Tag Archives: social media

Is social media right for my brand?

I get asked this A LOT!

Today was no exception. Social media has fundamentally altered online marketing by opening up the way that consumers can share information, create information and ultimately therefore, add or take, value from that information.

Your brand is no longer in your control online, the conversation is happening but the question clients are afraid to answer is whether they should be a part if it…

The hype that surrounds social media can make it difficult to distinguish which factors will effectively integrate into your overall strategy, but with the right strategy in place it can revolutionise how you communicate with your consumers.

The key to success is the approach. Setting up a Twitter page or Facebook page and asking people to follow your brand or ‘like’ you won’t work. To effectively cut through all the noise your brand needs an informed social media strategy.

Carefully considered insights, best practice case studies and real-time monitoring of your brands buzz will help inform how to implement the most effective social media activity in line with your wider marketing plan. With ongoing monitoring of the conversations sparked online you can then build upon this to inform your brand decisions moving forwards, this information has proved invaluable to thousands of brands already.

I will say again though it does need to be planned, failure to effectively target your consumers can leave you open to ridicule across the web, so I guess my answer is; Social Media can be right for your brand if planned and implemented in line with a relevant and considered strategy. Don’t just jump on the bandwagon for the sake of it.

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Pandora marries Facebook

Soooo…the top online radio service and the world’s largest and most successful social network have solidified a plan for domination of the virtual world.

It seems that you can share music with your friends with no catch (really?) and integrate your Pandora and Facebook accounts without a real-time irritating update of what you’re listening to (really… really?). Pandora pay the license, facebook opens it up…

There are countless other similar music services but if you do the basic math, Pandora + Facebook = bloody easy way to get the music/ life balance.

Following on from my earlier post (which didn’t quite work thanks to the lack of ‘Like’ widgets for WordPress) Facebook will include ‘Like’ buttons which users can embed on other websites, by doing this Pandora can then provide you with the most update musical trends based on what you ‘Like’. Easy peasy.

It’s early days but I guess we’ll find out soon enough whether this genius partnering will come to fruition.

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Foursquare

The next step in social networking…?

Like all social networks, Foursquare is about interacting with friends, this certainly ticks all the boxes but adds an extra element too.

In the first instance you can invite your friends to join you through the app or use existing networks such as facebook and twitter, you can also find friends in your local area. In addition you can let your friends know where you are and read/ leave recommendations on the activity you’re partaking in.

It doesn’t stop there though, what’s different about Foursquare is that you get a gaming element added in too. As you leave reviews and recommendations you gain points, and as the points add up you work your way to a Mayor badge, which although doesn’t give you any particular power or ability to change local laws, does mean you receive offers and vouchers for your loyalty.

The technology supporting it seems pretty solid but we’re still waiting it for to catch on in the UK at the moment but I get the feeling there’s still a ‘big brother’ nervousness around location based apps (remember www.pleaserobme.com ?) scary or genius?

To learn more visit www.foursquare.com

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