Prepared by Paul Parsons | GM at digitALL

BBG Marketing Focus Group

Social Media & Digital Marketing Opportunities for Business

Who are we?Interactive and Engagement Marketing Agency &

ConsultancyUsing interactive and engaging tools such as social media and mobile marketing to build a

communication dialogue with your customers.

• Social Media Strategies

• Social Media Consultation

• Social Media Integration

• Training

• Mobile Web Strategy

• Concept Development

• Mobile Marketing Strategies

• Marketing Alignment Strategies

• SMS Interaction

•Application Development

Then & Now!Marketing and Communication channels available to your business have evolved

Has your marketing strategy done the same?

Communication Timeline

Social Media Timeline

Objective, Objective, Objective!

Digital (and social media) strategies often fail because there is no clear objective set

in place

ClarityCommunication

Media

Reviews

Mobile

Location

Social, Location & Mobile

Networks, Blog, Search, Adverts, Check-ins, Reviews, Video

Social for Business• Organizing Content

– Ensure that the content and messages you share with your customers are consistent.

– Plan and align

Social for Business• Listening and Monitoring

– Automated notifications are a great way to know who is talking about your brand

– Identify your key influencers

Social for Business• Customizing Content

– Profiling of communication can increase response rates.

– By location or by language

– The Arabic platform’s 10 million users make up about 35% of the region’s Facebook subscribers (up from 24% in May 2010)*

– 41% of GCC users now use Facebook Arabic and 61% in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the UAE’s adoption of Facebook Arabic being the lowest at 10%)*

* Source: Spot On PR

Social for Business• Variation of content

– Rich video content embedded into your social media conversations.

– Allowing your fans to hear what you have to say by embedding Podcasts, music files or how to tips as an MP3 file.

• MP3 files are playable in some social networks such as Facebook.

Social for Business• Brand exposure

– Using the web as your business / brand

– Leave comments on sites and replies as your brand

Social for Business

• Blogging– Benefits of blogging:

• Have a human face & voice• Unique content is great for

SEO• You “Own” sharable

content• Moderated interaction• Helps to build online

personal / corporate authority

• Create conversation

Social for Business

• Search• Search is more important and

easier to access than ever before

• Own your search real estate

• What will your customers find when they Google you or your business?

Social for Business• LinkedIn

– Utilizing LinkedIn for your business by creating a company page and ensuring all of your services and products are listed.

– Clients can write recommendations for your products / services

– Don’t let good recommendations leave when your staff do.

Location for Business• Information on the go

– Location based social media usage is on the increase.

– Applications such as Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, Google Places, Tripadvisor, Yelp etc provide immediate information to potential customers who are in the vicinity of your business.

– They also allow users to leave tips and reviews.

Location for Business• Foursquare

– Understand who your customers are

– Provide special offers for loyal customers

– Create awareness of your business

Location for Business

Location for Business

Location for Business• Google Places

– According to Google, 20% of all online searches have local intent*

– According to Microsoft, 53% of all mobile searches have local intent*

– View information on the go

– Link your page with your brand, website and search results

– Over 90% of businesses in the region still haven’t claimed their Google Place page**

Source: *Searchengineland.com **EternalAdvertisingSolutions.com

Mobile for Business Mobile Search

– Being found on the go!

– As the internet and search has evolved, so too has the way that customers find what they want.

– Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year. For many industries, 1 in 7 searches are now mobile.*

• Did you know 71 percent of Smartphone users that see TV, press or online ads, follow this with a mobile search*

• Will they find your mobile site or your competitors’?

* Source: MobiThinking.com

Mobile for Business

• The mobile web– Having mobile optimized content

is one of the most important parts of your digital strategy.

– Opening links from emails, email signatures, Facebook post’s, Tweets or even SMS messages on your mobile phone will usually result in the opening of a full browser version

Mobile for Business• Pre-formatted mobile content

– At the very least, link to websites (that contain your business information) and are already mobile optimized such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

– This will reduce user frustration and help you to manage expectations

– Focus on user experience (UX), when asking them to engage with your business

Mobile for Business• Quick Response Codes (QR)

– Adding engagement to your current traditional marketing methods can increase ROI, customer interaction and provide you with metrics to measure response.

– QR codes provide a novel channel for customers to engage with your brand and drive offline traffic to a online medium

– Be careful! Don’t drive users to a platform which isn’t mobile optimized

Mobile for Business• SMS Marketing

– SMS is still one of the most common and easiest methods of 2-way digital communication.

– 160 character limitation is now a thing of the past.

– Combining SMS with mobile web can drive offline visibility to online traffic when it comes to communication or lead generation.

Mobile for Business

What’s Next?

• Google+– Business pages for the

newest social network will soon be available.

– SEO friendly content for your business / brand

What’s Next?

• Group video– Customer focus groups across

the internet.

– Gain valuable feedback from different customer bases.

– Provide more efficient training or customer service face to face.

What’s Next?

• API Integration– Customize content on your

website using any of the following API’s:

• Facebook • LinkedIn • Google• Foursquare• Plus more…

What’s Next?

• Mobile Commerce– Near Field Communication

(NFC) built into smartphones

– Smartphone payment systems such as Square

– Integrated mobile payment systems linking the web and your mobile – Google Checkout

What’s Next?

• Hybrid Apps– The ability to be able to

combine the usability of applications with the content from a mobile web page

What’s Next?

• Augmented Reality– Providing 3 dimensional

visual experiences from a 2D platform

– Personalized customer experience

– Focus on convenience

What’s Next?

• Mobile Media– Optimizing video content

– Adding visual content to mobile campaigns

– User generated content

– As it happens

What’s Next?

• Image recognition– Image search– Price comparison

Questions?

For a copy of these slides and to receive my digital business card:

SMS PAUL & [Your email] to 5269