Mathias Bergendahl's Marketing Blog

Twitter has quickly become one of the most popular ways to communicate with friends, well, the cyber-world in general. Through Twitter you can keep your friends notified on what you’re doing, make your customers aware of product updates, and intrigue potential customers with invitations to find out about you.

Is Twitter a great marketing tool? Absolutely, but it needs to be managed with great care.

Sometimes the best way to learn what to do is to learn from what not to do. Well, here are two examples I found online today, and I must admit that I feel for two individuals who supposedly, according to stories found online, made serious mistakes.

First, someone who apparently had just received a job offer lost the opportunity even before day one at the new job. Here’s a recap of a story recounted here at the blog I’m Not Actually a Geek by Hutch Carpenter.

According to the story, someone receives a job offer upon which he or she posts at Twitter: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” According to the information I came across, someone caught the Twitter post and responded: “Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.”

If this story is true it’s probably safe to assume that the applicant did not get a job, but now the story is all over the Internet. While the story is about a job applicant, there’s a clear parallel to anyone who may comment through social media networking, microblogging and blog platforms.

Here’s another example. According to a blog post I found, a public relations professional from New York was visiting Memphis, there to meet a group within a large corporation. Hours after a presentation he posts the following on Twitter: “True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say I would die if I had to live here!” The Twitter post came to the attention of the corporation, again according to the blog article, and, well, you can read the rest of the story here, including a written response back to the originator of the Twitter post, at the blog of Peter Shankman.

Conversely, the use of Twitter can help you in your marketing activities. Now, while the example provided here describes how one man managed to get a job through Twitter, there’s something to be said about the way Twitter can help build ongoing relationships with potential real estate customers.

If you’re new to social media marketing and not aware of Twitter, visit www.twitter.com. Better yet, go here for 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners.

For full disclosure I tried to do due diligence by finding out whether these stories actually were true. Judging from the amount of exposure online I’d say yes. But, it’s not always easy to know for sure. I am as we speak trying to confirm the accuracy of the stories. Even if it turns out to be fabricated I felt the stories could serve as a cautionary note for everyone now getting into Twitter. As for the issue of whether or not to believe everything you see online will be covered in a future blog post.

The other day I heard from a friend of mine who expressed how overwhelmed he was with trying to figure out how to build his business with the help of social media.

“Once I got ready to get into the fray of online marketing I decided to update my website but learned that these days, websites are out and blogging is in.” He told me that before he uploaded his very first blog post, though, he had already heard of yet another way to find consumers.

“It seems that each time I decide on which particular online marketing vehicle such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube or any of the other social networking platforms to focus on, I hear about yet another internet tool from friends or business associates.” He continued to tell me how he by now has a MySpace account, Facebook account, LinkedIn account – without any particular web marketing strategy.

“By the time I started feeling comfortable enough to get started with FaceBook, people around me started buzzing about Twitter.”

He continued to tell me that once he had put the final touch on his carefully branded FaceBook page, though, he started hearing office neighbors talk about how they had found new clients through their LinkedIn or ActiveRain accounts. Next, he found himself adding a profile and his business information on those networks as well.

“I feel like I keep chasing from one tool to another without sticking around long enough to actually build traffic. On top of it all, people around you start talking about the evolution from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0.”

I’m sure many can relate.

It’s not easy to follow all that moves on the internet these days.

Wait, there’s more.

•        Digg
•        Technorati
•        StumbleUpon
•        Ask
•        Yahoo Buzz
•        Twitter
•        Reddit

It can be quite intimidating to follow all the new developments, not to mention how to take advantage of them all.

I receive a lot of questions regarding social media marketing and I thought I’d attempt to break down the concepts just a little bit by using a few resources.

From Web 1.0 to Web 3.0 in a Hurry

First, let’s take a look at the definition Web 2.0. No, it’s not a software upgrade you need to run to the nearest store to get in order to be part of the virtual world of interactive marketing. Instead, it’s more of a concept of how the internet has evolved into a network of information sharing. Web 1.0 refers to the static concept of web pages, with “flat” information without any way for you to actively contribute to the content of the page. The introduction of websites and social forums that now invite reviews, comments, information-sharing and general collaboration marked the beginning of what’s commonly referred to as Web 2.0. Before we even seem to have fully grasped the concept of a new online environment, those leading the charge of internet development have started talking about Web 3.0.
Here to better explain the concept of Web 2.0 is the video presentation Web 2.0. If you prefer reading about it, here’s Beginner’s Guide to Understanding the Basics of Web 2.0.

Next, let’s take a look at how you can choose which social networking sites to use, and how you can use them for marketing.

On January 1, 2009, Wall Street Journal published The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World, which I consider an excellent resource when it comes to gathering some ideas of how to actually use the social networks that you may now be on.

Getting a grasp of social media marketing may feel a bit overwhelming at times but if you want to learn more about what you can do to take advantage of a changing internet, I suggest you go to google.com to search for information by using the following key words:

Web 2.0
Web 2.0 marketing strategies
Social media marketing

If you prefer videos, search for the same words at http://www.youtube.com/.

The other day I got a call from a member who said he had just set up a Facebook account, and to sum up what our conservation essentially was about: now what?

I came across a list of Do’s and Don’ts for Marketing on Facebook written by Jenna Ryan, President & Founder of The Marketing Shop.com. Click here to read the article Do’s & Don’ts For Facebook Marketing For Real Estate in its entirety.

Do’s for Marketing on Facebook

• Determine what is important to your target market.
• Keep your network informed in areas of importance TO THEM.
• Find a niche angle to discuss, blog and provide data about. (ie: schools, neighborhoods, government, parks, families, nightlife, highrises, investment properties, etc… If you’re not interested in your area, no one else will be either.)
• Provide personal information along with business info to keep it real.
• Give interesting tidbits about yourself, your market and other news daily.
• Brainstorm ways to keep others informed.
• Make yourself valuable to your network. Bring value and it will come back to you!
• Get to know others in your real estate service area: (ie: merchants, other agents, stay-at-home moms, dads, other business people)

Don’ts for Marketing on Facebook

• Do not sell in an obvious way.
• Do not limit yourself to only speaking about how you want leads, or how you want to sell houses, or how you want to make money. This will turn most prospects off.
• Send out massive emails to people on Facebook regarding something that doesn’t interest them.
• Think about your network more than yourself.
• Don’t become fake-friends with people. Be sincere.
• Think of Facebook as a route to making deals, not the be-all-and-end-all.
• Think of Facebook as a way to gain popularity and get your name out there, not to sell a house tomorrow.
• Think of social networking as a way to add value to the community which will in turn increase your value and cause people to flock to you.
• Be patient. Don’t try to get immediate results. Build your network one sound relationship at a time.
• When discussing what you’re doing, try to form it in a way that shows a potential client that you’re the agent for them. Do this sporadically or it will seem obvious.
• Do not use a lot of exclamation points or they will become meaningless.

Bookmark this website: http://www.doshdosh.com/fundamentals-of-social-media-marketing/

Whether you’re new with the concept of social media or have been marketing your business through social networking, I’m certain you’ll find this resource helpful.

The website provides a series of articles under the title Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing, and here are titles of the included articles.

• Social Media Marketing in a Nutshell
• The Benefits of Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Learn and Master it
• Social Media Marketing Campaigns: How to Set Goals and Define Prospects
• A Beginner’s Guide to Social News Websites
• 40+ Social News Websites You Can Use
• Relevance and Distribution: Two Essential Factors in Social Media Marketing
• Social Media Networking and ROI: How to Maximize Value and Minimize Cost
• Building a Popular Social Media Profile: 7 Essential Characteristics
• Developing Tactical Knowledge on Social Media Websites: A Three-Part Strategy for DIY Marketers

Additional Resources:

Marketing Strategies for Social News Websites

• Social Media Marketing Strategy #1: Recycling Linkbaits for Viral Success
• Social Media Marketing Strategy #2: The Mullet and Link baits
• How to Get Strong Referral Traffic from Social Websites

StumbleUpon: Introduction and Detailed Guides

• A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Traffic to Your Website
• StumbleUpon Networking: How to Share Content and Build Relationships
• Five Ways to Grow Your StumbleUpon Network: An Ode to Altruistic Stumbling
• StumbleUpon Optimization: Leveraging Photo Stumbles for More Web Traffic

I’m sure you’ve heard about Twitter. Just like me you may have wondered how you could use the Twitter platform to build your business rather than just keep track of what others are doing at any given time.

Well, maybe this article can help. Click here to read 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners.

Early one morning you receive an email from a consumer interested in a listing you represent. Eager to follow up on this exciting lead you put together an email. Consider the fact that what the consumer receives from you essentially is your first opportunity to promote your company brand. While the content you put in your email certainly is important, so is your email address.

Consider this:

“Clients and customers will make assessments of your company based on things as simple as email addresses and while not always conscious, that customer appraisal says much about your business, your attitude and your priorities.” Mike Banks Valentine

In the article Email Branding Your Company Identity, Mike Banks Valentine discusses the importance of having the right name for your email address, and offers simple solutions for how you can make sure your email address reflects your company and brand identity.

Click here to read Email Branding Your Company Identity.