Congratulations. If you are reading this chances are that you are a social media aficionado. But don’t pop the champagne corks just yet, as it’s not enough to use social media, for optimum success you need to integrate social media into your marketing strategy.

Engaging with social media is a bit like a marriage. You can say your vows and exchange rings but the hard bit is keeping things fresh and ensuring that the content is relevant and responsive. And in order to do well, firms must understand and have set out clear reasons for their online presence, whether it is a social account to connect with potential clients, or an ecommerce website to sell goods and service.

The next step is to identify who your audience is and the best way to connect with them. It’s not rocket science, you just need to do a bit of keyword research and go where your customers are. Find out what people are searching for online – and incorporate your findings into your content for good search SEO.

Once  you’ve done your research it’s time to get active. Get your brand noticed by posting on relevant blogs and joining online communities and create a buzz with some bite sized video content.It takes a lot of commitment to build up a truly successful social media profile. Initially you will need to invest your time in order to reap dividends.

Clare Richmond, director of town centre marketing consultancy Speakto.co.uk notes: “I think it is really important businesses understand social media is not just something you should be doing, it’s something you should be doing well.” She explains that businesses must be able to respond quickly, openly and honestly to any criticism on their sites and feature dynamic content that is updated on a regular basis.

Follow these steps and you’ll eventually build a brand that is credible and can hold its own in the marketplace. Just don’t get complacent, there’s a lot of competition out there and many willing suitors ready to step into your shoes…

Not satisfied with your current social media campaign? Brief the Exchange now!

Chloe

Creating an impact that lasts, especially surrounding charity work or social issues the general public would rather shy away from can be tricky. With inner city hustle and bustle the world around moves very quickly indeed meaning messages have to short and to the point. How do you get your audience to take notice? Is interactive media the key?

JWT London and JCDecaux caused a stir in Euston Station, London this week with a billboard campaign for the National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV). Aimed at targeting commuters and passers by the campaign urged them to use their smart phones to diminish an abusive domestic situation. Featuring an abusive man yelling at his partner ‘Drag Him Away’ encourages onlookers to get involved by visiting the organisations website or by scanning featured QR codes dotted around the station, resulting in immediate action displayed on the large screens. The participant is able to see the man move across a variety of billboards by dragging him away, urging people to report such situations to the NCDV as the screens synchronise.

The campaign has been met with a variety of opinions. On one hand this is the first time e-motion screens have run user controlled content and the actual technological achievement of the concept is great. On the other hand, whilst the challenge with these types of campaigns is to get the audience to interact, does this digital advancement shift the focus away from the important issue at hand of domestic violence?

Caught up in the buzz of digital interactivity or a genuine call to action? You decide.

See how it works here!

*Images courtesy of JWT

If you are looking for a Cause-related marketing campaign, brief the Exchange now!

Paper Boat Creative

In years past, people had to try the services and offers of any restaurant or hotel before making an opinion. Today, however, anyone looking for a product or service can begin with a detailed search online. When it comes to business marketing, the power of internet makes a significant difference. From luxury hotels to simple ice cream stores, a good online presence is mandatory. However, while creating a good image can be challenging, maintaining it can be even more difficult. Companies do well to stabilize their brand’s online presence and keep it in good standing.

Invest in Impressive Web Design

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is crucial for businesses to find a good web designer to build the company site. Look for a skilled designer with experience in your industry. Make sure you understand the terms of the contract. The majority web designers offer complete design packages. The design bundle may well include web design, logo design, business cards, stationary, and site maintenance.

While some designers are perfect for designing a site, they might lack the professionals needed for good Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a vital part of building an online brand. So find a professional who specializes in design to take care of your site and company identity, but take just as much care selecting an SEO professional as well. Good SEO will help you draw visitors to your site, while an excellent web designer will help you keep a customer’s attention once they arrive.

Pay Attention to Hosting and Image building

When you have your site designed, it is time to put it online. Make sure you find a good hosting company. Most professional web designers can recommend you to a good host before the design process begins. SEO companies are responsible for stabilizing your brand with words. This is a complicated process that consists of blog posting, article writing, link building, and marketing. The SEO Company must write articles that attract visitors through interesting content.

A visitor looking for your services will be thrilled to read advice on the same topic. Customers can either slam or promote your page on Facebook and Twitter, so keep them nice and happy.  Include widgets and buttons that will send your published content directly to social networks. SEO Companies are also expected to discuss their services on blogs and forums. This helps online searchers and visitors start to hear about them.

Social Networking is Not a Fad

The simplest method to build a nice image is to promote your brand on social networks. The advertisement systems of some social networks are well designed. They allow you to promote your content only to people interested in it. Since social networks are able to promote your brand directly to the people interested, those that might have an adverse affect your online image will be excluded.

It can be a challenge to stabilize your company’s online brand. Familiarity with the marketing tools available will help you solidify your presence and maintain a good online reputation.

If you need a unique online branding strategy, submit a brief now!

mimosa creations

Gut instinct, intuition, call it what you want but trust your inner voice more and you will make the right decisions. A well-trained intuition is almost always right and it helps us make those crucial right calls that make the difference between success and failure.

But why don’t we use it more? Well, we’re conditioned to believe that the right decisions are those that are weighed up carefully and looked at from all angles. I am not talking about rushing headlong into snap judgment here. This is about trusting your own wisdom and understanding the physical reactions as well as the psychological.

Take hiring staff for example. Have you ever interviewed a candidate who was saying the right things but your gut instinct was telling you no and you found yourself with arms folded and legs crossed? I have. And I spent 3 months regretting not listening to my gut instinct.

Our ability to thin slice – filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables is born out of years of reading one another, reading situations and experience.

It’s a powerful tool that when employed correctly can be used to optimum effect. So go on try it, whether it’s to help you employ the best candidate, or come up with a snappy slogan for your PR campaign, or choose the right direction to take your business. Here’s betting that it will be the best call you’ve made.

If you need a unique PR campaign to attract more customers, submit a brief now!

Chloe

She’s the Cinderella of PR, left on the sidelines while her bolder sisters Social Media and Marketing get all the glory. But dust Internal Communications off and give her the chance to shine – and in return she’ll give you a happier more productive workplace.

Your employees are your ambassadors. But if you don’t tell them what your key messages are, how do you expect them to promote your brand? SMEs often spend a lot of time and energy fine tuning their external relations and give little thought to internal communications. 

Yet involve your employees in your business goals and not only will you see productivity soar but you will have a happier more engaged workforce. Why? Well quite simply, people like to feel important, confide in them the thinking behind your strategic plan and they will walk away feeling trusted and connected.

It’s important to get the channels right though. Use the wrong form of communication and it will fall on deaf ears. Talk to your teams, find out what works best. There’s no point sending out a printed newsletter if they prefer to read emails or creating podcasts if they spend most of their time outdoors.

 And make sure that your messages are timely, no one likes to be the last to know. And if you have an important piece of news to communicate to the world. Tell your staff first. They will appreciate the courtesy and you will ensure that they get the story right first time.

If you need an innovative marketing campaign, submit a brief now!

Chloe

It’s a thoroughly postmodern conundrum. So much choice, so many flavours, so many combinations, so little time.  You know that what you offer is unique and you need the oxygen of publicity to give it that extra push. Yet how can you make your brand stand out, and come to life for the journalist who you receives hundreds of press releases every day?

It’s a busy market place out there. Everyone wants their product reviewed and blogged about. And journalists, (like me) receive lots of press releases with shouty headlines and wild claims. But what does it take for me to click open?

Firstly, give good headlines. There’s no point carefully crafting a release only to ignore the header. No one sends hard copies anymore, so make sure that you copy the header into the subject line of your email. Make it punchy, be playful and remember that this is the first thing your journalist will read. Whatever your key message is you need to sell it here.

Make sure that you are accurate too, journalists can sniff hyperbole from a mile away. There’s no point claiming that you are the best in the world if you’ve just launched a product. You need to earn recognition and receive feedback first, so start slowly and describe the things that make your product unique and relevant.

Images are great, but don’t make the mistake of sending large attachments, they will just clog up the in box and infuriate your journalist. Make sure that your pic is medium resolution and is one that you would be happy to see in print or online.

What you are aiming for is for the journalist to copy your press release verbatim. This is common place these days as journalists become more and more stretched and the 24 hour news agenda demands quick turnarounds.  So, have a great spokesperson. Include a snappy quote, preferably from the head honcho, explaining why they’ve launched said product and where they want to go in the future.

 And if you’re feeling really clever, get a third party endorsement. Someone in the field who is happy to support your brand. It helps the journalist to have a couple of really good quotes so they don’t have to search around for another opinion.

Make sure that you include contact details. You’d be surprised by the number of releases that forget to include a telephone number, or email. Journalists aren’t a telepathic bunch and unless it’s the scoop of a lifetime will just move on to the next release if you don’t make it easy for them to get in touch.

And finally, keep to a page and no longer. Hold off the urge to write War and Peace. That’s not the point. Brevity in this case is the sole of wit.

If you need an innovative PR campaign, submit a brief now!

Chloe

In order for any promotional campaign to be successful, planning is necessary. The size or scope of the campaign, may have an impact on the effectiveness, However, it is the planning and managing that contributes the most to the ultimate success or failure of a campaign. Here are tips that can contribute to a company’s successful marketing campaign:

1. Determine Your  Objective
The objective of your promotional campaign must be clearly defined and thoroughly understood. Be specific, make sure your goals can be measured, ensure that your goals are achievable. Everyone involved must be fully aware of the objective.

2. Determine Your Budget
There are different resources available for use in company campaigns. Marketing methods may vary by cost. For your planning to be effective, your resources must be identified and budgeted. Unless the budget is unlimited, resources will be exhausted. It’s not sensible to continue a campaign when the expected objectives are not being met.

3. Define Your Message
Promotions are designed to increase the awareness of a product, business, or service. The method of message delivery may have an effect on the way in which the message is received. For a marketing message to be successful, it must be clear and without uncertainty.

4. Identify the Target Market
It is important to be familiar with your target market. You can identify your market by demographics that include age, gender, location, or any characteristics. All people in the group will share some of the same characteristics.

5. Know Your Product
Managing a promotional campaign involves a complete understanding of the product, the placement, and the pricing. During the course of the campaign, these components may need some adjustment, which makes the flexibility imperative. Ensure that your product is being promoted in a timely fashion. Messages for seasonal products or services can be more effective when marketed in the appropriate period.

6. Monitor and Evaluate Your Results
It is extremely important to evaluate the campaign with the established objective in mind. All the components of the plan can be formally defined in a written document. The written evaluation can be used to measure the performance of the campaign or to ensure the success of future campaigns.

Managing a successful marketing campaign can be an enlightening experience. Although the outlined strategies can contribute to a company’s successful promotion, every business has to determine what is best for their product or services.

If you are looking for an innovative marketing campaign to attract more customers, brief the Exchange now!

mimosa creations

Pinerly, the latest addition to the Pinterest phenomenon, is adding a power user functionality to the world of moodboards.

Pinterest has boomed this year, despite controversy over terms and conditions a few weeks ago, and Pinerly is the latest addition to the pinning scene.

The application acts as a dashboard, and includes all-important analytics to the pins, or “campaigns” you create; a handy pop up window reminds the user of clever tips and hints in using Pinterest, and the ability to check the “Pinalytics” gives a tangible “bottom line” source of statistics to measure the reach of each campaign.

By tracking clicks, likes, activity such as re-pins and followers, Pinerly is a step up in strategy for the savvy Pinterest user and brand. With strategies such as pin to win campaigns, “how to” boards, tutorials and event logging becoming more and more in play in the visual social media world the addition to the armoury is welcome.

Pinerly launched with an invitation-only approach, seeding the social media users with the most reach and influence with an invitation to join. A request for the app is accompanied by a call to action of spreading the word throughout social networks, an innovative approach and teaser campaign which has ensured  the early adopters are key influencers.

The abiliity to schedule pins is currently not yet available but still in development, an addition to the application that will be an asset to power pinners wishing to schedule pins strategically for campaigns.

Are you using Pinterest yet? If so will you try Pinerly? How useful is it to see measurable data on your pinning activity?

If you need a unique social media plan, brief the Exchange now!

Jo

Welcome to the first in a regular series of PR tips and advice, embracing the new world of PR and social media.

Admit it. We’re all guilty of reading about PR blunders in the news and thinking that will never happen to me. You know the sort of thing, where tasteless tweets become headline news or reality stars marry only to spectacularly divorce 2 and a half years later.

But don’t be so sure it won’t happen to you. With an ever hungry growing 24 hours news media and social media blurring the boundaries between private and public there really is no place to hide when the proverbial hits the fan.

Statistics reveal that most organisations will experience a crisis at least twice in a decade yet studies indicate that more than half of all organizations have NO crisis plan, and those that do fail to update them regularly.

What would you do if you woke up one morning and found that the phone wouldn’t stop ringing… Do you know who you would turn to in a crisis and if so do you have their number programmed into your phone. More importantly, do you have clear communication channels and a process agreed for emergency communications.

And could you act quickly? As someone important once said “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”  Silence in these situations is rarely golden. You need to act quick. If you don’t then someone will quickly fill in the gaps for you and you will lose control of the message.

The first thing you need to do is establish the facts. And the second thing you need to do is work out how you can make it right. Issue a statement explaining what you will do to remedy the situation. Say sorry. And if you can’t say sorry because you are afraid of litigation you can empathize with the victims.

There’s nothing worse than a rabbit caught in the headlights. Make sure that you put forward a capable media spokesperson. Someone who has emotional intelligence and warmth. At this point you need to connect with your audience and a hesitant, defensive spokesperson will do more damage than good.

If you haven’t done your prep call in the experts. In fact call in the experts before the crisis happens – there’s no substitute for experience and planning when it comes to a crisis.

If you need an innovative social media plan, submit a brief now!

Chloe

One of the best ways to generate more leads, gain exposure, and make more sales is to employ online marketing. There are numerous benefits to utilizing the web as a way to reach new customers. Today’s web users are actively engaged while they peruse the web.  In this highly competitive economy, entrepreneurs, professionals, and business owners now have to use active marketing methods that have an inbound magnetic effect to increase their sales. Most businesses cannot survive any longer using conventional ways of marketing. It is not difficult to use the internet for marketing, but it does take diligence. These are four techniques companies can use to benefit from online marketing and maximize sales: 

1. Blogging is Essential
If you are reading this, then it should be easy for you to realize that blogging is very important. It is not enough to write your blog and wait for someone to read it. Although your blog is the quickest way to gain exposure and generate leads, you could also use it to add more followers or subscribers into your company’s list. Install a sign up form in the side bar of your blog. Entice readers to enter their contact information for a free ebook or a free video course.

2. Be Unique
Remember that your competitors also have internet access and the ability to market to a worldwide audience. When you have thousands of companies “shouting” the same marketing message, your own company is bound to get lost in the crowd. Step away from conventional marketing, and hire someone creative to help you stand out from the crowd of marketers in your industry.

3. Keep Their Attention
Once you have the attention of potential customers, keep it. We live in a world where most people are being bombarded by new information and gimmicks. Think about how your business can stand out from the crowd. Your first impression is crucial. Give visitors a reason to come back to your site and to actually look forward to your intriguing emails.

4. Utilize Crowdsourcing
Companies that get a regular flow of visitors to their internet site can make use of crowdsourcing. A diner could make a poll for visitors to specify what entrees they wish to add to the lunch menu. A clothing store could poll visitors to find out what color blouse they’d like to see next. Many organizations use forums and polls in their product development. These tools give shoppers the opportunity to let companies know what they would prefer. Engaging consumers and applying their opinions makes products more attractive. 

Find your specialty when it comes to online marketing, and stick to it. The secret to utilizing online marketing successfully is having a well thought out technique. It is vital to select the right web marketing strategies. Fortunately, there are many from which you can choose!

If you need a unique online marketing campaign, brief the Exchange now!

mimosa creations