Social media design: is your business brand missing out? Part 1

You’ve probably thought carefully about the design for your business website. You may have commissioned a logo, or at least spent time choosing the look and feel of your company’s stationery and other products.

But have you thought about your business branding and design on social media platforms?

Your customers are spending more and more time on social media sites. The appearance of your Facebook fan page, Twitter account and even your YouTube page will have an impact on whether they choose to do business with you.

Good design is just as important social media platforms as it is on your main website.

Social media pages are a spotlight towards the best and most important content of your website.  They show the personality of your company. Your presence on social media  shows your clients more about you than a standalone website ever could do. The increasing demands for social media design show that a consistent approach across all channels is becoming increasingly important.

The design of a site can influence the “like-decision” of a user in a positive or negative way. Designers and marketers know that the appearance of a website is as much important as the content and the headlines.

Users know whether a Facebook Fanpage is an official page or just a group of interest created outside the company. And as much as you want  clients to dig into your website, you also have to make sure that they will stay on your page as long as possible, either through great content, a magnetic call to action, or some other attractive content like games, polls or contests.

As you can see, there’s a lot of scope to improve your business with social media. If you have any questions, just get in touch!

Why You Need a Facebook Fan Page...

Small businesses, entrepreneurs, freelancers and other professionals have a lot to gain from creating a fan page on Facebook.

A Facebook fan page is a public profile that lets you share your products, services and related information with other Facebook users. It’s separate from your personal page, and offers a range of tools and functionality that can really help your business.

Of course this is just one of your marketing tools and in order for it to work best it should be part of your overall strategy. Plan ahead before creating the page and then introduce a few ideas at each time. Test and change your content until it’s perfect. And of course, if you need some personalised help and strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Here are just some of the most important reasons your business needs a fan page.

14 Reasons You Need a Facebook Fan Page

1. It’s a free tool, which means it’s low risk to create and experiment with your page.
2. There isn’t a limit to the number of fans you can have. This makes fan pages especially valuable for Facebook users who reach, or are approaching, the 5,000 friend limit.
3. It gives you a way to talk to and get feedback from your target audience, because like a user profile, you can update your fans with statuses that will appear in the news feed.
4. You can promote events.
5. It’s a great boost for your SEO. Facebook is currently the second most popular site on the Web according to Alexa.
6. You can customize the design using different applications or even Facebook’s version of HTML. Have a look at Red Idea’s Facebook Fan page as an example.
7. You can use the page to create brand advocates - people who talk up your brand on your behalf.
8. You can easily promote your fan page with tools provided by Facebook, and reach new audiences.
9. The Facebook Pages Insights analytics tool gives you very useful information about your fans and their interactions, which you can use for future strategies.
10. You can build a community for your clients and also use their feedback to create better products and services.
11. It’s another funnel to your website, where you can interact with potential clients.
12. You can add unlimited photos and videos.
13. You can synchronise your fan page with your twitter account, making it even easier to manage your social media presence.
14. You can sell products and services directly from your Facebook fan page. Have a look at our client Lena Santana's Facebook Fan page. 

As you can see, there’s a lot of scope to improve your business with a Facebook Fan page. If you have any questions, just get in touch!

What is a QR Code? Why they must be part of your Marketing Strategy?

Tania Jacksons' QR code

QR codes: what  are they, why they must be part of your marketing plan and how you can adapt them for your business?

QR stands for Quick Response and it is able to connect your phone to contact details, websites, maps etc. A QR code is a matrix barcode that the current crop of smartphones can read very simply: install a QR code reader (many Blackberry, Iphone and Android operative systems have one pre-installed), take a photo of the QR and consequently receive the information.

Initially used for the identification of parts in vehicle manufacturing, it has seen widespread use in Japan since 1994.  The code is free and is published as an ISO standard. Despite Denso Wave owning the patent rights, it has chosen not to exercise them.

Recently in the US and European markets QR codes have been employed in the integrated marketing communication of small and medium sized enterprises and big corporations. For example,  Heineken, SKY Network and Pizza Express.

A QR code on a café in Seattle, WA links to Google Places and reviews on Yelp and around the web.

Latest research on the global growth in Mobile Barcode Usage by 3Gvision highlights that worldwide usage has increased by 61.9% . In terms of geographic coverage, this can be broken down as follows:

Top 10 users of mobile barcodes during Q1/2011 

(1)  1.  United States
(2)  2.  Italy
(3)  3.  Germany
(7)  4.  United Kingdom
(8)  5.  Netherlands
(6)  6.  Canada
(5)  7.  France
(4)  8.  Hong Kong
(17)  9.  Spain
(15)  10.  Switzerland 

Top 5 growing countries for Q1/2011 

1.  United States  (181.1% growth over Q4/2011)
2.  United Kingdom  (166.5%)
3.  Netherlands  (146.3%)
4.  Spain  (94.4%)
5.  Canada  (94.0%) 

The QR codes offer marketers an effective  and precise measurement tool for understanding response rates, which allow for easier ROI calculation. In practice this means that a traffic analytic tool can be set up to evaluate the QR campaign in the same way as the traffic on a website is evaluated. What's more, they help to boost traffic to websites and can be installed inevery kind of physical product.

They are used everywhere – in  magazines, on billboards, flyers, business cards, shop windows,  streets even (as a QR code guerrilla marketing strategy). As soon as a business relies on an optimized website or blog to market its products it is time to start a QR code campaign in order to increase sales and enrich the customer experience.

QR Code at the Naperville, IL Public Library assists visitors with helpful advice.

The strategies for QR codes  vary: from local restaurants that uses them for couponing and special offers; to big corporations that use them to offer exclusive digital content.

How you can you maximize your effectiveness with QR codes:

• Provide explanations about their use and benefits
• Encourage actions that support your marketing plan
• Assuage the fears of the technically challenged
• Give reasons to come back
• Experiment with the size, location, and color of your QR codes
• Study your analytics
• Make the process fun, such as a QR code scavenger hunt
• Experiment

When developing  a QR code strategy it is extremely important to ensure that a business clearly defines its goals and objectives from the outset. This type of marketing campaign must consider customer requests and expectations and be tailored to complement any wider marketing strategy in place. In addition, the monitoring of results and developing a flexible approach to  tactics must be considered in order to gain a better ROI.

So ..which is your QR code strategy?

Blogging for Business at Social Media Week London 2011

Last week was the third annual Social Media Week, presenting a wealth of
presentations and conferences. Being my first week at SMW was daunting yet
exciting and super busy. Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to all of the
guests who took the time out to attend, and to Lee Smallwood from ‘Digital
Flares’, who presented a talk about ‘Video SEO’. Lastly, a massive thank you to
Talk Talk and Bernie Mitchell from TagTribe.

Explaining the benefits and strategies of Blogging for a Business, is a vital skill
to understanding your target audience, and engaging with the public informally.
Blogging should no be boring, it should be considered as an extension of your
business, it also has search engine benefits, which is an amazing plus.

There is no science to blogging; however, some prior knowledge would help to
maximise the potential of blogging. Utilising a strong design ethos will help to set
the tone for your blog, also considering your SEO will progress your blog to the
next stage, and create a wider audience base for your blog. Taking into account
these five points will help to create a blog that suits your business needs.

1. Blog strategies> Marketing Strategy + Client Needs + Design Possibilities:

Identify your KPIs

2. Create a regular blogging pattern, cohesive and consistent.

3. Use a directory/submission such as; Technorati, Shareaholic and Digg

4. Use social buttons, to connect your blog to other social networking platforms.

5. Also blogging is all about networking, it is simple, and should also be used for

B2B.

Bear in mind that every strategy must be tailored to the needs of your clientele
and marketing strategy. When establishing a blog do not expect too much
too soon, as the development of a blog is an ongoing process that requires
continuous reanalysis. Talking to an audience about the power of blogging for
businesses was great, the atmosphere was relaxed, and I hope that I was able to
answer all your questions.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need further
assistance to draft a strategy for your business.

Thank You

Join me for Social Media Week – 7-11 February

People use social networks more than search engines in the UK, according to Hitwise’s latest research, so it’s no surprise that pretty much every business is working out how best to harness it.

With Social Media Week just around the corner (7-11 February), I’ve been working with TagTribe, TalkTalk and my colleague Kat to pull together a series of workshops for entrepreneurs and marketeers at TalkTalk’s Customer Experience Centre.

The events are free to attend and aimed at entrepreneurs, business managers and marketeers who are looking to use social media in their business. I’ll be talking at one of the events myself and MCing a couple of others, so if you come along there’s a good chance you’ll see me there. If you’d like to book a session, then click on the link below.

http://www.amiando.com/YYVSKLH.html?page=477987

From Media to Mediums? Human insights and lead scoring.

 

Yesterday Marketo, the global leader in Revenue Performance Management published 'the definitive guide to lead scoring'(link) a free comprehensive 50 pages guide to lead scoring techniques.

Lead scoring is a method in which you assign points to each client prospect. The higher is a client score, the more they mirror the target market segment prospect that is actively subscribing to your services and buying your products. Reason what they should be the centre of your customer care strategy.

Lead scoring entails the collection and analysis of both explicit and implicit information. The explicit details includes: statistical data, such as company size, industry, and job title; while implicit scores derives from monitoring the customer behaviours: for example clicks, keywords, web-site visits, downloads or e-mail services subscriptions.

Once determined the scoring criteria and assigned the points to each client, you can determine your ideal target market and control their 'scoring variations' across time and goals. The scores allow you not only to pro actively respond to clients needs but also to prioritize the customers with higher ranking!

At RedIdea  we reckon that using the client 'hit parade' in combination with social media activity and customer survey 'impressions' lead to a valuable dialogue with the empowered-interactive audience book (Thanks Henry Jenkins!). 

A cross- over strategy that mixes 'lead scoring' and 'human interpretation' empower you to anticipate the audience feelings and responses. So the number of your 'high- ranking' customer will be more likely to grow rapidly.

Do you want to fly high or score high? Red Idea is always here.

Faster than Influencers: Extricating an inspiring plan for digital marketers.

With 'Influencers', directors Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson -and their agency- reached the hype, at a glance, after 2 weeks form the online pubblication, they count 216.000 views on Vimeo, 9962 likes on Facebook and 1009 Twitter followers.

In a time in which creativity is both over- estimated and re- evaluated, the video exhibits opinions and attitudes of 'contagious tastemakers'. The chosen documentary form makes the public feeling closer- almost participating- to their influential aura: very involving.

Their strategy is crystalline as the quality of the HD format, tasteful as the video editing techniques and effects, glamorous as the vintage funky- vinyl music selection, hi-tech as their sponsor and as cool as the subject.

Speakers explore topics such as branding and interactivity, huge within the environment created by recent technological and sociological breakthroughs, and specifically significant for digital marketers.

In fact, their creativity entails additive layers of mastery and consciousness.

They are faster than trends, precise as radars when identify influencers and catch their attention with valuable contents and innovative products and solutions.

Harnessing the tools and networking power of New Media, digital marketers orchestrate creative patterns of activity in which shaping the architecture of the users' -influencers and mainstream- experience.

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it!