I came across this website about tips for promoting a business through social networks. The focus is more on small businesses, but I think there is useful information in general for anyone promoting a business or idea through social networks. In the article the author speaks with a media relations manager at Mayo Clinic who is in charge of getting the Clinic's message out through social networking sites. There will definitely be a movement toward hiring a staff focused solely on managing a company/organization/business/school image through social networks.
I found a few points helpful reminders. In the first point, he mentions experimenting with multiple sites but focusing on just one or two. Many times people are so excited to get the word out about what they are doing that they over-extend themselves and spread resources too thin to make the impact they are seeking. The final point about avoiding aggressive marketing and constant promotion is also a great point to keep in mind. Again, people can be so excited about something they constantly promote and potentially push away others by not engaging in other conversation. I also think others view you then as more credible and trustworthy if your message is more "well-rounded."
Christie 3/3
To build on what Christie is saying...the notion of concentrating on only a couple sites versus a massive list of sites is right on the money in my book. Often times I receive requsts from people to add their LinkIn profiles to my network, and more times than not, I am struck by how little their profile reveals about their abilities, skill sets, experiences, etc. Is that due to lack of time, lack of perceived importance...I don't know...but I always wonder why people do these kinds of things if they aren't going to invest the right amount of time to "market" themselves accordingly.
G. Feldmann, 3/3/08
This article in mediapost “follows-through” the point Christie and Gretchen were making about marketers over extending themselves by unsuccessfully focusing on multiple channels rather than using a few concentrated channels. The article talks about a study that was conducted to track the social media efforts of cutting-edge for-profit marketers whose products and websites would be hot for the holiday season. Several of the surveyed companies were not managing their social media marketing efforts well probably because of underestimating the time, expense and efforts that would be required to keep these campaigns going.
Many nonprofits also make the mistake of setting up profiles and then never updating it or getting involved and maintaining a successful profile. However, on the brighter side there are nonprofits that are taking the time and effort to use the web to engage their customers. In my reading I came across nonprofits such as the Goodwill of Greater Washington (http://www.dcgoodwill.org/) that uses a blog, a virtual runway fashion show and auction, and promotes its events using a facebook profile and a Myspace page. As Christie pointed out they do have a dedicated employee who manages these social media efforts.Goodwill’s VP of Marketing talks about how this strategy worked for them, “we had to treat the blog just like any other product with a mission statement, logo, positioning statement, etc. Doing so has helped us stay focused and forced us to maintain product integrity so that the blog doesn’t become another blatant advertisement that will simply turn off any half educated reader. The content has value and I believe that is what keeps readers coming back.”
Darshana 3/3/08
This is a URL on a commercial web site that offers some interesting tidbits on online marketing and social networking that might prove useful: http://www.tengoldenrules.com/Ruleone.htm. In general, www.tengoldenrules.com offers pointers on how to use a press release to promote a web site, and generate and sustain traffic. Some of its recommended strategies include offering free tools and “long-tail ecommerce. ” It also strongly stresses the importance of a tight focus, as opposed to sending everybody everywhere the good news about your web site and product. It also offers insights on using Web.3D Second Life, which is fake people buying fake things with real money online spending.
Another thing I found useful about the site is it offers pointers on the placement of meta tags, as well as keyword phrases and where to place them—first paragraph, middle and the end of a copy block. At https://adwords.google.com/select/Login you can also research keywords and how people think about them to determine the best way to place them in press releases, ads. Similarly, http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/ allows you to identify effective language for web site headlines, images, etc.
Charlise March 4
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