The 3 Big Secrets to Successfully Tweaking Your Social Media Marketing

From one of my LinkedIn friends I read a short article today that really could be presented as a multiple seminar series from coast to coast or even globally on advertising to social media and the delicate aspects of outbound frequency marketing. I suggest that all who market something (that means everyone reading this) should read the short article. Link at bottom*.

Added Advertising Opportunity

The basic rules of successfully marketing never changed one iota with the arrival and maturity of The Internet and its symbiont social media. But, it certainly did get more complexed. With the added opportunities of social media, email and now web video, the increased out reach marketing power has enriched mostly the small to medium sized businesses and enterprises as we can now all compete with "The Big Boys" who used to have a corner on the market in reaching the masses through syndicated national and global TV, radio and printed advertising initiatives. Yes, the Internet is that powerful. Like the small town hero bringing a gun to a New York street fight, the Internet has been the great equalizer.

But, what one does with this great power and how one does it that is the great decider of fate in the small business's future. It's because the Internet is not a single marketplace, it is the avenue upon which the various market places thrive and operate, that prohibits a simple approach that reaches for one saturation level, which used to be The Rule. Now, one needs to be savvy to the instant and short term results of one's Internet outbound initiatives; sometimes making weekly and daily changes instead of quarterly and monthly.

It is for this reason alone that social media gurus who have been hired to place their golden hands on the controls of Business's social marketing modules are demanding and getting the the big bucks. A position that used to be an afterthought filled by the secretarial pool/lobby receptionist/graphic artist hobbyist is now at least a $60k position to start in the big city; with dental.

The Golden Secret; Media Segmenting

So, here's the main rub, each social avenue: Face Book, Twitter, the company blog-- maybe a Word Press site-- has its own saturation level decided by how well one's outbound messaging is being opened and the calls-to-action are executed. If you noticed all of the qualifying layers in the preceding sentence, then you are getting an idea of the complexity of the social media marketing task at hand.

It takes a few weeks for a new operator to get a handle on what the next step might be in any given industry, market and business. After that the tweaking begins. Usually the successful operator will cut back in many areas but step up in others; carefully watching tracked responses from readers/viewers.

1. Articles are written with relevant keywords that are chosen by searching for what buyers of the product are using in Google searches. These articles are published in the company's blog with just enough frequency: weekly, daily, etc, to elicit a high percentage of favorable responses without over saturating which tends to drop favorable responses over a short time.
2. Email blasts are broadcasted to the harvested database of emails in possession of the company through Internet harvesting, forms and physical harvesting through offline marketing events like trade shows and  snail mail-outs. These are handled with their own eye to reaching that perfect saturation level. Too many email blasts in a month and the responses drop off. But, not enough and missed revenue becomes a factor.
3. Web videos (videos created specifically for web viewing) are produced; often with alternative modules ready in the wings in case there is room for more frequency with changing content. Web video might be where the largest payoff is for those who have figured out the resources necessary and can recognize what works, and maybe more importantly, what doesn't.

Web Videos are the Real Gold Mine

Web videos are so powerful when done right because Western culture is so geared towards instant gratification, and video pays off in a big way, instantly. Good visuals with a powerful supporting audio track (or vice versa) are where the big payoffs are. And, fortunately for those funding these video gold mines, more is not better. Actually, the opposite is true; shorter is almost always better, to a point. And, the good news is that web video does not have to be prohibitively expensive. The old days of exclusively Hollywood type investments are over. The all important message for the week can be encapsulated into a 30 second to two minute web video for a fraction of what TV commercials go for. No more $10,000 production price tag for that 30 second TV spot that hasn't even reached anyone yet because you still have to buy the ad time for another $30k.

I operate a small media production unit in SW Washington. I am also on the executive staff of a web media hosting company based in Chicago that serves the globe through cloud hosting. Thus, I have a corner on the market for those small businesses to which closely I live and work.

It is much simpler for me to create a short display video for a local business and get that video in front of thousands of potential customers, than it is for that business to create a video and advertise locally on TV. And, I can do it for pennies on the dollar and still maintain a reasonable profit margin.

Just my existence in the marketplace proves that there are many more marketing options out there than there were just five or ten years ago. And, in a failing economy driven by factors that are much more Washington DC factored than locally based, this is a good thing from which all can profit.

Feel free to contact me for questions on marketing in this digital world.
email me at StuMarksez@gmail.com

*The mentioned article
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/06/the-curse-of-frequency.html

Other resources
www.ezwebplayer.com