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We had an excellent seminar this morning at Brandswag . The seminar was over the concepts of integrating social media into your overall marketing strategy. It is extremely important that every business drive social media through traditional marketing practices…. and vice-versa. Below you will find my Powerpoint presentation from the seminar. Integrating Social Media View more presentations from Kyle Lacy I wanted to break down 10 ways to integrate social media into your traditional marketing practices. The following tips are simple reminders that the world is changing and it is extremely important to shift with the edge. 1. Remember that customers are people first and buyers second It is important to keep in mind that your customers are not only a demographic and a wallet… but an individual. If you start to incorporate the thinking of “individualistic marketing” your focus will be extremely… targeted. 2. People thrive on conversation and deals A study recently released by Razorfis h  states that of “ those that follow a brand on Twitter , 44% say that access to deals is the main reason. The same holds true for those that added a brand on Facebook or Myspace , where 37% cite access to exclusive deals or offers as their main reason.” (pg 9) There will always be a place for conversation and deals. Integrate your direct mail and coupon deals into your social media marketing. 3. Integration is extremely important because of speed and portability Mobile technology is revolutionizing the way the world communicates. Social media will hit mass appeal because of the mobile phone and the pda. Thousands of text messages are sent on a daily basis… even an hourly basis… It is rumored that 4.5 billion cell phones will be on the market by the end of 2010. China has a mobile provider with 500 million cell phone users. We are going to be mobile… portable.. and fast. 4. We are shifting from uni-directional and bi-directional communication to multi-directional. (slide 16) 5.  Listening and monitoring your brand online This is one of the more important things you can do before integrating social media into your marketing strategy. Use Google Alerts or Radian 6 to monitor your brand and understand the positive and negative influence the Internet is having on your company and clients. 6. Objective and Strategy need to be developed before using social media Would you do anything in your business before planning out the ramifications of your actions? The same applies to social media. Now… if you would rather just throw ideas around without aiming… or acting… You are going to have a bigger problem than applying social media to your business. Ask yourself why you are going to be applying social media? Is it going to be for reputation management, brand awareness, or lead generation? 7. Add your social media profile links to your email signature Do I really have to explain that? Need an incentive? Check out the way Hotmail grew by leaps and bounds using the footer in email. 8. Plan the use of social media within your company Who should be using the company profile? Who should be adding content on a daily basis. It is extremely important to build out an internal social media policy . This should probably be one of the first things you deal with before entering a social media campaign. 9. Remember to build a content portal before pushing information through the Twitter-Face-Linked-verse. It is extremely important to build out a hub for your content. You need to be driving people (users) from different sites to a central location. Why? It is easier to capture information and sell. 10. Don’t stress. Have fun. Social media is not something to absolutely flip out about… it is important to understand and time will tell on the “importance” of the tools being created on the Internet. Remember to keep up-to-date and look for ways where social media can help strengthen your traditional communication strategy.

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10 Tips to Integrating Social Media with Marketing

Brandswag held a seminar yesterday entitled Beyond the Profile: Maximizing LinkedIN . We had a sold out crowd and it was a great discussion surrounding the better uses of LinkedIN. We are holding a seminar next Wednesday (the 24th) from 8-9:30am on Integrating Social Media into Your Marketing plan . Below you will find the slide deck from the seminar. I also wanted to briefly discuss the 10 different ways to maximize LinkedIN. It is extremely important to use LinkedIN for lead generation, job search, and professional networking. Let’s get to it. Linked In Seminar View more presentations from Kyle Lacy . 1. Take Full Advantage of Your Profile It is extremely important to maximize the use of your profile on LinkedIN. When you are communicating with other individuals.. on the site.. your profile speaks for you.  Be very sure you upload a good photo and bring your profile to 100% completion. When I say upload a good photo… I do not mean an 80’s glamor shot or your company logo. 2. Uploading Your Initial Contacts When you are first joining LinkedIN it is important to build your initial contact base. Check out this easy to use tutorial from Dave Taylor . It is also important to connect to past/present colleagues and alumni from your college or university. 3. Recommendations It is my opinion that recommendations are one of the more powerful tools within in LinkedIN. Why? People know recommendations are sincere and other individuals had to write them for you. It is extremely hard to fake recommendations on LinkedIN. Check out this post on writing better LinkedIN recommendations . You should always recommend first! 4. Using Groups We discussed using groups in three different ways: 1. Lead Generation 2. Personal Development: Learning from others in your industry 3. Increase Your LinkedIN Profile development 5. Promotion of Events 6. Using Your Status Updates The status updates on LinkedIN are underused but have been changing slowly with the integration of Twitter into your LinkedIN profile. I try to update my LinkedIN profile with relevant news, blog posts I am writing, or information about my Twitter Marketing for Dummies book . 7. Using Applications Check out the LinkedIN Learning center about Apps: Click Here . Here are my top 4 applications to use on LinkedIN: BlogLink, Reading List by Amazon , Events, and Tweet. 8. Networking for a Job or for Lead Generation LinkedIN is extremely powerful when using the tool to connect with individuals who are looking to hire individuals in the corporate community. If you are using LinkedIN the right way it is extremely easy to get connected through a 2nd degree individual. Honestly though… who better to tell you about using LinkedIN for job search than Dan Schwabel and Chad Levit t. 9. Search Functionality in LinkedIN 10. Using LinkedIN for Lead Generation Have you heard of the six degrees from separation concept? This is fundamental to using LinkedIN for lead generation. It is possible to use LinkedIN to turn a cold lead into a warm lead by sending a request for an introduction. Check out the slide deck to find out how.

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10 Ways to Maximize LinkedIN

This is the second post about the Razorfish FEED 2009 Report … as promised. I was reading a post from my friend Todd Muffley over at Fat Atom and it got me thinking about the future of online communication. His post is entitled, “ Is Social Media One Big Coupon Book? ” The premise of the post is captured in two sentences: “If Social Media does become one big coupon book, watch out Newspaper, Magazine, Radio, TV and Direct Mail (to name a few). The old school push model of coupon distribution may just go the way of the VCR.” The post is (of course) fueled by the Razorfish study which states that of “ those that follow a brand on Twitter, 44% say that access to deals is the main reason. The same holds true for those that added a brand on Facebook or Myspace, where 37% cite access to exclusive deals or offers as their main reason.” (pg 9) Now, the Razorfish study does not give a voice to all 200 million people using broadband Internet access but it does create a platform for discussing the main draw of social media. I would venture to say that the main reason a user FIRST joins a fanpage or follows a brand on Twitter is because of a contest or promotion. Once the individual becomes a fan the SECOND step is interacting with that fan in order to build some type of trust. Repeat customers are the best customers… nay… repeat customers with friends are the best customers. There is always a conversation buried in the depths of a relationship being built between a customer and a brand. Where that relationship starts? Who knows? The important thing to remember is to have the conversation… which eventually leads to conversion. Of those who follow a brand on Twitter, 44% say access to exclusive deals is the main reason. The same holds true for those who “friended” a brand on Facebook or MySpace, where 37% cite access to exclusive deals or offers as their main reas Related articles by Zemanta Razorfish: the empire strikes back (superhypeblog.com) 19% of Internet users use Twitter or update status site : Up nearly 100% since April (kevin.lexblog.com) Call for Speakers: Social Media Summit – Israel – 6 Dec 09 (pulverblog.pulver.com) Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Strategy (kylelacy.com)

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Why Do People Follow Brands? Conversation or Deals?

The guest post today is by Shelley Cadamy is currently the Business & Entrepreneurial Services Coordinator for Francis Tuttle Technology Center .  She assists start-up as well as existing small businesses in strategy development and implementation. About a year ago, I fell into being a “social media expert.” I use the quotes, because I’m really not convinced there are all that many actual social media experts out there, and I’m certainly not one of them. As a small business strategist, one of the things I assist my clients with is creating quick and dirty marketing plans. As such, I created a seminar on how my clients could effectively use social media tools in their marketing. It was wildly successful (one client picked up three new customers the first three days they were on Twitter), and the one seminar I expected to do turned into about thirty seminars and counting. Unfortunately, when I get introduced, to my chagrin, it’s as a “social media expert,” which I quickly correct, after much cringing. Having said that, I’m amazed at how many people are more than happy to promote themselves as “social media experts.” Every third twitter follow I get is from some IT guy who may have difficulty with interpersonal communication, but is now a social media expert. Or an HR Director who believes that since he is successful at using social media in his HR position, that he is also qualified to do social media on behalf of other people. Or an accountant who is on Facebook and Twitter 24/7 and thus, must be a social media expert and believes himself completely qualified to do social media on behalf of you or your company. When it comes right down to it, social media is a marketing tactic, and just like old school marketing tactics – direct mail, TV & Radio advertising, print advertising, etc. – lots and lots of difficult homework must be completed before they’re ever employed on behalf of your company. They must be used as part of an overall marketing strategy that makes sense for your company, your market, and your resources. Those marketing plans are not easy to create, and the reason they’re not easy to create is because they take actual marketing knowledge and understanding to craft – something which marketing professionals have plenty of and something of which IT guys, accountants, and HR professionals are generally fresh out. If you’re a small business owner, do you know who your market is and why? Do you know what they want? Do you know what your message to your market should be? Then and only then should you be getting your message out to that market via social media or any other media. If you don’t have the answers to these questions, please find a marketing professional to help you find them and to help you implement the resulting plan. If you choose to hire someone to assist specifically with your social marketing as well, please ensure that he or she is also a marketing professional. You wouldn’t hire a marketing professional to manage your EEO claims – please don’t hire an HR professional to do your marketing. Related articles by Zemanta 8 biggest mistakes made in social media (lansner.freedomblogging.com) Why Are We Failing To Help Small Business Understand Social Media? (thecustomercollective.com) Profit Specialist (slideshare.net) Get ready for lots of small IPOs (vator.tv)

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Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Strategy

I have been waiting with great anticipation for the delivery of my book, Twitter Marketing for Dummies. It has been a long (but awesome) process of writing, editing, and brainstorming over different concepts involved in marketing through Twitter. I couldn’t have done it without Erik Deckers, the Wiley Staff, Manny Hernandez, and the staff at Brandswag. It was a fun 7 weeks of writing and I am looking forward to what the future brings. If you have not picked up the book you can do so through Amazon.com (click the link) or through your local bookstore on November 18th. Some general things you will learn by reading the book: Using Twitter to communicate with your customers Utilize tools to maximize your Twitter prescence Build and use your network to psread your message Measure the success of your efforts It has been fun and I am looking forward to the feedback from the book!

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The Arrival of My Twitter Marketing for Dummies Book

I was driving to work this morning listening to a great track by Sujan Stevens … reminiscing about my “musical” days in college. I played guitar for a long time and have just recently put it aside for other hobbies and activities. I want you to know that I have never… ever… ever talked about this with anyone. This is the  “I’m Being Completely Open With My Blog Readers Morning with Kyle” show. Get Ready. During the years of guitar playing… I had always wanted to perform in front of a group of people and honestly… I don’t think I knew exactly what that entailed… maybe it was playing my own songs or playing a popular song from John Mayer… who knows? The deep down desire was to play in front of a group of people… my acoustic guitar and a mic. It never happened. I can associate most of my hesitation with fear. It is a hard thing to admit… that you were actually afraid of doing something and it kept you from actually realizing some sort of… success or maybe pride? My fear of being laughed at and individuals not enjoying my music kept me from walking up and just doing something… crossing it off my list. Is anyone connecting with me on this? Fear is an extremely powerful thing. It can paralyze you in business and in life… destroying the dreams that you were building over the years of work and preparation. The problem with fear is that… sometimes… it keeps ordinary people from doing extraordinary things. And let’s be honest… do you really want to admit you didn’t do something because of fear? Steve Jobs would laugh in your face. I decided to screw fear and take a stab at doing what I wanted… without hesitation. There may come a time when I step on a stage and perform for the.. two people in the room. Until then, I am going to move forward with my head down. I would rather deal with the ramifications of my actions than never know the outcome because of hesitation.

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The Problem with Fear