Posts Tagged ‘facebook’
Friday, June 10th, 2011
Social media has encompassed our world and lifestyles. Not only is social media used for personal reasons, but now businesses have put their mark on social media. Marketing via social media is a great way for businesses to get connected with a vast amount of people at the same time. It creates communication among consumers and has the potential to attract new ones. One of the main benefits of using social media is that it is free and easy to use. All you basically have to do is create a profile and let the marketing begin! Keep in mind that content is key to having a successful social media campaign. If your content is not interesting or useful, you will have no luck with social media.
Social media allows you to share, network, publish, and discuss. Although social media has these benefits for businesses, it is hard to decide which ones to use. There are so many social media outlets to choose from that it can get confusing. Let’s take a look at the most popular social media networks and what benefits they provide.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn sets the stage for networking with business professionals. It allows you to personally brand your business and market yourself to others within your industry. It is also a great outlet for providing knowledgeable content that informs and educates users. Lead generation is the most valuable outcome of using LinkedIn.
Facebook: Facebook has more than half a billion users, making it a great way to share a message and reach a large amount of people simultaneously. It opens up a communication portal and creates social interaction. Facebook works great as a promotional tool. You can promote your products, services, and events to a mass audience, giving your business the opportunity to expand. Frequent and interesting posts will help to keep users attracted to your business.
Twitter: Twitter is your outbound messaging tool. It consists of tweeting 140 characters or less messages to users. These tweets are short and concise, creating a social buzz. This buzz creates interaction with users. While you are tweeting it exposes your business and brand, and then you get to hear who is talking about you and what they are saying. Twitter is all about listening to others through feedback.
YouTube: Known as the largest video sharing community, YouTube is also a marketing and advertising tool. It gets an informative and positive message right in front of existing and/or potential customers. Creating and sharing a video on YouTube provides the opportunity to share knowledge, market products, show off expertise, and connect with users. Videos that are compelling and entertaining will catch the attention of users, also creating interaction for your business.
Tags:brand, business, communication, content, facebook, linkedin, Marketing, networks, promotion, social interaction, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, youtube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
QR codes (quick response) are those black and white symbols that can be found on all types of packaging, print ads, and billboards. These codes provide a wealth of information such as text, websites, and other data that is embedded and decoded with a mobile device. All this mobile device needs is a camera and the down-loadable app and the information is unleashed. Usually QR codes are embedded with some type of promotional tool such as a contest, special offer, or an unique website. It is a great way for marketers to engage and attract consumers. These codes are designed to invite customers to participate, discover, share, save, and interact with brands.
Sun-Maid, the famous raisin brand, is utilizing QR codes to promote the animated movie by DreamWorks, Kung Fu Panda 2. Sun-maid has put these codes on their packaging to take customers to a special website where they have a chance to win a trip to Zoo Atlanta. Since entering the contest is as simple as having a mobile device, Sun-Maid hopes the number of entries will be high. They have also used Facebook to promote this contest as well. Sun-Maid brand designed their packaging with these QR codes in hope the special contest will entice consumers to buy their raisins. The packaging design also gets consumers engaged in the Sun-Maid brand as well as provides consumers a way to interact with the brand.
Tags:brand, consumers, DreamWorks, facebook, Kung Fu Panda 2, marketers, Marketing, mobile device, packaging, Packaging Design, promotion, QR codes, raisins, Social Media, Sun-Maid
Posted in Marketing, Packaging Design, Product Information, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
If you read our blog post from May 5th, 2010, we shared a study conducted by University of Maryland’s International Center for Media & the Public Agenda. This study featured 200 students who had to live 24 hours without social media. This meant no access to Twitter, Facebook, email, and even texting. The students in this study wrote blogs about their experience without social media and lets just say it was a traumatic challenge.
Now a year later a new study is released that went global this time. They asked 1,000 students from the United States, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia to abstain from social media for 24 hours They were asked to report on any successes and failures during the experience.
Highlights of the study were interesting. Students actually used the word addiction when asked about their social media usage. Some reported that they felt depressed, lonely, and even shaky without having a social media connection. They also reported that they felt like they lost apart of themselves without social media. This led to confusion and a sense of loss. It wasn’t just access to social media these students lost for a day, they also lost email, music, news, and entertainment. So not only is social media how we stay connected with others and the world, but it is also a way of life. Social media is how people manage their lives and how they communicate.
Although this study shows that a year later we are still addicted to social media, it also helped students realize their dependence. As we are becoming a society that uses social media in our everyday lives, businesses should put their own perspective on the matter. Marketers and advertisers should harness the benefits of social media for their business. This study should help businesses learn how to use social media and understand how consumers use it. Marketers and advertisers will be at full advantage if they can figure out how to use social media to better their business and attract new customers. Social media has so many facets to choose from, giving businesses the chance to experiment and find what works and what does not.
Tags:addiction, advertisers, business, communication, education, facebook, marketers, Marketing, Social Media, social media addiction, students, study, Twitter, University of Maryland
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, April 29th, 2011
Millions upon millions of people have created their own presence via social media. It isn’t just a place for individuals to keep in touch with family and friends, it has also grown into an extraordinary marketing tool that businesses should take advantage of. Facebook and Twitter for example have upwards of 600 million and 400 million users respectively, providing businesses and marketers with a vast platform of people to market to. Marketing is an action businesses need to take to attract consumers to their products or services. Social media marketing is just a new form of marketing in the new digital age we are living in.
Social media marketing has many benefits for businesses. Here are 4 ways social media marketing can help businesses and marketers.
1. Increase exposure: If social media is just used at its simplest form by just minimally creating a presence and updating it on occasion, you are still creating exposure to your business. Social media marketing allows for your name to be seen. Since millions of people participate in social media, the more you use social media increases your chances for exposure.
2. Increased traffic: Social media marketing allows for traffic to be increased. One benefit of social media is that you can provide links to your website or anything else related to your business. By providing links and information for people, there is a higher probability of creating traffic as your exposure becomes more proficient.
3. Lead Generation: If you think just teens and college students are using social media you are wrong. Businesses all over the world are using social media for marketing. This provides businesses with another way to generate leads and interact with them. Social media networks also provide a wider reach and database of people who could be leads.
4. Advertising: One of the main benefits of social media is that most sites are free. This gives companies the ability to have their name present without spending a dime. The best part of using social media for advertising is that users that know and like you are automatically endorsing you.
Marketing via social media is a great way for businesses to get noticed. It is easy to get started as well as easy to maintain. Social media is changing the way we market businesses, products, and services.
Tags:advertising, business, consumers, exposure, facebook, lead generation, marketers, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, traffic, Twitter
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
I’m sure you have heard of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. But have you heard of Generation Z yet? These are people born between 1992 and 2010. They have witnessed 9/11, an economic recession, wars in Iraq, a growing environmentally friendly conscience, the first African American President, and a world that changes everyday. Some categorized in this generation are just learning how to walk and talk but yet they changing the way products are bought, services are used, and how communication works. This generation is very interesting because they have never known a life without personal computers, mobile phones, MP3 players, and the Internet. These are the true people within the digital age that are very comfortable with technology and are used to it changing.
The way this generation communicates is intriguing. Their main way of communicating is through mobile devices and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Marketing efforts via social media will be important in attracting this generation to become potential consumers of products and services. One thing marketers need to understand is that Generation Z’ers are not your typical consumers. They do not take well to branding initiatives, considering how everything around them changes so fast. They expect constant feedback and instant results, meaning marketers need to keep pace with these individuals. Creativity needs to be used to reach this generation. Marketers also need to be aware that one form of marketing to this generation will not be enough. They are notorious for being multi-taskers, which means they are checking multiple social network sites at once, or shopping online at more than one store. To reach these people, multiple outlets need to be used.
Generation Z will be a fun generation to market too. They already have a knack for technology, which will allow marketers to use creativity to attract this generation as potential consumers.
Tags:Blu-Ray technology, environmentally-friendly, facebook, Gneration Z, internet, Marketing, mobile devices, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, technology, Twitter
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Marketing is an activity and process for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value. It is how products and services gain a voice for customers, clients, and businesses to know they exist. Marketing is an aspect of business that has been around for many years. Have you ever wondered how it all started though? Marketing is based on the technologies of the era, because those technologies is how marketing messages were pushed through channels. Technology has evolved rapidly and continues to change everyday. We have things like social media and Internet today that is a must use tool for marketers, but it didn’t start out that way.
If we take a step way back to the Stone Age, messages were communicated by cave paintings and carvings. Since then, our lives started to evolve and stepping towards advancement. The Renaissance Era in the 15th century produced learning and research as we stepped out of the Dark Ages. We then entered the Age of Discovery, and in 1450 is when things started to change. The Gutenberg press was created, allowing for type to be movable, which is where mail order catalogs got their start. The Industrial Revolution in the 1800s increased demand for manufacturers to market their goods. The 1900s helped develop the marketing concept as science and technology started to change. Competition, communication, advertising, and branding become key factors in business. The focus on selling also grew. Direct marketing surfaced in the 1950s and telemarketing in the 1970s.
The 1990s were characterized by the boom of the Internet, which led to a vast amount of marketing platforms. The early 2000s sparked the launches of Wikipedia, Apple iTunes Store, and Gmail. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter followed. Today we are in the midst of the social media and mobile era. How ironic is it that we started out writing on walls to communicate and now we continue to do just that only not literally this time. The future holds potential for more advances in technology, which will be interesting to see what will happen next.
Tags:communication, facebook, history, internet, market, Marketing, science, Social Media, technology, Twitter, youtube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
Mobile usage has drastically increased in the past few years and its future is looking brighter. In this day and age it seems like everyone owns a mobile device, most not being able to function without one. Mobile devices have become so advanced that they not only are used for calls and texts, but they now have Internet capabilities, cameras, navigation, email, and many more applications, literally making your mobile device smart. Over 4 billion people own a mobile phone, which is predicted to increase by 50% in 2015. Landlines and desktop computers will be a thing of the past in the coming future as new technologies are being invented everyday to make mobile devices better and more advanced. We have grown and been molded into a mobile society making mobile devices the perfect technology for our busy lifestyles.
The vast amounts of people who own a mobile phone gives marketers a wide array of opportunities to develop a mobile marketing plan. Two of the most widely uses of mobile devices are to socialize and surf the web. Social media networks, most popular being Facebook and Twitter, have developed mobile apps to make socializing easier and in the palm of user’s hands.
Marketers have a wealth of potential to attract customers to their brand, products, services, and their company. A mobile marketing campaign has an opportunity to attract a widespread market of people, a market consisting of an upwards of 4 billion people. This gives marketers room to experiment and try a variety of marketing ideas to cater to that group of people, with one major thing in common, they all own a mobile device.
Here are 5 steps to help mold a marketing plan to fit a mobile lifestyle:
1. Prioritize: A mobile marketing plan is something that will take time to develop and implement. Marketers should have goals and a time line set up before starting. This is not something that can be thrown together in one day. A detailed plan should be prepared for a mobile marketing plan.
2. Utilize: There is an extensive amount of information that is available, it just needs to be looked for. Take advantage of the knowledge others provide. A mobile marketing plan will be easier to create when you have information to help you along.
3. Recognize: Be aware of what others have done in the past and the present. If that information is obtainable, it will become a very useful tool to see what other have tried and if it worked or failed.
4. Characterize: A mobile marketing plan should be exciting, creative, and full of energy. If it is boring, no one will pay attention to it. The idea to keep in mind is to give a mobile marketing plan a personality so that users can feel like a company has a soul. Keep in mind that a company that portrays themselves as fun and refreshing will have a better chance of being seen and heard. Also remember that this marketing plan is being catered to a mobile device and if the campaign doesn’t catch the eye of users it will be quickly dismissed.
5. Initialize: After goals have been made, information has been collected, and a plan has been formed, it is now time to put that plan into action. This is the most exciting step because this is when you find out if your hard work and planning will produce results. A plan to track progress should be put into place at this time.
Tags:facebook, internet, marketers, Marketing, marketing campaign, mobile device, mobile marketing, networks, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, April 1st, 2011
YouTube was developed by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in 2005. Since then it has become the second largest search engine behind Google. YouTube offers an array of different things, from music videos and commercials, to even the keyboard cat, YouTube has something for everyone. But did you know that YouTube is a helpful marketing tool? It is not obvious why a video sharing site would benefit businesses through marketing, but in fact marketers can utilize YouTube to distribute content and messages to consumers, hoping to inform or attract them to a product or service.
YouTube is a great way to give a business a presence online. Social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are a available to create a presence online, but why not expand that by using YouTube and allowing users to literally see information. One of the great benefits of YouTube is that its free, meaning it won’t hurt a business to try it out.
Here are 5 other benefits YouTube offers for marketing purposes:
1. YouTube never sleeps: A user is able to access YouTube at anytime, which means a marketing message will always be available for people to see.
2. Watching vs. reading: We have grown into a technologically advanced society as technology seems to change every time we blink. We have now become conditioned to use our eyes more. We tend to rather watch something than read something.
3. High traffic: Millions upon millions of people visit YouTube daily. These people become potential viewers fora marketing message you may have. Since traffic is so high for the site as a whole, potential traffic for a particular video increases.
4. Personality: Some companies have no personality or you can’t put a face to a name. YouTube allows to give a business a face and lets users know that it has a soul. It shows that there is a personality behind the company profile and allows users a chance to really get to know who you are and what you do.
5. Versatility: YouTube is a very versatile tool for marketing. There are many possibilities of uses and it allows for creativity to surface. YouTube can be used to demonstrate a product, create brand awareness, or promote something new. There is no limit to what a company can do using YouTube for marketing.
YouTube has grown into a popular site that is no longer just a video sharing outlet, but a search engine as well. It is also a place for marketers to be creative, allowing a company to come alive.
Sunrise Packaging has just debuted on YouTube. Check out our video!
Video Link
Tags:businesses, facebook, Marketing, marketing tool, search engine, Social Media, technology, traffic, Twitter, versatility, youtube
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Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
We all know the famous rivalries in business such as Coke vs. Pepsi, Microsoft vs. Apple, and Ford vs. General Motors. Although we have these business rivalries, do we know why they start. Competition is one of the ingredients in how business is shaped. It is a natural occurrence based on two separate parties vying for the same goal. Businesses try to win acceptance from consumers, which is where rivalry and competition essentially begins.
Consider Coke vs. Pepsi, one of the oldest rivalries in American business. Also known as the Cola Wars, Coke and Pepsi started competing with each other in the 189os. Coke dominated the market, but Pepsi was always close behind. The brilliance behind the Cola Wars was that they both had different ideas of how to attract consumers and control the market. They both implemented innovative marketing campaigns throughout the years to gain even a fraction of the market. They also modified pricing and brand strategies to get a little closer to victory. It has been over 100 years now that this rivalry has existed and it still continues today.
Competition and rivalry is a healthy part of how businesses operate. Competitors help each other learn and move forward. Do you think Coke and Pepsi would be where they are today if they didn’t have an intense rivalry? Coke and Pepsi are successful because they were able to improve themselves individually based on what they learned from each other. Competition also helps the marketing process. Consumer needs and wants are uncovered during rivalry, which allows creative marketing tactics to be used. Now that social media has entered our lives and has grown into a big phenomenon with outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, marketing can be taken to a whole new level, opening doors that we never knew existed.
Although competition and rivalry don’t have reputations as being based around something good, in reality they have shaped the way we do business. It can’t be all that bad if Coke and Pepsi have survived over 100 years of rivalry and both are still going strong.
Tags:business, Coke vs. Pepsi, competition, consumers, facebook, Marketing, marketing tactics, rivalry, Social Media, The Cola Wars, Twitter
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, January 28th, 2011
Super Bowl number 45, the biggest TV event of the year, is only a little over a week away. As we are preparing our parties and getting our adrenaline going for the big game of the year, we are also getting psyched for all of the commercials. Those 30-second attractions that we all look forward to are already underway and totaling over 45 minutes worth of advertising. The average cost for a 30-second spot is about $3 million, meaning companies are making a big attempt to put out the most innovative and exciting commercials possible. Social media is also participating in the Super Bowl, making ads last longer than 30 seconds. Companies are using Facebook fan pages and Twitter to continue the advertising, as well as using YouTube to replay the commercials.
Car makers are dominating the line up this year, but favorites like the E-Trade baby and the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales are back to hopefully make an impression on viewers. Some advertisers who cancelled appearances in the past couple years are back to regain attention. GM is hoping to draw people into Chevrolet and PepsiCo is planning seven commercials this year. Movie trailers will also be seen during the Super Bowl. Paramount will be promoting upcoming releases such as Rango, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Super 8, while Disney will be promoting the next Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars 2, and Warner Bros. will be promoting Part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Pizza Hut will make their debut this year as they try to reel in some extra sales for the game. GoDaddy will be present during the Super Bowl as they will reveal their new GoDaddy girl. Doritos, Best Buy, Motorola, and Snickers will also be making appearances in the commercial lineup.
So on February 6th, get the snacks and drinks ready for an eventful night of football and commercials!
Tags:advertising, Commercials, facebook, Football, Marketing, Social Media, Super Bowl, Twitter, youtube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
