Image is everything, especially online in the age of social media.  This Internet marketing company understands the importance of maintaining a company’s reputation on social media sites.  This play on words article from Search Engine Watch, help companies acknowledge the  importance of avoiding a “Social PR Hangover.”

Source: SearchEngineWatch

Retracing the steps of what happened after a social PR campaign “gone wild” is reminiscent of the movie “The Hangover.” Despite the right intentions, the plan just goes sideways when the mixing and mingling ends up with the wrong crowds, miscommunication, and bad decisions. The result can be quite a sobering (and unpleasant) experience.

Where’s the coffee and two aspirin? Waking up, looking around and realizing the plan didn’t go quite as planned can cause severe social media hangovers like these and worse.

Social Media: One Big Cocktail Party

Some refer to social media as “one big cocktail party.” The tweets flow, the posts fly, the emails ping, and the search results rankings climb. Then, out of nowhere, someone is “over-served” and the party suddenly comes crashing to a halt.

While a hangover usually describes the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages, a social media PR campaign gone wrong can induce the same headache, nausea and possible long-term side effects as a few too many dirty Grey Goose martinis.

Out partying like it’s 1999 (again), it’s a case of:

• That tweet didn’t chirp as planned.
• Wait! That email wasn’t intended to be reprinted in the Wall Street Journal.
• No one was supposed to notice we deleted that negative wall post from Facebook!

Tweet Timing and Appropriateness

Case in point: The brand Kenneth Cole offended just about everyone when they hijacked the #cairo hashtag in a marketing ploy promoting its Spring fashion collection during the height of the Egyptian revolution.
The hangover: TechCrunch offered up a serious tweet and the classic brand wound up with negative publicity in the Huffington Post, MSNBC and Mashable, to name a few. Five months later, negative search results still show up when you search “Kenneth Cole” in Google.

Employees Tweets Gone Wild

Then there was an incident in 2008 at my own agency, when a former employee told an influential blogger to “eff off” in a tweet. This resulted almost instantly in a negative article about my employee and my agency.

The hangover: I still cringe thinking about it. While able to recover immediately by reaching out to the blogger and apologizing, that won’t always be the case for everyone.

Under the Influence of Reckless Emails

Good lessons of what not to do often come in the form of backlashes from media outlets busting PR flacks in the line of duty. Most recently there was the Facebook PR campaign against Google.

The hangover: Being ousted and having your emails published in USA Today and TechCrunch should scare any PR pro into walking the walk of honesty, integrity, and complete professionalism when playing the PR game. Let’s get the story straight before sending an email.

Party or not, social media is serious business and today’s most fluid and digital forms of word of mouth marketing can result in an instant PR success or nightmare.

For the full article & more ways to avoid the social PR hangover click here.

This Internet marketing company understands the importance of incorporating social media marketing and search engine optimization.  By creating social media sites and incorporating keywords on social sites, it can help a company’s ranking with SEO. Learn more on how to properly use social media and SEO with the article below.

Source: Sitepronews

Social Media and SEO

There are numerous benefits to engaging in social media marketing. Some are tangible (number of Likes, Fans and followers) and some are not (enhanced customer service, brand recognition and developing lasting relationships). You may not fully “get” social media, but you can’t deny that it is important and should be included in your overall marketing campaign. Social media is here to stay, and it is up to you to make sure your company uses it to their best advantage.

SEO is another field of online marketing that has earned itself a permanent spot in the marketing campaigns of many companies. With millions of searches being conducted every day, a company that can’t be found in the search engines is practically invisible. SEO isn’t just about ranking well; it’s about building your online brand. There are many factors that affect how a site ranks in the search engines and SEO is about optimizing your site as best as possible to help it succeed.

However, SEO and social media marketing shouldn’t exist in separate silos. In truth, there should be an element of SEO in all of your online activities, as well as finding a way to leverage your offline marketing methods online. As social media marketing matures, it is becoming clearer and clearer that it has an impact on a site’s SEO.

Here are a few ways you can use your social media marketing activities to aid your SEO:

Create Social Networking Profiles

Aside from the big three of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) there are literally hundreds of smaller social networking sites for every kind of audience. Each of these profiles has the potential to rank in the search engines, increasing your brand presence online. Keep in mind that you should only create profiles on sites that you actually intend to be involved with. While creating a profile to just get the link is okay, an active profile is going to be worth much more in the long run. Social networking sites are a great place to establish relationships with consumers and build a strong community.

Incorporate Keywords into Tweets and Posts

Twitter only gives you 140 characters, so space is limited. It is a great way to share a link to your blog, an article, video or any other form of content. Incorporating keywords into the Tweet (perhaps as a hash tag, stylized as #keyword) helps that Tweet get pulled into a results page by the search engines. On Facebook, you have more room to target keywords in your posts. The title of your post is a great place to incorporate keywords. You can also write a short description about the content of each post, another good spot to target keywords.

For the full article, click here.

This Internet Marketing Company values the importance of social media and the impact it has for sales.  Posting content that is valuable for readers is just the first step with social media.  It can then result into potential sales leads for the company and generate more business.  This article by Sbpost, discusses the importance of social networking as a part of Internet Marketing and sales.

Source: Sbpost

The explosion of social media cannot be ignored by companies seeking sales success, according to Frank Hattann of LinkedIn.

‘‘As a company, if your strategy is to stay away from social media, you are missing the boat because in the end you can’t do that,” the company’s EMEA regional sales manager told the National Sales Forum 2011 in Croke Park last week.

‘‘People will comment on your products, people will comment on your sales packets and people will send Twitter messages about who just came to their office and tried to sell them something.

‘‘Do get on a plane, do go out and talk to your customers but in the end you can’t escape the new Web 2.0, or what we call social media. It knows whatever is happening in our world now. It’s somewhere noted, commented on, clicked on, photos [taken] of it.”

Hattann said that networking used to be about walking into your local pub and talking to two or three people. Now, social media means ‘‘your message is heard potentially by people in a pub in Australia, in South Africa, in Brazil’’.

While this ‘network effect’ projects a message further afield than ever, Hattann said that this brought its own dangers as people could create content about a company and its product. ‘‘To manage that content in a social media world, that is the challenge.

How do you manage people saying something about you that you have no connection with? You have no control of that message,” he said. Hattann said that social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn each had its own role to play in sales.

‘‘If you want to just broadcast information and get people to hear a message about you, Twitter may actually be the appropriate forum to use.

If the product you’re selling, and if the public you’re selling the product to, is social and people want to communicate about a fun thing to do, then maybe Facebook is the right tool,” he said.

For the full article, click here.

Social media marketing is ever-changing and learning how to grow a business on social media sites, has to constantly be researched.  These ten proven strategies are just a few that Single Throw follows daily as its team monitors social media accounts.

Source: Mashable

We all intuitively know what likeability means. We have friends who are easygoing, good listeners and there when we need them. But what does it mean for a brand to be likeable online? Now more than ever, when a “Like” is arguably more important than a “link,” brands must demonstrate core values of responsiveness, transparency and likeability across Facebook and other social networks.

Listen to your customers and prospects. Deliver value, excitement and surprise. And most importantly, truly engage your customers and help them spread the word. Here are 10 universal laws for brand likeability in social media.

1. Never Stop Listening

The number one benefit of a brand’s involvement in social media is the ability to listen to conversation about its brand, competitors and target audience’s wants and needs. Listening is 50% of communication. Just as nobody wants to be out on a date with someone who isn’t a good listener, consumer don’t want to feel ignored by brands on social networks.

For a good case study on how listening in social media has impacted millions of dollars worth of sales, check out IBM’s Listening for Leads program.

2. Leverage Facebook’s EdgeRank Formula

EdgeRank, Facebook’s algorithm for determining what appears at the top of people’s News Feeds, might be the single most important online innovation of our time. EdgeRank uses multiple factors to determine what’s relevant and appealing to users. So unlike email, through which we receive a constant barrage of pushed messages all day, every day, Facebook updates surface to the top of our feeds based on how likeable and relevant the updates are.

At any given time, as a brand, you’re competing with all of your fans’ friends and other brand pages for attention. This is a great thing for consumers because it means they’re not spammed with irrelevant, sales-heavy messaging. But it’s also a challenge to marketers. You’ll want to use photos and videos, keep the text short and drive as many Likes and comments as possible.

3. Improvise Your Engagement

There is a difference between talking at people and engaging with them. I often use the analogy of a Broadway show versus an improv show. TV advertising is like a Broadway show — a one-way communication in which a huge production and great creative can make a strong impact. Social media marketing is more like improv comedy — a back-and-forth between performers and audience, different every time yet totally effective at a fraction of the cost, when done right.

One brand that does an excellent job of engaging in social media is Zappos. Zappos goes back and forth with customers on Twitter and Facebook, discussing its product — shoes — or anything else customers want to talk about.

4. Respond Quickly to Negative Comments

Customers have taken to social networks to share their frustrations. Unlike 10 years ago, when you could get away with putting people on hold for an hour or responding to letters on your own schedule, negative sentiment can spread lightning-fast on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The faster you can respond, the better.

The best practice is to respond publicly, indicating that you’re addressing the issue through a private message. The customer will feel that he or she is heard, and most important to your brand, the public sees that you care and are responsive. “I’m sorry” are the two most powerful words for brands in social media.

5. Respond to Positive Comments, Too

Many brands are not yet leveraging this opportunity, but your positive comments on Facebook and Twitter are likely from your biggest brand advocates, capable of spreading your messages far and wide and defending you against naysayers at no cost. If you owned a retail store and a customer walked up to you and said, “I just love all your products and have been shopping here for years,” would you ignore them? Don’t ignore them on Facebook either. “Thank you” are the other two most powerful words for brands in social media.

For the full article and last five strategies, click here.

As we all know, the Internet rapidly changes everyday, and the importance of an Internet Marketing Company is to consistently change with it.  What may be important for SEO on month, may be different for the next month.  One thing that  is certain is how social media has helped change and reshape Internet marketing.  Without social media, a brand lacks that genuine communication to its clients; however, with Single Throw your brand readily adapts with an ever-changing industry.

Source: The Next Web

Marketing is an ever-changing landscape, which we’ve seen with the rise and fall of SEO and the revolution of Inbound Marketing led by the guys over at HubSpot. Social Media has also become one of the big influencers in marketing, becoming an integral part in any successful business marketing strategy.

Here are some ways that Social Media has helped to reshape marketing.

Facebook and Twitter’s new influence on Search

With how ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ plus ‘retweets’ are becoming more and more important in getting the word out, the big search engines have started to realize that those public announcements are like a vote of confidence from the sharer. Permanent links were what all SEOs had dreamed about. Now, SEOs are hoping to get their links shared by influential tweeters, which are proving to influence search ranking factors. Here’s an unexpected case study on a tweet’s effect on rankings by SEOmoz Of course, there is more value than just the boost in search rankings from ‘likes’ and tweets. There is brand exposure and clicks, which also are valuable things in marketing. But there is no doubt that with the search industry continuing to grow, that Social Media should be an important part of any SEO strategy, what with the growing influence Social Media has on search rankings.

Companies Focus on Engagement versus Selling

Think about how back in the day we used to have our local dry cleaner who everyone in the family knew and who knew everyone in the family, the convenience store clerk who you talked to about your problems at work while he made your favorite cup of coffee, and the homely waitress at the local diner who knew how to get your eggs just right. Those were the days that were less about profit and transactions and were more about creating genuine, personal relationships. Businesses now, through Social Media, are working to reverse the effects time has had on the personal customer experience by engaging users to create more loyalty. It’s not unusual to get an @reply from a company saying thanks for sharing a neat tweet or even engaging in an intellectual or simply fun exchange with you.

Blogging to Build Influence and Authority

I was recently approached by the awesome Noah Kagan who asked about leveraging blogging to build influence and authority after seeing my name pop up in some of the bigger outlets in the startup space. An authority in the marketing realm himself, I was more than happy to oblige because I had much respect for the former Director of Marketing at Mint.com and current Chief Sumo at App Sumo. Wise professionals and marketers like him are continuing to understand the value in blogging. Both in the networking value because you become part of the writing community where other writers treat you as a peer, and in the authority you build, becoming an expert and influencer in the space you write about. I also had a recent chat with Scott Gerber, expert on young entrepreneurship, who is syndicated in outlets like Entrepreneur, WSJ, FoxNews and more. By blogging, he became one of the leading sources in everything about young entrepreneurship, and is constantly receiving inbound inquiries (perhaps more than he can handle) about what’s new in youth entrepreneurship.

Social Media as a New Distribution Channel

By using channels like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, you leverage your network, your second- and third-degree networks and heavily trafficked platforms for mass distribution because of the viral potential these channels have. Here’s an interesting study by ChompOn showing the  value of social action in online commerce. These days, it’s less about the stale press release, which is arguably dead, and more about empowering customer evangelists, who are more trusted referral sources in spreading the word. In fact, some businesses leverage Social Media to create hype or make announcements about exciting things they’re doing. The popular Robert Scoble played an integral role in helping to launch the awesome Flipboard app, which couldn’t support all the great hype it got during launch, but was able to rebound.

For the full article, click here.