Feature Stories - April 2010

Social Media & Marketing

by Doresa Banning

    When Nevada business owner Scott Dunseath attends community events to support his apparel shop, Reno eNVy, he photographs, on his iPhone, people wearing his brand, then simultaneously sends it, via one text message, to the company Web site, Facebook (2,241 fans) and Twitter (1,010 followers). He recently spread the word about a store sale via social media, and revenue that day was the highest ever. He advertises on Facebook for $5 a day, which yields him 15,000 to 20,000 impressions daily. Customers frequently send him photos, which end up on the store’s photo-sharing account at Flickr. Dunseath, 42, uses social media marketing to expose Reno eNVy with the hope of becoming Nevada’s signature brand. While daunting at first, social media now for him is easy, fun and beneficial to his business, he said. “Without question, it has gotten people into the store,” he added.

    Like Reno eNVy, Nevada businesses can benefit from incorporating social media into overall marketing campaigns.

    “We’re talking about new opportunities to generate revenue and relationships with audiences,” said Marilyn Crawford, CEO of Windsor PTM, an interactive and integrative media technology company in Las Vegas. “It can massively affect the reputation, branding, sales and promotion of any person and any item that’s out there.”

    “Social marketing has now become mainstream,” adds Mark Cenicola, president and CEO of Cenicola-Helvin Enterprises, Inc.  “Social maketing is certainly an area that businesses will need to investigate as part of their overall marketing strategy.”

Online v. Offline Marketing

    Social media are online venues for interaction, collaboration and feedback. Social media marketing is the use of those outlets for communications, oftentimes one to one, connecting people to people, and people to content. “It is the evolved version of offline marketing, sometimes referred to as traditional marketing—print, radio, television, which tends to be a one-too-many type of communication that links people and information,” said David LaPlante, senior vice-president of sales and marketing for One to One Interactive, a company with a Reno office that provides digital marketing solutions for brands, agencies and publishers.

    Regardless, offline marketing still has a place and purpose today, as a component that’s integrated with social media marketing efforts. When opening a new store, for example, the mix would probably be some radio, television, print advertising and online marketing.

    “You’ll find that traditional media will continue to thrive in the social Media and Web 2.0 era,” said Cenicola.  “But, I think you’ll find magazines that offer timeless content instead of news will perform the best.”

    “One drives eyeballs and bodies from one place to another. What we have now is transmedia, brand or story narratives that exist across multiple channels, which consumers are capable and willing to engage in,” LaPlante said.

    For maximum exposure and effectiveness, a company’s offline marketing efforts should reference the online campaign, said Max Aceituno, principal of MaximoMedia Inc., a Las Vegas-based online marketing, advertising and Web design firm. For example, a television ad for a company might mention its presence on Facebook and include its Web site address.

    “Online social-enabling and other newer technologies provide numerous channels for delivering a marketing message, along with direct access to consumers and niche markets,” said Betsy McDonald, public relations director of The Bauserman Group, a Reno-based advertising and public relations agency.

    “Among others, the technologies let you deliver a message immediately, extend its reach around the world, contact a large consolidated group rather than a fragmented one, target individuals with personal advertising, and modify communications in real time,” Crawford said. “They also allow you, in real time, to provide immediate feedback, track your online advertising and evaluate their impact. And all of it can be done at little to no monetary cost. Now you have an opportunity to take those media buys directly to the consumer’s mind, home, cell phone and Internet. It blows behavioral marketing and so–called tactics out of the water,” she added

Why Bother?

    Social media marketing gives companies a voice online. Using the available tools, business leaders can interact personally with customers, and learn about and better understand them. They can offer them valuable content, keep them informed, solidify existing customer relationships and reach out to potential ones. Additionally, they can groom a younger audience that eventually may need their products or services.

    Social media marketing allows people to share, communicate and collaborate with a business. This is important because, today, consumers are in control of a company’s brand, not the company, LaPlante said. Even if a business isn’t on the Internet, its customers are, and they likely are talking about its products or service. Interaction with those who are paying attention allows them to better comprehend a company’s products or services, and brand— the emotional and psychological relationship it has with customers.

    “A brand lives in a person’s heart, not so much their head,” LaPlante added. “When people are emotionally engaged, they’re motivated to do things.”  

    Once there is a brand-loyal audience, it will do a lot of marketing for a company.

    “Social media marketing helps to move potential customers through the purchase funnel, from awareness to consideration to conversion, the final point being when they actually buy a product or service,” said Flip Wright, vice-president and director of strategy and planning at The Glenn Group, a Nevada marketing and communications agency.

    Online marketing allows for competition with similar companies, big and small. It maximizes a company’s rankings on search engines. The more online mentions of a business and clicks on its Web site, the better the search engine placement. With Google now indexing social content, Wright said, companies that don’t generate any, likely will rank lower eventually than those that do.

    “If you are willing to put in the work and have a relationship with your online audience, you’re going to elicit a positive reaction which, bottom line, results in sales for your company,” said Amber Stidham, director of strategic planning at Imagine Marketing, a Las Vegas-based marketing company.

    Unlike offline marketing, some types of social media marketing allow a business to measure results. For instance, a business can track the traffic between a Web site and social networking site. Web site analyzing programs, such as Google Analytics, provide all kinds of data about your site, including how many people are visiting it, where they’re located geographically and how much time they’re spending on it. By offering coupons or discounts on a single social networking site and requiring customers to mention where they saw the promotion to use them, it’s possible to track the number of redemptions and gain an idea of how effective a particular social media tool is.

    “It is easier to track the marketing effectiveness of online campaigns versus traditional,” Aceituno said.

    A potential downside to online marketing is the time that it takes to do it well, and that means keeping the audience engaged and interested. It varies depending on a particular campaign, but could, for example, require regularly changing the content on a Web site and routinely posting to social networks. Ideally, a business should post every day and, at the least, once a week, Aceituno said.

    “You want to do it right,” he added. “Otherwise, you’re wasting time. You can’t post once a month and expect the world out of your campaign.”

    One way to save some time is to use an online service, like Ping.fm or HootSuite, that allows someone to manage multiple social media platforms. Another option is to hire an outside firm, to market via social media.

    “It’s a long-term commitment,” Stidham said. “Success doesn’t happen overnight.”

    Cenicola also cautions social media users that rely only on social media, “One thing that gets overlooked is the inherent need of people to be physically close with each other, not just connected via airwaves and wires.  The more people rely on social media, the less they condition their non-verbal communication skills.”

Taking the Plunge

    A social media marketing campaign should be tailored to a company. An example is some of the ski resorts around Northern Nevada mobile texting snow reports to patrons who want to receive them.

    A campaign also requires some homework before it’s launched. McDonald suggests a business determine the goals in pursuing online marketing and what a company can gain from it. A business shouldn’t engage in social marketing just because “everyone else” is, that’s not a good enough reason. Further, if it doesn’t lead to a beneficial end result, it likely isn’t ideal for business at this time. For some companies, LaPlante said, it’s more critical for the people who comprise the business to be socially engaged rather than the company itself.

    “The problem with a lot of social media marketing is that everybody thinks if they get involved, they’re going to have success,” Aceituno said. “It boils down to whether or not people will be interested in what you have to offer.”

    If, however, there are plans to move forward with social media marketing or tweak existing efforts, start by listening to what people are saying online and in public about the company. Ask others what they hear. Go to places where the company might be discussed, and listen. There may be nothing to hear, which makes it seem as though the company doesn’t exist. Alternatively, the brand a company is pursuing may have a different perception publicly. In either instance, work to change it and use social media tools to do so.  

    Pinpoint the brand. What emotions do company executives desire to evoke in its consumers? How should customers feel about the company, that it’s reliable, trustworthy, dependable, speedy, creative or intelligent?

    Define and get to know the audience, including their age range, likes, dislikes and quirks, so there is effective communication. For instance, if target consumers are today’s youth, phone calls won’t reach them as well as texting them will.

    Of the many messages a company can deliver to its audience, pick one that reinforces the brand. Think about how that message might best be delivered and received by a target audience. It may be YouTube, a blog, podcasts, a series of tweets or something else. Get creative.

    Determine the ultimate goal from social marketing and set measurable goals.

    Choose one or two social media tools that allows for the best reach to the target audience, relays narrative and meets objectives. Maybe a company utilizes LinkedIn to reach older businesspeople, Eons to target baby boomers or MySpace to reach music lovers.  “Start small, and add it in,” McDonald advised.

    Ensure the Web site is easy to navigate and allows visitors to leave comments and easily get in touch with the company. On the Web site, mention and link to chosen social media outlets, and vice versa. The longer people spend on a Web site, the more brand exposure they get, Aceituno said.

    If multiple people, whether in-house or the general public, are able to access and post comments on a business’ social networking sites, designate someone within the company to be the administrator, Stidham suggested. Their job should be to monitor the site daily, readily interact with customers and manage the brand.

    Finally, remember that communications need, at least occasionally, to honor customers.

    “What consistently impress me are brands that are able to make the transition and stop talking about themselves all the time and, instead, recognize and talk about their customers,” LaPlante said. “Use these new channels of engagement to not only enhance that, but also to extend it. What you’re really giving people is self-actualization.”

    Creating a social media marketing plan and strategically implementing it may seem difficult, but they aren’t, Crawford said.

    “Once a company chooses to do it, once a chief executive officer chooses to embrace it, once his executive team chooses to understand it,” she adds, “it will bring more revenue and new business to the table.”

Doresa Banning
Doresa Banning is a freelance writer based in Northern Nevada.