Archive for February, 2012
Social Media for Business: New Facebook Timeline for Pages
Posted by: | Comments
In an ever changing social media for business world, nothing stays constant for very long. Facebook is notorious for making changes to their website design on a regular basis with or without their users support. Facebook announced this morning that all Pages will be switched over to the new Timeline layout on March 30.
Timeline for Pages looks very similar to Timeline for user profiles with the layout including a cover photo at the top and a timeline of your pages’ history since its creation. Page admins are able to highlight, hide or delete stories from the pages’ timeline as they wish. Admins are also able to take advantage of a revamped admin panel that shows the latest notifications, newest page likes and the insights graph. Other features of the new admin panel include the new manage section in which admins can edit the page, use the activity log or see banned users; a build audience section in which admins can invite email contacts or friends and share the page with others; and a help section to answer all of your questions.
With the Timeline feature for Pages now available, page administrators should start thinking of how they can take advantage of all of the new layout’s features to Read More→
Launch a Mobile Site
Posted by: | Comments
Smartphone and tablet ownership is continuing to explode. Consumers are checking emails, using social media and purchasing—all online. This is why many marketers are working on adapting their messages for mobile devices. Is your company?
Marketing RELEVANCE recently launched a full mobile site for Highland Homes in Central Florida. The builder’s website statistics overwhelmingly showed that its prospective customers were using mobile devices as a way to view the website. What is interesting is that 58 percent of these visitors were new visitors. Since the launch of Highland Homes’ mobile site, visitors now get a better user experience. They can find communities and floor plans, as well as contact the builder or chose to view the regular site.
According to a Mashable article, “Mobile is a new paradigm. It has its own rule, standards, technologies and challenges.”
Here are a few tips to optimize your marketing materials for mobile use:
1. Keep it simple. Since phone screens are small, the Internet connections are slower and the users don’t want to waste a lot of time, keep websites and applications simple. Make them Read More→
Using Facebook to Promote Your Business
Posted by: | Comments
Even though your business may have a Facebook page, are you promoting it? Or, are the only people that like your page employees? There are 700 million people on Facebook, and 50 percent of them log on daily. So, why is it so quiet on your company’s page? Keep in mind that most people sign up for Facebook to keep up with their friends and family. If they like your page, there has to be something in it for them.
With this in mind, here are 10 tips for promoting (hint: think marketing) your corporate Facebook page.
1. Business Cards: These are given out every time you meet a new client or go to a social function. What better way to promote your page?
2. Website: Viewers are already interested in your company. Add a link to your Facebook page in order to allow viewers to have a different source of information.
3. Blog, Twitter, YouTube, etc.: Again, viewers are already interested in learning about your company. Add links on these sites to share your Facebook page. Read More→
How to Properly and Effectively Deal with Negative Feedback on Social Media Sites
Posted by: | Comments
We all love social media sites when they’re working for us. It’s fun to see positive feedback on your Facebook wall or have a client tweet a cheerful remark about your company. However, most of us have seen the other side of it as well. You know: the knot you feel in the pit of your stomach when someone has something not-so-nice to say about your business. Your first instinct might be to delete the comment and hope that no one, or at least very few, people saw it. You might even want to retaliate. But, did you know that you can make those negative comments work for you just like the positive ones? It’s all about how you handle the situation. And believe me, with sites like Facebook and Twitter running 24/7, the whole world is watching.
You probably all remember the not-so-little incident with Atlanta-based Boners BBQ that happened just last month. This small barbecue joint found Read More→
See the World Through Google
Posted by: | Comments
Image Source: Google Mobile
It’s getting much easier to find things you enjoy in life. For music, there’s Shazam and similar apps to nearly instantly tell you song and artist from just a snippet of music. But what about when you see something that perks your interest, that you can’t put into words? Like a work of art or maybe you’re exploring a city on vacation are curious what a landmark is called.
For that, Google has done it again. This time, Google has created an app for both iDevices and Android machines called Google Goggles. For iDevices, the Goggles app is a module of the greater Google app. There is no separate downloading required. The Goggles app is like adding the intelligence of Google to your device’s camera. All you have to do is turn on the app, take a picture and then the magic happens. The app takes a few seconds to scan the picture before providing you with results, often in the form of a web search, to put things that you see but can’t describe within reach. This works for landmarks, artwork, book covers, product labels and even wine bottles.
If you are using an Android device, Goggles gets even better with additional features. A picture of a business card or similar contact information can be integrated into your phone’s address book. There’s also a translation service Read More→
Twitter Revamps Design to Make More User Friendly
Posted by: | CommentsHave you noticed the new look of Twitter? According to Twitter Blog, the social media site’s design was revamped in order to allow users to easily follow what they care about, connect with others and discover something new. Five new tabs on Twitter instantly bring you closer to everything.
“Home” is where you view Tweets from people you follow. It features the latest news, commentary and information from the people and companies that you care about. Plus, you can access photos, videos and conversations all on the left side. Comments on status updates pile up directly beneath the original post. “Home” keeps everything organized and in one place.
The “Connect” section is where you reply and enter into conversations. You can see who has mentioned, followed or retweeted you.
The “Discover” tab allows you to, well, discover things that interest you. Based on your current location and what you follow, news and content come straight to you. Additionally, you can look for tweets on certain subjects by typing the topic into the search bar. “Discover” will help you learn more. Read More→
He Said. She Said. Two Views on Interactive Marketing
Posted by: | Comments
Interactive experts Mitch Levinson, MIRM and Carol Flammer, MIRM have wrapped up their He Said. She Said. posts. This series of articles answers many of the commonly asked questions related to online marketing from two different perspectives. Taking the “He Said” position, Mitch answers questions from the perspective of how to improve your search engine optimization. From the “She Said” position, Carol focuses on how to create great content that attracts and engages readers from your blog to your Facebook page. We hope you enjoy this lively discussion as much as we do!
Here are links to all of our He Said. She Said. articles:
How Do I Improve Internet Traffic?
How Much Copy Should My Blog Posts Have?
Why is Blogging with Keywords so Important?
What Else is Important when Writing Posts?
Why is Syndication so Important?
Explain More About Inbound Links
Do you have other questions for the He Said. She Said. team? If so please as them in the comments section. Additionally, He Said. She Said. is available as a 90 minute presentation. Let us know if you would like us to present to your group.
Social Media for Home Builders at Sales Central
Posted by: | Comments
Have you ever wondered how social media, special incentives and coupons could help you sell more new homes? At the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show, Carol Flammer, MIRM, author of Social Media for Home Builders 2.0, will hold a presentation with all the best tips to help you successfully market new homes through a variety of ways to engage your customers.
Flammer, the managing partner of mRELEVANCE, will host an hour long interactive presentation beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, February 10. In the presentation, a part of Tech Friday, she will cover how to integrate coupons, contests, promotions and incentives into your social media program.
In a world where LivingSocial deals and Groupons flood our inboxes daily with some fantastic offers, who wouldn’t want to learn more about getting their products spotlighted? Learn how the power of the coupon can be harnessed to get customers talking about the deals on your own great products.
The presentation, like all the events at Sales Central, are free to the International Builders’ Show attendees. The talk will be held in room W311E in the Orange County Convention Center.
For more information about the International Builders’ Show, visit the National Association of Home Builders online.
Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield
Posted by: | CommentsA year after the Home Builders Association (HBA) of Greater Springfield revamped its website in late 2010, average daily traffic had more than doubled and the amount of time users spent on site tripled. Activity and connections with the HBA’s social networks also increased. The websites was designed, among other things, to be easily updated.
Since the association comprises more than 400 builders, remodelers, construction suppliers, subcontractors and advocates for construction professional in 10 counties in southwest Missouri, its website distinguished the content visitors viewed based on which user category the visitor is in.
Blogs were the association’s solution for managing regular content updates with limited staffing. Blogs also provided a way to organize information by topic category. The association had 20 different blogs and nine locations where visitors went to blog. These blogs encompassed issues like advocacy by the HBA president and chief executive officer and topics aimed at consumers like the local home shows, parades of homes, remodeling and green building.
The Springfield HBA also had a comprehensive social media strategy, since so many builders and others in the construction industry used social media to communicate. The association uses Twitter, the microblog with a 140-character limit for tweets, as a way to provide useful, time sensitive and relevant information about HBA event and meetings. Because of the volume of tweets and followers, the Springfield HBA uses tools, like SocialOomph, to program some tweets.
Although Twitter was a natural technology fit for the HBA, there was still a very important reason to actively engage on Facebook: its millions of users. Read More→
Highland Homes
Posted by: | Comments
Highland Homes, a Tampa home builder, has been Central Florida’s value leader for more than a decade. Its team delivers the best in new home choice, quality, value and satisfaction. However, Highland Homes has a challenge that many other private builders face: name recognition or, more precisely, name competition.
Highland Homes is a popular company name. In fact, a different Highland Homes in Texas owns the domain HighlandHomes.com. The Florida builder owns the domain of HighlandHomes.org. Therefore, the domains are very similar.
Though Highland Homes was selling approximately 35 homes per month, Google was not returning many links to the company’s site. The only returned link within the first three pages on Google was the company’s name.
mRELEVANCE took over management of the website in late 2007. The site was not search friendly, scalable or even stable so that it would always be available. We moved it to a more stable hosting environment and began modifying it to improve performance. The site was attracting 4,000 to 5,000 visits when Highland Homes was forced to halve its marketing budget due to the weak housing market.
With the Highland team, mRELEVANCE recommended cutting advertising that was not earning ROI in website or sales center traffic, rebuilding the website in PHP, building a blog and starting a social media program. From 2009 to 2010, website traffic grew to 6,500 to 7,200 visits. More importantly, monthly home sales increased from 35 to 60 in less than 18 months in a down market.
In late 2010, the marketing budget took another 50 percent cut. Even so, Highland Homes still maintains an average of 50 sales per month. The traffic to its website has been as high as 9,300 visitors per month and averages almost 8,000 visits per month. Moreover, Highland Homes attributes 22 percent of its sales solely to their Internet marketing and social media program.
