Social Marketing is a new buzz word going around. Social marketing basically means word of mouth marketing using online tools such as social media, social networking, and other online PR tactics. You know how powerful word of mouth can be, just imagine what it can do for your products and services! Social Networking San Diego has been able to achieve great success for our clients, and the way business is conducted today is very different from the 20th century. Consider our 21st century marketing methods which you can see here:

1. Even though businesses are going through some tough times due to economic conditions, this does not make it ok for management and executives to do nothing. Good leadership in all companies is needed to find innovative ways to be resilient during these times and figure out ways to cut costs where necessary (not employees) streamline operations, upgrade technology, and invest in an online marketing strategy. Why? Because online marketing strategies can mean a more cost effective advertising and marketing approach than traditional marketing efforts and can even reach a more targeted market in a shorter amount of time. Having your company set up on twitter, linked-in, or face book is one thing, but how are you using these tools? This is where you need an online marketing strategist to develop the right creative campaign that can then track results, measure progress, and show good ROI. The economies of scale are much greater with an on-line marketing approach as opposed to off-line. Consider this: an inbound marketing campaign, or inbound marketing system in which we help formulate and execute around your business model. We do the back-end work for our clients on social media and social networking and train them on how to leverage these tools for business development purposes and how to build business relationships online. We function as the out-sourced virtual marketing department and partner with our clients for long term contracts for long term business strategy success.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post!

graphic credited to www.sciencebuddies.org

Here is a reminder of the scientific method with the spin for a social marketing strategy:

Steps of the scientific method:

1.    Ask a Question -what goals are you trying to achieve with your on-line marketing efforts? On-line branding, customer service, online PR, increase traffic, increased visibility, increase website ranking, better conversion, marketing a new product or service….

2.    Do Background Research -we research your competition, identify what keywords are best to use, and formulate an online marketing strategy/ plan tailored around your particular business model (this can NOT be a one size fits all approach to on line marketing!)

3.    Construct a Hypothesis -based on our research/ assessment- we hope to achieve these types of results with this on-line marketing campaign…

4.    Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment -we will assign the right team, implement the strategy, and market test and confirm our on-line marketing campaign (either 100% outsourced or a joint effort (best results are achieved with a joint effort- we do training, coaching, and educational instruction on who does what in the on-line marketing strategy)

5.    Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion -quarterly reports using analytics, benchmarks, deliverables, goals met, and other ROI measurements compared to alternative marketing efforts

6.    Communicate Your Results -we will report to the executive team what results were achieved, areas we suggest for improvement, and best approaches moving forward.

We work in these 4 capacities:
Hourly Consulting
Monthly Retainer
Per Project Basis
Monthly Subscription

See if your corporation qualifies for starting a social marketing campaign by clicking here: http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/free-website-evaluation/

Want to see some actual Case Studies for existing clients?  Click Here for Case Studies

CEO JustinRFrench

P.S. Here are 4 tips on how to choose the right social media marketing consultant

What type of results are you producing for your clients in social media marketing, social networking, and on-line marketing campaigns?

I am constantly asked- “so what are the numbers companies can expect with on-line marketing campaigns? Is it worth it? What will be my ROI?”

Well, first off, every industry is different. Think of your on-line marketing system like a gas pedal- the harder you press on the marketing machine (the more $ you spend the harder we step on the pedal) the greater your reach, exposure, and potential for more business.

I just refer them to our current case studies (see below) and a blog post i did here http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/blog/
which states WHY companies need to formulate some type of on-line marketing strategy revolving around social networking and social media. Otherwise they will keep trying off-line approaches like direct mail, telemarketing, and radio and TV that are producing diminishing returns.

So i ask my audience- what are some of the returns you are producing for your customers? would you mind sharing below some of the challenges your facing in providing various consulting services to your customers? This way i can formulate more case studies for the industry. Your feedback is greatly appreciated

JustinRFrench CEO
Social Networking San Diego
http://www.twitter.com/justinrfrench

Social Networking San Diego:
Actual Existing Client Case Studies
Company names kept confidential due to confidentiality agreements

Company A
Start Date: 2/01/09
Website Grade prior to campaign: 43/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 16.91% (or 5,195,184)
Inbound Links 0
Blog (None)

Current Date: 3/31/09
Website Grade: 65/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 16.24% (or 4,547,459)
Inbound Links 151
Blog (off-site)

26% increase in traffic in 2 months!

Company B
Start Date: 1/28/09
Website Grade prior to campaign: 62/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top) 4.81% (or 1,475,807)
Inbound Links 0
Blog (None)

Current Date: 3/31/09
Website Grade: 71/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 4.29% (or 1,316,909)
Inbound Links 53
Blog (off-site)

27% increase in traffic in 2 months!

Company C
Start Date: 2/01/09
Website Grade prior to campaign: 53/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 5.72% (or 2,857,215)
Inbound Links 0
Blog (None)

Current Date: 3/31/09
Website Grade: 91/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 1.33% (or 373,541)
Inbound Links 466
Blog (on-site)
75% increase in traffic in 2 months!

Contact me here http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/free-webinar/
for a FREE Webinar and start forming your strategy Today-
and see if your firm is ready to discuss some of your on-line marketing challenges and what we can do to address these like we have been for MANY of our clients.

Hmm… Do you every wonder why there are so many articles on the internet about internet marketing? Is it any different than ordinary marketing and why? I mean, if you are planning to sell your products on line then a little marketing becomes essential to ensure that people buy your product. But other than setting up a website what else can you do?

It’s not that simple! Large companies have now learned that no matter how good your product, you have to be connected with the latest information and any other events that are happening within your industry circle. You also need to ensure that your product and your website is promoted on different blogs, and even free video sites like Youtube to get regular traffic or customers. And you don’t want just any customers; you want customers who want to buy and are serious about sales! And that’s what an outsourced marketing campaign can do for your website. It can get you “friend” connections with people of the same industry, high level relevant traffic of customers from the same industry and even contacts with a buyer or wholesaler from a completely different country. Outsourced marketing campaigns if done by a professional company like can Social Networking San Diego boost your business trends and make you many more useful connections in the industry over night.

Social Networking San Diego is a professional company that will help you implement the perfect marketing strategy based on the company’s specific needs, costs and budgets, marketing and sales department structure and various other requirements. They will also help you in social networking as they have a special internet marketing department staffed with professionals just for that purpose.

It does not matter if you are a small or big business; setting up an internet marketing campaign can be cumbersome due to the complexity of the World Wide Web. Blog marketing is a intricate balance between outright selling and plain content. And readers have come to expect valuable and reliable content from blogs. Direct selling by large companies through vigorous blog promotions can confuse readers and sometimes even put them off completely. Why waste so much time when you already have a niche internet marketing professional ready to help you out in an instant? It may cost you a small amount but its well worth it in the long run! Social Networking San Diego already has the network, the professionals and the expertise to do your work for you at a minimal cost!

this is a social media road map i found

I keep getting asked by fellow business professionals on linked-in discussions the following questions regarding social media and social networking for business.

1. How are you successfully using Twitter, microblogs, blogging, etc. in your corporate environment?

Justin’s Answer- personal branding, product/ service branding, customer service, industry news, trends, event promotion, competitor analysis, building BUSINESS relationships, etc.

2. How do you convince those that don’t “get it”?

Justin’s Answer- I tell them go get educated and come back to me in a year when your ready to build an on-line marketing strategy around your products or services and have it done right. Once companies wake up and start realizing 1-2% returns on direct mail and telemarketing is NOT working. Why do you keep doing things that don’t work? Stop throwing good money after bad ideas and work with an innovative marketing company. Maybe they should get educated on one of our many webinars about social networking, twitter training, or linked-in training for business. I don’t have the time or patience sometimes to deal with business people that “don’t get it”. Time is money!

3. How do you measure successful ROI?
We measure ROI for our customers with our own proprietary methods and software systems we have developed and it works great! We have paying customers, they see results, and we show them monthly reports. We have to measure the success of our clients online campaigns and report to them monthly or they wouldn’t be spending thousands of dollars per month with us!

4. I’m interested in hearing successes, failures, and strategies.

We have MANY success stores (see my blog http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/blog/ or customer testimonial videos.

Failures; just know you will make some mistakes, get over it- just jump it try it, learn, and learn from your mistakes most importantly of course. You will learn, test, and refine the strategy. Try to have a plan at least. The alternative is to do nothing and fail. Need Strategies- see my blog or book some one on one consulting time with me and lets formulate an online marketing strategy together.

We even have an internet consulting team I can dedicate to your next on-line marketing campaign. Don’t have time to do all this social networking stuff yourself? No problem- we’ll do it for you. Give us a shot and we GUARANTEE we can increase traffic to your website IF you partner with us, sign up, and take our recommendations. It’s worked for these clients (see videos to the right) so maybe your business is ready to jump on board.

Is your business ready? What is your understanding of social media and social networking for business? Take the social networking IQ test here: business evaluation

Cheers
JustinRFrench twitterholic
http://twitter.com/justinrfrench

By now, if you are a business professional, have a linked-in account, and know what “twitter” is, then I applaud you. I would even be willing to give you a gold star for excellence if you have an actual internet marketing “plan” of some sort. Or maybe you’re marketing budget (though limited right now, just like trying to get a small business loan) which may or may not include some internet or social media sites, you are still ahead of the majority of your competitors.

Most small to mid-sized businesses (even some fortune 500’s) actually don’t even know what “social networking” means let alone have some type of on-line marketing budget. Those baby-boomers however are just starting to see an actual business value in conducting business on the internet, or at least they see how popular social networking sites like myspace, facebook, or twitter have become part of the local evening news topics. You may want to even scroll down and read some of my previous posts on the importance of why your business should start doing some form of internet marketing. Some companies try to provide ad words or you tube videos, but have they proposed an over-all strategy that over-time becomes an “organic viral marketing campaign?” (Don’t know what that means- Google it)

Let me talk directly (no B.S.) to those firms who are still baffled with this new on-line business phenomenon- “strap on your seat belts because if you thought forming an OFF-line marketing strategy was tough, then you aint seen nothin yet!” Wait till you find out what REALLY goes on behind the scenes. And if you think for a SECOND there is an easy way or get rich quick scheme out there to marketing your business online that will work for $199, then just give ME the $199 and I’ll at least draw up a plan for you to execute and I’ll even email it to you!”

Allow me to give you 1 simple tip to add to your internet marketing strategy, or at least pointers on getting started because you will quickly learn just how overwhelming, tedious, complex, and time consuming this whole internet marketing thing really is. And the local “teen” might not be the right person fit to build your on-line brand. I have spent 8 years of training, business schooling, Microsoft & Cisco certifications, countless nights of research, and testing software to form this proven proprietary system. (those close to me can attest for those long nights of me researching) But time is money and If you think I am just going to give you a magic wand to wave over your business that will make your website appear #1 on Google the next day then we may not be a good fit in doing business together.

I would at LEAST suggest you sign up for a $99 1 hr. internet consulting strategy session with me to identify some foundations to get you going at the least. This might well be the BEST under $100 business and internet marketing consulting session you spend all year. But if you really appreciate value & TRUST in someone’s expertise, understand your business is lost and needs help, has a marketing budget, then I suggest we speak.

Business Owners- Remember, “He/ She who fails to plan, plans to fail.
If you don’t have an on-line marketing plan yet, then you are failing.”

Twitterholic- justinrfrench