Customer: How will you achieve this?

Marketing Agency 1: We’ll develop an engagement gradually by actively participating in social media conversation, publishing content, sharing and developing an all round presence to drive inbound traffic.

Marketing Agency 2: Don’t worry about it, we’re experts in SEO techniques, we’ll deliver 1000′s of links, guaranteed traffic and you will have quick results.

Customer: When can I see results? How much traffic can you generate at the end of the first month?

Marketing Agency 1: We may be able to generate a moderate few hundred to 1000 visitors through referral traffic in the first month but consistently build and later start seeing more traction from search traffic coming in from content that’s made an impact with users. 

Marketing Agency 2: We can get thousands of visitors in the first month, thousands of Twitter followers and thousands of Facebook fans…it all depends on your budget.

Customer: Obvious choice! Marketing Agency 2 knows what I want…you’re hired! 

Money can buy you traffic for your website, it can buy you quick marketing results and even the impression that you’re online marketing efforts are a success.What it can not by you is true online engagement.

When it comes to demand generation and online marketing instant results, quick traffic, rapid growth, small campaign cycles are words businesses and marketers like to hear. It’s all possible online just as it is offline, if you have advertising dollars to spend, attention can be bought. However, to keep that attention, you need to keep spending those ad dollars and when using these routes, one needs to remember:

Easy come….easy go.

Not that there is anything wrong with online advertising, banner exchanges, buying leads, traffic or fans but should that be the only strategy as part of the overall online marketing mix? The reality is, these quick result mediums are effective in getting attention but they work exactly as traditional push based advertising or marketing does.

There are no short cuts to the pull based or inbound marketing. It needs to be earned by offering something of value constantly but the results can be lasting. It doesn’t cost as much but it needs long term vision and commitment to grow an online marketing effort that draws traffic and customers towards you and getting people to talk about your business. It is the road less traveled, longer, more demanding but in the end….it leads to a better place.

Attention can be bought, trust needs to be earned and when you’re building a long term online presence that people can connect to, it’s working hard at building engagement and trust that will make all the difference.

Social media is a powerful medium for brands and marketing. No doubt about it. Businesses spend a significant portion of their budgets marketing and it’s not uncommon to have budgets of millions of dollars kept aside for advertising, buying media space, filming commercials, putting up events and other channels. When it comes to budgeting or investing in online marketing (online advertising not withstanding) or social media media marketing a common response is :

But isn’t that free?

Or at least, social media marketing is associated with low cost options for marketing….which it is. The truth is, you can market a brand or business online for virtually nothing. All you need is a laptop, internet and understanding of social media and how they can be leveraged to drive traffic and awareness for you. Most sites that are commonly used will give you free sign ups. You can setup a blog on Blogger or WordPress.com for nothing. Create a Facebook page, a Twitter account, submit pages to directories, work on your search marketing all without having to pull out a credit card or spend money. Social media is free. So what are we social media marketing agencies really charging for?

Time!

Let’s rewind a bit and look at how you would go about starting to create some online presence assuming we just launched a new website. Creating a blog can be done for free if you choose to. Writing a first post will cost you about 2 hours assuming you need to do some research, editing, include some of your keywords and really put together something people would share. That post is not going to get noticed without promoting it so that will cost a couple of hours too. Submitting it to several top bookmarking sites, communities, social networks, groups and so on so that it may get at least a few clicks from there. Doing this once will achieve nothing! It needs to be done daily or consistently. How many hours is that?

Every one of those accounts whether on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, StumbleUpon, Digg, Tumblr etc are edge-less swords until you’ve built a social influence on each one of these networks. Creating a social influence on a single social site takes hours a week and even years of activity and working at it. If you have a new Twitter account and spend a few weeks having built a following of 30 people and share your website, chances are 0-1 person may just click on it. Being in a position where you build a larger following, know people within your network build an influence on Twitter which guarantees a few hundred or thousand people will hear what you say can take take hundreds of hours of dedicated activity on Twitter. Likewise, developing a following and influence on other accounts and communities cost hundreds of hours in time. This doesn’t include the time invested in conversations, networking, replying, commenting and several other activities which are an integral part of creating an online engagement.

Social media as a channel is low cost. It may not need a lot of investment in terms of money but it needs more investment in time than perhaps any (or most) other marketing activity and time is a valuable commodity.  

It could be your time, your employees time, the time put in a by an online marketing manager, a dedicated social media team or that of a social media agency. One way or another, to build a really great online presence and social media engagement you need to invest a lot of time and effort no matter who is putting it in. So is it really low cost or free?

Some say social media and online marketing agencies like us sell expertise but I believe there is little barrier to learning what we know and a wealth of information shared on the subject if you have the time to learn it all. I like to think what we’re really charging for is our time because we spend a lot of it doing what we do. The value proposition to those that engage the support of a social media agency? :- Save your time, buy ours instead because you’ll need all the time you can get to make social media marketing really work for you and when it does, you’ll know it was worth every minute.

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Digg, StumbleUpon, Google Plus etc are the the better known bigwigs of the social web and undoubtedly the first places that come to mind when you think about developing a marketing strategy online. Going purely by the volume of traffic they have, it seems obvious to spend more time and energy developing activity and outreach on the platforms that have the most traffic and give less priority to the ones that have comparatively less traffic. It seems like common sense that if you have target market of 20 million on Facebook, that’s where you should spend most of your online marketing focus and yet this isn’t always the case.

When it comes to online marketing and engaging people through different web channels there’s a lot more than quantity of traffic that comes into play. The same set of social sites and using the same outreach formula may not always work since every brand, business, target market and web user base has it’s own characteristics. Facebook may bring in 1000 fans and not a single conversion over 10 months. A small niche community site or online group on the other hand may bring in just 50 visitors in the same time frame resulting in 10 conversions. There’s marketing potential far beyond Facebook and the obvious social media super sites.

Just to be clear, we’re not saying don’t spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and so on. We’re saying don’t restrict your outreach efforts to only these sites and look beyond the obvious choices because you never know what works best for your inbound marketing till you experiment.

Let me illustrate:

A new picturesque family getaway hill resort was looking to  increase their online visibility to drive more bookings and eventually to rely on inbound traffic and conversions to keep the occupancy charts filled. They managed to create a Facebook page and spread the word through family and friends touching 400 fans in their first 3 months however, there were only about 3 bookings that could be attributed to their activity on the Facebook page. Some weeks later, one of their customers submitted a review of the resort on TripAdvisor.com and resulted in someone else discovering the resort as a result of this review. From that instance, the resort decided to explicitly request their customers to add a review on TripAdvisor.com if they enjoyed their stay and customers did. The TripAdvisor reviews showed up well in Google search results for ‘places to stay’ related to the region and the bookings clearly saw an increase. Learning from the experience, the resort spent more time submitting their details to similar hotel directory sites, travel review communities and listings stepping up their activity on these sites and although the traffic increase was not huge, the conversion rate was growing and inbound bookings went up significantly as more people discovered the resort through their searches for staying options in the area.

A children’s clothing and apparel brand setup an online store in an attempt to break out of it’s local operations and look global for customers. They spent significant resources working on on-site SEO and creating accounts on Twitter, Facebook as well as setting up a blog which they could use to showcase their style tips and advice. They soon learned this is a very crowded and competitive space online and got frustrated not being noticed and getting the attention they thought they would. Their break came from getting actively involved on family and kids fashion sites like mykidsfashion.com, stylecaster.com, cafemom.com and others. People seemed to respond better to photos of their kids wear and gradually the purchases started happening. They were finally connecting to the right audiences in the right places and developing an influence there.

There’s a wide web of places online beyond the popular choices to develop an influence and reach out to the right people online and sometimes all it takes is a little will and effort to experiment and find out what works best for you. It can be a long process but well worth it in the end when you find the right mix and focus efforts on the ones that yield results.

A financial company had this big event planned which would bring down some heavy weight global investors as well as some key government leaders two months away. They planned to market this event in a big way to attract more attendees from the private sector and decided to use an integrated multi-pronged plan with email campaigns, a single newspaper advertisement, call in known press contacts for some offline PR and wait for it….social media marketing!

Now this could have been a great strategy to reach out and spread the word about the event inviting people to come attend but the catch was they didn’t have a social media presence or online engagement they could tap into so they decided to engage a social media and online marketing company that could help them create a web presence for them since they would be busy with preparations for the event. Now deciding to create a social media and web presence for your company IS a great idea. What was wrong with this particular case is the plan was to spend exactly 2 months engaging on social media, setting up a blog, a Facebook account, connecting with groups on Linkedin, Twitter…..and then STOP until much later in the year when another similar event was planned.

Social media can not be compared directly to television advertising or other offline media. It doesn’t work on the principle of flash a message to a known sized audience and pay accordingly (Online advertising does that but not social media engagement). It’s about constant interaction, communication and building that community / audience and that’s not a quick ‘put together’ and sell ….it’s build and nurture over a long time. Blog audiences are not built in a month or two, neither are Facebook groups or social influence on other sites. Not to say they can’t be done with a large budget and paid online advertising but you get what you pay for and to grow a social presence online organically and build lasting relationships with people online, that’s not a viable strategy.

Think of it as a conversation (which is exactly what it is). When you stop activity, stop publishing, stop updating, stop answering, replying or communicating online…..that is the end of the conversation. The other’s in the room with you have little option but to leave the room or move on. You can’t build a relationship based on a single conversation in any social situation online or not. Stronger relationships are built when you keep in touch, keep communicating and stay in contact. Social media and online presence is great for marketing – but it can’t be a seasonal strategy which can be turned on an off.

This company is not alone in their resolve to use social media and invest in online activity for a few days of the year only when it’s strategically needed for their marketing. There are sporting clubs and franchises that engage a million strong fan base for a few months of the year when the season is on and then cut off all activity when its done. Sure season is when the interest peaks and the sponsorship revenues come pouring in for the teams and clubs but what about the fans? Do they stop being fans once the season is over? Do they stop reading about their favorite players or not want to hear what is happening off the field through the year till the next season? There are businesses from every field occasionally dabbling in social media and then letting the activity slide like it’s a seasonal campaign but there’s no such thing when it comes to social media.

There’s always advertising to turn to for instant demand generation but inbound marketing and social media marketing is not about that and doesn’t fit there as a solution to short term demand increases. It’s about relationships and like any dating guru (or social media influencer) will tell you…you need to invest time and effort in any relationship and work at it constantly to strengthen it.

That said, there’s something quite amusing about Stumble. Something that all serious stumblers will know and would have experienced.

If you’re on StumbleUpon and are reading this. Have you noticed this?

This is easily the weirdest post to have graced this blog all in the name of social media marketing. The Dot was created as part of a social media experiment to observe how people share on social networks. We always say content needs to be share worthy to make waves on the social web. With “The Dot” we intend to learn something around just what constitutes “share worthy”.

Remember: If you see the dot and you like the dot, please share the dot!

The nuclear fission like popularity of social site Pinterest.com has taken the social web by storm. Shooting up the website rankings among the most popular sites out there today, this is one online community no brand, website or organization wants to ignore when it comes to reaching out on the web. No less than a few months ago you could have given it a miss while planning your inbound marketing and social media strategies but ignoring it now would be like ignoring Facebook, Twitter and a number of other channels put together. That’s just how influential Pinterest can be in adding to the referral traffic on your website! In the inbound marketing world, it’s a force to reckon with.

For those of you yet to get on the Pinterest bandwagon, the concept behind this game changing social networking is fairly simple: Imagine creating pin up boards for things you like whether it’s recipes, places you wish to visit, motorbikes you love or clothes that appeal to you and pinning up images / photos of the best you find on the web under each of these. For example, you find a photo of a destination that looks amazing, you can pin it up to your board of “places I like”. In true spirit of social networking you can follow others, see their boards and share your pin-up boards with others. Ultimately, where this site shines through is the visual experience it delivers and makes finding great web content fun.

Now if you’re looking to engage on Pinterest and tap into this massive social network which is rapidly becoming one of the top five sources of inbound traffic to so many sites, you need to make one major direction change in terms of the content you’re publishing to even have a chance of making waves on this social network:

Think Visually

Snappy 140 character texts like the ones on Twitter, Facebook-like status updates and well worded blog posts are not the fuel Pinterest runs on. If you’re going to be one of the sources for viral pins on Pinterest (and the site does link to sources for images pinned) then you need to think :

- Terrific appealing photos

- Graphics

- Infographics

- Visual representations

- Posters

- Designs

- (Videos too)

While the images pinned to Pinterest can be linked to the source site or page they came from, it’s the images and visual content themselves that actually draw clicks from other pinners so if your visual content doesn’t have appeal, it’s not likely to do too well on Pinterest.

Inbound marketing strategies and content creation for social media engagement and is going to have to put more focus on developing great visual content to include in publishing mix. For someone looking to develop a presence on Pinterest, you’re going to have to ask :

- Would someone be drawn to the image if seen on their feed of pins followed?

- Would they click the images you pin and share?

- Would they re-pin or share those images?

Pinterest is going to drive brands to be more creative in terms of photos, graphics, images and visual content. Put the focus on great visual content and Pinterest could do wonders for your inbound traffic and web presence!

While we see some awesome and innovative things many companies are doing to engage with people on the web and “be social”, few still struggle with the idea of “being personable” rather than “sounding professional”. When I say “sounding professional” here I’m not referring to the true sense of the word but rather the ‘cliche’ of having to use politically correct and complicated business terms or corporate talk while interacting with online audiences. It may have been the proper way to conduct business in the formal corporate world where embossed letterheads on bonded paper were the medium of of choice but in the Social Media world…people prefer simplicity. Also, in the social media world – the people hold the power and decide what they prefer and who they like.

I remember the founder of IMG the late Mark McCormack and sales thought leader saying “All things being equal, a person would rather buy from someone they like versus someone they are indifferent to” so being like-able is a key factor in any buying process.

Nowhere is this more true than on the social web. Most people on the web have low tolerance (or attention spans) for complicated explanations, corporate jargon, advanced technical terms, business vocabulary or language they have to read over a number of times to make sense of. Social media loves and respects simplicity!

A single word best practice rule for communication, content, marketing or just about any interaction on the web to really connect with people – SIMPLIFY!

Things we like in our social web experience?

 Tweets & Short Status Updates

140 characters is a short space but it’s perfect. If you have something to say and you can put it 140 characters or less it forces you to be concise, clear and make your point quite simply. Little wonder why Facebook status updates and Twitter is so popular?

Introduction Videos That Turn Complicated Ideas Into Plain English

Gone are the long multi-page technical specification manuals or documentation that explain something complicated in even more complicated terms and language. Social media loves simple videos like the one below which can even have Grandma understand what this new age concept of CrowdFunding is all about.

Infographics

Well crafted visual representation of facts that you can absorb simply by looking at an image rather than having to read long texts of technical facts, survey results or statistics. They are simple and make their point!

Easy Registration & Calls To Action

Crisp, Short & Personal Direct Messages & Communications

Those are just some of the examples of how effective keeping things simple online can be just the way web users like it. When it Rome, do as the Romans do. When on the social web, think about what people love about their social web experience and tune your online communications accordingly.

Leaving out the unnecessary complicated bulls***t that aims to impress but no one really gets and simplifying will really connect well with online audiences and help not just get what you’re about but perhaps even grow to like you as a business. That in the online world…is a winning formula!