If your business is on Twitter and / or Facebook and you’re not handing out social media business cards you are missing a great opportunity! Instead of cramming all the info on your traditional business cards, have a stylish but inexpensive set printed to draw special attention to your tweets, Facebook & Linkedin statuses.
Look for another post coming soon “KILLER CRAZY SILLY COOL SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE BIZ CARDS” for you to check! Please subscribe to InovediaMarketing.com via RSS or EMAIL.
So, here you go (cue first line of song “This is how we do it”) :
Inovedia Marketing provides the following services, how can we help you?
Social Media Marketing
We provide training, monitoring, blogging & copy writing services which means we can just get you started or manage and build your social networking efforts!
Multimedia Production
Let us create your web videos! We have Emmy award winning talent and the know how to create high quality videos & podcasts on a budget. For bigger projects, our access and established relationships with full service facilities means the sky is the limit!
Web Design & New Media Development
Put the web to work for you! From tweaks to complete redesigns, we’ll transform your website into an engaging resource your ideal customers will frequent! Ask how we can deliver highly target-able audiences to your door through new media product development! We can extend your brand, drive traffic and multiply your reach!
General Creative Services
Copy-writing, design services, online and traditional marketing campaign development, contest creation & management. Ad creation including banner ads, print, radio, television, newspaper and direct mail.
Lose focus and customers get the wrong message from your new media marketing!
FOCUS is the number one obstacle you will face in any “new media,” web or social networking project be it company wide tweeting or starting a Facebook fan page. Without focus businesses “forget” to update websites, they post links customers don’t care about and generally send mixed messages. It’s no coincidence focus is also the number one obstacle in any marketing project! Everything your company does involving new media – even the content – is marketing and the possibilities are endless so it’s very easy slip off track.
Set guidelines “What Would My Brand do?”
Is your brand loud and fun, like the t-shirt above? Use your brand’s “personality” as a guide for what you should post on Twitter or Facebook. A comedy club might post jokes when a Lexus dealership would not. While B2B might connect with customers via Linkedin.com, everyone should consider starting a “brand” account on Twitter in which you only post business related updates, successes, discussion and events. Facebook is an exceptional place for small business owners to connect with customers as “friends” to exercise your personal brand. Everyone wants to know the owner!
Make a plan. Check it, tweak and repeat.
You never really know what any given moment will bring, so executing a plan might be just be your biggest challenge! Whatever you decide to do, make sure you sit down with the calendar you really rely on and schedule it! Schedule daily or weekly updates for Facebook, plan out the next 3 months worth of recipes for your blog. Keeping the plan simple and making it a priority will improve your chances for success tenfold. Create ways to measure your success so you cannot fail! If you were to create a goal to get your regular customers to be your friends on Facebook by sending them email invites you should check your progress in a month or so. If your efforts are stalled tweak your approach. Consider handing out social media business cards, direct mail or contesting. The point is, keep on eye on your progress and tweak it if it isn’t working.
Need help with your online product, projects or marketing? There are many free programs available for scheduling tweets and Facebook statuses and there are ways to have your social media sites monitored (for free) as well. If you cannot be active on the sites, please seek out other solutions because at the minimum you should be reasonably “accessible.” If you are asked questions or worse, taken to task, you need to be aware and you need to respond!
If you need help, there are a lot of resources “out there” that are very cost effective and you’re welcome to shoot me an email or begin a discussion right here in the comments.
You’re sound asleep in the middle of the night. You wake in a cold sweat because you’ve got it! There it is, the golden marketing idea that will bring the masses to your door! So, where do you go next? Who’s going to execute it? Is it even realistic?
I’d like to introduce you to mFormer.com because I think their concept could help a lot of people get started on marketing projects big or small. Their new online resource for locating a wide range of marketing services and vendors could be especially helpful for business owners and marketers who lack they’re own marketing departments. mFormer.com also offers a free referral service, you can submit your project and they will get you started with vendor suggestions. If you’re a marketer you can create a free listing in their directory here.
SHOP AROUND: Whether you want to start at Facebook community, flyer a neighborhood or spread viral videos, don’t be afraid to schedule face to face or phone interviews with numerous marketers. Even seasoned marketers learn more about projects just by requesting bids and occasionally you may find out a project is more affordable than you thought! If you can’t hire out an entire project it’s a great idea to hire an experienced marketer as a project manager. They can help shape your idea, evaluate the folks you want to involve or simply layout guidelines and directions for you follow.
AVOID “DIY” MARKETING PITFALLS: Like many projects, marketing projects are often more complicated that initially thought which makes them more expensive in time & dollars! Let’s face it, everyone’s trying to save a buck and most don’t have a choice, but many projects are better not done than done “on the cheap.”
Try to avoid:
Taking on too much. Whether it’s you or your staff, everyone makes this mistake and it’s an opportunity killer! You can get sloppy, distracted and so can your staff. Be fair to yourself, can you really make this project a priority?
Recruiting your sister, cousin, uncle or the next door neighbor’s kid for “skilled labor.” Even if they are Photoshop experts, for example, “free labor” tend to miss the big picture. Designs tend to lack brand consistency or worse.
Handing over Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts to interns! This is your identity & reputation we’re talking about. It’s also an opportunity for you to listen to your customers!
What’s your story? Got a horror story from a project you should have hire out or tips on hiring the right company for the job? Please share in the comments.
While I have no direct affiliation with mFormer.com and I have not used their services myself, in the spirit of “transparency” I want to point out that you will find InovediaMarketing.com listed on their site in the Social Media Marketing category. We offer new & traditional media marketing services such as multimedia project management.
It’s fairly common to see an ad that has absolutely nothing to do with the product it’s supposed to be selling. Often referred to as “concept creative” or “high concept advertising” ads of this nature can fail miserably in two ways: an ad leaves the wrong impression about the product (such as a silly ad for a serious product) or the product is lost in the creativity of the ad. So why am I about to suggest you try it? Because when done right the results can be amazing and the process is a blast!
Sound like it’s over your head? It’s not and you can apply this technique to video, print, radio, or whatever! Here are a couple of great examples from the Google Mobile Blog:
These videos aren’t just memorable and entertaining; they also showcase new and different ways of looking at these gadgets, which is exactly how Google wants you to associate their mobile efforts. You can find more Google videos like this here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MobileTrix
Here’s a memorable way we showcased the slogan, “Accurate, Balanced, To the Point,” for a holiday promo:
Ok, here are some tips just to get you started:
First narrow down what you are selling. Notice the Google videos focus just on phones in simple surroundings and the holiday promo focuses on just 3 words.The simpler you make it, the more memorable the ad will be and the more your product will stand out.
Start with a long list of common metaphors, comparisons and relationships that are easily relatable to your product, but preferably not in the literal sense. For example a fire truck is obviously related to hot sauce. Keep it simple, make sure it’s obvious.
Once you’ve gotten to this point, you just need to avoid a couple pitfalls:
Pick an overall theme that’s appropriate for your product or brand.In other words, don’t get goofy with a serious product or try to shock the audience when selling a conservative product.
Be aware of your target audience’s age and make sure you’re age appropriate.
Test your concept! The best way to find out if you’re idea is “on target” is by rounding up potential customers and asking them, not by asking your immediate family and friends. I also highly recommend posting your ideas as discussions in LinkedIN groups and asking for feedback from peers & marketers.
Want a non-video example? Here’s an entire website built using “being in the doghouse” to connect to potential customers.Women can put their guy “in the doghouse” and suggest gifts that will get them out of the doghouse. Check it out at: http://bewareofthedoghouse.com
Here’s one of my all time favorite ads:
In this clever ad, a fight breaks out between the bear and a guy over salmon… you may ask yourself what does that have to do with John West brand and the answer is “it’s so good you do anything to get it” – a good reinforcement of their message.
At the end of the day only one thing matters and it’s the answer to this question: Did the audience remember your product?
Good luck!
If you are interested in clever ads I highly recommend visiting NowThatsaCoolIdea blog where I ran across the Doghouse website.
This website is dedicated to my parents, in-laws and other small business owners who rely on talent, drive and ambition to make ends meet in an ever changing economy where big business has the upper hand and they are challenged at every turn.
“My intent is to get you thinking about more creatively engaging your customers and perhaps remove some of the new media marketing mystique. My goal is to get you beyond advertising using conversational marketing.” -Richard Bouchez
Due to its popularity this small business resource is evolving from a series of articles originally (and still) posted on www.RABpromo.com called “Your Business Beyond Email: Basic Multimedia Marketing.” The series includes chapters on Multimedia Marketing for Small Businesses, with chapters to be broken out into individual articles for InovediaMarketing.com such as“”How to” and Demonstrational Video Tips & Tricks, Using Customers as Spokespeople, Choosing a Videographer, Connecting With Customers: Marketing Tips and 6 Random Rules for Owning a Website. These and new articles will be hosted on InovediaMarketing.com resulting in a new, more comprehensive, NEW MARKETING resource for small businesses.
WHY NOW? In a time when the economy is tanking, friends and colleagues who build websites are busier than ever. Makes sense, I guess, as the web offers small businesses (all businesses really) cost effective ways to grow. Unfortunately, what many small business owners don’t see are the endless possibilities beyond the website and how they can use the web to start very profitable conversations. These conversations can build customer loyalty, deliver monetize-able research, entertain or otherwise gain attention (or trust) and even provide alternative revenue streams.
Until recently multimedia campaigns cost tens of thousands of dollars or more, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) was a tool touted by advertising agencies because it took a team to manage and R&D (research and development) was a luxury only big business could afford. Times have changed. Now with a good plan, a little flexibility and some well thought out strategies the web can work for you just as effectively as the previously mentioned tools work for big business.
Now, before we go any further here are a couple quick points I’d like to make for the cynical.
Don’t think of this as “a computer thing” it isn’t… it’s a marketing thing.
Executing these marketing tips and tactics won’t be free, while these services may not cost you money they will cost you time. Consider yourself warned, online services that cost you money can add up real quick! I’ll help you keep it cost effective.
This is not a get famous overnight scheme, it’s a series of potential opportunities that could grow your brand, bring you new customers and bring you new ways to profit. That being said, you could get famous overnight… a few do hit the jackpot and they hit it big.
This is absolutely the time to get online, not too early or too late and it’s more important than ever for those that don’t have obvious e-commerce business. The first product in a market is often the big winner; this can also be true for new media adopters. The second in a market takes market share away from the first and the 3rd just needs to be there to prove they’re in the game!
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Richard Bouchez is a certified Inbound Marketing professional specializing in Social Media Marketing & New Media content development. Richard’s web, audio & video work has been honored with Emmy, Promax & CBA awards.
You’re sound asleep in the middle of the night. You wake in a cold sweat because you’ve got it! There it is, the 
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