The numbers are rising on businesses using Social Media to their advantage and rightfully so, since 97% of customers will purchase from your business based on a review they find on the product they are looking for, even more so the review is through people they trust, hence why social networks work.

Using Social Media as a form to communicate with customers does leave businesses open for negative sentiment and this has to be the biggest worry or response as to why businesses have yet to figure social media as a part of their Marketing strategies. However, people are not always going to be happy with your services or products and that is always a pitfall to owning a business, therefore people are talking negatively about your business online already. Using social networks to share in customer service and share a friendly persona while furthering your brand online will entice many who are upset with your business to flock there, giving you the greatest gift, the ability to respond quickly.

This will please the 34% of those who complain online more so than the ones that go ignored. As a business part of your job is to respond even to negative feedback. Look at it as a way to improve what may be lacking at your company and a form to build the trust back from the customer, which begins with a response that is customer service oriented.

We are spending way too much time on satisfied customers and little to no time on ones that are unhappy with our companies. Businesses need to hone in on the unhappy consumers to truly build a stronger company. People who tell you about their negative experiences are telling you a way you can improve which will make businesses more money. There is no flaw in that, except the fear of hearing failure and let’s be honest, that comes with the territory.

In the Infographic below created by odmgroup will show you statistics of what businesses are doing right and wrong and how consumers are relating to businesses in this day and age.

(Click to Enlarge)

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Read More Social Media News on the Soshable Blog.

Preparing for 2012

Preparing for a new year is never easy no matter what line of work you’re in. In social media, it’s damn near impossible. Regardless of how much analysis of the previous year you complete or how strategies you put in place to start the year, things change… rapidly.

That all said, if you aren’t at least thinking about how you can improve or tweak your social strategy on a big picture basis, you’re already behind. Throw in Google’s announcement of their social search integration and you’re plain out of sight.

While they may be basic, here are some things you should be thinking about while you’re building your plan for the next month, 6 months, or even the whole year.

What is the connection between social and the bottom line?

Time and time again, we see businesses jump into social media with a bunch of buzz words at the helm of their strategy. They say that they’re doing social to converse with their customers, find new customers, have authentic engagement, etc. Those reasons aren’t wrong – they’re at the core of our values. That being said, business owners aren’t asking themselves how their efforts will connect to the bottom line.

We are far enough along in social media where the ROI is meaningful. We should never lessen the value relationships and authentic conversations, but we should be thinking about why we are spending the time and money and what the benefits will be in the end.

The line between social media to the bottom line may not be a straight one, but in the end, they should connect.

What networks actually matter and why?

I don’t need to be the one to tell you this but that said, the networks we use are evolving and all serve a different purpose. That also means that each network might not be important to your bottom line or message. This is where ROI is very important. It is important to evaluate each network separately and then determine whether it belongs in the mix of your social media strategy.

Where does social rank as a priority?

In my current position, I try to focus on social media as much as I can but in reality, social is often not the most important form of marketing for our goals (especially when you’re competing for Google ranking in “online mba programs“. That isn’t to say social doesn’t matter or isn’t a continuous part of our communications strategy. Instead, we have figured out what its importance is and how many resources should be dedicated.

Because we have evaluated its importance, we understand how to maximize our efficiency and what the most direct lines of success are within our overall marketing mix.

What is your voice?

Sometimes, being conversational and open isn’t the way to go for brands. Some brands need to be more authoritative or resourceful rather than being a friendly face. That doesn’t mean they don’t understand the nature of social that just means they understand what their public persona is and what is the best voice for their brand to possess. Find your voice and you’ll carve your place in the social atmosphere.

What defines success?

All of these questions lead into the final one. What defines success in your social strategy? This may be the most obvious question, yet it is the most important. If you don’t understand what you are working towards or what you will be evaluating at the end of your reporting period, it makes it extremely difficult to understand how to move forward.

Social is always evolving, but your overall goals shouldn’t waver past minor adjustments. They should stand firm from the beginning – otherwise your messaging and path will change to where your original goals are unrecognizable.

Everyone’s success in 2012 will look different from one another – it’s your job to understand what you are aiming to toast to in 2013.

Buzz has always been an important element when trying to launch a startup. The rise of social media from 2005-2008 became a great way for people to get their budding businesses attention. Then, something happened. Social media became TOO big in 2009 and the noise levels started drowning out the potential benefits of the buzz that was getting generated.

Jump ahead 2 years and social media shifted again, becoming an even more-valid venue to generate the buzz. As more people joined, the noise levels stayed about the same but the industry reached a tipping point where there was so much noise that some of it actually had a chance of standing out (if positioned properly). We’re not here to discuss the ebb and flow of social media noise over the years, but it’s important to understand, particularly for those who tried to use social media during the “dark years” of 2009 and 2010 to try to launch their startups.

In most cases, it simply didn’t work. Today, it has the opportunity to work yet again.

Unfortunately (or thankfully, depending on your point of view), it isn’t as easy as getting a lot of people to post about your concept on Facebook and Twitter. Things have become much more complicated. There are more options not only in the number of social media sites to use but also in the ways that individual social media sites can be used.

This infographic by our friends at Udemy breaks down how social media can be used by startups to get off the ground. Done right, it’s a wonderful thing. Done wrong, it’s worthless.

Click to enlarge.

Social networking began as a confusing mess for many growing companies. Since then, teams of web developers, internet service providers and engineers have simplified the experience through web apps, smart phone applications and user-friendly APIs.

Now the process of marketing your business through social media is easier than ever. This ease of use, however, has turned out to be a double-edged sword. With many one-touch solutions for creating social networking profiles, the web has become cluttered with a mess of business-related social media accounts blasting massive volumes of sporadic marketing messages.

This is a serious problem for any company with long-term social media marketing ambitions. Recent studies done by the Altimeter Group showed that companies with more than 1000 employees averaged over 39 Twitter accounts, 31 blogs and nearly 30 Facebook accounts or pages. What this equates to is patchy distribution of content and inconsistency in the image of a brand, resulting in mixed feelings from a business’s customers.

Consolidate Social Media Efforts

It is a common misconception that a company’s organizational architecture should be reflected in their social media campaign. That is, every department and every product will get its own Twitter and/or Facebook page, etc.

The sad realization is that a business’s web presence becomes separated into several, hard-to-follow, fragmented online communities. If your social media strategy is flooded with unnecessary accounts, you may eventually lose your captive audience. It is important to remember that nobody can manage several dozen pages simultaneously without exhausting unnecessary amounts of effort. As a result, many pages will become dormant, customer engagement will tank, and your online marketing strategy will suffer as a result. From a very practical viewpoint, some internet service providers may not be able support massive amounts of digital content.

Instead, your company’s online marketing campaign should implement a strict social media policy, one that outlines exactly what warrants the creation of a new social media page. You should also consider the amount and types of resources required to operate and maintain each social media account. If you’re able to minimize your social media strategy in terms of shear account volume, the costs of managing these accounts will go down, and your efforts will be more effective in the long-run.

Linking and Liking

Every social media campaign needs to identify a clear link and interaction structure. Effective link structure lets you clearly establish and assign significance of each individual social media account.

It’s important to do this as quickly and as efficiently as possible. This lets you map out a plan to gauge how you can best serve each micro-community associated with each social media account.

This also opens the door to assigning value to content as it relates to other pages. As you set this plan in motion, you can then re-purpose content across your multiple social media pages (text, video, infographics and tweets). As the social web becomes more cluttered with useless content, the practice of implementing good link structure technique will be social media’s saving grace.

Plan Before You Post

Finally, after consolidating all necessary social media accounts and putting a solid structure into place for linking and liking, it’s time to plan content. Many companies believe that just like in advertising, sheer volume equals success. The problem with publishing lots of content constantly, is that at some point, audiences will get sick of you.

Carefully planning content publishing initiatives is the best way to keep from burning out an audience and maintaining appeal. Many companies setup an editorial calendar, not unlike what magazines, newspapers and trade publications use. Simple, scheduled, and consistent messages will always reflect a business better than sheer volume. How does your social media campaign reflect your business?

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Note: Photos courtesy of smemon and thecampbells via FlickR Creative Commons.

If you’re feeling like “OMG WTF” when scrolling your comment thread, you may be dealing with a troll. Trolls aren’t just readers or customers who are complaining about your product or service; these are creatures, spawned of the Internet, with the sole purpose of being a nuisance or creating a destructive presence on your site. Trolls don’t have legitimate grievances and they don’t want to talk rationally about their concerns.

They want to cause a commotion and they want attention. But before you take the bait and start responding to comments like “You mad, bro?” consider these tips for dealing with trolls on your blog or social-networking sites:

Don’t Feed the Trolls

The most common advice given by fellow bloggers and Internet users in dealing with trolls is “Don’t feed the trolls.” In other words, don’t
give them want they want: Attention. Don’t respond to their comments, and don’t recognize their presence in any way.

The common wisdom is that no matter how you respond, trolls will find a way to keep flaming you or trying to get a reaction out of you. And even one small outburst or negative comment is enough to keep them going.

Take the High Road

Occasionally, simply ignoring your trolls is not enough to deal with them. If they are not getting the attention they want, trolls may try to up the ante by making even more inflammatory or offensive comments. This will create a negative presence that will either reflect poorly on you or it will draw in other readers or fans to respond, which could escalate the thread.

If you feel that ignoring the troll will not make him go away, respond with neutral or positive comments to try to discourage them. Simple comments like, “Thank you for your feedback,” or “We appreciate you taking the time to share your opinion” should be enough to let your troll know that you won’t be baited, but not enough to give him more material.

Have a Sense of Humor

If you can’t get rid of a troll, you can try beating him at his own game by responding with humor. Don’t sink to the level of the troll and insult him or use derogatory humor. Instead, use levity to show that the comments do not have their intended affect and to dismiss the childish antics.

This is a risky strategy, as you must be sure that you can best the troll. Sometimes, humor can backfire, and you will be the one looking more foolish. Be sure you can win before you try to play the troll’s game.

Ban or Delete

If all else fails, you can delete your troll’s comments or ban him completely. Most Internet users are against censorship of any kind when it comes to comments and posts, so think carefully before you resort to this tactic. If you do decide to delete comments or ban a troll, try to do so before the troll gains notice. It is easier to quietly dismiss a troll without an audience than it is to publicly censor and remove dissenters from your page.

Remember that not all negative commenters are trolls. Some are genuinely disgruntled customers or fans, and you should carefully assess comments before you decide to dismiss them as the work of a troll. If you are dealing with a genuinely aggrieved customer, take the opportunity to publicly resolve the complaint to show your dedication to your customers and win over more fans.

Power has value. Visualizations, for all of the difficulty that is associated with creating a superb one in the ultra-competitive world of infographic promotions, have a certain power, particularly in social media. Many users love visualizations. They are perfect for our ADHD-driven world of quick bursts of information overriding the old need for large amounts of prose.

The value aspect comes into play when we realize that messages are best broadcast through visuals. Just as television surpassed radio, so too can visualizations find their place in a website’s visitors’ favorites folder. Expressing meaning through visually-stunning depictions and representations is much more sharable on social media than traditional media.

This presentation by our friends at Column Five Media takes on a visual tour of the world of visualizations.

Real. Comfortable. Jeans.

Just do it!

I’m lovin’ it.

Simplicity has a role in marketing. It’s possibly the most important aspect of any message that a company wants to put out there. Some could make a good argument that being memorable is more important than being simple, but it’s a close call either way.

Let’s take a look at why a proper 3-word slogan can say and do more than just about any other type.

Frugal Complexity

This is not the most important aspect of a proper 3-word slogan, but it’s my favorite. Being able to fit multiple meanings and representations into three words is a challenge worthy of discussion.

Wrangler has had several slogans over the years, most recently embracing the 3-word variation in different ways. Their “Real. Comfortable. Jeans.” campaign always stuck out for me because of the depth of meaning. As a statement, it had a basic message that people liked. On a deeper level, each individual word meant something to them and their target audience.

Wrangler is “real”. It’s a brand that may be somewhat hyped with Brett Favre and Clint Black sporting them, but it fit their target demographic that respects authenticity over fashion trends.

Wrangler jeans are “comfortable” (from what I’ve been told). Having the word standing alone in the center was appealing as a message, again targeted to the Wrangler-buying audience.

Wrangler sells “jeans”. Stating it as such, alone and at the end of the slogan, separated from everything else is a nice touch that aids in the simplicity of the message. They’re just jeans. They’re good jeans.

They’re jeans. Buy them.

More recently, Wrangler has gone for a little more complex variation of the 3-word slogan with a pair of messages targeting specific demographics of their market. The first one is basic – “Long Live Cowboys”. It’s at the heart of what they represent and allows them to have a perfect slogan to use in advertisements promoting their Retro line of jeans. You could expect to see this slogan on a sponsorship banner at the rodeo.

The second is more complex and fits a broader message. “Nothing Beats Wrangler” is used as the prelude to multiple messages. It’s used in catchphrases like “Nothing Beats Wrangler… Comfort” and “Nothing Beats Wrangler… Value”. The purest form as the simple 3-word slogan stands alone but allows for add-ons at the end to punctuate a message.

In three words, many messages can be brought to the minds of the targets. The right three words together can use those messages to drive more sales.

Easy Quotability

It’s hard to get three words wrong. In a social-media-driven world where people have a louder voice than ever before, using a proper 3-word slogan can help people spread the word for you.

Look at Betty Crocker. The brownies are great, but their slogans are so unquotable that I had to go to their website to look them up.

They have two that are currently running prominently on most of their advertising.

• “Expertise from our kitchens and yours.”
• “You and Betty Crocker can bake someone happy.”

These are antiquated. They require repetition to make them stick, and even when they do stick they aren’t very useful in putting a message out there. They’re clever plays on words that would have worked nicely for radio or television sponsorships in the 50s when their target audience was only exposed to 4 or 5 campaigns a day, but in the 21st century they take too long to say, too long to remember, and too long to understand.

Perhaps more importantly, they can’t be easily Tweeted or Facebooked. It’s sad to some, but having social-media-repeatable slogans multiplies a company’s potential exposure and allows for viral spread. Look at Sprite’s “Obey Your Thirst.” Now, look it up on Twitter. People post it every day. Sometimes, they’re posting it every hour.

There are advocates out there for every brand. Take advantage of social media by giving people something that can be easily quoted.

Expandable Discussion Points

Sometimes, it’s not just about putting out the right message. Positioned well, a 3-word slogan can get people asking about what it means. It stands out as a differentiator between you and your competitors and can spark conversation that leads into an overarching brand message discussion.

This is especially useful for growing, small- to medium-sized brands, particularly at a local level where direct interaction with customers is regular.

For Lebanon Ford, their goal was to separate themselves from other local Ford dealers. By using the “Connect. Engage. Drive.” slogan, they have built a localized brand that thrives on touching their customers in ways that others will not.

Evoking Emotions

It’s written in some psychology book that I read in college that less is more when it comes to emotions. I love you. I hate you. You rock. You suck.

There is very little difference between two words and three words, but the emotion-evocation-scale drops dramatically on the fourth and fifth words. It’s a sad note to my age that the research cannot be found online easily (was I really in college before the internet?).

Look at the story of Life is good. They say so much with their brand and have built a minor empire with their products being sold in 4500 retail stores, all 50 US states, and 30 countries worldwide.

They evoked emotion. It’s that simple. They created a brand that allowed consumers to make a statement about their outlook on the world in 3 simple words. They company itself has an amazing story of success and charity surrounding it, but looking at the branding alone is enough to make the point here.

3-Words vs Long-Form Singular Messaging

“Pork. The other white meat.” It has a ring to it and says what needs to be said. It’s memorable.

One might say that this 5-word slogan does everything that it needs to do. People quote it. They understand it. They probably think it every time they’re in the grocery store and they see the pork section.

The problem is that they don’t necessarily act upon it. Why? Because the message is inherently flawed by trying to promote a concept that doesn’t stick. By being “the other white meat,” they’re trying to position it as a healthier alternative to beef and a break from the monotony of chicken. They’re squeezing so much into the message but it simply doesn’t ring true. People do not consider pork a white meat despite the long-running campaign. They do not consider it healthy. They still buy plenty of chicken.

Pork has a failed slogan.

What would work better? There are a lot of good options, but I would be willing to bet if they went simple and put out a message that people would enjoy, that they would post on social media when they just got done eating some good pork, and that would ring true with what they’re wanting to say, they would increase sales. This isn’t a pitch for the pork industry to hire us as their ad firm. This one’s a gift.

Pork Tastes Better.

It doesn’t matter if people agree now. A slogan like that would, over time, have people starting to believe it. As simple as it is, if they would adopt it and promote it, more bacon would be sold, ham sandwiches would grow in popularity, and the McRib would have to be sold year-round by 2013.

As a side-effect, cardiologists would be in higher demand.

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Read more analysis on this social media blog or learn more about automotive SEO.

As far as the social space is concerned, Google+ just may go on to be the story of 2011. After all, it has been surrounded by more hype than we have seen in a long while. When the platform was unveiled back in June, many pundits in the tech community actually believed it could be a viable competitor to social giant Facebook.

The possibilities had marketers chomping at the bits, anxious to start making an impact. Much to their chagrin, it wasn’t long before Google broke the news that would seemingly change everything.

Opening the Doors

The brands who flocked to create profiles and start establishing a presence were in for a rude awakening when Google discouraged businesses from using the service as a marketing playground. Some brands said the heck with it and went ahead anyway. They quickly found out that the Mountain View, California company was quite serious. Google shut down the profiles of those who did not heed its warning and effectively sent a message to the entire community of observers. At the same time, it alienated a sizable portion of its earliest adopters – brands.

According to Google, its reason for wanting brands to off on their marketing was warranted. The company announced that it was working on a business version of the platform that would essentially allow brands to have at it and approach it as they would a Facebook page, Twitter account, or LinkedIn profile. That time has come. Google recently rolled out its Google+ Pages and once again, the trendy social network is back in the spotlight. This new feature may be like a breath of fresh air for some, but is it enough to breathe new life back into the project some say lost steam months ago?

Still an Uphill Climb

Attracting over 40 million users in just three months time, Google+ is already on course to become the fast growing social network in the history of well, social networks. Apparently attracting the masses isn’t the problem. Keeping them engaged is. Research shows that the site’s traffic has declined considerably from the early months when it peaked, while several of the early adopters have admitted that their profiles are pretty much sitting idle. Recent data also revealed that the traffic the site gained from the initial launch of the new brand pages has dropped off as well.

Although Google+ shares many traits with the typical social network these days, it also had some qualities that made it unique. This included Circles, a feature that allows users to segment their friends list into different groups, and Hangouts, a video chat feature that lets up to 10 people converse at once. These features were undoubtedly cool, but not to be outdone, Facebook quickly countered Circles with Smart Lists, and fired back on Hangouts with its own Skype-powered video chat feature.

Google+ Pages certainly have undeniable appeal, but with Facebook Pages in the mix, they are anything but unique. Will this highly anticipated feature take the social tool to the next level? We’ll see.

During a meeting today with the world’s largest Acura dealer, we discussed their digital marketing at length. One of the common things that was brought up during the discussion was that we needed to make sure we didn’t “cheapen the brand” using marketing techniques that would be fine for most businesses and particularly of value to most car dealers.

We had to be subtle. There was no need to highlight price, performance, or quality. It was a matter of lifestyle. We needed to focus on what it means to be an Acura owner. It needed to mean something special.

Throughout the conversation, one thing became clear – marketing for an Acura dealer was nothing like marketing for a Honda dealer. There were distinct differences and unwritten rules that we had to follow.

There are challenges associated with luxury. The exclusivity factor is something that luxury brands of all verticals must embrace. The internet is about inclusion and access. Luxury is about exclusivity. How can the two conflicting traits be rectified to form a coherent marketing strategy?

That’s the question that our friends at MDG Advertising took on nicely in the infographic below. Click to enlarge.

In the on again, off again love affair I have with Tumblr, one thing is clear – unless they completely take a dump, I’ll always go back.

I fall off every time I go there and one of my Tumblogs is down, an occurrence that seems to happen every 5th or 6th visit. I fall off every time I go to post something, only to find that the site went down while I was writing my post (I’ve learned to copy the post before pushing any buttons on Tumblr). I fall off every time I look at the content from popular Tumblogs and think, “I posted that 2 months ago. Why is it getting 10k reblogs now?”

Then, my marketing mind hits and I remember that Tumblr is an excellent tool for search and social marketing. In the video below, I introduce Tumblr to the automotive industry. While the industry is cutting-edge in many marketing techniques, it often falls behind when it comes to the unfamiliar. Tumblr is unfamiliar to them… now. Hopefully, they’ll watch the video and start embracing Tumblr for what it can do as an internet marketing machine.