Reasons Why a Business Should Consider Using Pinterest.

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Pinterest is a social networking website that allows you to organize and share ideas to something called virtual pinboarding.

When you find something interesting on the web, you can pin it using Pinterest and then organize your thoughts into individual pinboards based on categories that you select.

People are using Pinterest for all kinds of interesting things, like planning weddings, decorating their homes or even sharing their favorite recipes.

The possibilities literally are endless!

Here are the reasons on why your business should highly consider using Pinterest.

It Helps You Increase Your Brand Authority

To help position yourself as an authority in your field, share from a carefully vetted combination of sources to ensure your boards contain the most accurate and useful information available.

You Will Expand Your Reach

Use Group Boards and collaborate with popular pinners who have a large following to expose your brand and content to more people.

It Helps You Drive Traffic to Your Site

Pinterest users first have to be attracted to your pins and repin them to their boards.

You Will Have Access to a Variety of Pinterest Resources

No other social network offers as many free or low-cost, third-party resources as Pinterest does!

Offers the Ability to Command the Power of Images – and Words

You have the ability to command the power of words. Yet most people are so busy posting beautiful images on Pinterest, they forget that words still carry enormous weight.

Endows the Ability to Pin Related Content from Other Pinners to Your Board

On Pinterest you can use other peoples’ pins to stand with and add value to your own in a highly focused, controlled package.

Offers the Ability to Connect Pinterest to your Facebook Page

If pinning is part of your business strategy, this is an opportunity you shouldn’t ignore!

Pinterest Offers the Opportunity to Sell

E-commerce site such as Sellpin allows you to create a pin-to-pin “shop” for your goods for sale.

You Can Present and Share Video on Pinterest

The ability to share videos on Pinterest extends you many creative uses besides mere entertainment.

You Can Create Highly Targeted Marketing Opportunities

– By using Pinterest, you can create highly targeted marketing opportunities while making strong statements.

Undoubtedly, Pinterest is a great  Social Media tool for your Online Business Success.

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Does Social Media Work? Track It and Find Out!

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Looking back at 2011, it’s easy to see that nothing has business owners more discombobulated than social media. Whether its Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, or any of the hundreds of others that seem to pop up almost daily, the question is the same – does it work?

People take strong opinions on both sides of the issue. Some people say that it absolutely does not work. In fact, they go on to say it’s a fad and will soon fizzle out. Some people even go on to say it’s a total waste of time.

On the other hand, people are claiming to have huge success with social media. They claim to have grown their brand awareness, increased their customer base, and even made significant sales. In many cases, entire companies have been built using only social media. And this isn’t just the big companies. It’s the everyday local small businesses.

Benefits of Social Media

By now, there is no question. The jury is in on whether or not social media works to help grow your business. It does. So many companies have already had so much success that by now, you really have to stick your head in the sand to say it doesn’t work.

But here’s the big caveat – it must be used correctly. Obviously the platform you choose to use must line up with your business and your customers.

The clearly evident benefits of social media include growing your brand awareness and connecting with your customer base where they already hang out. It gives you a way to reach out in a format that they’re comfortable with.

For example, maybe you’re happy as a clam getting on the phone but your customer would rather send you a direct message on Twitter. It’s not what you like, it’s what your customer likes.

Following brand awareness and customer connection leads to increased revenue. By using contests, giveaways, coupons, and generally supplying good information, and more, it’s easy to watch the bottom line get bigger.

Now, for everyone that still wants to ignore the companies already using social media successfully, no amount of talk is going to convince you. There’s a solution for that.

Why Not Track It and Find Out!

Take away any confusion by testing social media in your business by tracking it! Before dismissing it and saying it just won’t work for you, give it a try.

For example, you can implement something as simple as a company YouTube channel. Load up some great videos and start utilizing them to act as sales agents for you. Make sure your videos have a clear call to action and drive traffic to your website.

Now comes the best part for the unbelievers.

Insert your own Google Analytics code on your website and start tracking the results. You can see with your own two eyes where all of your web traffic is coming from. This includes any social media platforms that you’re experimenting with!

It’s obvious, right? If you do even one thing differently and you get increased traffic to your website or your phone starts ringing more, something worked right? Why not take the same scientific approach to social media?

Try It. Test It. Track It.

Tweak what’s working and what isn’t. If your $500 a month in yellow page ads isn’t working anymore, why not try something new? Again, it doesn’t have to be a guessing game. There are very real ways you can track the results of a social media campaign.

It’s simple marketing: in order to grow, you need to place your message in front of the right people at the right time in the right medium. Your customers are online. They’re using social media networks. You need to also be there. And now you can actually track it to see that it’s working!

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8 Powerful Marketing Benefits of YouTube

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People go to the internet for a number of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is because they want to find information that will help them solve a problem. Google has made a fortune by providing links to information they think would help.

But guess what? YouTube has now become the second largest search engine after Google. What does that mean? It means that people are going to YouTube not only to find answers to their problems but to see them. Instead of reading the information, they would rather watch it.

What does that mean to you? In a nutshell, if you have a business, you have to have a presence on YouTube! There are some amazing benefits to doing so. Here are eight powerful reasons:

1.       It’s Free – Besides your investment of time, making and uploading videos is completely free to do you YouTube! Are the Yellow Pages free? No! Is a billboard free? No! But YouTube is.

2. Content is Powerful – In the online world, content is king and that would make video content the king of kings. Like I mentioned before, people would much rather watch something than read something – especially online.

3.       Potentially Viral – If your video is creative or funny or informational enough, it has the potential to go viral. That means that potentially thousands of other people will be sharing your video with their people. That’s exposure to your business to an infinite amount of people.

4.       Global and Local Audience – Based on the key words you use, your video has the potential to be seen around the world. This means you could have new clients or customers overseas! Have a local business? Not to worry. You can target local searches as well and become the go-to person in your region.

5.       Demonstrate Your Expertise – By giving away great tips, you will literally show your viewers that you know what you’re talking about. For many potential clients or customers, it often comes down to choosing between two businesses. Your business is going to stand out if you have a video showing them why you’re good.

6.       Selling for You 24/7 – Making a video is like creating a virtual sales person. You make the video once, load it up, and then let your video sales person go to work for you around the clock. Every new video you make is another full time sales person. There’s no limit to what you could do!

7.       Give Them a Face – Having a video gives the potential client a face. It shows them you’re really a nice person that knows what you’re talking about and how you can help them. Camera shy? No problem! You can make a powerpoint video and still show your stuff. Just be sure to give your viewers a head shot in your intro.

8.       Video is SEO Friendly – This is a big one. When someone searches for something online, very often a video will come up in one of the top spots in the organic search. If this is your video, this is huge because it stands out above the other links. It then carries with it all of the above listed benefits.

With all of these benefits the question is, why wouldn’t you do YouTube marketing? Of course if you need help getting kick started in your video marketing efforts, we know some great people who can help you!

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Social Media Manager: to Outsource or to Hire?

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It’s obvious now that every company needs to implement a solid social media campaign. The big question is: should you outsource your social media needs or hire someone to do it? Maybe it’s easiest if we set a few ground rules first and then decide.

First, you have to have someone who knows what they’re doing.

Sounds pretty obvious right? Well you’d be surprised at the number of companies who are trying to get their secretaries to do it. Or worse yet, hiring a college kid because he/she says they know their way around Facebook.

Having someone who has experience in marketing and communications (especially online communications) for companies is a requisite. Sure Facebook is new, but company branding isn’t.

Second, you have to have someone who is a real professional.

What does this mean? It means that due to the online and conversational nature of social media, it’s easy to spend hours on Twitter without accomplishing anything! You want someone who is going to be focused and get you the information you want, grow the relationships you need, and share the content that will bring in new business. Bottom line, you want someone who is going to get you results.

Third, you have to have someone who is a good communicator.

Again, this seems like another obvious one but there’s more to it than you think. Communicating via social media on behalf of your company requires a special finesse. It’s not just another place to pitch your business. It’s a place to develop relationships through engaging conversation not selling.

Keep in mind also that it is conversation! It’s not a place to spew out industry jargon that nobody uses in real life. Contrary to what your English literature professor would have you believe, people think and read in spurts. They like information fast. Nouns, verbs, and the little things in between to put it all together. That’s it.

To outsource or to hire?

With the ground rules established, let’s get on to the question at hand. To answer the question you need to ask yourself a few more questions. If you were to hire an employee, do you have someone that knows enough about social media to supervise them? If not, how will they be accountable? How will you track their progress? Will you put them on some sort of incentive program? If not, how will you ensure that the hours you’re paying them won’t be whittled away Facebooking all day?

These are all things to seriously consider because when hiring any employee (especially these days) is a big investment and you want to make sure it’s the right thing to do.

Maybe it’s helpful to analyze some of the advantages of a contracted social media firm (SMF) over an employee.

  • First, an employee often requires, or at least hopes for, benefits. At a minimum they require a place to work including equipment like computer, desk, phone and all the other overhead you’re bound to supply as an employer. This is a big advantage of an SMF as they are their own business already and have the equipment and do not expect benefits from you.
  • Closely related to overhead and the actual cost of an employee (not just their salary), and this is a big one in this economy, is unemployment. Should things go bad, an employee can collect unemployment costing your organization more money. An SMF can’t collect unemployment as a result of being contracted by you. A contract is a contract and once it’s over that’s it.
  • Another advantage of an SMF over an employee is that their business depends on the quality of their work and the results you pay them to get. Why? Because nothing builds a business better than quality results. If an SMF does well, you’re more likely to tell your fellow business owners about them. Employees may have some initiative but generally speaking, they lack the drive a consultant does. An employee gets paid to work. An SMF gets paid to get results.
  • Another advantage of an SMF over an employee is in the numbers. Often an SMF is made up of numerous social media gurus with varying backgrounds. This means more people putting their heads together on how to make the most of your social media efforts. That’s just not something you get with a single employee.
  • How about some more numbers? What’s the cost difference? Across the nation, the average salary for a social media manager ranges from $32K to $58K (according to Payscale.com). That breaks down to $2,666 to $4,833 a month. That’s just salary. That’s not including the additional costs of benefits, taxes, overhead, etc.

Contrast that to a quality SMF whose prices range from $500 to $2,500 a month. Even at the high end, you’re still paying substantially less for a contracted SMF with all costs considered. Now add the fact that a quality SMF has a professional background with expertise in marketing, communications, and branding your company online.

Hopefully this helps you to see the benefits of a social media firm and how it could help your business. The cost comparison alone should be reason enough to persuade you! Why pay more and get less?

When you’re ready to hire a social media firm, we know just the right people!  Check out our packages and give us a call and see what would work best for you!

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Social Media Manager: Do You Need One?

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One of the hottest jobs right now is the role of a social media manager. Small and large businesses alike are busy hiring like mad because of the apparent need to get on the social media bandwagon. The question is: are they justified in doing so?

The simple answer is yes, yes, and yes! Let me explain. For the sake of this article, let’s assume the social media manager you hire is competent and is actually going to do what you hire them to do.

Now, what does a social media manager even do anyway?

Well first of all, the term social media means more than just Facebook and Twitter. A lot more. The term really extends to anything where user generated content is concerned. This includes social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter to be sure but it also includes forums, wiki’s, blogs, social bookmarking sites, and basically any web space that allows anyone to add their thoughts. This includes sites such as Amazon.com and BestBuy.com that allow user reviews.

So, if you have a social media manager, he or she is not only posting your latest status updates, he/she is also tracking your brand online, monitoring your industry, and making sure your content (possibly even created by them) is getting distributed across the internet. It’s a lot of work and it takes a lot of skill.

And that leads me to the next point…

A good social media manager knows how to position your business

Social media isn’t about pitching your products or services. A good social media manager knows that it’s all about conversation and creating a company culture. Social media just isn’t set up for old fashioned ad campaigns. A business must add value first. That’s just how it works in the new online climate. Add value, solve someone’s problems, make life more inspired or happy or funny and your company will enjoy a natural viral effect compounded by the infinite nature of the internet.

A social media manager acts as a communication portal

With the internet, every aspect of a company is tied somehow to what’s happening online. Let me give you an example. Let’s say you recently had a bad product go out. It was a total accident but now people tweeting not to buy your stuff. How are you going to manage this? Do you even know about it? Maybe you don’t but for some reason your sales are drastically dropping and you don’t know why. This is a very feasible scenario. Even worse, what if someone made a video about your product or service saying some less than friendly things and it went viral. That could really hurt you. The question is, without someone managing your social media, how would you even know any of this until it was too late?

A social media manager can act as the go-between with your customer service. But it doesn’t stop there. They will also interact with your operations, sales, and especially marketing.

People are talking about you and your company online whether you’re listening or not. You might as well be listening. A social media manager will act as your digital eyes and ears and report back to you.

These are all things a social media manager would spend his/her time doing for you. Yes, every company needs at least one social media manager. Now, the question is, do you really want to bring one in-house or contract a social media firm? See what we think here.  Social Media Manager: Outsource or In-house?

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Video: Social Media is Real

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This is a fascinating video to watch about the impact of social media. The numbers sound far-fetched but are actually backed up by real studies.

Check it out:

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10 Facts You Should Know About Social Media and Your Business

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Here’s the breakdown of 10 things you must know about social media and your business.

1.    More people are online than ever before. If Facebook were a country it would outnumber the United States. Is your business where the people are?
2.    Tight marketing budget? Most social media platforms are generally free (besides your investment in time). Social media is highly successful while remaining extremely cost effective.
3.    When you share something online, it’s potentially viewable forever. And because it’s online, you have a potentially limitless source of viewers. Millions of people could see your expertise today and even years from now. Can your ad in the yellow pages do that?
4.    Your online presence and search engine optimization will grow organically. More links to your website means more quality traffic and that means more business for you.
5.    Social media acts a bridge between your business and your customers. You can find out, in real time, what’s trending and what’s being said. That’s business intelligence that no other source provides so immediately, so effectively, and so inexpensively.
6.    You can target any group or market you wish. You decide exactly who sees your message and when. Can your mass mailings do that?
7.    Social media is permission marketing which means people want to hear from you and share your product or service. Contrast that to an overpriced billboard along the road.
8.    Through social media you can build an army of loyal customers and clients who will in turn spread your message virally. The word of mouth marketing that comes from this sharing means massive growth for your business.
9.    People want solutions to their problems and as you share your best information online, they will come to you for more. Not only that, they’ll tell everyone they know where they got help.
10.    You can add a personal touch to your business with social media. People are done with corporations and lack of customer service. People will buy from you because they feel like they know you and that you understand their needs.

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5 Attributes of an Awesome Social Media Manager

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Everything that makes up an awesome social media manager can be summed up in two words: great communicator. But let’s take a look at how that breaks down.

  1. Great writer. First and foremost a skilled social media manager must know how to write. This includes proper grammar and spelling but English Literature majors need not apply. Writing for an online audience is very different than writing a thesis for your professor. Writing online means writing how people really talk. It’s conversational. It’s real.
  2. Great listener. Being able to monitor what’s happening in an online conversation and respond accordingly is super important. A good social media manager knows how to follow and lead a conversation based on what’s being shared by others.
  3. Great customer service skills. Knowing how to interact with others online through great customer service skills is especially important on review sites such as Yelp or company blogs. Let’s say there’s one of those nasty people who decides to vent about your company. Having a great social media manager who knows how to diffuse a situation is a great asset. If they have the skills, they can even turn that person around and create a new raving fan of your business.
  4. Reporting. This one is a little on the left brain. Every business needs to track what’s working and what’s not. A social media manager who knows how to share a report of everything they’re doing is not only nice but vital. Why? Because why would you pay them if you can’t track the progress they’re making for your business?
  5. Funny. Yes, it helps a lot if the social media manager has a great sense of humor. Funny, positive messages get shared virally faster than anything else.

Of course, we at Social Rocketship think we’re pretty cool. Great writing? Check. Great listening? Check. Great customer service skills? Check. Great at reporting? Check. Are we funny? Heck yeah!

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Video: What is Social Media Anyway?

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What is Social Media Anyway?   Check out this little video that puts Social Media in “plain English”.

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