Social Marketing in 2012

Last week Lisa & Tracy attended the SMX conference in Sydney. Day 3 was all about Social Marketing - here's the low down!

Digital Story-Telling

• Story telling is an evolutionary process.  We used to have spoken stories – these were fluid and organic.  Later, stories were written or portrayed in moves – these were very linear.  Now we tell  stories on the internet – these are fluid, once more.
• Your Brand Story has three components:
  • Content – the way you want to tell your story.
  • Communications – how you narrate your story.
  • Community – the people who narrate your story for you.
• Social media is where stories are found, shared and re-told.
   
   

Content Strategy and Social Marketing

• Make sure you mine your own website data (enquiry forms, FAQs, customer ratings) for clues to what your customers want to know.  Take this information and turn it into something useful for your fans, on social media.
• But always remember: stop selling and instead help people buy
   
   

Video Content

• Avoid ‘ad amnesia’ – make sure that your brand is up-front and memorable in your videos
• One third of YouTube users leave a video after just 20 seconds – so keep your videos short and to-the-point
• Have a ‘call to action’ – but don’t make it a sales pitch
• Keep your videos engaging and relevant
   

Facebook Competitions

• Facebook competitions must:
  • Have terms and conditions
  • Use an app
  • NOT be based solely on Facebook features (“like” etc.)
  • NOT notify the winner via Facebook
• You CAN use “like-gateways” (e.g. “like our page to view our competition entry form”) but it cannot be the sole entry criteria.
• Prizes can be small! Small prizes = more competitions = more engagement
   

Leveraging Facebook Ads

• Use Facebook Ads to research your customer demographics
• You can find out their interests, marital status, education level, family status and much more!
   
   

Is Google + Worth It?

• Short answer – yes! Google uses Google + as part of its ‘Quality Score’ and having a Google + page will probably have a positive effect on your Google rank.

A collection of interesting stats: 

• 11 million Facebook users in Australia and NZ
• The largest growing group of Facebook users in the USA are women aged 40+
• 38% of followed brands on Facebook are found via a Facebook search
• People spend an average of 7.5 hours a month on Facebook (compared to just 3.5 minutes on Google +)