Does your business have a social media strategy in place? What is it?

To increase customer retention? Increase sales? Decrease lead acquisition costs?

Increase visibility?

I read a statistic today and I’ll try to find the link but it is important for you to know that only 50% of companies have an actual social media strategy or social media plan in place. And even LESS are measuring the results or ROI of their social marketing campaigns.  Why? Because there is so much customization involved to develop and determine the proper key performance indicators, backwards engineer the campaign, and then establish the tools & tactics needed. Believe me when I say it- social media campaigns are extremely complex & customized around each clients business model and we LOVE a challenge. Something we love even more is when clients get results like winning the San Diego’s best green product installer contest or selling all their tickets for their fundraising event. Simply put, when your clients see results in social media and can measure ROI, they finally see the true value in social media that it can bring to their organization:

1. decreased online advertising expenditure

2. increased customer retention & satisfaction

3. much higher conversion rates than paid advertising

because of the trust factor (through facebook & twitter communities)

4. much cheaper lead acquisition compared to paid online advertising

What type of ROI have you demonstrated for your clients using social media?  Are you a business using social media yet? What have been your results?  I’d love to hear from you!

Cheers,

Justin “Results” French

1. Fails to Reach the Proper Target Audience
2. Generate Targeted Traffic
3. Have A Proper SEO Foundation
4. Have A Blog
5. Have An Integrated Social Media Marketing Plan

Yes, it’s there, it’s pretty, but is anyone looking at it? Is it bringing you new business? Is it generating leads? What is your conversion rate? Whats is your ROI on your monthly online marketing budget? Are you paying for online marketing software every month and seeing a return on this investment? Is it exposing you to a new market? Building your brand? Are you monitoring your personal or company reputation?

“Your website is only a billboard. You can have the most beautiful website in the world, and without traffic, it might as well be a billboard in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa.”

Contact us today and see how a social media marketing campaign can drive targeted traffic to your website while increasing click through, conversion, and decreases online adversing expenditure.

With internet marketing, you make your marketing dollars work more effectively online by establishing a CONSTANT presence on many sites. Over time, your customers will either do business with you or purchase from you when they are ready.  We help your website pop up on search engines; you should have blogs on your website with updated content meant specifically for your prospect. Suddenly you’re a trusted source for information on your products/ services.  You have a Twitter feed that keeps the consumer updated throughout the day on news and events pertaining to THEM and their specific interest- reminding them that YOU are their dependable source. 

Ultimately everything comes down to the bottom line – drive revenue, lower traditional marketing costs by using Internet Marketing to generate traffic to your website, measure your ROI, and have a sustainable online marketing system that becomes more powerful over time. 

So it’s time.  Time to make that website work for you, time to embrace the future of social marketing with a company like Social Media San Diego that has the integrity, credibility, and track record of results to help build your online brand and improve your companies performance in all areas. Time to get online. Time to get it done right!

Social Networking San Diego will get you there- We offer the Fast Track 

Okay for today’s blog post I’m actually recording this live on my iPad and the program I’m using is dragon naturally speaking. If I have a few issues with the grammar I’ll go through and fix it myself manually but I want to talk about today’s topic and discuss the difference between SEO and Social Media and you should know by now the two go hand-in-hand unless your living on Mars.

Let me explain why SEO is more beneficial for a product driven business model. When it comes to other business models that are more service-based businesses compared with events, it’s very difficult to do SEO for non-product driven websites based on my experience in the social media trenches. Being in this field for almost 3 years now, if you’re looking for quick rankings or a way to get quick traffic, quick visibility, quick brand recognition, then social media is that the best route to go. You will see over time you will start to rank for certain keywords based on social media tactics and relevant postings that you are doing. I had stumbled upon this in my early years just running some tests and putting out great content while doing basic keyword research. I was actually being ranked for some very competitive keywords which was cool! What’s even more interesting is that 1.5 years ago before Google and twitter signed an agreement, I started to notice my twitter messages ranking in Google search results on page 1 real time. This occurred from my twitter account because as we know twitter is a micro-blog so that was even more interesting.

So I guess the take away for today’s topic is when it comes to social media versus SEO, social media is actually going to be beating SEO for product & service driven businesses that’s my prediction in the not so distant future. Id like to hear your feedback in the comments section if you somewhat agree or disagree we can debate all day and Id be more than happy to. So thank you again for coming to the social networking San Diego blog. Please sign up for a newsletter on the right-hand side or download our free e-book if you have not already. Also there’s an ebook that I wrote for $9.95 for the best 10 you will ever spend as far as an informational social media guide for small business. This is Justin “Results” French signing off. Will see you guys tomorrow. Thank you

1. He is living proof that if you CARE enough, engage, and work your face off you can become mainstream

Watch CBS News Videos Online

2. He is down to earth, completely honest & transparent

3. He is one of the most energetic hard working hustlers I know (besides myself)

4. He knows how to balance fun, work, and of course family life

5. I had the honor & privilege to meet Gary twice (Boston Gravity Summit and a Wine Meet-up in San Diego)

In summary- Gary Vee has been a great inspiration in my continued jounrey of internet entrepreneurship, social media consulting, and most of all following my passion.  Feel free to leave a comment if Gary Vee has had an impact on your life- I would love to hear your story.  Please leave a comment below.  Cheers

Justin “Results” French

social media mastermind group

Due to time constraints to blogging everyday, I am starting my Social Media 60 Second MBA Video Series. Its all about results from Justin “Results” French. Have a listen to my new video series and I look forward to your feedback-

Justin

Social Media is the critical element for our business to get more exposure in ways not possible 10 years ago. Social Media opens up avenues of potential opportunity (both good and bad), not realized before in the areas of marketing and networking. What is very clear and critical for success in social media is developing a specific strategy before establishing an online presence. One approach that Social Media uses is the stipulation of requiring friends/business associates to become fans to our page and then leveraging them to attract new ones; the more fans we have of our page, the more exposure they have to our business and our message because they are notified every time we update the status of our page. As a result, fans can comment on status updates with hopefully, positive content about what we are doing. The goal of social media then is an online conversation that stimulates and promotes an emotional response towards our message. When that goal is achieved, people take pleasure in the feeling of satisfaction and then with a bit of luck, will pursue a business relationship with us.

But Social Media is not finished at this point, because not only is it a tactic to get our business message advertised in a public manner, but it can also be a way to personalize an ideal that we have about our business. For example; we use our business as a means to assist several at risk groups that rescue and save some specific people in Africa that would otherwise be enslaved or killed. This message focus rises above the day to day business routines and settles on what we believe is actually important in life and that is to make a difference in the world. Social Media allows us the capability to align ourselves with these charity organizations and demonstrate to the community we are more than just ink on paper, we stand for something greater.

Guest Post By:

Kent Wright

Digital Operations Manager

Convergence, a division of SOS Printing, Inc.

A Fellow San Diego Business

In this short post, I take you behind the scenes in the classroom of what it’s like to teach social networking, internet marketing, and social media to fellow business professionals in San Diego County. Teaching is another passion of mine (I know I spread myself thin sometimes) but I think educating the small business community is something I have always done and will continue to do especially during these times. Enjoy the behind the scenes look at me teaching social media for business at Mira Costa College San Elijo campus. Cheers,

Justin

p.s. If you are in San Diego County and would like to be part of my VIP Social Media Mastermind group then take this quick 20 second poll on social media for business, give your feedback, and join the group. I look forward to meeting you-

Justin

poll: http://www.meetup.com/Social-Media-Mastermind-Group-San-Diego/polls/231719/

Here is a Top 8 list of our Most Popular Posts for 2009 according to our tracking statistics on Hootsuite. You the community, clicked on these posts the most, so I put together a list of the most popular ones just in case you wanted to bookmark it or share it with your contacts (always appreciated)

Please help share these with the Business Community as I’m sure they will find these extremely valuable in preparing their strategy for 2010. This is in order of oldest post to the newest.

1. Top 5 Lessons Learned about Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, and Business”

This is the post that really kick-started our renewed passion for consulting, except instead of providing trusted IT consulting, our TEAM shifted into providing trusted Social Media Consulting because we identified the trends of businesses needing a team of consultants to help guide them on this new medium which should now be part of their marketing mix. Social media has been added to the equation of all marketing departments, or at least should be and the budgets will finally be there for 2010.

2. 10 Keys for Small Business Success Using Social Networking

This post gave actual tips small businesses can implement right away and gained much popularity among the small business community.

3. How CEO’s Can Create A Blue Ocean Strategy And Save The Company Using Social Media

As we know, good leadership starts from the top and works its way down, yet now we have seen a more bottom up approach thanks to social media. I would suggest any executives still trying to wrap their head around social media, you may want to read this popular post I did and the video explaining how to create a blue ocean strategy using social media with some examples in layman’s terms.

4. Top 5 lessons learned in the trenches of social networking for business and social media consulting

This post discussed what life has been like in the trenches of providing social media consulting and strategies for companies to leverage with even some lessons we learned early on. A good refresher like this is much needed for the New Year.

5. Top 5 Lessons in Trust relating to Social Media and Social Networking

Especially in today’s economic climate, we are extremely reliant upon the trust we have built with our network and community, and we must constantly be cultivating these relationships. The book I would recommend you read is by a fellow social media evangelist Chris Brogan. The title of his book Trust Agents speaks for itself. Here is where you can get your copy: Remember- leaders are readers!

6. San Diego Small Business Fair- Social Networking 101 Slides

This post gives the actual presentation I did at the local San Diego business fair. We received some very good feedback on the content presented so I encourage you to view this post just in case you missed the live event.

7. Top 10 Reasons Businesses Should Embrace Social Media and Twitter To Survive in 2010

Here was another Top 10 list I had put together explaining why businesses will should be embracing social media more as part of their business strategy for 2010. It received over 800 hits so there should be at least a few good points that you may find beneficial.

8. What are the ABC’s of Social Media For Business?

It is important to know the foundation of social media for business development purposes, so these ABC’s explain some of our processes we use (transparency) in working with clients to establish principles to ensure a solid foundation.

Here is to a great 2010 and we at the SNSD team wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Justin R French

P.S. As your trusted advisor, In case you were looking for a cost effective tool to stay in touch with your customers, prospects, and community, you may want to consider starting 2010 off with a tool we use at SNSD called Aweber. You can sign up here for a FREE test drive:

Can You Have More Sales, Too?

Helping over 65,000 businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber’s opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.

Take a Free Test Drive today!

We are often asked by prospective clients what is involved with social media for business?  We decided to write up a basic ABC’s of Social Media to help give you a inside peak into our process and methodology (with-out giving away to much proprietary information) in how we work with clients.  Hope this helps clarify.

A- Assessment (Basic or In-Depth analysis of your current online marketing strategy, SEO, competitive analysis, SWOT, keyword research, etc.)
B- Budget established (Our starting monthly subscription package right now based on supply and demand is 1,000$/ month)
C- Construct a Social Media Plan or Social Media Strategy (This is setting your business up for success and we do these often for our clients)
D- Delegate (we then execute the strategy by consulting, coaching and training your appropriate staff members on their integrated efforts)
E- Evaluate results, tweek strategy, and adjust tactics or tools used as needed to achieve maximum ROI
F- Functional Dashboard for measurements and decision making of executives

Video to follow on further explanation of these items. Do you have any questions we can answer? Submit us a comment below or email our CEO Justin R French at snsdjf@gmail.com he’s known to be very personal and responds quickly.

The Social Networking San Diego TEAM

p.s. We recommend this tool we use to follow up with our clients and you should definitely try it out

Can You Have More Sales, Too?

Helping over 65,000 businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber’s opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.

Take a Free Test Drive today!