A generational-divide?

We are still waiting for the official voter statistics from Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office, but I am sure we will find a large number of younger residents voted for Brown.  Not because there is an ideological shift amongst this cohort (all data suggests there is not) but because Brown ran a campaign whose message was delivered in a tone and style that connected with younger voters, and was delivered using mediums they embrace.

Coakley, by contrast, ran an old-school campaign; where the state’s long-powerful party served her up as the right choice because; well, because they told us so.  And that’s how things work in the bluest of blue states, right?  Wrong.  This is not Mike Dukakis’ Massachusetts and the Kennedy’s don’t actually run the state.  Turns out things have changed since 1985 and no one told the Boomers on Beacon Hill.

I am not sure how democrats thought a generation that is self-reliant and anti-institutional (Gen X) and a generation that needs to be included in the process (Gen Y) would react positively to Coakley’s approach.

Benjamin Franklin called it…

Customer insights, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

So how did Coakley fall out of alignment with voters?  Marketers know very well what happened; she let her customer data get stale. 

The Coakley campaign worked off the erroneous assumption that recent elections were an endorsement for democrats in perpetuity.  True, voters frustratingly reacted to years of republican rule that delivered poor results, but that was then, and today is different.  Turns out voters are disengaged and frustrated with all of Washington.  Her opponent paid attention to what the customer was saying and quickly crafted a message around their frustrations (good post on this concept at the Savvy B2B Marketing blog).

The power of the network

Having listened to customer concern and crafting a message around it, the Brown campaign then leveraged the same viral and social media marketing playbook that President Obama used to get elected: he galvanize his customer base to engage them in the process and then gave them the tools to promote his brand.  This included leveraging their own online community (Brown Brigade), effectively using existing social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc), and even launching a widget called the “voter bomb” which allowed voters to blast messages of support to their personal networks.

All of these tools represent how an organization can utilize Web 2.0 technologies to empower their customer base to become brand ambassadors and spread the word to their networks, on their terms.   The latter being as important as the former.

About the Author

Clint Poole is a Boston-based business-to-business marketing professional with experience developing marketing strategies for professional services and business services firms.

(ArticlesBase SC #1782520)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Brown vs. Coakley: a lesson in Generations and Marketing in the Networked Era

RSS feeds are the proverbial backbone of the Social Web. You can only benefit from the exposure in the many RSS feed directories on the Web if you have your own RSS feed to publish on it. The easiest way to have your own RSS feed is to start a blog.

But merely starting a blog is far from enough. Your blog needs to be optimized and your blog post content must be kept fresh, engaging, and integrated into your other social media tools.

Free and nearly free blogs can be started using tools available through WordPress.com, Blogger, or Typepad. You can also install a blog on your existing site with tools at WordPress.org.

2. Get Your Facebook On

A Facebook presence can consist of both a Facebook profile and a Facebook page. They are different things and it is very important to know which is which.

Facebook profiles are for individuals, not a business. A business can create a profile for a key representative of the business, but not for the business itself.

Always take time to optimize your Facebook profile by completing it as thoroughly as possible with content that contains key terms that are relevant to the individual as a representative of your business. Be sure to import your blog and all your other social tools into your Facebook feed.

The Facebook page is for your business. A page can be created for a service or product business, a local business, or for an actor/artist/musician/writer, you name it.

Your Facebook page is like all first impressions: you want it to represent your business effectively. Below is a list of a few Facebook applications to add to your page that can help make your impression a great one:

• Social RSS is an app that imports RSS feeds or blog entries
• MyFlickr imports photos and images from your Flickr account
• YouTube Box helps you add your video clips to your Facebook page
• ShopTab is a great app for selling your products, but it has a modest monthly fee
• Static FBML gets HTML code onto your page
• Causes enables donation acceptance for your nonprofit business

3. Professionals Get a LinkedIn Account

While Facebook is for social networking, LinkedIn is designed as more of a professional networking site. It is, therefore, an essential tool for business – especially for those businesses that do B2B.

Since your LinkedIn profile may be the first impression someone gets of your business, you need to take time to optimize it. Fill in every profile section using your edited content and best key terms.

It is a good practice to add applications that enhance your profile. A must-have is the BlogLink application for importing your blog entries. Another good tactic is to join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your business.

4. The Twitter Account

Small but powerful, Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows short entries of only 140 characters. Limited though it may be, it is a social networking tool that lets users interact with posts in “real-time.” It is an incredibly effective way to spread the word about events, products, and services, but you want to use it in addition to your regular blog, not as a substitute for it.

Tools like TweetDeck or HootSuite help keep your “tweets” fresh and plentiful. These tools let you post-date your tweets so you do not have to be in constant tweet mode. You can add several at one sitting and let the app post them at designated times. HootSuite also has an option for importing your blog posts as tweets.

Managing all of the people you are following can be problematic, but use Twitter lists to help minimize that issue.

5. A Flickr Account

The Flickr media community makes uploading and sharing your photos and other images very easy. It is a highly underrated social media tool. It is surprising to people how you can get such great exposure and enhanced search engine placement when you use Flickr wisely.

Per usual, the secret to good placement is consistent use of key terms in names, tags, and descriptions. When you add images to Flickr, rename your uploaded files so they include a few key terms that are relevant to the image and to your business. Be sure to include those same key terms for your tags and the image description.

Again, don’t forget to integrate your Flickr account with all your other social tools and be sure to add them as galleries to your Website or blog.

6. A YouTube Account

The power of viral video is undeniable. If your business makes use of video in any fashion, you have to get those videos on YouTube. Even if you don’t have videos of a product or a meeting or as a training tool, you can create a playlist of videos already on YouTube and reap the benefits of their popularity. Commenting on other videos can also glean benefits for your business.

And whether you have your own videos or have created playlists, you definitely want to import them into your other social sites or use them to embed a video gallery onto your blog or Website.

As in Flickr and any other image tool, you need to use your best key terms in file names, tags, and descriptions of the clips you add to these media communities.

Here is a presentation to help you initiate a realistic social media strategy for your business:

http://www.slideshare.net/deltina/social-media-and-web-20-fundamentals-webinar

Regardless of the tools you implement, remember: The Social Web is about interaction. Join or start a conversation whenever you can, today being as good a time as any.

Here’s to your success in the Social Web! Ready? Let’s do it.

About the Author

Deltina Hay is a Web developer, publisher, and author. Her book, A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization, can be found anywhere books are sold. Find out more about her social media Website and integration service here: http://www.PlumbSocial.com.

(ArticlesBase SC #1794667)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Six Essential Social Media Tools For Business Success

We all remember from Marketing 101 that the ability to measure the effectiveness of marketing activities as well as calculating ROI is imperative to a company’s go-to-market strategy. Although it is rather simple to measure ROI with most traditional marketing channels, such as print, radio, and even search marketing; it is much more difficult to measure ROI from social media marketing.

Social media measurement is one of the topics about which everyone has an opinion; however, people never seem to come to a consensus.

When it comes to ROI on a social media activity, it isn’t always measured by a direct sale. If a company tries to use social media strategies to directly sell products or services, they will most likely be disappointed with the result and the reaction of the company’s senior management will be that social media doesn’t help the company’s bottom line.
 
Different rules apply to measuring success as a result of social media than the success of a company that has sold products or services in the traditional way.

In the absence of any accepted metrics, businesses still need to be able to figure out whether a social media program is moving the needle, moving product, or otherwise making an impact. This greatly depends on the social media objectives of the company. Because these vary greatly based on the organization, it is impossible to agree upon standards. However, we can still measure ROI at the company level.

A company can have several reasons for wanting to employ a social media strategy. Any one of the strategies can be measured as an ROI. Your company may have a blog and may want to increase the number of people who subscribe to it. Maybe you want visitors to take part in a survey that will increase brand awareness. All of these social media activities are measurable and can demonstrate the success or failure of your business.

In most cases, if you are leveraging social media, you are driving traffic back to your website. Here are some general “engagement” metrics that you can monitor after visitors arrive at your website. Most of these metrics can be tracked by web analytics tools such as the free Google Analytics tool:

• Unique visitors
• Page views per visitor
• Time spent on site
• Total time spent per user
• Frequency of visits
• Depth of visits
• Conversions

There are several other elements that you can examine when measuring the success of your social media marketing efforts. Here’s a high-level view of “returns” that you can measure and to which you can assign goals:

Blogging:
• Number of subscribers
• Number of comments
• Number of links that posts receive

Twitter:
• Number of qualified followers (human follower, not bots)
• Number of retweets

Facebook/MySpace (and all other social networking sites):
• Number of fans/friends
• Number of comments per day/week/month
• Number of discussions started by fans

Brand Lift/Sentiment:
• More mentions of brands/products/services
• Increase positive sentiment
• Decrease negative sentiment 
 
Strengthening an individual’s reputation:
• Number of new network connections as a result of creating buzz around an individual, strengthening his/her reputation
• Positioning the individual as a subject matter expert (SME)
• The quality of the new connections
• Conversion of new connections to business partners and/or loyal clients

Videos/Photos:
• Number of subscribers/friends
• Number of views
• Number of comments
• Ratings

Forums/Message Boards:
• Number of new members
• Number of active members per month
• Number of posts per day
• Number of topics started per week

Conclusions
The final question that you need to ask yourself is: “How much are you investing in using social media to help your business succeed”? The investment most likely consists not only of the price of the software that you are using but also the amount of time that you and your staff are putting into this aspect of your business and the equipment that you need to buy to support the additional traffic that you generate from social media marketing. Remember that it is very important to include all of this in your strategy when you are determining whether the ROI is greater than all that you have invested in the social media strategy itself.

The key takeaway message, regardless of how your company chooses to measure engagement, is that you have a metric that measures success in mind before you begin. Without some sort of benchmark, it is not possible to determine your ROI.

About the Author

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications, a consulting company specializing in developing communication strategies for small businesses that require expertise in promoting a unique business voice and vision on the Internet.

(ArticlesBase SC #1794996)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Measuring Social Media Marketing Roi

Prediction 1: Get a Twitter Account
Well, it was said that Twitter was a “phenomenon that is set to take the world by storm” was accurate. What wasn’t really understood a year, just how the storm would affect us all!

Prediction 2: Create a Group and Fan Page on Facebook
This is mostly right with the emphasis on Fan Page rather than group.

Prediction 3: Groups and Networks
This one didn’t really pan out as well as the previous two. This could have been down to the emphasis on creating open networks than setting up specific groups.. but this will be with us in 2010

Prediction 4: Information Products
This one too, wasn’t as big as I had anticipated. But, will still be with us as people get to grips with how to make the most of their time, and knowledge to get the best returns on their efforts

Prediction 5: Google Applications
Well, with MaxWeb, the propriety social media training programme being delivered through Google Reader, this has certainly been a turning point in how we use these applications. Also, by using Google Alerts, you are better able to track who is saying what about you and your products and services. Perhaps, there is still more opportunities here as more people get online.

Prediction 6: Subjects, Titles, Headings
Well, as people’s lives become busier, the importance of standing out from the crowd and getting your email opened, pages ranked became a much talked about topic. But, it could change in 2010 particularly with search marketing…

And now with the 2010 predictions!

1. The iPhone dominates the smart phone handset in 2010 with the Apps store offering so much more for business owners. You can get your own apps icon written and offered through the Apple Store or from your website. And, please don’t think for one minute that this isn’t for you. Now is the time to consider how best to deliver excellent customer service… and an app could well help with this!

2. Being active on the internet ceases to be optional as people move from watching TV to being on the internet. There’s been a 2% swing in just two years. You have got to be where your market is looking and consuming.

3. Creating content remains hot! Both in terms of creating and managing resources. As people implement the 4 Cs – creating, capture, collect and categorise so they become second nature, their presence and market attraction become sticky with sales resulting

4. Search Marketing or Search Engine Optimisation falls from the essential tools for businesses in 2010. This is due to the algorithms used by the search engines become more sophisticated and can determine whether people like a page for its content than just whether a page is optimised for that content.

5. Video is used more and more
Even though we are still in a recession and video is expensive, it will be adopted more and more by businesses. Don’t limit your thinking by headshot videos as you see on current affairs programmes, there are lots of different ways to have video – screenshots, images to music, slideshow, screencasts to name four!

This is a volatile time in marketing, so the predictions for 2010 are limited to five. As it gives you the opportunity to embrace those elements untouched from 2009 and make headway with the hot topics for this year.

About the Author

Karen Purves is a well known marketer specialising in working with small business owners to effectively market their business. She has a Masters Degree in Marketing and 25 years experience. Her passion is marketing and making it work for others. Want to know more ways to have more clients? Discover how to use Twitter for marketing with a *free report* at http://havemoreclients.com

(ArticlesBase SC #1798201)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Marketing Must Dos For 2010

I hear from a lot of people that they are on social media sites, but are not sure what to do beyond signing up. Or, they are on them, and say they feel they are connecting, but upon further discussion it’s revealed that they really aren’t.

It’s more than just collecting friends and followers.

People say they have thousands of contacts, friends or followers as if it’s a marketing strategy! It’s a start-but it’s conversations with those connections that lead to results.

For example, I have gotten all of my clients through social media in the past 6 months, had over 250 people register for my last teleseminar, grew my number of Facebook Fans from 350 people in less than a week and just recently increased my blog subscribers to nearly 1100 people.

I tell you this not to toot my own horn, but to impress upon you that these results are because of the fact that I actively participate in social media. Just as you can’t expect to throw up a website and see sales just come rolling in, you can’t just collect friends and expect miracles. You need to engage people in conversation.

The key is not to expect immediate results nor feel you need to spend a ton of time on social media in order to make any progress. Choosing a handful of strategies where you are actually connecting with people and implementing them on a regular basis won’t take a ton of time or energy.

What it will do is build momentum gradually but steadily. This is what leads to relationships, word of mouth, traffic, subscribers and ultimately, more sales.

About the Author

Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com, teaches small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. For FREE tips on how to build profitable relationships, leverage technology and create your own successful online business, visit http://CommunicateValue.com

(ArticlesBase SC #1798554)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Are You Connecting–Or Just Broadcasting?

Much like the headquarters of an offline company, your website acts as the headquarters and hub for your online business. Not only visitors, but all transactions and everything related to your online business goes through your website. In order to get the most from your site, it is important to follow the best practices for website design.

Make sure you have clear and simple navigation on your website. Navigation menus should be uncluttered, easy to maneuver and understand, and should be free of excess text or Flash.

It is best to limit the use of images on your website. Superflous images on your website may cause your site to load slowly and become an annoyance for visitors. Visitors on slower modems will be especially frustrated if you are using large images that take up a lot of bandwidth. In website design, it is a best practice to reduce anything that detracts from the content of your site, and too many images on your website can be a distraction.

Keep each paragraph of text at a reasonable length. Paragraphs with too much text are difficult to read, and your visitors may feel as though they are not progressing through your website. The best practice is to keep short, well formed paragraphs that are to the point and devoid of excess information.

Your website should also comply to the web standards at www.w3.org, and should always be cross-browser compatible. During your website design, make sure to test your website on as many different browsers as you have available. Some web browsers read code differently, and this can cause an unnecessary inconvenience for the visitor. Just because your site looks great on Internet Explorer does not mean it will look as good on Firefox or Opera.

Avoid using any scripting languages unless there is a specific reason to do so. Scripting languages can cause several problems, including problems loading on some computers. Heavy scripting is not always supported across browsers. Scripting can also create a more hectic experience, since visual effects can be both distracting and a burden on loading time. It is a best practice for website design to stay away from any programming that may cause any problems to your visitors.

Finally, it is a good idea to use a CSS to style your page. This saves you time and effort because it will style your entire site at once, rather than you having to type in the coding for each paragraph. It also ensures that the website is kept simple, clean, and consistent, which creates a better user experience.

Submitting articles to market your website isn’t brain surgery, but there are a few things you should know that will save you time and impact your success.

Here are 5 principles of a successful article marketing campaign:

PRINCIPLE #1: Submit articles consistently.

If there is one ‘make or break’ key to article marketing success, it is CONSISTENCY.

You don’t have to be technically minded to market your website on the internet–if you will simply write on the topic of your website and submit articles each and every month on an ongoing basis, you will have an advantage over the most SEO savvy website owner who only submits articles intermittently.

Submit articles every month for the lifetime of your website, and you will see results.

PRINCIPLE #2: Quality is paramount.

Here are some elements of a quality article:

=> A quality article is on some aspect of your niche.

=> A quality article is well-written, free of grammar and spelling errors.

=> A quality article is educational and offers helpful information to your target market

=> A quality article is ideally timeless.

You don’t have to be the best writer in the world, but your articles should be thoughtfully written and easy to read.

A quality article will be more attractive to publishers and readers, and it will be picked up for publication more often. The more times your article is republished, the more backlinks you build and the more exposure your article and your website receive.

A quality article will continue to reap rewards well after it is initially published.

PRINCIPLE #3: Build your list by linking to a squeeze page.

Article marketing is a great way to build your list (your list of subscribers to your newsletter). In your resource box, just link to a page on your site that offers a free report, e-book, newsletter or some other valuable gift that your readers will want. Readers will sign up to receive the gift, and you will build your list. It’s a win-win situation!

PRINCIPLE #4: Multi-task your web content.

Here are some ideas for re-purposing content you’ve written:

=> Make good use of your time and effort by re-purposing articles into an e-book that you can offer in your resource box.

=> Rework blog content to submit as articles.

=> Break an e-book into bite sized chunks and turn into articles.

=> Take a PDF you offer on your website and break it into articles.

=> Look over the info on your website with an eye for article worthy topics.

You probably have tons of content right under your nose, and with minimal effort you can re-purpose it to suit your article marketing campaign.

PRINCIPLE #5: Change your keywords.

This is an extremely important principle: Develop a long list of keywords (anywhere from 10-30 or more) including long tail keywords, and take turns targeting them in your articles.

Do not target one keyword every time–if you do, then it could appear to Google that you’re trying to manipulate their rankings, and that’s not what you want.

Instead, work from a large list of keywords and switch things up regularly.

ACTION STEPS:

Some of these principles are more advanced than others. If you’re just getting started this is what you should do:

=> Your first job is to start writing quality articles. Set a goal for yourself of the number of articles you’ll write, and then get into the habit of writing.

=> Submit articles each month.

If you will simply do those 2 things (and do them consistently!) you will be off to an excellent start. The more you write and submit articles, your skills will naturally improve. Article marketing is something that anyone can do–just write, review, and submit!

SEO can be a very long and complicated process involving technical audits, keyword research, website changes, copyrighting sessions, and lots of link building efforts.

If you have found a new keyword through online research or have simply added new content to your website, you can take a few immediate steps to win a initial ranking on Google.

So, if you want to target one keyword phrase and improve your ranking for a single keyword phrase, here are three immediate ways to improve search engine optimization rankings for a keyword phrase:

1. Find the right URL for your SEO keyword phrase targeting. Assuming you are going to drive most of your traffic from Google, let’s start by identifying the URL that Google currently thinks is the best match for your keyword target. You can do this by doing a site:yourdomain.com search on Google while adding your target keyword phrase. (i.e. site:www.marketverticalpartners.com “link building”)

2. Now that you have a website URL that seems to be a good fit for your search engine optimization steps (or you can pick a better one if you don’t like what Google found), you can start by doing some SEO optimization on your Page Title for your selected keyword phrase.

We recommend that the target keyword phrase be placed at the beginning of the Page Title. Many SEO experts feel that Page Titles are the #1 most important SEO factor in winning top rankings via organic SEO optimization. Send a quick email website change request to your webmaster if you aren’t familiar with HTML.

3. Use Link Building to Promote the URL. Now that you have the URL Page Title optimized, you need to promote this URL using the keyword phrase in the anchor text of both internal and external links.

Find relevant places on your own website to place keyword optimized links as well as build links externally through your social network, online PR channel, and other link building strategies. If possible, place a link on your home page or a page that is part of the top level navition of the website.

The difficulty and competitiveness of the top rankings on Google will determine how much online promotion and link building is needed to win a Top 10 ranking.

By following these basic steps for SEO, you should see an ranking improvement if you monitor your SEO ranking before and after these 3 immediate steps to target a keyword phrase.

Do you want to market your business for fractions of a penny per message?

Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to your small business. You can achieve outstanding results with email marketing, while investing only a small amount of time and money. Combine that with the potential to target more precisely than direct mailings, that’s a real win for the small business owner.

In tough economic times, it is crucial to continue marketing your business, and maximize the marketing dollars you’re spending. Email marketing is a perfect way to keep your business in front of your customers’ and prospects eyes!

Sometimes, people unfamiliar with email marketing get nervous about it because the first thing they think about is spam, or they’ve heard that most people don’t open their email, right?

Wrong.

Targeted mailings that pique interest result in high email open rates, and an opportunity to build relationships with your customers and make some sales. As for the spam issue, mailing only to people who have given you permission to do so minimizes the risk of being labeled a “spammer”. Using myself as an example, I have mailed thousands of emails to my clients, and prospective clients, and have not had one spam complaint.

Following is a list of five reasons you must start email marketing now!

1. Email marketing is inexpensive.

Email marketing is an affordable way to stretch a tight marketing budget. Unlike direct mail, there is virtually no production, materials or postage expense. Email marketing can cost as little as fractions of a penny per email.

The expenses involved in email marketing involve having a hosted website with email capacity. You may also want to consider subscribing to a list management service, such as Constant Contact or aWeber, to help manage your email campaigns. The fees for this service range from about $15 to $20 per month, which includes unlimited emails.

2. Email marketing is highly targeted.

You can easily segment your email database into different groups, so that your promotions go to individuals most likely to respond to your offer. For example, you may send one offer to existing clients, and send a different one to prospects who’ve expressed interest in your products or services.

3. Email marketing is proactive.

Email marketing enables you to proactively communicate with your existing customers and prospects, instead of passively waiting for them to return to your website or storefront.

It is a highly effective way to communicate promotional offers, news, seminars, which may result in an increase in sales, drive traffic to your website or store, and develop customer trust and loyalty through relationship building.

Sending out a monthly email campaign will keep your business in front of your customers’ and prospects eyes.

4. Email marketing generates an immediate response.

Promotional emails include a call to action that can result in immediate responses. Initial campaign responses generally occur within 48 hours of the time the email campaign is sent; testing and refining your campaigns is immediate. If you use a list management service, you can gauge the open rates of your email campaigns, which provides useful and immediate information you can use to tweak your campaign messages.

5. Email marketing is easy.

The Web-based email marketing products available to small businesses are easy to use. The services available through Constant Contact and aWeber, as well as others, include professional HTML templates, list segmentation and targeting capabilities, as well as automatic tracking and reporting of your email campaign effectiveness, such as for open rates, bounces, and spam reports.

If you’re not a “techie”, have no fear. You don’t need a Webmaster or technical person on staff to handle the development and distribution of your email campaigns.

Email marketing works because it allows precise targeting of your marketing message, it builds loyalty and trust with your customers, it is inexpensive, and best of all, it drives sales. Include email marketing in your arsenal of marketing tools!

Copyright 2008, Bonita L. Richter

Why Brand in social media?

You probably have asked this question before.

Or maybe twice.

I know I did several years ago-until the “light went on” and I discovered some things that proved to be worth millions in business.

But just what IS branding in social media and how do you participate in it?

Branding is a marketing technique, strategy, method, or action that has the massive potential to elevate your online and social media business to the top. It involves helping your customers every time they think of you to form a recognizable association -mental , emotional, or other-with you.

What can you do to make that happen?

Link your business with a powerful and unique design, logo, slogan, and/or color and observe the positive results and imaging that starts to take place in people’s minds.

It is critical that you take the brnading efforts to a new level and understand that there are 3 things that people look for in branding:

1) What they are FEELING.

Branding is all about emotion and feelings when it comes down to it. Either it feels RIGHT, or it does not. And if it does not, then your brand will be extinct before too long.

2) What people are SEEING on the video screen in their mind.

What picture does the prospect SEE in their mind when they think of your brand? What emotions does that elicit? Is it a picture that you want them to see?

3) What are they EXPECTING.

What is the prospect EXPECTING to happen or experience with your brand? This is critical because your brand must be consistent as well as credible.

Brands create a feeling of recognition, remembrance, and familiarity.

If customers have seen your logo or meme, insignia, or company name, they are more likely to continue to consistently select your product or service. Also, they are more apt to refer and suggest them to others. Referrals through word of mouth can be an extremely powerful form of advertising and it can build your brand and accelerate it.

A brand helps possible customers remember your business as well as the emotions surrounding it. (Nike). People may know little about your life and business philosophy or reputation. However, if they can recognize your brand, the chances are greater that they will do business with you.

Branding creates memory in the mind of the public. we call it “Memory magnet.” Your brand must draw people towards you and your message and product every time they think of it.

When the public remembers your brand and familiarizes themselves and others with it, they will come back. Customers are more likely to remain devoted to your business and are apt to buy further products or services from you based on the brand of the initial product with which they had success.

This called building a book of business you can count on.

People are willing to pay more for products or services that they highly regard. This means that customers are likely to pass up cheaper prices with competitors if your brand has made a positive impression on them. If clients believe in your product, they will pay for it.

That is why you need to brand yourself as the “Premier Provider” in your niche and market, so you can charge what your brand is really worth.

When you have distinguished and set yourself and your business apart through branding, the marketing has the capability of becoming so profound, that little else is necessary. Developing your brand takes time and effort, but after it has been solidified, and after customers have had the chance to identify with it, your sales can increase naturally. You won’t have to spend as much time planning marketing strategies to attract the public in your social media marketing strategies

blessings…doug firebaugh

http://www.socialmediablogster.com

About the Author:
Doug Firebaugh is one of the top MLM Network Marketing Trainers in the world. Over a million people a month read his training ezine. You can receive a FREE subscription to his training ezine- The MLM Success HEAT- at: http://www.passionfire.com/pf_heat_4.html http://www.passionfire.com