Sterling Kilgore Public Relations and Marketing Strategy

Location-Based Platforms: Bringing Social Media Marketing to the Doorstep of Your Business

Posted on February 7th, 2012 By Roland Cailles No Comments So Far

One of the things that keeps social media marketing interesting is that it is always changing. New platforms and features—and new ideas for how to use them to engage with customers and prospects— are continually arising. Location-based marketing, one of the latest tools for your social media marketing program, is one such example.


You may have heard of location-based platforms, like Foursquare or Facebook Places, that allow users to ‘check-in’ to the business locations they frequent. Thanks to the widespread adoption of the smartphone, and its GPS tracking capabilities, apps can track when your customers are visiting your business. To avoid privacy issues, these location-based platforms use an incentive-based model to encourage users to share their location and consumption habits openly with their social networks.

Here’s how location-based platforms work. Let’s say a customer visits one of your business locations. At your business, they can open Foursquare on their smartphone and a list of businesses in the area will appear. The user picks your business, hits the ‘check-in’ button and can make a comment. When the user checks-in, they receive points from Foursquare and they also let their social media network know they are at your location.

What’s the incentive for the user? That’s where you and your business come in. Foursquare allows you to manage your company listing on the site, similar to a company Facebook Page. You’re given a range of promotions to offer your customers as incentive for visiting and checking in to your business. You can offer a coupon for first-time visitors or a percentage off during slow hours to generate more foot-traffic. There are also group discounts or loyalty programs like 10% off on your 10th check-in.

Another great feature of Foursquare is the metrics it collects. Foursquare keeps track of who has checked in at your business, how often they visit and provides demographics like age and gender.

Location-based platforms have obvious applications for business-to-consumer marketing, but what about business-to-business?

Here’s one idea. In addition to helping your brand awareness efforts, Foursquare could have an impact on your next tradeshow or company event. As a complement to your tradeshow marketing efforts, Foursquare can be used to promote a tradeshow booth and generating booth traffic. For example, you can create a venue page for your booth, and then reward visitors who check-in on Foursquare with freebies or special demonstrations.

Foursquare and similar location-based platforms are one more tool you may want to consider for your business’ social media marketing. They have a unique ability to provide incentives in the moment and at the point of sale, will build your brand awareness because of their social aspect and can complement your tradeshow or company event marketing efforts.

Tags: apps, b2b, facebook places, foursquare, location-based, Mobile, Social Media
Posted in Social Media |

Social Media Tech Tools: Alltop, A Tool to Help You Search the Web

Posted on November 4th, 2011 By Kevin Kovanich No Comments So Far

I just wanted to start this entry by saying one thing: we get it. We know that one of the reasons many people don’t get involved with social media is because they simply don’t have enough time. And it’s true. With an endless number of blogs, news stories, community-based platforms such as Facebook and other online information on the Web covering every subject under the sun, it is difficult to sort through the “noise” and find what is really of value to you.

But whether you ever submit a post on Facebook or Twitter or not, there is a wealth of information online that could be of interest to you and add value to your day – if you can find it. Fortunately, there are tools that can help solve the problem of information overload by providing an efficient and user-friendly way to search out, organize, and read online content.

Alltop, a free content aggregator site, is designed to help you do just that. Alltop allows a reader to build a custom page of online content sources they want to follow. Alltop clearly organizes a wide-range of top blogs and news sites by topic and displays the most recent headlines from these sources. Subjects covered include virtually anything a reader could be interested in – from general topics like politics and business news, to more specific subjects such as franchising, golf or the iPad. Content is organized in an intuitive framework that makes it easy to find and review. All the reader has to do is select the content sources they want to follow and it is displayed on their personal page. The personal page is then automatically updated when the selected sources post new content. In essence, Alltop gives you a personalized online magazine rack.

Alltop is just one of the tools available to Web surfers looking for more efficient ways to filter information. Along with Google Reader, social bookmarking sites, and micro-blogging services like Twitter, websites like Alltop offer Web surfers a convenient way to find and view the information they want.

Tags: Alltop, Blog, Facebook, Google Reader, Guy Kawasaki, Online Communities, Online magazine, twitter
Posted in Social Media |

Google+ Says It’s Just Months Away from Offering Business Profiles

Posted on August 24th, 2011 By Roland Cailles No Comments So Far

More than a month after its launch, Google+, Google’s latest project and answer to Facebook, has become the fastest-growing social media network in history.

After just 16 days, the site reached 10 million users. Compare this number to Twitter, which took 780 days to reach that number, or Facebook, which took 852 days. Currently, the site boasts over 25 million users.

So, should businesses be adding a presence on Google+ to their social media profiles? Our answer: Not yet, but keep it on your radar.
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Tags: Facebook, google, Social Networking, twitter, youtube
Posted in Social Media |

Which Social Network is Right for You?

Posted on August 4th, 2011 By Kevin Kovanich No Comments So Far

The social network market is incredibly saturated, with new platforms popping up every day. But even still, Facebook and Twitter are far and away numbers one and two. Combined, they reach almost 1 billion users. And with the backing of the world’s most popular search engine, Google+ may just be the next big thing in social media. With millions of users worldwide, the potential is there for businesses to reach an audience that is starving for information.

So, how do we use these major social media platforms to help our clients? I’d be happy to show you!

Facebook

With over 750 million users, if Facebook was a country it would be the third largest in the world. That’s a pretty impressive stat, especially when you find out that Facebook isn’t allowed in China. So how are we taking advantage of this massive audience? We develop our clients’ Facebook pages as an extension of their website, which gives their page a lot of personality while still conveying their core messaging. As far as posts go, you have to keep in mind that when someone likes your page on Facebook, they are letting your organization into their News Feed where your status updates will be right there next to messages from their friends, family, and coworkers. Naturally, stories that portray the human side of your company fit in nicely on Facebook.

Twitter

Brands can say a lot more in 140 characters than you would think; especially when those short updates are going out to a potential audience of over 200 million users. We use Twitter in a multitude of ways, from posting news about our clients to establishing them as thought leaders in their industries. Since Twitter is a platform where the information on your profile is minimal, the content rules. We scour the internet, newpapers, and trade publications to come up with the best stories to share that relate to our clients. I want to make sure that every 140 character tweet I send out packs a punch that could wind up sending it into Twitter stardom, by gaining as many retweets as possible.

Google+

Since Google+ is still in beta, businesses are not yet allowed to create accounts. But there’s almost no doubt that when the entire platform goes public, it will be a huge outlet for businesses. Since the platform is part of the Google family, which includes Gmail, YouTube, Chrome, Picasa, Google Docs, Google Maps, and a seemingly never ending list of additional services, there is no doubt that Google will do its best to tie all of these together in Google+. Not to mention Google has branded Android phones, which in my opinion could very well start shipping with Google+ as a default application. Have you run a Google search of you name lately? If you have Google+ account, it is now one of the first results. This will be the same for businesses. And once Google+ users start including businesses in their personal circles, the way information is shared can be taken to a much more personal level.

With all of the different social networks, it may be hard for your company to figure out which ones are right for you. We always take a look at a few points for our clients to try to point them in the right social direction.

• Competition – Where are they? This is often a good indication of where your industry lives on social media
• Existing content – Do you already have videos? YouTube is for you. Do you have articles published? Maybe start a blog based on your coverage.
• Time – Social networks take time to manage. You probably shouldn’t start a Twitter account if you can’t tweet every day. Of course, we can help you with that!
• Who to reach – and how – If you want to position yourself as a leader, create a Twitter account to talk about industry topics. If you want to create a community of friends, family, and customers; create a Facebook page to share information.

It is true, the social media train has already left the station, but there is still time to jump on. You just have to find the channel that is right for promoting your business.

Tags: +, Facebook, google, networking, plus, pr, social network, twitter
Posted in Social Media |

It Was the Talk of the Town in NYC: Engaging Customers with Facebook

Posted on June 24th, 2011 By Kelly Dittrich 1 Comment So Far

At the end of May, PRNews held its Facebook Conference in New York City, which I had the pleasure of attending along with my colleague Rebecca Vander Naald. Though the conference was only a one day event, it was packed with great insights and thoughtful strategies on how PR and Marketing professionals can best leverage Facebook.

Here are a few highlights from our favorite sessions that we took to heart:

• First, get this newsflash: companies no longer control their messaging. Wow! Today it’s your customers, non-customers and employees who are in control and they are out there spreading the word about what they like and don’t like. So every time a person engages with your company or brand online it is an opportunity to listen, gain feedback, and build relationships.Several presenters stressed using Facebook as a tool to listen to your fans. Notice the posts that fans engage with whether positive or negative and use that information to make your brand even stronger. Next: employees can become great brand ambassadors if companies empower them to become involved in social media and help them understand expectations through a guiding social media policy.

  On those expectations, Melanee Hannock of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital suggested this advice for employees: “Don’t do anything online that you wouldn’t do in the physical world.”

• We really liked the session centered on engaging with fans. Strategies discussed included offering incentives for fans to “like” your brand, such as giving out coupons or partnering with another corporation for a sweepstakes. In order to increase engagement with the fans that you already have you can ask questions, post polls, and connect with current events.
• Overall, it was decided that Facebook is a platform for brands to tell a story. When you select which stories you want to share, choose stories that are both important to your brand and that will resonate with fans. Look through the material on your website and post what you think people will want to click “like” or comment on.

Not only were we able to enjoy a beautiful day in New York City, (thanks, Sterling!) but we also were able to strengthen our skills at an insightful conference that offered some great ideas for how to get the most out of Facebook. This conference confirmed what we already knew here at Sterling: if utilized effectively, Facebook and other social media platforms are a powerful way to connect with customers and build relationships.

We’d love to hear your ideas on how to use Facebook to engage with customers. Please share them with us!

Tags: pr news facebook conference, social media engagement
Posted in Social Media |