Tag Archives: Strategy

Social Networks

Social Media Etiquette – SMetiquette

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While watching tweets come up on Twhirl to my desktop I started thinking about the appropriate use of social media when it comes to the information agreement with those that follow you. I suppose it would be called SMetiquette.

When you are working on gathering followers on Twitter or subscribers to your RSS or to any other form of social media that you produce then it might be time to make sure that your voice and tone are in line with the expectations of your groupies. If you take a look at the language used by some smaller organizations in comparison to that used by organizations such as: @Thehomedepot, @wholefoods or @meritagehomes, you’ll notice a vast difference. The kind of language that kids tend to use on their Myspace pages would be comparable to that used by smaller organizations while larger more professional organizations tend to stay more professional and predictable.

Who’s at the helm? this may be one of the determining factors that truly exemplifies the reason behind this difference. At larger organizations those responsible for dealing with the public are usually PR people. The smaller companies either have their founder or someone with some interest in social media. They haven’t approached the possible implications of this choice with as much attention as they should.

A few ideas for your strategy:

  1. Play to the expectations of your followers – Don’t send/post something that is out of line with your typical information unless your typical information is out of line.
  2. Frequency is a careful balance – Posting/tweeting too often can be a bad thing. If you don’t have enough activity people lose interest.
  3. Personality is key – Your personality should show through so that your organization looks like a person and less like a cold faceless company.
  4. Monitor interactions – Make sure that you have enough people to take care of the interactions.
Business, Demand Generation

Online Attitudes Change in a Down Economy

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So should you’re online marketing. If you think that online percetions of brands and products don’t change then you haven’t been working in this space long. If you think about your online marketing for a moment and the amount of information that you are continually taking in and trying to optimize for then you can get a good picture of the pace at which the online marketing landscape changes. If stop and blink your target has moved and you need to recalculate where and when to get it back.

When the market takes a downturn and perhaps your specific vertical people start to change how they approach their decision making process. The typical consumer begins to act with less emotion and more with the facts and figures opf what the purchase will mean to their bottom line. With the contraction of the economy the pockets of the consumer have less disposable income. They tend to take longer in their purchase process. The emotions that they felt before when they thought about the status or imagining their family with a particular product and how they saw their family using that product will change to less of an enjoyment factor and more of a need factor.

What to do? Start thinking about why someone would need your product or service. Make sure that your online marketing states these reasons as quickly and most concisely as possible. You are used to pointing out the promotion or benefit but make sure that you pay attention to the true need.

If your product or service is not a need, it may be time to reach a new segment. Find the segment that still has disposable income and reach them. This can be done by more closely picking the placement on sites and sections of sites or perhaps the more segmented use of ad networks.