Top 5 Ways to Attract More Followers

Companies that are using social media sites as an outlet to Market their service or product are always looking for more ways to attract customers. Below I will list five ways companies can bring more followers to their sites.

1. Make sure to show the icons of your social media sites on other marketing tools, such as websites, flyers, and broachers. This keeps your customers aware that you are using other means of marketing. Make your online marketing tools are making their Icons click-able to users. By doing this you are making it easier for users to join your network.

2. E-mail plays a big role in communicating with other. In order to gain more people to your network, you need provide your means of social networking at the end of an e-mail. For example at work I have an Icon for LinkedIn at the end of my signature. This allows people that receive e-mails from me to click and become a friend.

3. Use other social media site to promote your social media. For example make your status on Facebook "follow me on twitter @kaseybward". You want to make it a little more excited than my example but it gives you an idea of what I mean.

4. If you work for a company that issues business cards to its employees ask how much more it would be to add your LinkedIn name or Icon to the card. This will help other be aware of your individual resume and business product or service.

5. Write blogs that everyone can find value from. Make your customers want to read your blogs and leave with a much better understanding of a topic or issue. Make sure the reader leaves the blog with something they can use. If you communicate consistently with your followers you should see an increase in users

Social Media Brings Hiring to a New Level

Social Media has brought hiring and looking for jobs to a new level. Companies are paying hiring agencies to find people to fill position they need. A lot of recruiters are searching on LinkedIn, twitter and Facebook for applicants. Today I was checking my twitter account and noticed were someone had posted a co-op position on their status. Within five minutes they had already received three responses about the position. Social Media analyst still believe that "Who You Know" is key but these sites are helping those "who you do know" keep in contact. If you are using these social media sites listed above and keeping them up to date, you are going to be fresh on people’s minds.

Remember that Social Media sites are not the be-all, end-all tactic but it can be your introduction. You will eventually need to meet face to face with your applicants. Sites like LinkedIn provide you with a brief description of someone’s resume; this allows you to skip a step in the hiring process. You know what someone’s work experience and school level before ever bringing them in for an interview. Take a second and Google your name, many employers are taking time to do this. Make sure nothing unprofessional pops up for the world to see. Use the social media sites listed above to market yourself for free.

Local Business Joins Social Media

Griffs Deli is a local restaurant in Bowling Green for those who didn't know. It is located on Scottsville road by BAC(Bowling Green Athletic Club). They serve food such as sandwiches, soups, salads and much more. I recently seen on a friends twitter were they retweeted a status from Griffs Deli stating if they reached 5000 followers they would give away a $500 dollar gift card. So, me being the broke college student I retweet the post and started following the local deli.

Within three days Griffs Deli had accomplished their goal of 500 followers and announced the winner of the gift card, unfortunately I didn't win:(! Griffs has also been having similar contest for their Facebook friends. Today they post this status "Griffs Deli-Don't forget tomorrow at noon we will post a question and the first one to answer correctly will be Facebook Fan of the Week". These statuses keep the audience on Facebook excited and involved with the local business. This makes fans and customers feel that they are a part of the growing experience. I would be curious to know how much revenue has gone up since they have established these social media sites and became consistent with their posts.

Promote a local Business today and become friends on Facebook, just search Griffs Deli.
Follow Griffs Deli on Twitter at @GriffsDeli

Pandora Radio

Pandora radio is an online website that offers music. You have the luxury of choosing what song or artist you want to listen to. Individuals have to make an account before Pandora will let you listen to the music. Pandora is not only accessible on your computer but also on Netflix’s, apple devices and android phones. After you have listened to

I listen to Pandora a lot during the day at work. I always assumed it was a free unlimited website for music but i recently learned that wasn't the case. Pandora offers two options, one being that you can listen for free each month for 40 hours, after that you must start paying. If you decide to continue listening you must pay 0.99$. This is great for Pandora to keep the trend of being a free and cheap site for users to listen to music. They can also make a small amount of money on top of their advertisement sales. Pandora radio offers advertisement commercials after you have listened to a couple of songs. These commercials last anywhere from 30 second to a minute. Pandora also offers a like button; this can help them determine what kind of music to play for you. They use the button as a focus group to help provide better customer service to their users.

Start-up kit to Social Media

I found an interesting article that helps companies and users start-up their social media sites. It maps out steps and a plan for using the sites to the best of your ability. It gives three steps you must follow in order to be successful.

Step 1: Set up your own media outlet
In the first step wants you to create a web base place to publish your thoughts for others to see. It must be easily visible for individuals to access. This includes blogging sites such as the one we are using now.

Step 2: Create Social Identities
Social Identity sites are things such as LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. These need to be used to for brand recognition. Allow others to be aware of brands and what they stand for. It is very important to stay consistent with these sites so that users don't become confuse or stray.

Step 3: Create a Proactive Editorial Plan
This is where you create a strategy for users to visit your web based sites and be aware of what you offer. This is where you want to become viral so that people are talking about your brand. Your company will want to create advertisements, videos, how to's and other attention grabbers.

Following these three simple steps can help you and your company skims the surface of social media. Once you become familiar with the sites, the easier it will come. Staying involved with social media is something that will reward companies in the long run. Those who refuse to use it will be left in the dust.

http://www.socialmedia.biz/

"Check- In"

After discussing Four Square and other "check-in" applications today in class, I wanted to go over the positive and negatives of the new social trend.

Positive: Of course the most positive aspect of the new trend is that it allows businesses to track the traffic in the stores and around the area. It helps zero in on your target market and reward your routine customers. It can also be another way for businesses to help drawl more customers to the area with deals and incentives. Checking-in has become so popular that it has its own applications called Four-Square plus a setting on the Facebook applications for smart phones.

Negative: I recently heard a story on the news that a women's home was broken into and the person charged with the crime admitted that he knew she wasn't home because she had recently checked-in somewhere on Facebook.
Checking-in applications is another way of keeping tabs on people, knowing their every move. This can be dangerous if put into the wrong hands. I don't usually check-in places on a daily basis because it freaks me out to know that hundreds of users are aware of what I’m doing.

This website gave some insight on the new social trend:

http://thereasoner.com/articles/are-online-check-ins-dangerous

LinkedIn

I had a LinkedIn profile before the class required it. My Current job at Northwestern Mutual requires it's employees to have an account. I think requiring an account when starting a job is great idea to get connect to other in your career and previous jobs. I’m not sure how I feel about the social site. I haven't received any leads on jobs or had anyone posting positions. Not a lot of my peers have a profile on the site, so I’m having a hard time on ways to use the website to the best of my ability. I wish the site had different option to get to know other professionals in the field desired. Hopefully I can learn more about the site in this course. If anyone has any suggestion on what I can do to better connect with business professionals on the site, would be great.

Twitter Compared to Facebook

I have recently joined the trend of twitter and slowly becoming addicted. I have the app downloaded on my phone so that I can "Tweet" anywhere. "Tweeting" is a form of posting status like you see on facebook. I feel that this trend of social media is becoming bigger every day. I am constantly finding more and more friends joining the site. It allows comments to other twitter users, restricted profile info, username and profile picture. The difference between Twitter and Facebook is that you don't get dragged down with friends posting pictures or comments on other peoples pages. It’s a great tool for marketing because a lot of users post what they are doing, where they are, and what’s going on their life.

I think this is great for companies to target their market of users. For example, at my sorority meeting last week we had an up and coming country artist come and sing. He was trying to promote his self so he asked us all to follow him on twitter. He also tapped the performance and posted it on the internet for all of us to see. He is using the resources of twitter to find more fans and get his name out there. Another example is a local Bruster’s ice cream spot, post their flavor of the day thought-out the day and it makes me want to go by their every time I see the tweet. They also remind you of specials and deals they are having for that day.

Successful or Not Successful social media Campaign

Dockers launched a 2010 Super Bowl commercial known as "Men Wear no Pants" stating that they would give a free pair of pants to people who logged on to their website. If you listen carefully to the commercial you will hear Dockers say that you can try for a pair, not guaranteeing a free pair of pants. The next day Dockers were getting responses that the site given was overloaded and hundreds of people were unable to access. Either way it allowed so many individuals to log on to their website that it crashed for a little while. Even though individuals watching the super bowl assumed that they were getting a coupon for a free pair of pants, they were mistaken. You had to enter in an e-mail address in order to be in the chances of winning a pair of the 2,010 pants offered. Everyone who entered an e-mail address received a 15% off your purchase coupon.

Even though many people were upset to find you had to enter a drawing in order to win the pants, it allowed a lot of people to see their website and become familiar with what the brand Dockers offers. I've learned that when free items are advertised in an ad or online it becomes a popular very popular subject or people.

Dockers Commercial- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOfFeXRSYFI

Discuss how social media can help/hurt your professional life and reflections of the readings you've done this week

I believe you must always be aware of what you post on Facebook/twitter or any other self express websites. Social media has made it easier to express your feelings and thoughts for the world or your peers to see. These social media sites have also made it easier for people you don't know to get a glimpse of who you are. With this being said employers and recruiters are keeping an eye out on those who display great values on these sites, such as twitter/facebook.

I am a recruiter for Northwestern Mutual's internship program and anytime I get referred to someone who is interested I automatically look to see if they have facebook. Facebook has become a first impression guide for those who want to see what you’re like before face to face contact. When I first started my job at Northwestern Mutual we were in the process of interviewing a guy who was interested in the internship and an hour before the interview we decided to take a look at his Facebook profile. The guy had made rude comments about our company and taking the internship as a joke. We knew then and there that is guy was not taking the opportunity serious and acted totally different then in the interviews, we had with him. Needless to say we didn't ask him back for a third interview.

I think we all need to be aware that when we post things on facebook/twitter and other sites we are not only promoting ourselves but the things we are involved in as well. For example if I posted pictures of my co-workers and I having drinks at a party, I would not only be representing myself but the company I work for. Others would associate my actions with the company.

Is social media marketing a fab or here to stay?

Social media marketing is here to stay. I believe that social media has given businesses a whole new outlook on how to advertise and reach their specific market. It is also making is easier to reach a large amount of people in a short amount of time. Let’s take Facebook as an example, there are 500 million users, 50% of them check Facebook on a daily basis and each user on average has 130 friends.

 Social media is also making it cheaper for marketers to connect with customers. Twitter is free to use, all you need to do is make a name and start adding other users, and this is the same with Facebook. These are just some popular free easy ways that social media has changed marketing forever. Search engine marketing is a very large part of social media in the last 6 years. Every company or businesses wants to be the first to pop-up when Googling about their industry, this has become a competitive in the social media world. Although not everyone is buying into the social media seen, there are gradually growing each day and with new technology, such as the ipad making it easier to be involved we will see greater strides.


References
February 1, 2010. http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics.