Social media is quickly changing the way that companies do business and interact with potential customers. Even though social media is a relatively new medium, lots of companies have developed very effective social media strategies to harness the power of the social web. For a company just implementing internet marketing knowing where to start can be daunting task. Start with the larget social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, before going to smaller niche sites. Below are some helpful pointers to help you hit the ground running.

Source: HubSpot

The 7 steps below work for internet marketing, ecommerce, B2B and even publishers. I’m also going to share some examples from each as well. However before we get to each of the steps, I’d like to make sure you can manage and impact your Facebook Fan conversion rate. I urge you add Google analytics to your Facebook page so that you can get better insights into who is visiting the page and how they are getting there.

1. Offer a Custom Welcome Page

Many of the most highly engaged Facebook fan pages have leveraged the ability to take non-fans to a custom welcome page instead of taking them directly to their wall. If you don’t know how to do that my friend Mari Smith can walk you through adding this custom landing tab to your Facebook fan page.

2. Remind Them Why

I am hoping you have built a customer experience that is truly remarkable much the way Zappos has. People really do love Zappos. Notice how they not only remind them of that on their welcome tab but how they also remind them that by Liking them on Facebook they get access to exclusive content. If you are truly a fan then you’ll really want access to something exclusive. Zappos also does another brilliant tactic by highlighting their Fan of the Week in their banner. People might kill for money but they’ll more likely die for recognition. So don’t forget to recognize your top fans.

3. Offer Them an Incentive

People may need a little more to get them to click the Like button than just being reminded how awesome you are. So once they see your custom landing tab, you’ll want to offer them a powerful reason to Like you. What I love about the way HubSpot does this is that the offer regularly changes and that they promote it through their various channels as a seamless experience. Who doesn’t like getting something of value just for clicking a button?

4. You Don’t Get What You Don’t Ask For

If you don’t ask them to take an action with a good call-to-action then your visitors won’t take that action. Notice how L’Occitane combines an offer to win a free trip to Provence on their custom landing tab with an arrow pointing to the Like button and asking you to Like them.

5. Make it Interactive

The biggest advantage a Facebook Fan page offers is the ability to interact with your customers - the opportunity to dialogue. Make sure to highlight this interactivity on the welcome tab. Notice how BMW shows a video that features two of their fans. I also like the design of their call-to-action. Another way you can make your page interactive is by adding a bit of personalization to your Facebook Fan page and adding your visitors name to the page.

6. Tease Them

Depending on your brand and on what you are offering on your Facebook fan page you may not want to open your kimono all at once. I have seen many pages like Red Bull use a graphic that teases their visitors to like them first before they engage with your content. A note of caution here: A. people must have some really strong reasons to like your brand in the first place B. the content you offer after the tease better not disappoint them.

7. Give Them All the Info

Ultimately, people like to connect to people and Smashing magazine does a great job highlighting the staff behind their fabulous publication. I highly suggest you have an additional tab to talk about the people behind your company and don’t forget to fill out all the information on your info tab (including several links) and on your about us section.

Source: HubSpot

By: Stefanie Chernow

Source: editorsweblog.org

Twitter hasn’t quite reached the must-use status of fellow social network Facebook: Twitter only has 145 million users while Facebook dominates the social network sphere with over 500 million users. The Guardian, however, recently reported on the strengths of Twitter that no other new media source can currently provide. “For people in the media business, [Twitter] has rapidly - in less than four years - become their peripheral nervous system,” writes journalist Charles Arthur. “It tells you what’s going on around the world, or within your sphere of interest; it helps for bouncing ideas around, for staying abreast of what you have to know.”

Twitter offers instantaneous delivery of news without social barriers. On Facebook, users are required to befriend others in order to access their online activities, while Twitter allows people to follow whomever they want and thus encourages a liberal flow of information. This permits reporters to search for real-time content that is vital to today’s face-paced news industry. “Reporters who once sat glumly watching news wires now watch and comment in carefully curated Twitter search streams,” notes Arthur. “Once you follow a certain number of the ‘right’ (connected) people, it becomes an indispensable news source.”
Facebook may seem like the primary source for spreading news, as users are more likely to trust article recommendations from friends rather than strangers. Arthur disagrees with this sentiment, claiming “Facebook isn’t meant for spreading news; it’s meant for linking up people who know each other. News doesn’t work that way: news, after all, is often about people you don’t know personally but discover you’d like to.”

Robert Hernandez, Professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, explains the necessity of Twitter for today’s reporters. On Annenberg’s  website Neon Tommy, Hernandez states “[Twitter] allows me to find potential sources who are actually there. And because this person is announcing to the world that they’re there, that increases the likelihood that they’re willing to talk. Instead of going to a place, or cold-calling, or going up to people and interrupting them or going on a fishing expedition, you can find very specific eyewitness sources.”

Likewise, Hernandez cautions journalists to be wary of content on social media networks, emphasizing that Twitter sources can not replace traditional forms of journalism and fact-checking. “You can also use crowd sourcing, but you’re a lazy journalist if all you do is rely on social media for your reporting. And you’re a lazy journalist if you don’t use social media at all.”

While claims can be made that Facebook is a satisfactory means of information consumption for “news gazers,” Twitter is vital for media professionals. It’s safe to say that Twitter is becoming a serious tool in the journalism industry, and tweets should be regarded with the same professional integrity as other forms of reporting.

Twitter is also making strides in keeping up with technology trends, such as geotagging tweets (Which is similar to Facebook’s Places application). This could indicate that Twitter will probably be a useful tool for content sourcing in the future. Will Twitter’s split-second distribution of breaking news ever be regarded as the main source of information for the general public, or will Facebook continue to dominate new media?

Source: editorsweblog.org

We recently helped out the home automation specialists, Savant Systems, build a brand new website! Check out this blurb from our case study below, or click here to read the full account!

In under four months, Savant Systems increased their website visits by 400%.  On average, Google linked 13,179 more visitors a week to the Savant pages, and pages viewed by visitors increased measurably.  These statistics seem as rapid and revolutionary as the introduction of the iPod to the music market.

Savant’s secret to Internet success is just as probable and accessible—they contracted Single Throw Internet Marketing, a talented and proficient group of Internet marketing consultants with a plethora of services the size of your mp3 library.

Savant Systems provides the height of technological chic by offering a luxury home automation system that works with Apple technology bringing your home into the future.  Savant provides services for individual homeowners and corporations.  Single Throw Internet Marketing unified this image of Savant with its web presence.

While the Internet is an indisputably powerful—some might even say marvelous—tool, it is also an unwieldy thing to manage.  Many businesses’ experience with the Internet is akin to the proverbial child laying a hand on the hot stove—they get burned, so they don’t try it again. As such, their websites are old fashioned and out of date; they do a poor job of reflecting their product or service.  They target the wrong clientele, and they don’t show up in a typical Google search.

If the Internet is a hot stove, the experts at Single Throw are wearing flame retardant suits.  They build websites from years of experience and research, and they’re quite eager to share their suits with you.  They did with Savant.

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Microsoft took a new approach to search - enter “bing”. Bing introduces a powerful set of intuitive tools on top of their search service and call it a “decision engine” which they claim will help consumers make smarter purchasing decisions. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak raves about Microsoft’s New Search Engine view here

Just yesterday I wrote a post about Skittles attempt at using social media layered under their minimal site navigation ala Modernista. Interesting thing happens when you click the link for Modernista’s site: it retains our site in the background. Go ahead…try it.

Is it because we are opening in a new window? Who knows. Design flaw? You decide. If it was my site or that of my clients’, I wouldn’t be happy.