Social Media Marketing - Emphasis on Quality

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is beginning to get more attention these days than say, seven years ago when we were first getting into it for business.  Now more and more companies are starting to see all the benefits social media marketing can give them, and what kind of exposure they can get in our now plugged-in world.  The problem that arises with this, is that there is no degree in social media marketing, there is no certificate, there is no training program one can go through to verify they have the knowledge, the skills and the understanding of how to do it properly.  So – how do you make an informed decision if there is no verification certificate?  The purpose of this article is to help guide you through the process on how to select the social media marketer that is right for you and your company, and how to spot red flags.

How To Choose A Professional Social Media Marketer

Social media marketing is a delicate balance of compelling graphics, valuable information/content, and modern trends you offer your friends, fans, followers and partners.  Does this mean you have to sacrifice quality?  (And we do emphasize QUALITY social media marketing!) Absolutely not.

It seems that every teenager or person living in their parents’ basement can claim to a “Social Media Expert” … but what does that mean, exactly?  You spend 30+ hours a week on Facebook?  You tweet 20 times a day?  What makes a social media marketer rather than a social media addict?  Quality content.  Anyone can make Facebook posts (heck even Grandma is doing it), anyone can use their smart phone to send out a tweet.  But what is the purpose behind it?  What does it mean?  What is it offering?  If you’re not giving your listeners something important – you’re just making digital sound waves.  And not the good kind. 

Sometimes social media marketing doesn’t get taken very seriously – if you are a social media marketer (ahem, check out Targeting Pro's SMM information here), you often get the “Oh so you just play around on the internet all day?”  After the dedicated professional side of us has to seriously refrain from doing bodily harm to that individual, we realize that this is simply due to a lack of understanding of the power social media marketing holds within a business plan.  There are many individuals out there who claim to be SMM’s but honestly, they do not take their marketing seriously nor do they perform it in a professional manner.

Question on social media posting quality: “ZOMG, Wud u want thsi 2 represint ur companee?” 

Not very impressive, is it?  In fact, poor social media marketing can be damaging to a company.  How would you feel if your name was misspelled in a post?  How would a partner feel if their name were misspelled in a promotional offer?  What about offering incorrect information on a sale item or give-away and having to honor it?  What about misrepresenting a product?  You lose credibility.  You lose customer trust – and that is a hard thing to build.  The world wide web, and especially social media, has made it easy for a dissatisfied customer to share their experience with the world, so great care should be taken into who you want being your “voice to the world” in social media.

Some things a company should consider when selecting a social media marketer to add to their team (either in house or contracted):

• Brand Awareness
• Event Promotions
• Sale Promotions
• Business purpose behind each action
• ROI (tracking) & Analytics

Some companies feel the cheapest form of social media marketing is the right price for them, and they may lack the time or ability to research their business options adequately for their needs.  Often times when the cheaper option is taken without investigation, there can be a a lot of negative impact that occurs when a poor SMM gets a company labeled in a poor public light.

Now try to put yourself in a customer’s shoes – how would you feel about a company that offered marketing material that had:

• Punctuation errors
• Spelling errors
• Grammatical errors
• Poor sentence structure
• Misspelled graphics
• Inconsistency, either with branding or sale promotion that offered something different after the link was clicked
• Using “I” when speaking as the company’s voice
• Linking to articles that display competitor advertising/links
• Lost sight of the purpose of being in touch with customers on a social media outlet
• Delayed responding to a question or comment posted on a social media outlet
• Did not respond at all to a question or comment posted on the company's social media outlet
• Flat out erased complaints on the company's social media outlet instead of dealing with them

Would you trust your hard earned money with a company that partook in the above marketing activities?  Would you not think they perhaps “didn’t have their stuff together” and would not be a good candidate for handling your purchases, processing your credit card, or may be unable to offer you the deal they promised?
 
We pride ourselves in being a social media marketing company.  It is a specialty niche in the marketing world that is constantly evolving and are addicted to it.  A social media marketer is always on, always learning and always a professional voice for their client.  There is no “We don’t know” in our vocabulary.  Targeting Pro Marketing is completely upfront with clients about our abilities and skill levels when it comes to meeting your needs, and if we are unable to assist your company directly we can certainly give a reference for a partner who can.

Want some tips on picking a great social media marketer?  Be sure to at least ask for the following items from your next candidates:

• Ask for references (happy customers should always be willing to refer a good marketer, talk to them, not just reference a review page that can be falsified)
• Ask for examples (request links to previous examples of work to show professionalism and tone in writing or graphic design)
• Ask for a proposal or business model (what are they going to do for you, exactly?)

These are what we would call a bare minimum requirement for any social media marketer you are looking to hire.  After all, a company should not think twice to request these three items from a web designer, graphic designer  or SEO expert, you should expect no less from a professional in the social media marketing field. (PS: We do all that, too!)

Contact Targeting Pro Marketing for your next marketing project.
Phone: 352-553-8739
Info@TargetingPro.com
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Target Marketing - What Is Your Niche Market?

There is a lot of hype out there about “Target Marketing” – and some of it can be a twisted road to follow. Hopefully this article will be helpful to those trying to navigate the ever-changing course of diverse target marketing and how you can make your brand work for you.

What exactly is target marketing? I took this quick clip from Wikipedia for a nice, raw definition:
“A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy. The target market and the marketing mix variables of product, place (distribution), promotion and price are the four elements of a marketing mix strategy that determine the success of a product in the marketplace. Once these distinct customers have been defined, a marketing mix strategy of product, distribution, promotion and price can be built by the business to satisfy the target market.”

What does that mean exactly – it is basically deciding what niche market you would like to offer your products and/or services to. Some people fall into the trap of saying: “Well I want to market to everybody! The more clients the better!” That is a good concept in its simplicity, but in today’s economic state and highly competitive online market – more and more businesses are finding that it is better to research who their target markets are and plan a marketing strategy around the bulk of their interested audience. If you were attempting to market the newest 3D video game – you might be hard pressed to find a senior citizen market that would be interested in it, wouldn’t you? (Hey, I’m not saying impossible here, just providing an example – I’ll be one of those gaming senior citizens one day!)

The point is, for a business to be successful it has to have successful marketing – and to have successful marketing you (marketing consultant) have to understand what your target market actually is. Do you track your website activity? Are your visitors global or local? What country are most of your leads coming from? Do you track your customer statistics? Are they mostly male or female? What age group? Do you offer bilingual services? Are you more modern and high tech or are you more class and old-school? These are just a few things to chew on, but things like these (and many more) are what make your product or service unique to you, your area and defines your target market.

It is becoming more and more important to show what you can offer the world. There may be a lot of people who do what you do – but they never do it quite like you, do they? Stand out! Bring yourself forward with your unique adaptations or your niche market specialty. Look at what Short Sale Specialists did for the housing market. Look at what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) did for advanced internet marketing. There are hundreds of examples of this today – which one are you in? Do you have a plan to successfully develop your target market? What direction is your company heading in? Have you already secured your social media outlets? Do you have uniform branding and product recognition in your advertising? When people see your face, your logo, or your product, you want them automatically recognize your company, quality and trust. Think about all of the recognizable products out there: The Nike swoosh - doesn't even need the name anymore. The ASPCA - invokes emotions. Coca-Cola - who doesn't know that logo? Even globally! What does your brand say about you?

Let’s face it – we all know not everyone can be a marketing specialist - we all know you have a job to do, and you do what YOU do best. If you need assistance to help you set your course for success, please feel free to drop us a line. If you have your course set but need help with Social Media Marketing, we have you covered there, too. Lest we forget custom brand development? Twitter secure? Facebook profile and Facebook fan page? Blog setup? LinkedIn profile? Don't let the internet be a stumbling block in your business, let it be an amazing power tool for sales...

Not sure what you want to do just yet? Feel free to bookmark this page, follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook - I look forward to networking with you!

PS: Want more social media marketing advice? Check out our last post about Facebook Zen - Don't Fight Facebook, Learn To Love It! We hope to friend you soon!


Email: TargetingPro@gmail.com
Blog: http://TargetingPro.blogspot.com
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Hungry for more? Tune in for more target market information in upcoming articles – knowledge is power! If you need assistance in setting up or maintaining your social media outlets, feel free to contact me to discuss if Virtual / Remote Assisting or Social Media Ghost Writing is right for you!

Facebook Zen - Don't Fight Facebook, Learn To Love It!

You heard that right - don’t fight Facebook – learn to love it! I understand a lot of people may be intimidated by social media, but it really is not anything to be afraid of. (I promise!)
Facebook is a great casual networking arena where you can interact with individuals, organizations, companies, like products, and partake in causes. In this dynamic interactive space, you can make many types of connections that not only enrich you the individual – but can also enrich you the professional, the business owner, the entrepreneur, the expert.

Just dive right in, I promise the water is deep and you won’t hurt yourself, go ahead and make an account (or you can have someone help set one up for you, like a Virtual Assistant). Once you have an account set up you can begin to familiarize yourself with it and get used to how Facebook functions. There are some great articles to help you get started with Facebook out there I highly suggest reviewing. One thing to note is your privacy, Facebook offers privacy settings but please be aware of your safety at all times and the kind of information you are sharing with others.

Considering it is hard for one to interact with themselves – your first step to take is to “find friends.” Trust me when I say this begins to get addictive! Start with family members, branch to close friends and then coworkers. This will give you an excellent foundation to building your Facebook network. You will be surprised at how many Facebook users you know that will help connect you with others or give you friend suggestions. Soon your connection network will branch out in every direction imaginable.

Now that you have a nice friend base, you can move on to what it is exactly you would like to DO with Facebook. This is where some people get a little fuzzy or things begin to blur. Is this a personal account? If you want to keep family and friends separate from business, I suggest creating an additional “professional Facebook account” – one that reflects your network of colleagues and associates, vendors and clients. Since this article is referencing Facebook for business, we are going to focus on how you can use this very easy social medium to your business advantage. Remember – if it is professional, keep it professional.

Photos are a lot of fun, and are a great thing to share about you, what you do, what you are involved in, what passions you have, what activities you partake in and a way to offer a piece of you with the world. They make great conversation starters, so don’t be afraid to post about the great things going on in your life!

Videos are another way to share yourself with others and can also offer a great marketing platform. Videos are highly indexed in the search engines, and when linked to other social media networks like YouTube, you have a great start at a viral video (and did I mention FREE?). (Don’t worry, “viral” isn’t a bad thing, it simply means that it spreads on the Internet because people enjoy sharing it by all networking and link sharing means, including Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Status updates – pretty straightforward. Update your friends on what you are doing, what is on your mind, a quote that inspired you, a link that interested you, etc. I would suggest trying to get these in once a day as a normal interval (which it is completely understandable if you are not able to do this) but no less than once a week. Having a stale account can sometimes be a bad reflection when a potential client comes looking for you. The great thing about Facebook is that once your business gets hopping and using social media to boost your search engine rankings begin to pan out, you can always ask a Virtual Assistant to help you maintain your social media websites on an as-needed basis.

Comments are a lot of fun, too – this is how you interact with your friends list. When you see your “feed” you will see posts, status updates, videos and photos of the people you know. You can place comments on these items to mingle with your peers. Let the real you shine through!

The “Like” button is also an easy tool to use when interacting with friends. If you don’t really have anything to add to the discussion you can simply “like” someone else’s activity. This is a great way to keep active even if you are running short on time, and lets your friends know you are still in touch with them.

Not to mention you can link your Facebook page to your Blog, Twitter and other networking websites to get all of those feeds spreading out from just a single source - that's online marketing efficiency!

Again, it is always a good idea to be mindful of your posts and comments – Facebook is indeed a public networking site, no matter how private you think your comments are. Keep everything professional and please also be mindful of your safety and do not offer information that is too personal.

See? Not so scary now is it? Go forth my friends – go forth and network the world! If you want a great place to get started, feel free to friend Targeting Pro, I look forward to networking with you!

“God bless the Geek, for they shall Internet the earth.”

Email: TargetingPro@gmail.com
Blog: http://TargetingPro.blogspot.com
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Stay tuned to the Targeting Pro blog for my upcoming articles that will delve deeper into each aspect of social media – we will be really getting into the meat and potatoes of what it takes to be top in your field. If you need assistance in setting up or maintaining your social media outlets, feel free to contact me to discuss if Virtual Assisting or Ghost Writing is right for you!

Technology - Are You Up To Speed?

We are in the heart of the Information Age, where innovation can take you to the top of your industry, where unique ideas are key and clever business plans can boost you above your competition. Business has become a challenging marketplace, and especially so for the hard economic times befalling the Real Estate market.

There is no “magic strategy” or “secrets to success” in this market - it is hard work, innovative ideas and putting the time into your business to reflect the revenue you want out of it. It really does not matter what other agents in your area are doing and what makes them successful - what matters is what makes you different in your field. What do you offer that other agents don’t? What services do you provide that other agents lack? What kind of guarantees do you offer for your services or products that bring comfort and security to your clients? Are you leveraging technology in your favor to get an edge on your competition?



Being successful in business is being able to take problems and turning them into opportunities. With technology rapidly changing, becoming more complex and niche out more focused markets, it is playing a vital part of business plans today. When you delay, you lose business. When you are the last on board with technologies that make your job more efficient either in the realms of money, time or procedure, you are lagging behind in the market. Working in the service industry we are in a world of increasing customer expectations and needs, if you are not able to satisfy these you are more than likely not going to be able to retain the clients and contacts that you manage to come across. Responding quickly to new products and services that better your customer experience can rocket you ahead in this hypercompetitive market.

Is your website up to speed? Do you currently partake in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Do you have dynamic contact forms? Do you partake in Social Media outlets? Do you have unique and completely custom content on your website that sets you apart from the standard template real estate agent of your competitive market? If not… you may be missing out on your slice of the market share.

“The amount of information available on the Internet more than doubles every year, and most of it is free.” - Business and Information Technology

What are you offering on the world wide web? Are you simply hoping that sticking property statistics on your website will bring a buyer? Are you offering information about your area? County? City? Subdivisions? Retirement Communities? Public Parks? National Parks? Recreation Areas? If you haven’t gotten into updating your website you’re behind your competition. Don’t have time for updating your website, your blog, or your Twitter account? Find someone who can. What are you doing to keep yourself ahead of the pack? What is even scarier to think about - what do you think your competition is doing?


One of the keys of success in any business is to leverage ingenuity and to enact on a future that is continually being built upon information technologies. Our world is constantly changing and if you do not have the ability or you flat out refuse to change with it - you will find yourself trying to live in a world that no longer exists. The “old school” way of performing real estate services is exactly where it should be - in the past. Are you stepping up to the plate of revolutionary change to perform better service than any other agent out there? To remain ignorant of today’s technologies is to put yourself behind the proverbial eight ball - don't be left behind. If you need help to get ahead, don't be afraid to ask for it!

Email: TargetingPro@gmail.com
Blog: http://TargetingPro.blogspot.com/
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Quote from:
Business and Information Technology
Author: Efraim Turban, R. Kelly Rainer, Richard E. Potter
copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.