Social Media Marketing

Things to know about this new Media, before you plan and calculate your social media quotient for your social media marketing campaign?

Social Media:What You need to know?

Social Media Marketing is connecting with the consumer at every level possible through online channels across multiple platforms. The idea is to use the power of this tool to capture “More than just Metrics” and to Humanize Your Brand. Every aspect of Social Media Marketing is clearly measurable and can be customized to suit organizational goals and requirements. It gives us the power of customer insights coupled with latest in technology and media tools for in-depth analysis and market research.

What you need to know about social media quotient and social media marketing before you implement it for your brand, product or services?

Firstly you need to ask whether this medium is for your Brand and if yes, how much of demographics and market penetration it can help you achieve.

Then, you need to focus on the following:

• How important is it for my brand?  - Measuring the ROI for Brand metrics
• Who am I planning to target? – Is there a science behind social media marketing?
• Who is targeting me already? – As in, do I only need to join in the conversation.
• My current Social Media Quotient
• Is there a value addition to my CRM and my other brand evangelist’s
• My planned social media quotient on a time-line
• If I need to focus on my goals, what are my priorities and how are they ranked?

Measuring Brand

Next, what you need to verify are:

• The organization or agency to whom I am planning to handover my brand conversations:
• How savvy are they really and are they practicing what they preach for their own brand?
• Are they present on multiple channels like on a Social Media Facebook page, Social Media Facebook Product Group, Social Media Twitter conversation prism, Social Media blogging service, social bookmarking tools like reditt, etc. and if yes, what is their level of conversation and quality of interaction. Ask them to present their own brief statistics in front of you for the above.
• What are the statistical tools they are using? You don’t need to know what they track as every SMM campaign is customized to suit your requirements and goals, but you need to know the power of the tool they have invested in.

Your Social Media Agency

Once you have an idea for the above, plan to connect at a higher level with your agency:

Join in their conversations across their Blog, Micro-blog, Social networking site, Forum, etc.

Ask them to give you a step by step process on “How to plan, design, implement, monitor and improvise” on the social media campaigns?

What is the core as for integrating the current creatives, PR, traditional methods used already, IP’s of the organization with the new media campaigns?

What channels, medium and process will suit your style the best?

Online marketing analysis

There is so much more conversation happening, if you would like to join in, tweet with us @techdivine or join our TD Studios Facebook group social media marketing services here & share your views with us at: socialmedia@techdivine.com

Regards

Ananth V

Techdivine Creative Services

Social Media Marketing, Design Services, Your SMQ, Creative Writing

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Related Posts:

Social Media: Is it B2B

Social Media: The role of a CRM

Social Media: Brand Measuring

Blogging Made easy – Part 1:

About Blogging / Websites / Top websites / Buying Websites:

Thanks for the numerous responses to our earlier post “Blogging Platforms”.

Hope all of you received my replies to your queries.

For any further queries, you are free to contact us at: socialmedia@techdivine.com

Now to answer your other queries I am putting across few resources & links which I am sure will help you get a deeper insight into the same:

1. “What can I write on a blog”

One can write anything depending on his / her focus & expectation from the blog. Depending on whether you want to offer your writing to a niche market or your blog as a journal / story / personal sightings & stories or reviews for some practical tips / advice on products / services etc based on your experience, your blog needs to slowly evolve for that target audience.

You can also write biographies of people, few personal success stories with examples etc

If you are creatively inclined as in terms of traditional or graphic / photography / digital art, you might make a gallery & showcase your works too to the world across.

Writing an imaginative story, discussing case studies can also be a great way to work on a blog.

Other than these, one has the option for writing their travel adventures, their passion for music, art, cars, books, education, career, parenting and so much more.

2. “How much is a blog useful for a business”

Life is not always about selling. It’s most important aspect is to connect with people at varied levels. At the end of the day, one needs to sell too to survive. Here again, a blog is a great medium. So the answer is Very much yes.

It keeps the customers  / readers updated and their responses over a period of time generates brand loyal customers.

3. “Functions, widgets & Plugins”, what are they used for in a blog / website?

They are tools.

Some refer to them merely as decorations, while I would prefer the term organized & systematic tools for planning and getting your message across to readers / customers / target audience easily.

Eg.1. These tools, lets say a widget that allows one to scan through only a particular category topic which is of interest to him / her, would be definitely popularly used and useful as one does not then need to scan across pages which might run into scores of posts otherwise. Thus, here a “Category” widget (tool) would be great.

Eg. 2. Plugins: Ratings plugins are very common and popular allowing new users to know by a single look whether the post has got positively notable ratings / review. Though it might not always be correct, but a rating allows the user (reader) to take control.

It also shows the reader of the trust & confidence a writer has, so as to share this power of reviewing his/her write up with the world across to judge it.

http://www.simplescripts.com

Widget

Plugin - Ratings

4. What are Statistics / awstats / Hit counters

Some more examples of the same:

• Google Analytics
• Sitemeter
• Awstats
• My Blog Log

http://www.google.com/analytics

http://awstats.sourceforge.net

They tell the reader of the number of Hits / readership views on the page  / website. They can be many a times triggered or hyped but with sites such as WordPress etc, the advantage remains for the reader to know the actual readership hits as such sites do not count the admin / main authors Machine IP hits. So what you see is what really is.

Great examples are “awstats” & Google analytics. It not only gives the viewers & visitors a brief peek into the site hits, but gives the creator of the blog / site many important details to plan ahead for.

For eg. “awstats plugin / tool lets the designer of the site know not only the page hits, but also, the number of people from which country / which page has main hits / keywords / search terms used to land here/ external links / time spent of page / site / most viewed content on site and many such other important info including user id, Unique users on the site etc.

“Share” Buttons at the end of the Blog:

They let you share an interesting post with others using social networkign sites like Orkut, facebook, MySpace, email, Diggit, Stumbleupon etc

awstats

www.orkut.com

www.facebook.com

www.digg.com

www.stumble.com

http://in.myspace.com

http://blogger.com

www.linkedin.com

5. Can you name few good Blog Editors

Qumana / Illuminex / BlogJet / w.bloggar / Ecto are few which are popular.

Few links:

www.qumana.com

http://Illuminex.com

www.scribefire.com

6. What are RSS / Twitter feeds / Blog feeds / Tags: When a Blog / website says, Click here to subscribe: How does it work and what does it tell the reader. Who is it useful for, reader or blogger? What are tags in a blog / photograph? How is it useful and for whom?

New readers / even regulars many a times may not be always there to check or visit your blog.

If a reader likes a blog and you as an author / writer / publisher / content developer want your prospective and regular readers to stay in touch with your site, be updated on new blog posts, new content etc, you can add FEEDS to the site. Best Eg RSS feed / Twitter Feeds.

What it does is, it takes at times few snippets from the new blog post / or the whole post / sometimes only the headline / title of the blog as modified by the user / writer of the blog and keeps the user updated on his machine if a new blog post arrives from that site.

Thus Blog feeds are great, both for the reader and the creator as the feeds contain recently updated content from a website without having to bookmark and keep visiting to check for updates or inform of updates.

RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works

Twitter Feeds:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.

Tags:

Tags are basically labels to objects. They help to describe a post / photograph / place / person / item/ object / a specific purpose and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching on clicking it. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system. Eg. Tags on a blog post tell the users different aspects that have been part of this post (blog / write up / photograph etc)

www.twitter.com

FEEDS for website or blog

7. How does one post comment. I always find it difficult to comment, It says REGISTER first. What & how is it done?

Comments can be posted in blogs  / sites many times without having to register.

But professional blogs usually require its users to register & comment as it also helps them keep away unwanted spams and moderate comments to control the quality of comments & language used.

One can find REGISTRATION link at the website or blog Top / Bottom Side. Saying, click to register.

Many blogs today also have Register buttons as a Widget under the META section, giving the blog a more professional look.

User Registration: For Readers to comment

8. What is a domain name & Why do I need to own it. Can I get it free?

Like the old saying goes, if you want something free, buy the giant size first.

Majorly, you can get a domain name free ONLY if you buy website first. There are always exceptions. Still, having your own Domain name URL (web address – Uniform resource locator) can give a sense of professionalism to a site / blog with of course loads of control over it in terms of add-ons,  features plugins etc.

9. What is a hosting service?

A company that is letting / subletting / selling Plots of land (so to speak webspace) on the internet is a Hosting service. Eg. http://bluehost.com

Thus in order for people to find your web site on the Internet, the site has to be on a computer called a web server. The web server runs programs to serve web pages, send and receive email, look up domain names and so on. It has to connect to the Internet, preferably through a fast connection.

10. Is there a free website to create available.

Yes.

Yahoo / Tripod

www.tripod.lycos.com

http://in.geocities.yahoo.com/index.php

11. If yes, why do I need to pay for one?

If you don’t own it, it ain’t yours to control buddy.

Free websites often run their own advertisements on your created content etc. If you want to try website creation & design just to start with, you can try with free websites with Yahoo / Tripod etc. Once you are sure you can build and run the same, go ahead get one and get creative.

12. Cost of a website & a domain name.

Tricky question.

Site costs range depending on what you are looking in for. Business site/ personal site / premium packages / Deluxe and so on. It can range anywhere form say $5 to more than $1000 including web site design / maintenance etc.

Domain names usually cost around $10 with the packages of buying the websites and many offer it free once the whole webspace is purchased.

You can refer Bluehost for more such services & cost: http://bluehost.com

http://bluehost.com

13. Do I need to be a computer programmer to build a website?

No, not necessarily to start with. One can use a content management system (CMS). It is a computer software that handles the presentation of your web site’s content to your users.

Few Good CMS: Joomla, Drupal, Mambo

http://drupal.org

http://mambo-foundation.org

14. Where can I learn more about designing websites, Creating blogs etc.

CONTACT US.

We have, whole range of services with us. We can help you build one from scratch or give you access to get the ultimate pool of knowledge for the same for a training material / workshop fee.

Email: socialmedia@techdivine.com

INTERESTED In Availing of Our Professional Blogging Services: Visit us here

Keep visiting

Admin

Techdivine Creative Services

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Twine & Web3.0

Radar Networks was founded in 2003 by Web visionary Nova Spivack and is pioneering the Semantic Web called as Web 3.0 with a new platform for the next-generation of Web applications.

That is termed as TWINE. In simple terms, Twine will provide a central hub that connects information from around the web in one location. The idea, urbanized mainly to provide a “smarter way to share, organize, and find information” with others.

This is what we term as knowledge networking as the Founder Nova Spivack quotes:

It’s the next evolution of collective intelligence on the Web. Unlike social networking and community tools. Twine is not just about who you know, it’s about what you know. Twine is the ultimate tool for gathering and sharing knowledge on the Web.

Twine can find patterns that may not be easily apparent to users, making information and content on the web more likely to be discovered by those interested. The main USP here is its skill to employ artificial intelligence and natural language processing to scan and understand the meaning of information.

One can also go ahead and register for the Web 3.0 invite.

This technology is created and designed on Radar Networks’ patent-pending platform and complies with the open-standards for the Semantic Web set by W3C.

As a matter of fact, W3C mentions that the semantic web is “about common formats for integration and combination of data drawn from diverse sources,” which is what Twine is all about.

Spivack has also quoted that:

Web 3.0 is best-defined as the coming decade of the Web, during which time semantic technologies will help to transform the Web from a global file-server into something that is more like a worldwide database. By making information more machine-understandable, connected and reusable, the Semantic Web will enable software and websites to grow smarter. Yahoo! was the leader of Web 1.0. Google is the leader of Web 2.0. We don’t yet know who will be the leader of Web 3.0. It’s a bold new frontier, but Twine is a strong first step, and we’re very excited about it.

Web 2.0 swept across like a wildfire with technology booming, so let us see how this adaptation and up-gradation of the booming resource centric world goes to. With so much technological advancements, we can only say a warm and wide welcome to Web 3.0