What Sort of Social Media Services Should An Online Marketer Offer Clients?
Monday, March 03, 2008
Here are the services an online marketing company can (or should) offer clients:
- Blogging: Providing blog content, including content that has a "real" voice and is calculated to drive traffic/comments/interaction. Metrics to measure the effectiveness of this include # of comments, traffic, link-tos, and Technorati ratings.
- Blogger Outreach: This involves first creating contact lists carefully targeted to the client in question – and having the ability to identify the influential bloggers within a particular niche. Then the bloggers are contacted regarding the client story in question. This is similar to traditional PR, but involves a far more personal hand, and the ability to network and create relationships online. Traditional press releases do not work in this outreach – they must be short, friendly letters. Metrics for this include hits and link-backs to your site.
- Forum Outreach: Similar to blogger outreach. Part of this is identifying in advance what forums might be useful to the client and developing a relationship with them BEFORE making the "pitch" on the site (or else you are labeled a spammer).
- Social Networking Sites: The creating/maintenance of MySpace and/or Facebook accounts for the client, including the creation of Groups, Friending, sending out bulletins, etc. In addition to Facebook & MySpace there are many other social networking sites to focus on, both broad-based (like Bebo) or specialized (depending on client’s needs). Part of offering this service is the ability to tell clients what specific sites will be best for them demographically, and keeping up with trends. Metrics for this would be page hits, increase of hits on referenced URL, number of "friends" and comments.
- Podcast & YouTube: Some clients will be particularly suited for these forms of viral marketing. Marketers should offer very basic services in making simple podcasts & videos with the goal of going "viral" within the social networks. There is also a social networking component to these podcast and YouTube communities that have to be maintained and "worked." Metrics for this would be hits, # of downloads, link-tos from other sites, and increase of hits on referenced URL.
- Social Bookmarking: Interfacing between client blogger and bookmarker to shape content most likely to be bookmarked. Metrics include # of "Diggs" or "stumbles" a bookmarked story gets, and corresponding hit spike on referenced URL.
Within all of this is the need to provide the client a list of metrics to demonstrate that the social networking is creating a result. Companies are more likely, even in the case of budget cuts to their overall online marketing plan, to keep a budget for social networking because it is relatively inexpensive – but because the technology is so new, they want to see tangible results. It will be necessary, then, for a shop to create their own methodology and protocol for collecting data for metrics and presenting them in a convenient and comprehensive manner for the client.Labels: blogger, buzz, Facebook, Myspace, new media, social media, social networking, Stumbleupon, video, Web 2.0, Youtube
posted by Valerie D'Orazio
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ProBlogger Meetup
Monday, June 11, 2007
For those who are just getting into blogging, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger writes a fine column on how to do exactly that. They hosted a night out in the Upper West Side over the weekend that I was lucky enough to attend. (Note to the tavern proprietors: please refer to the the basement of Gin Mill as the Gin Mill, and not a separate bar called the Speakeasy as Google Maps does not yet have an underground view. Thanks.) As I am sure my illustrious colleague Mike Levin will be writing his own writeup of Saturday's event on our HitTail blog, I thought I would post my notes on our sister site so we cover both bases! Unfortunately Darren was quite swamped with adoring fans, so I didn't get to introduce myself but I did get to meet Shai Coggins from b5 media who was nice enough to give me a sporty new T-shirt. I spent the most time talking with a very cool Dutchman, Peter Verkooijen, who hosts the Web2NewYork meetup. I look forward to hearing your feedback on HitTail's Nederlands interface! Chris Conley is on a journey that I'm sure I'll be reading along with at Startup or Bust. I met my first Huffington Post blogger, Alex Geana, who was far too modest about the importance of said publication. Jim Cortina was probably the funniest man there, and I have already found some useful applications thanks to Nick O'Neill from AllFacebook. It was great meeting you all and if any of you happen to be interested in AJAX and the future of search, I encourage you to come check out our own Search Engine Superpowers Meetup tomorrow! Labels: blog, blogger, meetups
posted by Adam Edwards
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