Your Checklist For Running Facebook/Twitter Contests

Social media is a great tool that allows you to interact and engage with your customer bases. Even better, using platforms like Facebook and Twitter to run contests or promotions is a highly effective way to establish your brand, reward your customers, generate sales, and build an ongoing relationship with your larger network. This means that if you’re not running contests already (or not running them correctly), you may get left behind.

Why You Should Run Contests

If you have been thinking about running a contest or promotion but haven’t done one yet, now is the time. Since Facebook and Twitter are the most socially used media platforms, we would recommend starting there. Facebook has 845 million monthly active users, and Twitter has over 100 million. But more specifically, Facebook reaches about 44 percent of all Internet users on a daily basis and Twitter reaches about 8.6 percent of all Internet users daily, according to web analytics company Alexa.com. What does this mean for you? That means you have the attention of a lot of people, each and every day. By using social media to send out promotions, you not only get to interact in a meaningful way (by offering them something they want and encouraging participation), you will likely gain new fans — it’s the best of both worlds.

by Jennifer Dancy
flowtown.com

Why You Should Run Contests

12 Ways Demandforce Tools Can Help You

Last month, we introduced you to our new partner, Demandforce. This month, we’d like to tell you exactly how a small business owner like you can use Demandforce solutions in your everyday operations. If you run a service-based business and are hoping to automate your social media marketing efforts, streamline client communications, and build your brand, Demandforce has the tools for you. Check out these 12 ways Demandforce can make life easier.

http://www.flowtown.com

by Jennifer Rose

1. Send Appointment Text or Email Confirmations

Demandforce helps you free up time by providing this simple but extremely helpful service to customers. These reminders minimize no-shows, meaning you can keep a full schedule on the books. Continuar leyendo «12 Ways Demandforce Tools Can Help You»

How to Spot a Tumblr User

by Ethan Bloch | http://www.flowtown.com

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5 Steps to Fix a Bad Yelp Review

Review sites like Yelp can offer a helpful service to the general public and give small local businesses a chance to gain word-of-mouth momentum no ad money can buy. But this open platform also means any grumpy customer can slam your business, affecting your reputation and, ultimately, sales. The good news is you are not powerless. Not only can you can make customer service lemons into lemonade by proactively mining your Yelp profile to address customer service issues before they break your business, but your active care and concern will gain you more social cred. So, if you’ve had a cranky customer slam you on Yelp, follow these 5 steps to get them back on your side — and maybe even add a few stars…

by Jennifer Rose | http://www.flowtown.com

The Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet

by Ethan Bloch | http://www.flowtown.com

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Paying It Backward: How To Get Your Customers to Reciprocate

Loyalty Programs

A good way to get your customers to pay it backward is by installing a “loyalty program,” fit to whatever conditions you deem acceptable for your industry/business. According to an article by Inc, American Airlines was one of the first purveyors of this practice; it wanted more loyalty and participation for its customers, so it developed “frequent flyer miles” in the 1980s–and other airlines quickly followed suit. Regarding loyalty programs, Inc says that you should ask the following questions: “Is it customer tenure that’s most valuable? What about dollar-value of purchases? Would you rather be a company that delights clients with surprise bonuses or upgrades? Two other big issues should shape your decision: What your competitors are doing, and how much your company can afford to spend on the program.” Consider carefully these questions before you implement your program.

paying-it-backward-how-to-get-your-customers-to-reciprocate

In the film Pay It Forward, the main character (played by actor Haley Joel Osment) is invited by his social studies teacher to “think of something to change the world.” He cleverly plays on the common notion of “giving back,” deciding instead to “pay it forward”– doing a favor for three new people as a means of repaying good deeds.

You can encourage customers to adopt this same good spirit with a similar practice: Paying It Backward. You need to make your customers enthusiastic about reciprocating services, advertising your company, and in general helping your business to expand. How can you achieve this?

Loyalty Programs

Timely: Now With Collaboration [Invite Everyone]

Timely helps make sure that when you Tweet, you actually have an audience.

And today we’re thrilled to launch Timely + unlimited accounts + unlimited collaborators to everyone!

Anyone can now:

– Add Unlimited Twitter Accounts: there is no limit to how many Twitter accounts you can add to Timely and/or collaborate on.

– Invite Unlimited Collaborators: invite as many friends and colleagues as you want to work on the same twitter account. This is perfect for when you have multiple people that manage the same Twitter account, now you can all work together!

by Ethan Bloch

71% of Tweets are ignored and never seen*.

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Timely helps make sure that when you Tweet, you actually have an audience.

And today we’re thrilled to launch Timely + unlimited accounts + unlimited collaborators to everyone!

Anyone can now:

– Add Unlimited Twitter Accounts: there is no limit to how many Twitter accounts you can add to Timely and/or collaborate on.

– Invite Unlimited Collaborators: invite as many friends and colleagues as you want to work on the same twitter account. This is perfect for when you have multiple people that manage the same Twitter account, now you can all work together!

To mark the occasion we’ve given Timely an official home at http://Timely.is.

A big thanks to all our users and everyone who helped us test Timely over the past month. We couldn’t have made it this far, this fast without you!

And with that I invite you to join the Timely family:
http://timely.is/#/signup

How Internet Users Feel The Need To Belong

According to a Pew Research study, internet users appear to be more active in social groups than non-internet users. Not surprisinly, the groups are also using the internet to communicate with each other. Religious groups are the most common groups frequented by internet users, but groups with older members, like AARP, are dominated by non-internet users.

by Dan Martell
http://www.flowtown.com/blog/how-internet-users-feel-the-need-to-belong

Anatomy of an Apple Email

The emails sent by Apple to consumers are riddled with trademark characteristics, including multiple ‘Calls To Action,’ as well as the beloved ‘Hero Shot.’ Here is a breakdown of each of these characteristics and a summary of their general purpose.

by Ethan Bloch

Size Doesn’t Matter: Why Super Accounts Can Be Worthless

Does anyone really believe that there are over 200 million people using Twitter? Despite the growth rate, in reality there are likely only around 14 million daily active users and 40 million monthly active users. What are the other accounts doing?

Many are just sitting there. People create an account, check out Twitter, and for one reason or another never return. They still have an account and will continue to have that account indefinitely.

http://www.flowtown.com
by JD Rucker

There are those who believe that social media is simply a numbers game. They will preach about getting thousands of fans and followers and hundreds of retweets and likes in an effort to get the most out of social media. They define engagement in ways that can be quantified – bigger is better from their perspective and bulk is king.

In many ways, they just don’t understand social media.

Size doesn’t matter. Presence is everything. While there can be an indirect correlation between the two, one thing is certain: there are small accounts with tremendous influence and huge accounts with none. Here’s why… Continuar leyendo «Size Doesn’t Matter: Why Super Accounts Can Be Worthless»

How to Really Get Conversions from Social Media

Diligence. That’s it. There is no skill required, no tool necessary, no special knowledge to get you leads through social media. If you are diligent, you will succeed. Of course, there are tools, techniques, skills, and special knowledge that can make it a whole lot easier and more successful. Even with these, you still need diligence.

The tools are out there. There are dozens of them available to help manage and track your social media campaigns. On the road to conversion, the tools get you there faster, but they aren’t required. Everything you truly need is already at your fingertips as long as you have an Internet connection. Here, we will go into the techniques and knowledge that you’ll need to take what you already have in social media (even if you have nothing going yet) and turn it into a converting machine for your business.

by JD Rucker
http://www.flowtown.com/blog/how-to-really-get-conversions-from-social-media 

Diligence. That’s it. There is no skill required, no tool necessary, no special knowledge to get you leads through social media. If you are diligent, you will succeed. Of course, there are tools, techniques, skills, and special knowledge that can make it a whole lot easier and more successful. Even with these, you still need diligence.

Who’s Using Twitter And How They’re Using It

As Twitter continues to wax in popularity, the disparity of Twitter users across all demographics continues to wane. But as the Pew study also indicates, there is still a large portion of Internet users who continue to have no involvement with the site.

by Ethan Bloch
http://www.flowtown.com

The Best Viral Marketing Campaigns of 2010

Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” television ad campaign was a massive hit this year, and originally aired during the Superbowl in February. It featured actor and former NFL practice wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa reciting a monologue, shirtless, in one take about how a man could do anything if he uses Old Spice’s brand of shower gel and cologne. On YouTube, the video’s views reached over 13 million. The campaign reached its peak when Mustafa began responding to Twitter fans’ questions on youtube in his signature towel and shower background (he responded with more than 180 short videos to celebrities like Demi Moore, Ellen DeGeneres, and Perez Hilton — in rapid succession.) Best Old Spice Guy clip? Him signing off to his followers, and then, immediately after a fish drops from above and into his hands, proclaiming, “Silverfish handcatch!”

by Dan Martell
http://www.flowtown.com/blog/the-best-viral-marketing-campaigns-of-2010

What defines a successful “viral” campaign? Quality of content? Humor? How fast it blows up? Whatever it is, we know that to be “viral,” the advertisement needs to be self-replicating to an extreme degree. Based on the successes of the following 2010 marketing campaigns, we’d like to think that these fit the bill pretty nicely:

The Old Spice Guy

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Put Your Best Tweet Forward: How to Schedule Tweets for Maximum Exposure

Twitter can be an amazing marketing tool. Some would say that strictly from a marketing perspective you get more bang for your (time) buck than you do out of Facebook. Those who find the most success with Twitter know something that others don’t: not all Tweets are created equal. Normally, it’s timing that has the most dramatic effect on success. On Twitter, timing is everything.

As with any marketing tool, our goal is to maximize the effectiveness and exposure of your messages. The effectiveness of your Tweets is an entire other post as crafting the right Tweets is an art in itself. Here, we will focus on exposure. Below you will find some things to consider when scheduling your Tweets.

by JD Rucker
http://www.flowtown.com/blog/put-your-best-tweet-forward-how-to-schedule-tweets-for-maximum-exposure

Why Email Marketing Is Still In Vogue

With the recent advancement and diversification in online marketing strategies, some might think that email marketing is a relic of the past; but the numbers tell a different story. Not only is marketing via email a cheap alternative to other forms of direct marketing, but the ROI is also exceptionally high – giving marketers the best of both worlds. Here is a look at the email marketing industry, and why it might be the right marketing option for your business.

by Dan Martell