The Curse of the Divider...

By Jade Rice, Digital Marketing Executive

It’s an easy trap to fall into; one that I, myself, have been witness to and, yes, I am ashamed to say, may have even been a part of.

I, readers, used to be *deep breath* a Divider.

A Divider. That terrible type of person who divides - even pigeon-holes – office teams into ‘Old School’ and ‘New School’. ‘Old School’, in my case, consisting of marketing or PR activity that often consists of offline, more traditional means of selling to your audience; telemarketing, newspaper/magazine press releases, direct mail, etc. And my school; the ‘New School’, comprising of social media, SEO, PPC, video and all the LOLs that came with being digital. I believed that ‘Old School’ and ‘New School’ were mutually exclusive, separate entities; there was no cross-over. ‘Old School’ did whatever ‘Old School’ did – and ‘New School’? Well, we rocked.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Well, not totally wrong. ‘New School’ did rock – but so did ‘Old School’. I just couldn’t see the power of it. And I certainly couldn’t see the power of – well, I’ll get to that…

One day, I was cornered into making a telemarketing call. Ugh. Moi? Telemarketing?! As it turned out, the client I was asked to contact was actually somebody I’d been trying to connect with across social media but, whatever I did, I couldn’t get a response. None of the usual tactics had worked and I was running out of ideas. The client, I discovered during the (hesitant) call, was, in fact, new to the concept of all things digital and was still finding his feet – but he was more than happy to chat over the phone.

Then the penny dropped.

The call had provided me with the opportunity to speak to this client directly, find out what made him tick, what it was that he needed for his business – questions that, in this particular case, I couldn’t answer via any digital methods.

The call resulted in a social media campaign for the client and total belief in the power of cross-marketing; the power of bridging the gap between ‘Old School’ and ‘New School’, and the realisation that, no matter how devoted you are, there are just some things that one type of marketing channel cannot do – but, bridged with another, you can get the job done – and get it done well. Sure, both channels can work perfectly fine alone, but combine the two, and the results can be staggering.

Plus, it means you can stop saying stupid phrases like ‘Old School’ and ‘New School’…

Lead Generation in Social Media - Nature vs Nurture

By Jade Rice, Digital Marketing Executive

Congratulations! You’ve made a social network profile page for your business and, well, it’s awesome – even if you do say so yourself… It has a great picture, a fun tagline, an interesting yet sales-driven bio and your first update? Well, it was genius. So, now you’ve done the hard work, you can sit back and wait for the leads to come pouring in, right?

Wrong. Oh, so very, very wrong.

Unless you are a major international (usually B2C) company that the world could simply not live without – don’t let your ego get the better of you, here; your company almost certainly does not fall under this extremely tiny category - you cannot assume that leads/followers/likes/customers will naturally fall at your feet now that you have a profile. It’s what you do with that profile that really matters.

Many businesses believe that it is sufficient to create a profile and then allow nature to take its course, easily reeling in leads and making a fortune in the process. Coincidentally, it is these very businesses that, several months down the line, decide that, actually, social media marketing/lead generation ‘isn’t for them’. Actually, it isn’t a coincidence at all. They have made the mistake that many businesses do, when it comes to social media, and chose ‘nature’ instead of ‘nurture’; hoping that potential clients just so happen to find their profile rather than pro-actively making it happen, nurturing the process through regular activity and engagement.

Consider any other online aspect of your business. Your website, for example. Would you spend thousands and thousands of pounds on web development, ensuring that it looks amazing, functions well and lets potential clients know exactly who you are – and then just…leave it? No SEO, no PPC, no link generation? Of course not – that would result in a huge waste of time, money and effort with, most likely, very little positive outcome. So, why allow this to happen with your business’ social media pages? Yes, you’ve made a great start with an attractive profile – but that’s only half the battle; the real work starts now with how you ‘nurture’ that profile, how you send it out into the world and let people know it’s there.

And this is achieved through relevant active engagement on your chosen social media platform. Made a company page on LinkedIn? Get involved in the Discussions and Answers groups. Want to get noticed on Twitter? Be sure to give your input on interesting conversation threads and show an interest in what other people are saying. Looking to make it big on Facebook?  Post photos and comments that will get people talking.

No, it’s not easy; social media’s biggest asset is, also, a marketer’s biggest challenge: staying relevant. It’s a never-ending process – you will never be ‘finished’ with commenting, posting, engaging - but, that, potentially, means never-ending results; there will always be new people to ‘like’ you or ‘follow’ you, always potential new clients to chat with.

So, give your business the best possible chance of social media success and put as much effort into it as you would with any other aspect of the business. Don’t underestimate its power and, most importantly, do not leave it to its own devices.

Advice about Online Interaction

By Laura McCann, Digital Marketing and PR Executive

"The reason social media is so much more effective than conventional marketing methods is it is two-way communication, not pontification"

Through the on-going developments of social media, communication channels are continuously advancing, making it possible for you to reach out to almost anyone across the world. It allows you to create an online identity as an individual or an organisation. However, for businesses, there is a danger, which is coming across as robotic, aggressive and sales orientated - not an effective way to get your message across to your audience!

When creating a personal social media account on Twitter or Facebook, people share opinions, their thoughts, photographs and moments in their life. It is very rare that individuals will come across as mechanical 'social media bots', so why would organisations do this? One of the reasons could be because the marketing department are usually in control of the social media accounts, therefore their prime objective is to get a particular 'message' across within a limited amount of time. But, unfortunately, this is not the way to do it.

Through the advancement of these mediums, the power is no longer in the hands of the organisation… it is suddenly in the hands of the consumer. Consumers have the ability to openly discuss their opinions and experiences on a variety of global social platforms, which could either be a massive threat for businesses or could have an extremely positive impact. Companies need to be proactively instigating conversation with followers, discovering how they can improve their product/service and should embrace the customer feedback they get. This is because consumers love influencing the direction of the Company and feeling like they have had an input towards their development.

I have written down a few brief hints/ tips/ creative ideas to use as a guideline when using social media sites, which will help point you and your business in the right direction when it comes to interacting online…

1.     The first crucial bit of advice is to always be candid - as transparency is an attractive asset to your customers as it is the foundation to building up a trusting relationship.  If you have honesty there, then you already one step towards building a connection with your individual followers.

2.     Sharing knowledge you have gathered through your sector/ area of expertise can be incredibly favourable for your brand. If you produce blogs giving professional advice within your area of work, you can be seen as a thought leader within your industry which could enhance the company repertoire.

3.     Post sneak previews of upcoming products/services on your social media profiles. This can always generate a sense of demand and grant your connections with a sense of exclusivity. It can also allow the business to receive crucial feedback for their product/service prior to launching it.

4.     Interact with others! Sometimes a lot of organisations believe that if they are persistent with posting information then they are engaging with people, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. Businesses need to be building relationships with others and showing interest to what they are talking about. If you show an interest to them, they will show an interest to you.

5.     Demonstrate what your company does.  Through the power of multimedia, this allows you to showcase what your company offers far beyond words. This is a powerful tool for enticing your customers and creating a sense of demand.

6.     Also, rewarding loyal customers can be beneficial for attracting new customers too. People on social networks will want to get involved with special offers and engage in competitions, which can increase the numbers of people you communicate with online.

7.     Monitoring comments and feedback on social media is also extremely crucial for business. Addressing issues and praise towards your company keeps you aware of how the company is being perceived by others and allows you scope to improve. The people who monitor the twitter accounts are usually not the direct decision makers of the company, so always ensure this feedback is passed on to those individuals as it may be something they haven't even considered yet.

8.     Keeping customers constantly in the loop is another important factor. They are your customers because they like your brand/service/product, therefore, would like to be up to date with what is going on and feel like they are the first to know. It can also keep customers up to date with your latest destination if you are always ‘on the go’.

9.     Another important point is not to pretend to be somebody else in attempt to enhance your reputation, as this will backfire and the element of trust from your customers could be quickly shattered. Allow honest feedback and provide an excellent service, and the legitimate positive feedback will naturally unfold, along with a great repertoire.

10.  And last but certainly not least, STRIVE to be interesting. You want people to return to your profile over and over again, and to refer back to things you’re saying, and to talk about you to others. So keeping your viewers engaged is a KEY aspect of social media marketing.

Considering these key pointers, please remember that social media should have elements of enjoyment, professionalism and realism. With a good balance of all these factors and a great attitude, you should be well on your way to constructing an effective online strategy which will help get your product/service out there!

Marketing on Twitter Should Not Be Ignored...

Did you know that Twitter recently announced a hundred million active users? Does this include your business? Your staff? The USA is way ahead of the game with businesses recognising Twitter as a very powerful marketing tool. Most US based businesses already having thousands and thousands of followers... so, why isn’t the UK following suit?

Now is the time for UK businesses to consider using Twitter more intelligently for marketing purposes. Tweets that include links to your website can drastically improve SEO in terms of link-building and, of course, help to drive traffic to your website, which, in turn, can boost your site’s search engine ranking. The use of keywords in your tweets can, also, enable new users and, of course, potential clients to find your business’ Twitter page or company website. It is important, however, to understand that, whilst Twitter can be a fantastic marketing tool, it is, essentially, a social networking site – and that is how it should be used. Sure, you can go for the hard sell and, maybe you’ll get a few leads out of it once or twice. But, Twitter users are a fickle crowd. And they can get bored very easily. Instead of the hard sell, engage potential clients or employees in interesting, relevant conversation, demonstrating your industry knowledge and expertise. Okay, so you may not see an immediate ROI, but, when those potential clients that you have been chatting to (and secretly wondering if it’s all just a waste of time) need services that you provide, you can be sure that they’ll associate your brand with what they need.

Some other interesting points I picked up on after reading an article from Jared Newman from PC World were that 40% of Twitter users do not even tweet but still log on, on a daily basis. So I can only assume they just enjoy soaking up the content produced by the Twitterers (sorry, I got caught up) that they are following. So just because your followers aren't tweeting or interacting with your tweets does not mean they are not listening or reading your tweets on a daily basis.

One style of tweet which has worked well for me lately is requesting your target audience to RETWEET your tweet if it is of interest to them; this works well because the target only has to click one button. I’m also interested to hear from other businesses using twitter: What style of tweeting do you gain the best response from? Feel free to contact me with your thoughts @andrewmullings.

Why Market Research is a must for start-ups and SMEs

Video: Siddanth Shetty, a Market Analyst at YSTC discusses the importance of market research for start-up businesses and SMEs.

Siddanth investigates why so many start-ups and SMEs think that market research is out of their reach, due to limited budget and/or resource - and dispells this myth, demonstarting why - and how - market research can, and should, work for smaller businesses.

Lead Creation vs. Pipeline Management

Video: YSTC's Commercial Manager, Dylan Pemberton, discusses the challenges of lead creation and pipeline management.

Dylan looks at the ways in which the two work intrinsically together and discusses the importance of paying equal attention to both.

Your Sales Team Cloud- Using Twitter

Video: Dee Goldstraw advises on how businesses can most effectively use Twitter for business purposes.

Dee discusses how businesses need to make the most of this crucial marketing tool and stresses the importance of using this social media network as intended; socially.