© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466

© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466

Table Of Contents

• The Age of the Social Consumer. – Page 1

• Principle 1: Social, Local, Mobile Marketing. – Page 2

• Principle 2: Reputation Management. – Page 3 & 4

• Principle 3: Measurement and Continuous Improvement . – Page 4

• Conclusion. – Page 5

© Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466

In the Age of the Social Consumer

Before the existence of the internet, a

company would ask, “How can we integrate our

various marketing tools – radio, print, TV,

billboards, publicity, and direct-mail – to achieve

the optimal marketing mix while maintaining a

cohesive and unified message?”

In digital marketing, we ask, how can we integrate

social media into our online and offline marketing

mix? It's really the same question, just updated for

the digital world. And it's a question on which the

success of your marketing efforts could well

depend.

Some companies regard social media as a

silo cut off from traditional marketing

programs. This is something to avoid,

given that social media can be particularly

powerful when integrated into your larger

marketing mix.

Many small businesses, it appears, already got the

memo. A new study by Constant Contact confirms

that more business owners are now integrating

social media marketing into their mix. In fact, 77

percent of the survey's respondents reported that

they regularly conduct social media marketing

campaigns using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Whether you’re a fledgling small business just

getting a taste of social media or have a fully-

integrated social marketing strategy, here are three

tried-and-true strategies to achieve complete social

media integration for your small business.

Source: Constant Contact

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1. SoLoMo: Social, Local, Mobile Marketing

Businesses today are faced with an impressive

challenge – meeting the wants and needs of

increasingly sophisticated, empowered, and

impatient consumers who are armed with

smartphones and tablets. This has led to SoLoMo,

a marketing concept that keeps businesses

relevant by:

A growing number of small businesses are

achieving true social-media integration by adopting

the SoLoMo model.

They are able to micro-target prospects and

consumers at a hyper-local level based on real-

time customer data. Businesses that satisfy the

immediate needs of consumers, whenever and

wherever they are, are rewarded with customer

loyalty.

There are a number of SoLoMo applications,

including Foursquare, Yelp, and Around Me, that

enable businesses to target potential customers

based on their geographic location. What's more,

SoLoMo is even influencing search engine results,

which now take into account user location.

Businesses are getting the message.

According to the Constant Contact study, 66

percent of small and medium-sized business

owners are now using mobile devices as part

of their marketing strategies.

What's more, a third of them already have mobile-

optimized websites and 18 percent employ mobile,

tablet-based point-of-sale systems.

A new study by the Pew Research Center reports

that 25 percent of mobile phone owners look up

pricing to see if they can get a better price

somewhere else.

Businesses that adopt the SoLoMo model are in

position to engage these consumers at the right time

– the moment they are motivated to buy. Businesses

that don't are at significant disadvantage.

• Being social

• Thinking local

• Investing in mobile

% of SMBs

Mobile Technology Adoption

34% Have a mobile optimized website

18% Use mobile POS systems

Source: Pew Research

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2. Reputation Management

How do small businesses protect their reputations?

Until recently, it was mostly a matter of providing

quality products and services, and counting on

customers to spread word-of-mouth buzz. When

encountering a customer complaint, they

addressed the issue privately.

This was before the advent of social media --- now

customer feedback, both negative and positive,

spreads in real-time through Social Media's echo

chamber, which includes sites like Yelp,

TripAdvisor, Google+, and Foursquare.

According to the Pew Research Center’s In-Store

Mobile Commerce Study, 28 percent of mobile users

check and monitor online reviews of a product or

service while inside a store location.

These reviews help drive purchase decisions. With

so many consumers posting, reading, and sharing

online reviews, it’s now critical for small businesses

to proactively manage their online and offline

reputations.

A recent study by consulting company

YouGov reveals that as much as 21 percent

of Americans who have written reviews on

the Internet did so without even buying or

trying the product.

Add to this the popularity of fake online reviews, and

you can see the problem. The key is to monitor

everything that is being said about your company

across multiple social media platforms.

A good online reputation is the result of effective

social media integration.

Sources: Pew Research, YouGov

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Planning and coordination are

essential to effective social medial

integration – the right hand needs to know what the

left hand is doing. When your well-intentioned staff

members post comments without authorization,

reign them in. Companies can exercise control over

their employees, but they cannot control what their

customers say about them, nor should they try.

When confronted with a negative comment, start by

reading it slowly and carefully. Don't get mad or

defensive and try to see it from the perspective of

your customer. By addressing a customer issue

promptly and professionally, businesses can turn a

potential crisis into an opportunity to connect at an

even deeper level with their audience.

Are you looking to get your arms around

your company's online reputation? For

starters, try Google Alerts.

For a more comprehensive solution, consider

investing in online reputation management

software and social media monitoring tools. These

platforms collect millions of social media posts daily

from Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and forums. You

can search for any social-media conversation that

contains mention of key brand names, competitors,

industry jargon, social hash-tags, and trending

topics, among others.

Finally, remember that no review – good or bad,

real or fake – should be ignored. Listen, be

vigilant, and always respond promptly and

professionally.

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3. Measurement & Continuous Improvement

Integration involves making the various social

media tools you have at your disposal work

individually and collectively for maximum marketing

performance. This raises a question: What does

success look like and how do we measure it? By

utilizing the “Feedback Loop”:

Experimentation

Willingness to try new approaches in social media

and content marketing is essential to your

company's success; without this, your brand may

grow stale and unable to compete with more

innovative companies.

Measurement and Analysis

Use data and analytics to measure your progress.

Social analytic platforms like HootSuite, SocialBro,

Facebook Insights, and Visible can provide small

businesses with insights into campaign

performance. Other common metrics include

visibility in SERPs, total impressions generated by

PPC ads, clicks, and conversions. During this

phase, key inquiries include:

• Who is our user base and how are they being

referred to our site?

• Where are we engaging and where are we

practically invisible?

• What is working and with whom?

• Where are we losing conversions?

Modification and Adaptation

Actionable data should guide any changes to your

social media strategy. Maybe Twitter isn't driving

traffic to your website; armed with this knowledge,

you can reallocate resources. Perhaps you'll find that

Pinterest, though wildly popular, is not a great match

for your business if you are mostly targeting men.

It could be that your content is not

connecting with folks and is therefore not

being shared.

More positively, you may identify content that

passionately engaged your followers – and with this

feedback, you can repurpose, recreate, and retarget

your most popular content.

Given how rapidly technology is changing, what

works today may not work tomorrow. A focus on

measurement, continuous improvement, and

adaptation through the feedback loop is essential to

remaining relevant in the social media space.

Don’t let the rapidly changing social climate leave

you in the dark, scrambling to communicate with your

potential customers and failing to maximize your

social media efforts. Take the time today and follow

these three steps to a seamless social media

integration.

Experimentation Measurement

Analysis Modification Repeat

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Harmonize your social.

Thanks and come back soon.

Whether you’re still discovering the power of each social media

platform or you’re already seeing the benefits of an established

online community, follow these 3 principles to a seamlessly

optimized small business social marketing strategy.