By Janette Speyer and Alison Brown, Web Success Team
So long are the days of a Facebook that is free of advertisements. As Facebook gears up for becoming a public company, advertisement opportunities will only become more abundant. Since social media marketing is clearly becoming the frontrunner for being the most effective tool for reaching targeted audiences online, Facebook has not shied away from incorporating more engaging marketing opportunities. Facebook only recently entered the online marketing realm when it started offering third-party sponsored advertisements several years ago. Then just a couple weeks ago, transitioned towards including advertisements on more pages, such as when you click on Facebook pictures, a page pops out with additional advertisements in the bottom right corner. But now even more recently, Facebook has started to roll out an additional feature that takes consumer engagement to an entirely new level, and it’s called the “Facebook Offer”.
By Janette Speyer and Alison Brown, Web Success Team
Online marketing can help a variety of companies target the right audience and increase your customer base. This is especially true for the highly competitive fitness industry. When choosing a vitamin brand or a gym, most people like to look at reviews online or go with a recommendation from a friend. Not many people just walk up to a gym and sign up without knowing much about it. This is where social media and online marketing can really affect the success of a business.
New Social Health Sites
One new social media site, cafewell.com is primarily dedicated to health and fitness. Their tag line is “the social network to get well and stay well.” It offers a variety of services from allowing people to get health advice, find out information about medications or talk to others about diseases and health concerns. It’s a great tool for people who want to learn more about specific health related issues and don’t have the means to receive support elsewhere. One study found that social media health sites have also helped people keep their new years resolutions at involve a healthy workout regimen. They can get support and encouragement from online communities so that they feel more motivated to reach their goals.
Workout Promotions
In some instances, the traditional late-night infomercial can still get you a fair amount of business for your fitness company, however, your target audience is probably not going to be awake watching television at one o’clock in the morning on a Wednesday night. A more sustainable approach will also incorporate online marketing and social engagement. The more engaged you can get your current clients online to write testimonials or reviews, the better your chances for success. People can then see that your product has worked and provided people with visible results.
Reviews Sell!
If you are in the fitness and health world and your company is not on Yelp, you should make a page now! Online reviews speak volumes for people looking to join a new gym or try a new brand of vitamins. With so many options to choose from, people want to hear from other people first hand about their experience. If your company has an average 4.5 star review on Yelp, people are automatically going to pick your gym over a 3 star one, perhaps even without reading any of the reviews. Joining a gym can be a pretty hefty monetary commitment, and people want to know if the machines work well, if it’s really crowded and if it’s kept clean. You can only find out these things from friends, or through online reviews.
Visual Marketing through Social Media
The website Pinterest has been recently making the news everywhere. There is a great opportunity here for brand promotion, especially in regards to health and fitness. People can “pin,” or share various workout routines, and sometimes they go viral. Make a company Pinterest page and start sharing workout tips, diet advice or healthy meal options and people will start sharing and promoting your brand for you if you post interesting and creative material. Think of it as the visual version of Twitter, geared towards food, health and creativity. It’s a great website that has been really taking off in recent months, so it’s worth taking the time to look at.
Online Marketing Has a Great ROI
Online marketing definitely works well for companies who want to increase their visibility online, increase their client base, while doing so at a relatively low cost. Creating promotions for television or print advertisements can get really costly, and with so many people using the Internet for hours a day, it makes sense that this is the best medium for promoting your brand. Facebook is a great platform to promote your business and develop a community of fans or “likes”. It’s well worth the nominal investment to have a social media marketer develop a promotional page and help draw new customers to the page. If people really love your product or your service, you may be surprised at how many people you can get involved online with even just a little bit of online promotion. Best of all, they will tell their friends, adding a viral component to your promotion.
By Janette Speyer and Alison Brown, Web Success Team
Who doesn’t love food? Everyone has his or her weakness, whether it’s sweet or savory, we all have that one food that we crave. Some researchers think that cravings in adulthood are based on early childhood experiences, and that even the healthiest, fittest people have something that makes their mouth water. Not only does food spark a sense of nostalgia, but it can also bring about a sense of community. No matter what your cultural background, people can always find common ground when it comes to food.
Social Media Marketing is a human science. Because it is relationship driven, it is the perfect environment for change. However, one constant in social media is using a systematic methodology to increase your effectiveness.
The Web Success Team utilizes a proven formula for engagement that involves what we call the Five Phases of Social Media Marketing.
By Janette Speyer and Alison Brown, Web Success Tea
Relationship marketing is the new wave of social media marketing that engages people on a deeper level than ever before. It attempts to forge a relationship between a brand and a consumer so that the customer feels a personal connection to a product. Marketers do this by making people feel included in the evolution of the brand by allowing people to interact online either by voting, participating in conversations, or by rating their favorite products. This powerful type of marketing is becoming the focus of a lot of campaigns because not only it is it effective, but the emphasis is on building trust and having an open communication with consumers, which eventually become loyal customers.
By Janette Speyer and Alison Brown, Web Success Team
Ever feel like you have a case of the blues and nothing can make you feel better? Well according to several recent studies, researchers have found that social media use can in fact elevate your mood. Whether it’s positive reinforcement from friends, the number of “likes” you get on a particular status update, or even just being able to chat online with friends you may not talk to often, Facebook and other social media platforms have proven to have an overall positive effect on the human psyche.
Some people watch the Super Bowl each year for the football, while others watch solely for the commercials. This year’s Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots was exceptionally exciting, giving us both a close game and some of the best commercials yet. With the help of social media and online marketing, the quality of Super Bowl commercials has been steadily improving over the years by incorporating a lot more creativity, innovation and engagement. While some commercials were more memorable than others, this recap touches on some of the most mesmerizing, humorous and provocative advertisements yet.
If you’ve been reading the news lately, you’ve probably already heard that Facebook has announced that it’s going public and has filed an initial public offering (IPO) for $5 billion. For those of us not familiar with the financial sector, that means that Facebook is will be seeking to get $5 billion from investors. While it’s not surprising that Facebook made this move, what will be interesting is how this will impact the company as a whole, as well as the rest of the social media and online marketing world.
