April 2010
Your Successful Media Campaign: Top 5 Tips for Successful Execution
By Natalie Revell
Founder of Crystal Frog Marketing
When launching and executing a social media marketing campaign, there are several rules of thumb to adhere to in order for your campaign to be successful and yield some ROI:
First, identify and target your market. No marketing campaign, regardless of the platform being used, can be successful without properly targeting the audience. It would be like trying to bake a cake without flour. It just wouldn’t work. The success of your social media campaign relies upon the connections established within your niche community. Proper targeting is imperative to start so you may engage your audience effectively. It also determines which sites you should use in compliment of each other: LinkedIn, facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Ning, etc.
Second, always encourage your followers to link to your site. This is a way to intertwine SEO tactics into your social media marketing, while engaging your audience at the same time. Creating and maintaining a blog can be very beneficial because fresh content can be loaded often. This not only attracts indexing from the search engines, but it attracts a larger, more dedicated population of targeted followers. You should also include a plug-in that allows your visitors to bookmark, tag and even tweet your blog posts.
Third, become an important resource for your visitors. Social media optimization is dependent on give and take. It’s about relationships and two-way engagements. If you think it is just about tooting your horn and offering your services, think again. Once you engage and start interacting with your audience, you can offer them what they want. Help them find the resources they need by linking to those sources. There’s no better way to know you audience than to just ask them directly and deliver. Eventually, your site will be viewed as a resource hub and your followers will start linking to you, then their followers will, and so on and so and before you know it, your popularity will go viral all the while you are attracting inbound links, thus catering to your SEO needs. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.
Fourth, remember to offer up the FREE. In order to become a resource hub, you must offer up free advice, tips and guidance to your audience. This builds trust and credibility. And again, be sure to ask them what topics they want and get them to engage in the discussion. Then when you do have an offer, you simply mention it and it pretty much sells itself. It’s called ‘soft sales’ and it works so much more effectively than any other type of sales tactic. Usually, the prospect never realizes they have been sold to – they think they made the decision to buy, not that you actually sold them something. Remember the wise words of Jeffrey Gitomer: “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy!”
Fifth, implement a measurement system to monitor your success. Integrate tracking tools to know when your site is mentioned elsewhere and to measure your site’s progress in the SERPs. Generate linking reports to identify inbound links pointing to your social media pages and primary domain. Metrics are crucial in determining whether or not your SMO campaign is effective.
And of course, as your clientele list increases, along with your profit margin, that is a metric in itself. Just remember that social media marketing takes time. Have an audience, have a plan and be consistent. It will pay off in the end.
About Crystal Frog Marketing:
Crystal Frog Marketing (CFM) produces Clear Solutions and Giant Leaps by utilizing new perspectives and new media strategies to take small and median businesses to the next level and the next. By partnering with their clients and focusing on two primary areas of concentration: the business profile and how customers perceive the business profile, CFM is able to help clients solve problems in the niche markets, gain visibility and positioning in their marketplaces, increase brand awareness and become ‘the one to call.’ CFM has successfully launched and strengthened many businesses and has extensive experience in the logistics and mortgage/credit repair industries. For more information, please visit Crystal Frog Marketing.