When on Defense, Be Aggressive

When the competition comes out with a new product or service, it’s easy to feel a little defensive.  Will our customers be so impressed with the idea of a new, updated version that they’ll dump us like the proverbial hot potato?

One company in that situation recently took a different approach.

When Microsoft released Windows 7, rival computer maker Apple decided to be aggressive with a new commercial.  In it, a woman is deciding whether to stay with her current PC and upgrade to Windows 7 or switch over to a Mac.  Her dilemma?  While Windows promised wonderful new abilities, the last upgrade, Windows Vista, had provided PC users with more headaches than solutions.  In contrast, Mac had a proven reputation for reliability and simplicity.  In the end, the woman decides to go with a Mac, despite the newness of Windows 7.

What lesson can small business owners and entrepreneurs take from this? If your product or service is good enough, you can go toe to toe with any new competition.  Don’t allow your competition’s positive publicity be the only thing your current and prospective customers hear.  Know what your value proposition is, and make sure your customers do too,

Since most of us don’t have Apple’s advertising budget, we may not be able to put ads on TV, but we can get our message across by marketing through social media.

Cool Mojito – Social Media Marketing. More Likes, More Leads, More Sales

rSitez – Create your own Social Networking Website

Use Facebook fan pages to talk about your product and services.  Make sure your website has clear, updated information. In each case, make sure you tell your readers how your product or service can solve their problem.

With Facebook fan pages, however, you are competing with all of the other companies on the site.  You can differentiate yourself by developing your own social networking site, like the ones offered by rSitez.com. It’s a way to stay ahead of the competition, reach your audience directly, and not get lost in the fan page crowd.

Be sure you don’t neglect your current customers in your quest to attract new ones.  If you already have a community of customers, fans or followers built up, remind them of how you can help them do business more efficiently. If you have established customers on your own social networking site, like rSitez, it is easy to develop blogs and forums that are tailored to their needs and that encourage their interaction.

Remember, though, that establishing relationships through social networking takes time.  It is not something that can be done as a quick fix.  But the benefits of making connections with your customers are also long lasting.

Everything I Needed to Know about Social Media, I Learned in Kindergarten

When we start marketing and networking on social media sources like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, we sometimes forget some of the simple rules of engagement.

In his book, “Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten,” author Robert Fulghum reminded us of the basics of getting along with others. Although it was originally published in 1989, his observations are timeless.

Even in our high tech world, we can look back at some of the lessons we learned in elementary school, and see that it applies to establishing successful relationships online.

1. Don’t be bossy. If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, chances are you are bursting with excitement about your product or service. You want to shout its praises from the rooftops. But when you are building tenuous relationships with others, especially across the Internet, you need to take a more subtle approach.

Instead of delivering a heavy handed sales pitch, focus on your customers and what they need. What problems are stumping them? What is costing them time, energy and efficiency? Then, let them know how your products or services can help.

Cool Mojito – Social Media Marketing. More Likes, More Leads, More Sales

rSitez – Create your own Social Networking Website

2. Don’t say anything you don’t want your mother to hear. Although social networking has a casual element, keep in mind that you are building a reputation online for your business. Be careful before disclosing too much personal information or getting caught up in controversial discussions. If someone posts a negative comment on your blog, don’t immediately shoot back a flaming response. Mom wouldn’t like that.

3. Listen to others. The whole purpose of social media is to get others to interact with you. That means you have to create an environment where people want to respond. If you have your own blog, you can do this by asking questions. You can visit other blogs and find out what others are thinking and join that discussion.

If you have your own social networking site, like ones offered at rSitez, you can start a community discussion through blogs, forums, and chats. Once you’ve gotten your readers talking, listen to them and let them know you appreciate their interests.

It sounds simple, but how many times have you clicked on a website looking for information and been inundated with heavy sales copy? Or read a blog where the author dismisses comments that contrast his? Or see where someone says something completely inappropriate on Facebook that diminishes your view of him?

By remembering the basic social rules that you would use in establishing face-to-face relations, you’ll have success in creating relationships online.

Does Social Media Work for Small Businesses?

That’s the question Citibank asked in a recent survey and the answer it got?  No.  Many small business leaders said that they did not see results from their efforts on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Over 60% of the 500 respondents said that social networks did not help generate leads.  Only 12% found social networks somewhat or very helpful, and 13% said they were not very helpful.

Why does it seem to be all the rage for larger organizations, but not so much for smaller ones?  Here are some of the stumbling blocks that small businesses may have when it comes to social media.

1. It takes time to get results.  The whole aspect of social media is about building relationships, and that can’t be done over night.  If a small business starts a Facebook Fan page or a blog and hopes for immediate results, she will be disappointed.

2. It takes up time.  Small business owners have a lot to do just in running their business.  Building and maintaining online social networks takes time and consistency.  And, unlike larger organizations with more staff members to delegate to, in a small business, it’s hard to let someone else convey the corporate message.

3. It takes resources. Not only do small businesses need manpower to handle the online communication, they also need sources of information and research in order to establish that role of a “thought leader.”  Large companies can do surveys and hire researchers to write innovative white papers, but with their limited budgets and staff, it’s more difficult for small businesses to offer new and fresh information.

4. Some businesses may make a half-hearted entry.  For the businesses that are doing social media because they are “supposed” to, it won’t take much to convince them it won’t work.  The company president may have a LinkedIn.com account, but has few connections and doesn’t strengthen those or build more.

Cool Mojito – Social Media Marketing. More Likes, More Leads, More Sales

rSitez – Create your own Social Networking Website

5. Lack of hard results.  It’s true.  Most of the stories of success using social media are anecdotal.  Factual, but not always in hard numbers.  So it’s difficult sometimes to show the actual benefits of using it.  How do you know, for example, that a potential customer decided to call you because he saw you on Facebook?  Can you measure the amount of people who developed a favorable impression of you after reading your blog?

Despite the negatives from this survey, social media experts are sure that small businesses can benefit from this form of marketing.

Mashable, a website specializing in social media, countered with several examples of small businesses that have seen sales growth and increased brand recognition through their social media efforts.

Other examples abound throughout the Web, from the success of Chicago’s Sprinkles Cupcakes on its Facebook fan page to the non-profit organization Epic Change and how it effectively used social media for fundraising.

But maybe there’s another option.  Maybe small businesses could use a different type of social networking system that’s more tailored to their size and need for flexibility.  rSitez, a software development company, helps entrepreneurs and small businesses create their own social networking sites by taking the best attributes of the popular sites and blogs and tailoring it to the individual company’s needs.  In effect, they create a community for each company, making it much simpler for businesses to reach their target audience.

Where are you on the social media spectrum?  Have you been using it for years?  Thinking about testing the waters, or somewhere in between?  What results have you seen?

New Social Media Options for Young Businesses

It has been a long time without posting here. At rSitez, we have used this time to cotinue improving our product (the more flexible and robust out there) and developing all the custom applications that our customers have been demanding…. busy and fun times!

It seems as if everyone is talking about social networking these days, whether it’s using Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, just to name a few.

These networking sites are answering a need that people have to connect with others and share news and information.

Although many individuals have taken advantage of social media, companies are also finding that social media can provide efficient ways to target and build a relationship with their customers.

While most companies have websites, particularly large and medium sized companies, the information on websites is often static. It doesn’t change often, and it doesn’t offer an opportunity for interaction.  Some companies have added blogs, which can increase readership.  But even blogs don’t always encourage a robust two or multi-way conversation between interested parties.

Cool Mojito – Social Media Marketing. More Likes, More Leads, More Sales

rSitez – Create your own Social Networking Website

Businesses are also putting up Fan Pages on social networking sites like Facebook, which does allow for more of a free-for-all conversation, but doesn’t allow a company to really target and market to a specific group.

One new type of program that has a leading edge is what www.rsitez.com  is offering.

By combining the attributes of a traditional website and the fluidity of a social site, rSitez lets businesses build a community of interested consumers.  The consumers can then talk with each other (and company members), share events, blog, participate in forums and in general, form a group of members that build an interest in your product.

Another benefit rSitez offers is the ability to monetize the site.  Businesses can get paid for using ad words.  They can make money also by charging fees for membership, for special reports, or for products.  Nonprofit organizations can set up their site to accept donations.

For a growing young business, rSitez provides a way to start a viral marketing program that involves your customers and creates a strong following; all while helping your business make money.

Why companies should care about Social Networking? Part 1

At rSitez we have 2 kind of requests for our corporate services,

First, the “Sophisticated customer”. His/Her company has already experience with Social Media or Social Networking sites. The company has blogs or at least monitor what is said in the blogsphere about their products or services and sometimes, it has run some media campaign in Facebook, Youtube or Myspace, etc. This customer knows why is important for his company to build their own Social Networking site for external or internal purposes and why they are choosing rSitez Social Networking Software as tool to do it. They have very specific requests about the features that they want and need and the overall development process is just about defining specs and deadlines.

Second, the “un-informed” customers. These customers have read a lot lately about Social Networking sites and maybe their competitors have already one. They want to jump in in the Social Networking stuff but they normally didn’t analyze why. A lot of time of our development time goes into answer very generic questions not about our social networking software but about why social networking is important for a company.

So, I think is worthy to explain why companies should care about social networking. I found very good and simple information for this topic from cerado and wikipedia.   

First, what is social networking?

In both professional and personal life, human beings naturally form groups based on affinities and expertise. We gravitate to others with whom we share interests. Most of us belong to real world networks that formed organically. Not surprisingly, these networks rapidly migrated to the online world.

Online social networking has been around in various forms for nearly a decade, and has begun to achieve wide notice in the past few years. Online social networks take many forms, and are created for many reasons. Despite their differences, online social networks do, however, commonly exhibit a number of the following concepts.

Profiles– Each member in a network has an online profile that serves as the individual’s identity in the network. In the professional context, profiles often contain information regarding the individual’s experience, education, interests and affiliations, as well information about the individual’s skills and resources.

Connections– Online social networks typically enable individuals to make connections with others in the network. In some cases, these connections are implicit, and derived from past actions (such as sending an email to another member of the network). In other cases, the connections are explicit, and are set up and created by the members themselves.

Deceptively simple, online social networks contain great power. They change the online space from one of static web pages and stale marketing messages to a live, vibrant network of connected individuals who share their abilities, expertise and interests.

Why social networking is relevant to companies?

Customers have lost trust in traditional sales, marketing and service (the three areas commonly referred to as “CRM,” or Customer Relationship Management). According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, “the most credible source of information about a company is now ‘a person like me,’ which has risen dramatically to surpass doctors and academic experts for the first time.” The survey relates that in the U.S., trust in “a person like me” increased from 20% in 2003 to 68% today.

The connections enabled by social networks are the glue that put the humanity back into business to solve the trust problem. In other words, the organizations that will win are the ones that most easily enable individuals to build relationships and communities with people they trust.

Are you sure companies need to be on this? Isn’t “social networking” just for high school and college kids?

Don’t be thrown by the word “social.” Although social networks such as MySpace (known for being an online hangout for the high schoolers) and FaceBook (which targets the college crowd) have garnered much press in the social networking space, other professionally-focused online networks are being used in many ways in the business and association realm.

The initial use of online social networking for businesses and organizations has been primarily along one dimension, recruiting. That is, a recruiter for an organization navigates a network of known individuals (e.g. current members of the organization) in order to find potential applicants (either contacts of those individuals, or contacts-of-contacts) who have the skills and experience needed to fill a job opening within the organization. While this application of social networking is beneficial (especially to professional recruiters), there are many other areas where social networking can be used that are more broadly applicable. rSitez has built literally hundreds of specific features to allow companies to monetize or capitalize their social networking sites.

 I finish here the first part focusing on generic information, I will continue giving more specific reasons for companies in the next post

 

With the crisis where the Online Advertisement money will go???

Tough times for marketers…consumer spending at all time low, recession news everywhere and what make their job more difficult… marketing budgets freezing in every single company besides in debt relief companies.

When times are tough is when marketing money is more heavily scrutinized. Marketers need data to show that impressions and placements are generating the sales and leads that they are paying for. 

With this prospects, I am not surprised that Google stocks are below $300 for the first time ever since 2005. As one of the analyst that downgrade the stockthis week put it “We believe that the high CPC (costs-per-click) inflation Google has been experiencing for the past six quarters is not sustainable and will pressure core search growth”

In other words, people are going to spend less and be more careful about what they get in return. For Google, if companies, just some months ago, were bidding high just to be sure that they appear in the first page search results with their competitors, now more important than appear in the first page is to convert sales and justify the marketing money not with impressions and visits but with sales.

In my opinion, the search of meaningful results and well spent marketing money open a good opportunity to niche sites to attract advertisement. I wrote before about niche site vs. mass market sites and I think the relevance of niche sites with well defined audiences will grow in the current situation. We are focusing our social networking software development in building the tools for new online business that will capture this smaller but better targeted audiences. All crisis have their positive side and I believe online advertisement money will start flowing to niche sites. Start marketing your social networking site and make some good money. What do you think?