Sticky Blog…

Q:  What is a sticky blog?

A:  It’s simply a blog that makes you want to stick around!

Q:  How do you create a sticky blog?

A:  That’s a little trickier.  To create a sticky blog, you should use a couple techniques.

Techniques of Creating a Sticky Blog:

First, find opportunities to link your blog to other posts to create a more in-depth view of the topic.  The objective here is not to link to other sites, but to link to other posts you have written.  As the reader clicks through the links, they are staying on your blog and becoming a “sticky” reader.  This technique is not to be confused with linking to outside blogs to increase your search rankings!

One goal that you should create for yourself is to get people to read and then comment on your blog posts.  As people make comments on your post, other readers will want to read more and will stay on your blog site longer.  Sometimes the best part of a blog is simply reading the comments!  So, spark some conversation and get people motivated to keep coming back for more.

You can also pull people into your blogs by taking insightful comments and quirky sentences from your post and sending them out via other social networking sites.  By posting these to Facebook, Twitter, etc. you will gain a wider audience on your blog and will create more buzz.

- Jennifer DeMarco, Marketing Manager

Television turned social networking

The way people gain information has changed throughout time.  Now, people watch television from their iPod, iPad, computer, and the television set.  Additionally, social networking has become a huge part of daily life for so many individuals.

The UK BBC station created iPlayer which allows people to chat while watching their shows online.  When an individual finds something they like, a friend can click on what is being watched and view it immediately for themselves.  The platform allows connectivity between friends to share, chat, and explore together.  Watch this “commercial” for the iPlayer:

Find more information on the iPlayer.

- Jennifer DeMarco
Marketing Manager

Your Social Network is Required!

Social networking sites were once viewed as a place to speak peer to peer, but has quickly become a forum for companies to connect with their consumers.  Opinion Research Corporation conducted a survey in September of 2008 which concluded that 63% of men and 52%  of women (who use social media sites) felt better about companies when they were able to interact with them via social networking sites.  60% of men and 51% of women felt a stronger connection to companies that they were able to interact with.

Q: As a company, what social networking site is the best forum to become a part of?

A: Picking a social networking sites requires two things to be considered.  First, which site are my consumers already talking about me on? Second, what is the demographic of the social site?  The easiest way to determine this information is with a little Google searching.  If I wanted to know whose talking about Strike Marketing – I’d simply type the company name into Google and look at the results.  Wherever we’re talked about, is where I want to be!

Q: What kind of information do I talk about?

A: Talk about things that are going to provide value.  Value is the key to social networking by a company. Companies can talk about events, promotions, new product lines, exciting news, etc.

Q: What kind of time does social networking require?

A: That depends.  How much information do you want to provide to the community or how involved would you like to be with your audience?  And who is going to disperse the information?  Social networking could take as little as 3 hours a month to 30…it all depends.

Q:  Who is going to take the time to do my social networking?

A: Again, it depends.  Companies like Strike Marketing offer services to aid companies in dispersing the information to consumers or an employee can be in charge.  It all depends on how much extra time an employee currently has to devote to a potentially time-consuming project.  But, the effects of social networking can be astounding when done properly.

Who’s In and Who’s Out?

The statistics are in!

The newly formed Social Media Marketing genre have taken companies by storm.  Small companies have found an inexpensive way to speak with their customers about special events, promotions, problem-solving and much more.  But, the questions has shifted from: should I join the conversation to where do I join in the conversation?  MySpace was a large forum and a launchpad for the social networking generation, but movement has appeared to shift fom MySpace to Facebook.  Yet, companies still ask…should I join MySpace?

A recent study of business owners found from 2009 to 2010, social networking sites such as MySpace, Digg, Flickr, and StumbleUpon have become less important than their more popular counterparts: Facebook, Twitter, and a company blog.

This research is a strong reinforcement of what we have been saying at Strike Marketing for a year now…not to mention the success our clients are finding from implementing a strong social media marketing program!

SMM as the new Word of Mouth?

We did a story in 2009 about the possibility that social networking sites have allowed for a new version of having a pen pal. I’ve been pondering more out of social networking lately and it crossed my mind that social sites have allowed for a new form of word of mouth.

Word of mouth was once deemed the best form of marketing – when cast in a positive light. Word of mouth is free and spread by a trusted source. It wasn’t encouraged by a business,, but from peer to peer.  But word of mouth has changed forms, in a sense. People still talk at school, work, or on the phone; however, social networking sites have allowed for an additional forum for peer to peer talk.

Social netwokibg sites like facebook, myspace, Twitter, and yelp have allowed peers to speak to eaach other about great sales, services, companies, etc. Yelp was recently hit with a lawsuit regarding their rating techniques by a business.  Businesses are worried that their image is being misrepresented. If you think back to word of mouth, it can be good or bad. It is all based on how the consumer views the company it’s products and/or services. So why should companies be outraged by what people are doing or saying on social networking sites?

If a company wants good reviews, then it is their responsibility to provide great products and customer service. Social networking is a way of open, honest communication that reaches millions. Create a positive business and the payback should be immense with such a large forum talking about their business practices.

Jennifer DeMarco
Marketing Manager

Customer Service: The Differentiating Factor and Social Media Marketing’s Role

With every factor that goes into marketing, many companies, especially major corporations, tend to over look the very basic essentials that can ultimately be the deciding factor in customer loyalty. Two words, customer service. In the article “Can Social Marketing Save Customer Loyalty”,  from the Chief Marketer, awareness is created that shows just how crucial customer service is and uncovers the secret is of some of these big corporations and how they maintain phenomenal customer service, social networking.

Zappos, Intuit, and Comcast, are just a few companies that are crowned as king of customer service and how they have utilized social networking to their advantage. Customer service is essentially the last factor to differentiate companies, however, the experience in dealing with a company and their product is a large percentage of retention in customer loyalty. Yelp is a social networking site that is purely dedicated to customer reviews, ranking their experience and satisfaction with a company.  Studies have shown that through customer service, customer loyalty or the loyalty effect can increase retention by 5% which can inevitably lead to an increase in revenue anywhere from 25-85%.

Marketing Associate, Melissa’s View on SMM

“Twitter, tweeting, poke, hug, tag, buddies, comments, wall posting, blogging…. It almost sounds like a different language, so what does this actually mean besides a bunch of nonsense? The biggest development in networking today is starting to expand at a rapid pace. Social Media has become the biggest development among people of all ages for various different reasons, but yet continues to have split reviews from people of whether or not it is really practical or just an annoyance.

I kept hearing about Twitter from some of my friends who have been hooked into the latest fad as well as on TV from numerous celebrities that religiously give updates on their latest endeavors. I decided to check it out first hand to see what all the fuss was about, but my biggest question was, “why should people care about what someone had for breakfast?” Well I guess some people like to be “in the know”, however that is not the only benefit that Twitter or various other Social Medias like Facebook and MySpace provide.

Social Media Marketing Spending

What will it cost to get your name out there and quickly build brand awareness? According to the B2B magazine increasing numbers of businesses are turning to this new model of marketing for quick brand building and awareness. Many of those companies have reaped the benefits in revenue for having stepped out of the cookie cutter mold of traditional marketing. A projected annual growth ranges from 32-34% and with Social Media Marketing being the fastest growing channels, a reported $716 million spent in 2009 is estimated to increase to around $3.1 billion in 2014. As more consumers are turning to the web for their information, this has created an immense opportunity for Businesses to reach out the masses and grow awareness.

Twitter, Hit or Miss?

As most companies know it is next to impossible to please every one of their consumers with each product that launches. Twitter, one of the fastest growing Social Networking sites, is receiving rave reviews as well as immense criticism. Twitter is unlike any other networking site in the way it is structured and the purpose that it was created to serve. Users may join Twitter for many different reasons, whether they want in on the fun and see what the buzz is all about, they like giving updates that allows them to create a narrative to their life, or they want to update the masses on their new endeavors.  Criticism of Twitter has mostly been focused upon the fact that people do not care about every single move a person makes, or they become bored with the service in itself.

One article, Two Thoughts

On May 4, 2009 Chiefmarketer.com posted an article titled “Five Must Ask Twitter Questions”. Both Jennifer and Melissa, Marketing Associates at Strike Marketing commented. Here are their thoughts:

Jennifer:

The article focused on questioning a companies’ ability to optimize site traffic, search engine rankings, inventory depletion, reputation management, and news distribution on Twitter. The article brought about some interesting points that many companies are missing out on: