.
The overwhelming majority (93%) of respondents indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes, and a significant 90% of marketers said that social media was important.
The self-employed (67%) and small business owners with 2 or more employees (66%) were more likely to strongly agree.
More B2B companies have been using social media longer than a year (52.6% reported 1 year or more) than their B2C counterparts (46.2% indicated 1 year or longer). In 2010, only 31% of marketers were using social media for 1 or more years. Now that number has grown to 50%.
58% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more each week and 34% for 11 or more hours weekly. 15% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media.
Those with more years of social media experience spend more time each week conducting social media activities. For example, 63% of people with 3 or more years of experience spend more than 10 hours a week doing social media activities. Only 41% of those with 1 to 3 years experience spend that much time.
Time Commitment For Social Media Marketing
There’s a direct relationship between how long marketers have been using social media and their weekly time commitment. For people just beginning with social media, 59% spend 1 to 5 hours per week. However, for those who have been doing this for a few months or longer, most spend 6 hours or more per week on social media activities.
A significant 47% of marketers who have more than 3 years experience spend at least 16 hours per week focused on social media activities.
There’s a direct relationship between age and time spent on social media. The younger the marketer, the more time he or she spends on social media. People aged 20 to 29 years spend more time than other age groups using social media marketing (with 41% spending 11+ hours weekly), followed by 30- to 39-year-olds (37% spending 11+ hours per week). This is an increase over the 2010 study.
The number-one benefit of social media marketing is standing out in an increasingly noisy world. 88% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. Improving traffic and subscribers was the second major benefit, with 72% reporting positive results.
Nearly two-thirds of marketers indicated a rise in search engine rankings was a benefit of social media marketing.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were the top four social media tools used by marketers, with Facebook leading the pack. In 2010, Twitter was in first place with 88% and Facebook was close behind with 87%. Since 2010, Twitter lost 4%, LinkedIn lost 7% and Facebook gained 5%. In the 2009 study, only 77% of businesses were using Facebook.
The self-employed (80%) and owners of small businesses (78%) were more likely to use LinkedIn. Larger businesses were more likely to use YouTube or other video and less likely to use blogs (68%+).
At least 73% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube/video, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. A significant 86% said they have no plans to utilize MySpace or will reduce their efforts.
Source: Social Media Examiner April 2011
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People form opinions about the look of your website in 1/20th of a second – as little as 50 milliseconds -
according to Canadian researchers. In the blink of an eye, web surfers make nearly instantaneous judgments of a web site’s “visual appeal.” The judgments they form in that short amount of time color how they see your business, and you. Strong visual appeal can even draw attention away from usability issues.
Researchers led by Dr. Gitte Lindgaard at Carleton University in Ontario found that in that short time, people form an impression about credibility and usability which has an impact on continued use or purchase. In fact, they found that even though your site may have superior products, services, or usability, an initial negative impression from a poor or slow design can steer customers towards your competition.
“My colleagues believed it would be impossible to really see anything in less than 500 milliseconds,” Dr. Gitte Lindgaard told Nature, which reported the research Lindgaard published in Behaviour and Information Technology. Yet in as many as 50 ms, people formed judgments about the images they glimpsed. Not surprisingly, young people could glean more information in that time than older study participants.
For a website, good design is a combination of user-friendly architecture, interesting subject presentation and high visual appeal – not things you’ll find in sites that are slapped together hastily. It’s also important that your site seem unique to you, so using the same stock images or off-the-shelf template your competitors have used isn’t a good idea, either.
If your business is depending more and more on e-commerce or online marketing, excellent design and content are becoming increasingly important, not less so. Make sure you’re not selling yourself short.
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How many times have you been reading an article and find something new you’re really interested in? You are then faced with the dilemma of trying to remember it so you can research it later when you’re done reading the article, or you open a new window to research it. 10 minutes later you’ve forgotten about the article you were reading in the first place.
Apture solves this problem with in-browser search results.
I stumbled across this purely by accident while browsing on Read Write Web’s site. Highlight text, and a “Learn More” button displays:
Then, when you click on “Learn More” another small window displays within your browsing session that displays Wikipedia results, results from the site you’re currently browsing, Google and Bing results. You also have the “Videos” and “Images” buttons at the top that display YouTube and Google Images results.
What is so amazing about this is that Apture allows you to browse within these search results, all within the small window – without ever leaving the site you’re on. The other great aspect to it is that you selectively highlight and choose the words you want to look up. You don’t have to worry about hovering over a hidden link and launching an annoying pop-up when you’re in the middle of an article.
It is great for the consumer as a research tool, and great for businesses because it keeps users on their site longer. And yes, you can purchase advertising within the Apture window.
While this feature is not yet widely available, (currently on New York Times, Financial Times, Time, Reuters to name a few), you can download an Apture browser extension that allows you to use it on any site. You can download it here: http://www.apture.com/extension/
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One-point-three billion dollars – not bad for an event created by the National Retail Federation in 2005. CyberMonday started as a gimmick to get people to shop at their desks on the first workday after Black Friday. This year, it saw a 16% growth in sales and topped a billion dollars for the first time – and it’s not even the biggest online sales day of the year. That comes sometime in the middle of December.
Even though Cyber-Shopping is still just a small percent of holiday sales – between 7% and 10% – it’s still quite a bump for online retailers. It also signals that there is more consumer optimism and willingness to spend – a boost for the economy. And all of this bodes well for online marketers, too. Sales were pushed up through promotion, both online and off. Take a look at the numbers below.
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We are always listening and learning at re:group. Here is an update on where some of us will be this Fall and information on how you might participate.
September 28, 2010 Social Media Club of Detroit presents Scott Stratten’s #UnBook Tour
6 – 8PM at the Detroit Public Library. Scott Stratten is the President of Un-Marketing.com. He is an expert in Viral, Social and Authentic marketing, which he refers to as un-marketing. Over 60,000 people follow him on Twitter. David Murray, our Director of Social Web founded this club. If you are interested please let us know, we would be glad to have you join us as our guest. For more details click here. Read more »
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I very seldom forward links or emails to people in my office. Something really has to make me sit up and take notice before I’ll inflict it on unwilling victims. But this morning, when I read Christopher Penn’s blog entry, “No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from”, I felt I had to share.
So many times when I’m reading online, the content and comments are so full of vitriol, it’s almost physically painful. Don’t you get tired of all the “nattering nabobs of negativism” yourself? If so, here’s my challenge: read Penn’s blog entry and take it to heart. Social and online media have so much power that they really can make a difference, in peoples’ lives and in the world. It’s a shame to give it over to the dark side.
Remember, all you Peter (and Peggy) Parkers out there: with great power comes great responsibility. Use yours wisely. (And forgive me for mixing my sci-fi references.)
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We have spent the last year acquiring staff and technical resources to provide our clients with new media and marketing resources in the area of digital as well as social web expertise.
Social Media Marketing
The reality is that in business you can no longer ignore social media. Whether you choose to engage or not, you will be a part of the social media community. And, for most marketers, developing a strategy is now a part of an integrated media presence in this rapidly changing environment. Within a comprehensive consulting package, we can provide you the following Social Media Marketing services:
Brand and Reputation Monitoring
Listening and monitoring of your customers’ behavior and brand engagement online. This extends into providing documentation of their behavior and provides a solid plan of attack for any social media campaign or customer engagement.
Campaign Development and Execution
Suggested strategies focus on an overall social media marketing strategy as it relates to your business. It then expands into the appropriate communication channels and applications, available to your customers and stakeholders.
Implementation of Social Media Marketing Strategies
We can assist you in implementing social marketing campaigns within current marketing and advertising initiatives. We believe an integrated marketing approach of both traditional and social media is essential.
Content and Communication Strategy
This includes overall strategy, creation, and management of all content initiatives. This would also include content optimization and determining successful communication channels where your customers engage.
Campaign Management
We can oversee and report on any social media campaign. This would include online socially-driven campaigns, contests, mobile app campaigns, email marketing and even offline events.
Continual Client Education
The social web is organic and is in constant change. We continuously keep abreast of the latest trends. The strategies we suggest are built on our knowledge of these trends and current consumer behaviors.
We would love to share our expertise with you, or just update you on emerging trends. For more information, contact Carey Jernigan at 734.327.6630 or carey.jernigan@regroup.us
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Last week, on the suggestion of good friend and business associate, Rob Falls of Falls Communications, I drove to Cleveland to meet with a couple interested in expanding their franchise business. So I did some homework on the company, put together a basic introductory deck on our capabilities and point of view on branding, hopped in the car and headed for Cleveland not knowing really what to expect.
On arrival at the first store of this small but growing franchise, the founder and his wife shared their story and their treated me to a sampling of their product (which was great). We then did a brief reconnaissance of several other franchise locations and settled in to talk about their situation.
They are at a critical point in their development where they have a solid, differentiated concept, they have successful stores open and people interested in buying their franchises. Now they are considering what is truly required for exponential growth. Does it require additional people? Capital? If they seek outside investment does it mean loss of control?
It was pretty clear they could use some help. But not help developing marketing materials or even marketing strategy. They needed help determining what their options were and what they personally wanted to do. My advice to them was to join the International Franchise Association or at least attend the IFA conference in February. I offered to introduce them to successful people in their category and my friends at Focus Brands, Dwyer Group, Service Brands and Service Master who have built successful multi-franchise systems. They understood immediately that it would be a good thing to talk to others who have been where they are and have done what they are trying to do, and were grateful for the advice.
Driving home I felt really good about the trip. I was profoundly grateful that 30+ years of serving franchise companies and 25 years of IFA membership have created this incredible network of franchise professionals I can reach out to and help others connect with. No, the day will probably not directly result in any immediate revenue for re:group, but I hopefully made two new friends in the industry and look forward to helping them determining how best to grow their business. As my friend Scott puts it, it was a deposit in the Karma bank that ultimately will be repaid in kind.
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