Posts Tagged seattle social media marketing rorymartin
Making Social Media a Tool, Not a Distraction
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on December 3, 2009
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that social media can be an incredible tool for everything from enterprise research to customer service. And as many companies are finding out, social media can help improve your bottom line too.
However, there is a flip side, especially for employees sitting in front of computers at their desks or cubicles: it can also become a distraction. For some entrepreneurs, it’s tough to see how interrupting coding sessions with tweets or browsing the Facebook News Feed can be productive to business.
The reality of the situation though is that social media is just like any other tool: it can make a major impact in the right situations, and it can do harm as a time sink. Therefore, your goal should not be to discard social media, but to figure out how to make it a powerful tool, rather than a useless distraction.
Making a Plan, Setting Goals, and Executing
The key to making social media a useful tool is to have a specific plan and a goal for how you want to use it. Many small companies don’t enter the social media realm with a plan, but instead expect tweets and YouTube videos to equate to more traffic and more sales. That just isn’t how social media works.
Instead, understand your needs. Do you need more traffic to your website, or are you looking for more brand awareness? Do you want to prevent bad press before it happens, or are you more interested in creating a community that will generate good press? Always pick your goal first.
Once you have a goal, set a plan, just like you would for any other business objective. Make sure you set up metrics to measure success and implement tools that will help you measure ROI. That means tracking clicks with a tool like bit.ly or checking your Facebook Page’s analytics every week.
Finally, just execute. Don’t be afraid to reach out, make mistakes, and be vulnerable. Even if you make a mistake, customers will forgive you if you’re transparent. Just ask Facebook, which has made many blunders, but has overcome them and continues to grow.
Tips for Avoiding Social Media as a Distraction
Social media doesn’t have to be a distraction, but you should adhere to some rules to avoid it becoming a time sink:
-When you need to concentrate on an intensive task like coding or writing, close up the social media tabs and apps (and email if you can).
-Many times employees turn to social media when they’re bored, so constantly give them work that challenges and inspires them.
-Have a clearly defined social media policy so employees aren’t left wondering what’s acceptable and what is not. Here are some tips on building a social media policy.
-Prioritize. Sometimes social media outreach has to take a backseat to more pressing needs. know when that occurs.
Original Article
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Madmaxer
The Synergy of Search and Social Media – from Emarketer.com
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on October 15, 2009
The Synergy of Search and Social Media
OCTOBER 15, 2009
Two is better than one
Research has shown that display ad exposure can lift consumer response to paid search. Data from comScore, GroupM and M80 indicates searchers are also more likely to keep a brand in mind if they have seen a combination of paid search ads and social media.
The research firms found a 19-percentage-point lift in searches on the campaign brand among users who saw social media relevant to the brand in addition to the campaign’s paid search ads compared with those who were exposed only to the search placements. And there was a further 13-point lift among those exposed to social media influenced directly by the brand.
“Every day consumers express their intent via search. Now, we better understand how that intent is established via social media and the interplay between the channels,” said Chris Copeland, CEO of GroupM Search—The Americas, in a statement.
As a Seattle Web Design company that specializes in Seattle Search Engine Optimization and Seattle Social Media Marketing, we recommend using paid ad search and social media as described in this article from http://www.emarketer.com. We do…and will do it for you.
The effect was even more pronounced when it came to searches for product terms rather than brand terms. Users were almost three times as likely to search after seeing influenced social media plus paid search, compared with paid search ads alone.
Consumers exposed to paid search along with influenced social media also had a 50% increase in click-through rate on paid search ads. Organic search click-through rates were higher, too.
“This finding provides strong evidence that investing in social media marketing can both increase initial brand consideration and drive higher conversion rates once the consumer has decided to purchase,” said Graham Mudd, vice president of comScore.
As a Seattle Web Design company that specializes in Seattle Search Engine Optimization and Seattle Social Media Marketing,we are committed to posting better and better posts that help you and your peers use great online tools..for more information please visit our site at RoryMartin.com
Social Media Tools That Make Life Easier – via RoryMartin.com
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on September 26, 2009
Millions of people use social media on a regular basis, and many more are joining the ranks every single day.
With the number of people involved, and the enormous amount of time we all spend using social media, it’s only natural to try to save some time and make life easier on yourself. Seattle social media marketing and web experts use these in their personal and professional lives.
We’ve compiled this list for just that purpose — over 35 tools that can help you do more with social media in less time.
Social Aggregators
EventBox is a mac-only program that integrates the top 5-6 social networks into a single program. From the looks of the site, it’s pretty too.
Flock Browser
Flock is a full-blown web browser that has been designed around social media. It integrates with dozens of services and helps make it easier for you to stay connected.
FriendFeed
FriendFeed help’s combine all of your different social networks into a single feed. Make yourself easier to follow, or make it easier to follow others.
Yumeo
Yumeo is a social network that allows you to control many other social sites in one place.
Ping.fm
Ping.fm makes it easier to update your social networks by connecting the most popular networks into one service.
Second Brain
Organize all of your content in one place, including bookmarks, files, etc…
Plaxo
Plaxo is a service designed to make it easier to stay in touch with people you care about.
Twitter Tools
TweetDeck
TweetDeck is an Adobe Air application that helps organize and make sense of your twitters. You can group tweets based on search terms, time frame, and many other ways.
Twhirl
Twhirl is another desktop Twitter client. It adds the ability to cross-post tweets to other sites, post images to TwitPic, and search tweets (among other things).
TweetBeep
TweetBeep is like Google Alerts only made for Twitter.
TwitBin
TwitBin is a small Firefox Extension that allows you to receive and send tweets anywhere in your browser.
Twidget
Twidget is an OS X dashboard widget that let’s you keep up with your twitter account.
TwitterBerry
TwitterBerry is a mobile twitter client for Blackberry users. It works over the data network with no need for SMS.
Twittelator Pro
Twitelator is a newer iPhone app for twitter. This one has been recommended by several top users.
TwitThis
TwitThis is a social button to put on your website that helps promote your articles on twitter.
Digg Tools
Digg Toolbar
A quick an easy toolbar that integrates with Firefox and provides most of the common Digg functions.
Website Cache View
Shows multiple cached versions of any website in case of the “Digg effect”.
Digg Alerts
It’s like Google Alerts for Digg.
Digg Notify
Digg Notify is a desktop app that will display a little notification box with information every time someone Digg’s one of your stories.
Digg Alerter
Digg Alerter is a really cool desktop app that shows you a lot of Digg info. One version of this actually shows information about who’s ‘buried’ a story.
Digg Defender
This is a WordPress plugin that will save your site from going down under massive traffic by redirecting it through the Coral Cache network.
Tools For Webmasters
Digg Website Widget
Put a list of your latest Digg submissions into the sidebar of your website.
WordPress Twitter Tools
This is a WordPress plugin that let’s you pull your tweets into your blog.
StumbleUpon Website Buttons
These StumbleUpon buttons make it very easy for visitors to stumble your articles.
Delicious Tagometer
The tagometer is an advanced Delicious button that shows how many users have tagged a post and with what categories.
TwitterFeed
TwitterFeed takes your latest post titles and posts them to your twitter account.
Miscellaneous Tools
Spokeo Search
Social media search that makes it easy to find information from 41 different networks.
Jott.com
Voice-to-text, task organization, and much more. Post to twitter and many other services by calling in from your phone.
Gathera
Gathera is an internet explorer plugin that aims to connect social media, email, messaging, and many more features into a single place.
Nielsen BuzzMetrics
Search the blogosphere and track/find trends.
Infegy Social Radar
(Commercial) Social Media Monitoring tool that helps track the web.
Open ID
Open ID is a single sign-on solution that is supported by many of the most popular web-apps and networking sites.
Conenza stands to lead the way in 2010 for social networking platforms
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Networking on September 26, 2009
 |
| White-labeled alumni networking platform Conenza builds and manages collaborative online communities for multi-billion dollar organizations and their alumni. Key features of the Conenza alumni community platform include: searchable, self-maintaining alumni directory; core community services including news, networking, events, jobs and resumes, & marketplace; compliance with corporate privacy policies, secure platform administration, content management, and reporting tools. |
RoryMartin.com new site is live – Please stop by and check out the portfolio
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking on September 16, 2009
I am excited to launch the new site. We used Joomla, Yootheme, as well as a few other plugins for social media tools.
If you haven’t seen it please check it out: RoryMartin.com
Next month we launch SeattleSocialMediaMarketing.com and LegalSocialMediaMarketing.com
Social Media Revolution Video from Socialnomics – Seattle – RoryMartin.com
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Media Marketing on August 31, 2009
As a Seattle Web Design company that specializes in Seattle Search Engine Optimization and Seattle Social Media Marketing, we recommend using searching more and more on Socialnomics type information to help you stay up to speed onwhat’s happening. We do…and will do it for you. This video can be found at: http://socialnomics.net/video
As a Seattle Web Design company that specializes in Seattle Search Engine Optimization and Seattle Social Media Marketing,we are committed to posting better and better posts that help you and your peers use great online tools..for more information please visit our site at RoryMartin.com
What Exactly Do 1.6 Billion Retweet Buttons Get You? About 6 Million Actual Retweets.
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Networking on August 21, 2009
As a Seattle Web Design company that specializes in Seattle Search Engine Optimization and Seattle Social Media Marketing, we recommend using reading Techcrunch.com to stay up to date with what’s going in in technology. I read it and almost every day say to myself…man I’m glad we have it.
Original source link from Techcrunch.com
If you look at the top right hand corner of any blog post on TechCrunch, you will see both the number of comments on it and the number of times it’s been retweeted (linked to and passed around on Twitter). Usually the retweet number is bigger than the number of comments because it is much easier to do. It counts as a vote for that post inasmuch as a passed link can be construed as a reader recommendation. Everyone who retweets a link is in effect recommending it to all of their followers, and it can help to drive traffic back to the original post. At least that is the theory.
But how many retweet buttons are actually out there and how many people click on them? When it comes to the spread of the buttons themselves, TweetMeme offered some stats
today showing that its retweet buttons are now getting 1.6 billion impressions a month. That number has quadrupled in the past two months alone. New retweet market entrants have a lot of catching up to do. And Just wait until retweet buttons start appearing on individual comments as well.
What that means, however, is just that the buttons are appearing on blog posts and articles which collectively are viewed 1.6 billion times a month, not that they are clicked on that many times. I asked Tweetmeme founder Nick Halstead how many actual retweets do those buttons produce. He doesn’t have exact numbers for that yet, but his best guesstimate is 200,000 a day, or 6 million a month. That translates into a paltry 0.375 percent click-through rate.
There are a few caveats about this number. It doesn’t count people who click on the retweet button who are not members of Twitter. It only counts the overlap. So the actual number of clicks is no doubt higher. In fact, on the retweet button in RSS feeds and for people who are already logged into Twitter (which TweetMeme can measure), the click-through rate is 1 percent. But the vast majority of impressions are for people who are not logged in. So the real click-through rate is somewhere in between 0.375 percent and 1 percent.
The other thing to remember is that it can take fewer retweets to make an article go viral than, say, Diggs. Depending on how many followers each retweeter has and how many actually click on the link, a few retweets can be all it takes to drive a ton of people to that blog post. Twitter certainly drives a lot of traffic to TechCrunch, but we don’t really know how much of that is due to retweets.
TweetMeme is working on giving Websites who use its retweet button better insight into downstream traffic. Halstead also revealed that it is going to release an analytics service which measures traffic coming from retweets. He’d better hurry up with that before Twitter itself beats him to the punch.
Hype Cycle for Social Software 2009
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Networking on August 21, 2009
Facebook Top 10 Rules – RoryMartin.com Social Media Marketing
Posted by Rory Martin in Social Networking on August 13, 2009
As a Seattle Web Design company that specializes in Seattle Search Engine Optimization and Seattle Social Media Marketing, we like to keep you informed and up to date on what people are saying about Social Media tools like Facebook.
Below are some goods we feel you should know about:
If you are an Entrepreneur, or a business professional, you may want to consider these 10 notes below as they will make a difference in what you do on facebook.
1) The Rule of Visibility on Facebook.
You MUST be visible on facebook of you are going to get your message out. You must spend time on facebook and get to know people. You must put yourself together a “facebook blueprint” and work it. How many hours a week are you going to be seen on FB? How many times are you going to befriend someone this week? How many times are you going to upload photos this week? All of these things put you in the ‘Visibility Zone” on facebook, and on the radar as far as people on facebook. Be SEEN and be THERE on a daily basis.
2) The Rule of the Powerful Facebook Profile.
Why would people want to get to know you? One of the first things they check out is your facebook profile. What does it say- but better yet- what does it DO? Does it make people curious and want to get to know you? Does it make them think? Does it make them smile? Does it make them see that you have Value for their life and can help change it?
Powerful facebook profiles are NOT based on what is said in your profile- but what it DOES.
Does it direct them to DO something? Does it tell them you are person they MUST know? Or someone that has a nice picture and a nice profile- with no magnetism? Put yourself OUT THERE and tell the world WHY they need you as a friend, and get them to take action towards YOU.
3) The Rule of the Facebook WALL.
You MUST use your Wall to market or message. many folks regard their Wall as a communication utility like email. It is not that. You already have a facebook email. The Wall is for you to BUILD- BRICK BY BRICK- MESSAGE BY MESSAGE- NOTE BY NOTE- VIDEO BY VIDEO- your Brand on Facebook. Every time something happens with you- it goes on your Wall. Don’t stare at the wall- CLIMB THE SUCKER and make your message the PEAK of the page- and keep yourself out there with the Wall. And answer the messages on your Wall. Thank people for sharing with you their visit or message. This will show up on THEIR wall. This will set you apart from most on facebook. The Wall is simply a BILLBOARD of what you are doing and your friends are doing on Facebook. Use it often and wisely.
4) The Rule of Your Facebook Network.
You are part of a local facebook network and you have access to that network to befriend them. I live in Birmingham Michigan, and the network i am a part of is the Detroit network. There are 640,926 people in my network that I could potentially MEET LIVE in a local place and get to know them and connect with them. You have local folks as well. Where do you find your network?
Click on “settings” and then click on “network.” You will find it there. This is a GOLD MINE of people in your local area to CONNECT and Construct new trust bridges that may lead to business down the road.
5) The Rule of the Facebook Notifications.
This is an overlooked and rarely talked about utility. Notifications are part of your “facebook email system.” Go to “email” at the top of your Facebook profile page, and then click on “notifications.”This is list of who is thinking about you, talking about you, including you in tags, and generally is pointing to you. This is a GOLD MINE of people that have PROVEN they are behind you and willing to make you a part of their Facebook experience. Pay attention to the facebook notifications. Thank them for their thoughts of you on their Wall and let them know you appreciate it. Include them as well on your tags and other activity on facebook. The notifications are GOLD and is a prospecting Vault of Leads. make sure you stay CONNECTED to them.
6) The Rule of Facebook Link Love.
The Link application on Facebookis a HOT commodity. It allows you to post a link that you like and then sends it out on the news feed that is on your home page. It picks up the image that you want on the link page, and allows it to be a LIVE link. Send out other people’s LINK and givem some LOVE. Do NOT just send out your own links. Let others do that. Find interesting links of others and send them out.
WHY? EXPOSURE for you. You will be given credit for the link. People LOVE link love. If you send out a LOT of other people’s links on facebook, they will start sending out YOUR links. Been there done that.
7) The Rule of Facebook Groups.
Join groups. Join a LOT of Groups. Start your OWN groups. The join MORE groups. Why? EXPOSURE. CONNECTION to other Group members. AUTHORITY. Start your own and be a Leader. REACH.Groups extend your reach into Facebook. MULTIPLIED PROSPECTS. There are more people in a group — then on a profile page.
Duh. Build a list in your own group and then you can become an admin and email messages to them. Make them messages of VALUE and interest.
8) The Rule of Facebook Events.
Attend events. Attend Events. and then attend MORE events. Why? It allows you to leave a message on the events page wall, and create exposure. I attend at least 2 facebookevents every week- to learn- and to network. Events can be found on the new Facebook page in the upper right under “Upcoming“-these are the events that are upcoming. One unique twist. You have birthdays under the “upcoming” tag- and you can send presents to folks. THIS will get their attention as it shows up on their wall and the news feed as well. Attend as many events as you can. make them worth your while- learn and grow from them. BUT–always leave a RSVP message about attending or not- with an encouraging message. This will show your professionalism, and caring.
Event UP! This will do you wll on facebook. Put the term “events” in the search box, and it will find every event that is going on in your network of friends- a GOLD MINE of new possibilties of business. Become a master of events!
9) The Rule of Facebook Multimedia- Videos and Photos.
People LOVE photos and videos. They are the most looked at and watched pages on facebook. Make some videos and upload them. Upload some photographs. Not only will the be seen on your wall and the facebook news feed, but also will allow you to “tag” others on these. This means that you can pick out people you have befriended and let them know you are thinking of them. And when you tag someone- it shows up on THEIR wall. Not isn’t THAT cool? It is called EXPOSURE!
10) The Rule of the Facebook NEWS FEED.
This is the big kahuna of Exposure on facebook. This gets you out to ALL of your friends and creates a massive exposure vehicle that can keep your brand in front and recognized. You also will be many times on the “featured” part of the new news feed on the right. This gives you HUGE exposure. Whatever you do, like change your status, upload a video, write and publish a note, or just comment on another person’s message on the facebook news feed- it SHOWS UP in the news Feed. Be seen- and be seen often if you are trying to brand yourself on facebook.
Yes, you need to establish relationships, and build community. But if you are going to MARKET on facebook-then you need to at least get a guideline of what and how to do it. The 10 Social Media Rules of Facebook hopefully gave you some idea in your social media marketing
Seattle Social Media Marketing – Blog for a Blog, Blog for a Cause
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing on June 29, 2009
RoryMartin.com IN THE NEWS
This is from a press release from PRWEB…we are very excited…read on, then call us, so we can both make the world a better place.
Social Media Marketing Meets Social Responsibility at RoryMartin.com
Seattle-based social media marketing firm helps companies increase their brand awareness while furthering their philanthropic efforts with “Blog for a Blog, Blog for a Cause” Program.
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) June 30, 2009 — RoryMartin.com, an innovative Seattle Web design and online marketing agency, announced a new social media marketing program, “Blog for a Blog, Blog for a Cause.” The program is designed for companies, large and small, that are looking to expand their social media marketing and search engine optimization efforts, while launching or enhancing their philanthropic efforts.
“People and companies are feeling more and more empowered to give back and make an impact,” said Rory Martin, founder and CEO of RoryMartin.com. “This program was inspired by a recent experience with my mom, who proudly modeled shoes that she purchased on Tomsshoes.com. For every pair of shoes purchased, one pair of shoes goes to a child in need. ‘Blog for a Blog, Blog for a Cause’ takes a similar approach and helps companies we work with tap into the power of social media to build and grow their businesses, while contributing to the causes they believe in.”
How the “Blog for a Blog, Blog for a Cause” Program Works
For each annual Social Media Marketing or Search Engine Optimization Package contracted, RoryMartin.com will:
|
“When social media marketing is combined with traditional search engine optimization tactics it can be a very powerful way to increase an organization’s brand awareness and engage their customers, prospects, and supporters in rewarding and ongoing dialogue,” says Martin. “This program helps individuals do this for their businesses and the causes they care about.” One of RoryMartin.com’s first clients to participate in this program is Bytor Security, who launched a section within their current blog to highlight their commitment to the National Cancer Institute.
To learn more about the “Blog for a Blog, Blog for a Cause Program” or the wide range of Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization packages available with RoryMartin.com:
Visit: http://www.rorymartin.com/blog-for-a-cause-seattle.html
About RoryMartin.com:
RoryMartin.com is an innovative web marketing and design firm in Seattle, Washington. A team of independent, creative thinkers, RoryMartin.com helps companies better communicate with their customers and prospects by combining cutting-edge technologies and world class online marketing strategies. As a strategic business partner, they help companies of all sizes grow their businesses with the following interactive web marketing services: Custom Web Design, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, and Web Hosting. For more information, visit: rorymartin.com.
Contact:
Rory Martin
Phone: 206.355.0894
Recent Comments