Tomorrow's webinar with @ERontheWeb - Beyond Social Media Marketing: Improving Customer Service and Product Excellence

We are truly excited for tomorrow's webinar, because it dives into the very subject matter that often needs the most focus in the online marketing world: customer service. Since the advent of the Internet and the online brand presence, companies have scrambled to improve their customer service skills in order to better appeal to the consumer and improve product excellence. 

The location and method that a customer wants to communicate is becoming an extremely critical important piece of Social Media. From Facebook to Twitter, social networking IS transforming the world of customer service - enabling businesses to interact with customers like never before. We all need to get ready for the next phase in Customer (Social) Support!

The session will explore Social Media customer support strategies from top companies including Comcast, Zappos and Southwest Airlines, as well as AOL's very own strategy. Discussion will include what works and what doesn't work.

Click here to register for FREE (7-17-13 at 12:30pm EST)
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9086609634796060416

About Erin Robinson:

Erin Robinson is Senior Communications Manager at AOL, driving the newly formed customer support on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and various community forums for AOL. Previously as AOL’s Social Media Manager she developed social listening channels and response mechanisms as well as worked with other teams to create social customer care solutions for their products, programs and services. Erin is AOL champion and evangelist for social support and education for product teams to participate in the social setting. In addition to her roles with AOL, she is also the Social Media Chair for American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and Cure by Design. She has created training and education on the power and need for social presence and support for these activities. 
Prior to that, she worked for USA WEEKEND Magazine (Gannett) as a Market Development Specialist. She has obtained certification in Advanced Social Medial Skills from the University of San Francisco; and is obtaining her PMP certification. If all of that does not spell out her commitment to social media; she has led social media panels and classes, and is developing a blog and training program on the importance of social media to and for customer care. Basically, she is a social media nerd and is happy to be here spreading her nerdiness to all of you. Don’t forget to follow her! @ERontheWeb

Click here to register for FREE (7-17-13 at 12:30pm EST)
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9086609634796060416

Crafting a Successful Facebook Campaign

It's more important than ever to keep your fans engaged on Facebook, so here are some hot tips to keep your Facebook marketing campaigns rolling along smoothly:

1. Create a series of Facebook-only specials. Sephora did it, and it might work for you, too.
2. Ask questions with pictures. Statistically, photos attract the most attention from fans, and the question will get them engaged.
3. Plan your posts out before you put them up - then schedule your updates to happen when you want them to with this neat app.
4. Try out new Facebook promoted posts. You may like what you find. They're more affordable than an entire PPC campaign and get your voice heard by fans.
5. When you post photos on Facebook, post more than one. Post an album, in fact. Research shows that this gets you more clicks because people want to see the rest of the photos from the post.
6. Boost your brand by rethinking your Facebook cover photo. Strong visuals tend to boost sales.
7. Read this great article on Facebook engagement. Then get out their and start interacting with your fans online

Social Media Training & Influence

If you could train your entire workforce to be proficient at social media, would you? Digital Royalty says yes - it's a company that's rolling out a social media training program for other companies.

"Digital Royalty University offers customized education programs including strategic and tactical social media training for all individuals within a company. It’s important that every department understands how social communication channels impact their area of business. This new phase allows us to also begin providing education to small and medium sized businesses, in addition to large corporate brands, as we continue to automate our curriculum comprised of more than 100 training modules." - Amy Martin, CEO

While neither the Mashable article nor the blog post comment above get more specific on exactly which platforms are covered, it's clear that grassroots influence of peers and colleagues is of great marketing value (a value which could be exponentially increased depending on the scale of the company involved.

What do you think? Would you want to purchase company-wide social media training for your organization? Are there any other benefits you can think of?

Social Media and Global Power Shifts

Today Mashable published an article on social media and the global power shift that it claims has come with the advent of new technologies. With social media taking responsibility for the mass appeal and massive outpouring of support for movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Egyptian revolutions, it's hard not to agree that a power shift is afoot. Even the power of marketing has been shifted to the consumer - inbound marketing, not outbound marketing, is now at the heart of the marketing world. Consumers are now the ones who can better control what ads they see and when, and how companies can connect with them, which can heavily impact the moves that companies today make.

Do you agree with Mashable? Is there a "new power" afoot that comes with the new technologies that we have created and popularized? Or do you believe that power will still naturally be relegated to the hands of a select few at the top of the pyramid?

Step-by-Step Social Media Success

If you've ever looked at your business' social media outreach and wondered, 'What am i doing right? What am I doing wrong?,' then this is the tool for you. It's a comprehensive (and free) guide to social media marketing by Simply Business. It covers everything from how to set up your accounts and which sites to have accounts at; to setting targets, goals and objectives; to content strategy; to monitoring accounts; to building your social media team. Whether you're a beginner or a social media expert, this handy free guide is a useful tool to help you gauge the success of your efforts.

So what are some of the things that your social media campaign could use some work on? What are the things your campaign is doing well at?

Foursquare for Business

Foursquare doesn't just allow users to be 'mayor' of a coffee shop they frequent - it's also a great tool for business. Foursquare allows users to 'check in,' every time they visit a venue in real life, and records it both on Foursquare and other social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter (if these accounts have been linked). Brick-and-mortar businesses can offer specials through Foursquare, like rewarding the number of times a customer checks in, making it a great tool for customer loyalty. Venues can also offer other types of discounts, like coupons, to their Foursquare followers. For brands who don't have a brick-and-mortar presence, Foursquare does offer a few options, like check-in specials for when the brand partners with a brick-and-mortar retailer, and badges, which allow customers to complete real-world check-in quests that can get them rewards from the brand.

To learn more about Foursquare for your business, you can visit the Foursquare for Business website, or you can watch this awesome video.

Are You Analyzing Sentiment?

With the rise of social media, blogging, forums, reviews, and bookmarking in the internet marketing realm, sentiment analysis is gaining importance. The issue, however, is that while still in its infancy, sentiment analysis is still challenged by the task of translating human emotion into hard data.

Nevertheless, the importance of monitoring online social outlets is essential to the success of a business and can allow businesses to act fast when issues arise. By analyzing the sentiment of online discussions about your business, you can know if a decision you recently made was good or if customers are unhappy.

Monitoring and analyzing sentiment is only half the battle. It is important to join the conversation and offer solutions to problems, explanations of misinformation, etc. With your brand having a strong online presence in social media, you can quickly reach many customers and keep them happy.

Free Social Media Marketing Webcast

If you're looking to find out more about social media marketing, then you need to attend Search Marketing Now's webcast on "The Social Graph". It's going to cover the basics of social media marketing and how to leverage social networks to your advantage. And knowing Chris Sherman, the presenter, he's sure to put in some higher level points for advanced marketers who are familiar with social media marketing and just want to take their game to the next level.