It is no secret that if you want to increase your website statistics and increase your brand’s revenue, you are going to have to implement some sort of social media campaign into your marketing mix. Instead of plugging a brand with a press release or an advertisement, Twitter and Facebook are becoming the most relevant forces in a brand’s life cycle. While most of the people on these services can be labeled as followers, a very select few have a certain je nai sais qua and are able to promote beyond belief. Here are 5 types of social media users who can generate buzz for brands:

The One With the Hollywood Credentials

All of the recent celebrity social media news has surrounded Alec Baldwin and his recent “run-in” with an American Airlines flight attendant. Baldwin refused to quit playing the popular game “Words With Friends” and caused a scene when he got kicked off the plane. According to The Washington Post, Baldwin’s tirade caused #letalecplay to trend worldwide and boosted the number of people playing the game. Baldwin’s scene was such an effective form of social media marketing that he will even get cross promotion for his television show 30 Rock out of the ordeal. Continue reading

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Guest post by Nick Deyong

In today’s world, everything happens at breakneck speed and, to offer a clumsy version of an often-used expression, “we’re too busy gazing off in to the distance to notice what’s right in front of us”. Or something to that effect.

The same can be said when considering the practice of marketing; amidst all the promotion to the wider world it is easy to overlook a key stakeholder group – internal colleagues and suppliers. A curious occurrence, when it is clear that without employees operations would grind to a halt.

Not just that, but without enthusiastic staff who are fully behind the task at hand, know exactly what their role is and how important they are to the business, all the clever marketing in the world would ultimately prove futile. You see, employees are a company’s greatest ambassadors – treat them well and they will pass on this positivity to future customers and staff in a way that is wholly more honest and authentic than any advertising campaign. Continue reading

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Guest post by Susan Daniels

When most people think of blogging, they don’t conjure up images of brand blogging. However, even Coca-cola has a blog to further empower its brand. Brand blogging helps your business out in two ways: it gives your customers a sense of community and it allows you to gain greater online visibility.

But starting a brand blog doesn’t simply mean writing an article every couple of days or so. To make your brand’s blog successful you need to incorporate the following into your every day posting: Continue reading

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Contest and giveaways are a great way to reward your community. They show you care, they show you want to encourage them and support them. They show you want to engage them and listen to their needs. But they can also backfire. How? Well, spend 5 minutes thinking of your contest and send out an announcement that actually shows you consider the crowd you’re trying to get to work for you a bunch of money hungry drones that cannot think for themselves. Enough to makes something sparkly twinkle their way and they’ll immediately jump to join your troops!

99designs is already the punching bag of many established designers. Now they have just managed to make it a bit worse. The crowdsourced design site has just launched a contest in which they will give away 9,999 dollars to a lucky winner. To enter the competition, a designer needs to win at least one design contest throughout the month of March. The more contests you win, the more chances of winning you have. Continue reading

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When trying to reach a global market, many companies (with enough relevant examples in the IT&C industry) rely on strategic and local partners and resellers to place and sell their products and services. What they sometimes tend to overlook is that promoting the product or service is as important and can become a shared task. While initially new partners might need guidance to understand the overall strategy, your product’s top selling benefits and the type of customers you are targeting, over time then can turn into strong regional allies.

Think of a big release of a new product or service. You might draft the communication plan, have the new literature, press and blogger pitches, press release and special offers ready and then share them in due time with your partner network. They might, in turn, reach out to their customer base, press contacts and enthusiastic evangelists, boosting your promotion effort.

Of course, some will be more savvy when it comes to PR and Marketing, others might need some ongoing guidance. You could suggest how they can reach out to media outlets, how they can identify where the potential customers who need to be informed about the product or service are. If they need convincing, you need to focus on their benefits: properly communicating with customers, audiences, the press means more business coming their way. That does also mean a share of the income goes to you, but the main beneficiaries are the partners.

When considering a successful partnership, businesses need to stop thinking in terms of sales alone. Yes, how much a partner makes by selling your product is important. But can you also collaborate on increasing brand awareness, spreading the word about your product and getting more revenue for yourself and the partner in question? Can you collaborate on getting feedback from their customers to help improve your products and services and subsequently sell more, maybe even for a better price?

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