Who Wants to be Known as Traditional?

Who wants to be known or even associated with the term traditional media? The battered and bruised category just seems so unattractive and unhip. The fact is, it still has a place in the media mix. Nonetheless, the traditional media space has changed dramatically over the years. It may be known today, in some circles, as more “content” than “influencer.” I believe it to be both. In fairness all media has an impact, and the way it is purchased and utilized is key. In the pre-owned automotive business profit per unit is often determined by how well the unit was originally purchased, reconditioned and presented. It is the same with media, especially traditional media. Price and value is not only determined by reach, circulation and impressions, but relevancy to the brand and the campaign objective must be considered as well.

2010 Marketing Budget Shift

Recent E-marketer research shows a dramatic shift of marketing budgets by category. Up to 79% of retail/ecommerce companies will increase their social media budgets, as the retail/ecommerce category is known to be leading indicators of marketing and advertising trends, and the rest of the business categories will surely follow.

2010 is a pivitol year for social media marketing budgeting. It is the first year of true and significant budget shifts from traditional and existing online media. The results will be scrutinized and analyzed all year in preparation for budget forecasts of 2011 and beyond. The results will vary based on objectives and no doubt creative considerations. The leaders in global branding, as early adopters to social media marketing, will once again widen their lead in the marketplace.

Ad Budgets Follow Audience

The point of budgets following audience has been tried and true for generations. There is no sense in publishing social media user statistics here, as they will be outdated by the time this is posted and read. The studies being conducted now on usage, demographics and growth all beg to the frightening truth that the social media space is moving so fast, that to not initiate a social media strategy now may be detrimental to a business in the very near future.

The good news is that when budgeting for social media, businesses do not need to add new dollars to the mix but rather reallocate existing dollars. A thorough examination of the current marketing budget always brings to light inefficiencies in the marketing mix. If there is not a solid sourcing process to determine the effectiveness of any budgeted marketing dollars, rest assured that the budget allocation for social media will be measurable if campaigned and implememented properly.

I am certain that the percentages of budget being allocated to social media will not be anywhere close to the percentage of users, or customers to a business, engaged in social media.

Must Drive Revenue

Your allocation of an existing marketing budget to a social media strategy is not about making friends or simply “having a conversation,” it is a highly efficient way to drive revenue, find new prospects and nuture exiting customer relationships.

In the realm of social media, where friends and followers can number hundreds or thousands per profile, an appropriate shift in your budget goes a long way in growing your business.

By Ray Spellerberg

Director of Sales

Boom Media Inc

San Diego Social Media

http://www.mymediaboom.com

Improving your identity online is more important than ever! Are negative reviews plaguing your reputation on Yelp?  Fired-up in disagreement over what people are saying about you on the internet? Or maybe an old, out-of-date article floating around online keeps haunting you?  70% of what’s circulating online about your brand is written by someone other than you.  Improve your on-line identity in three simple steps:

• Respond to a negative review.  ALWAYS respond in a positive way. Respond as fast as you can, and in front of as many people as you can.  That’s right, so everyone can see.  In doing so, others can see first that you care and they can see how well you handle the situation.  Transparency is powerful.  Let the world see your human side and just watch the positive come flooding in.  Not only will you leave a favorable impression with the author of the complaint, but with countless others that may be seeing you for the first time.

• Get writing. Create a bog, or three, or five. Write a lot and write often.  Flood the internet with content and tie it into your website.  Not only will it improve your “Google juice”, increasing your Google status (SEO) and exposure, but it will quickly establish you as an expert in your field.  You can’t buy that kind of credibility.

• Keep content low-friction.  Too much ‘sales talk’, too many ‘offers’ become dry, boring, and after time, a turn-off.  Instead, offer up a short and savvy education piece, write about a subject that IN-directly relates to your own (you may just discover a new audience), or offer up a brief biography of a client.  Not only will you win them over for life, but he or she is sure to share with their own friends, family and followers.

Bridging that gap between your online identity and your brand is vital in this age of instant information.  Your reputation is literally at the fingertips of your clients. If harnessed properly, this kind of exposure and marketing can build a depth and breadth of  loyal clients in a matter of weeks.

By Kelly Kraus

Hospitality Director

Boom Media

San Diego Social Media

http://www.mymediaboom.com

Right now you may be asking yourself, what the heck does the Social Media Business Model have to do with my business and do I even care?
The answer: You should care because anyone who was ever successful was not only creative but they also modeled the success of others. Well, Why not model the most powerful communication tool in the planet.

Let’s take Facebook for example. Is there something you could learn from their business model and why the average person is on there for 20 minutes a day?

Here is the secret I am going to share with you. People are using Social Media and are on Facebook because it fulfills the Five Fundamental and Fulfillment Needs. If you want the secret behind why people buy or why people subscribe to something, here it is:

THE FIVE FUNADMENTAL AND FULLFILLMENT NEEDS

1. Safety: meeting your basic food, shelter, and survival needs
2. Variety: Keeping Life Fresh and Exciting
3. Relationship: Love, Belonging
4. Respect: Self esteem and Feeling Important
5. LIFE PURPOSE: Fulfilling One’s Potential, Contribution to Others

Why we do things, why we buy, why we subscribe has to do with the 5 needs listed above. Abraham Maslow submitted his paper in 1943 on the psychology of needs. I have repackaged those needs for YOU, the entrepreneur or professional. Everything we do is to me at least one of these 5 needs if not all these needs. Facebook and other Social Media sites have mastered the game of fulfilling all 5 of your needs through their service. And you wonder why people are addicted to these social sites. Anytime an activity consistently meets at least 3 of our needs, it becomes an addiction. Could be a positive addiction or a negative addiction? On the positive side, lets talk about getting people positively addicted to your product or service, based on how Facebook has done it. Positive addiction sounds like an oxymoron, but you know what I mean. In doing this we must always come from an integrous place.

Safety

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

-Benjamin Franklin

You want someone to feel safe when they buy your product. As human beings Safety is a driving need. We must have the basic safety needs in our life such as food and shelter. Without them we can’t function. With your products and your business, you must offer someone Safety or guarantees in your product. The guarantee could be your reputation, your service or your product. The majority of people will not buy unless they feel safe to some degree. Now remember, some people value safety more than others. If you are an entrepreneur Safety is probably not your # 1 driving need. If you are a person who has worked the same job for 5 yrs that you don’t like, it could be your #1 driving need. Why do some people value safety over others? Its simple! It’s all based on your view of the world and your beliefs. How you see the world will determine the avenues you take and the decisions you make to meet those needs. Doesn’t it make sense to have safety in your offering or product?

How do people get safety on Facebook?

Wow, get ready for this. You know that regardless of how your day is going or how awful you feel, you can always show up and play on Facebook. It’s always there. It’s the place like the Movie Cheers, where “Everyone knows your Name” or at least your friends do. Also, you don’t have to talk to someone to connect with him or her. If you are phone shy and not confident, an easy way to reach out to a sharp businessperson or a friend of the opposite sex is to send them a message. If they aren’t interested, there is no verbal rejection and you get to tuck your tail between your legs and quietly move on to the other million people you could be connecting with. Its safe and you are certain what you are going to get.

On the flip side of that, Facebook also has tons of Variety.

Variety

“Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure”

Petrarca Petrarch (1304 – 1374)

Everyone wants Variety in his or her life. While we need safety, we also need variety. It gets tiring eating the same meal every day, it gets old hanging around the same people all the time, it gets boring doing the same old thing. Or Does it? For some people they love doing the same old thing because it is safe, but even those people who value safety, even they must have some variety. Their variety could be going to see a different movie from time to time and your variety could be moving cross-country with no money in your pocket, and seeing where life will take you. I have a friend like that, God Bless you Jeff!! We all must have variety.

How does facebook fill your Variety needs?

Variety, Variety, Variety. From Videos, to Tags, to articles, to posts, to fan pages to more and more and more. It is the ultimate variety. You never know who you are going to meet and how many new friends you will have the next day. No wonder the average user is on for 20 minutes, it takes 20 minutes to figure out how to use all the toys! Do you think it makes sense to have variety in your product or service? Depending on the client, variety may be a big selling point or not so big, but every product should have it.

Relationship

“Poets and mystics have been telling us for centuries: Wake up. Wake to your true self. Wake to your own connections to what is around you right now. Gaze into someone’s eyes, and discover who looks back. Penetrate the mysteries where the worlds touch. Don’t go back to sleep.”

-Paul H. Ray, Sherry Ruth Anderson

We all must have relationships in our lives. Without relationships we would cease to exist. We have a relationship to everything around us, even the trees. Without those suckers, we cant breath. Relationship is critical to our lives. Some people value relationship more than others, but we all need it. We also have different relationship needs based on our beliefs. Some people want really close friends and that’s all they need. Others want thousands of friends in different countries. We all find a way to meet our relationship needs, it’s a necessity.

Clients don’t want to buy products from you; they want to have a relationship with you. The beauty of social media or facebook is the power of the ongoing conversation that creates relationships all across the globe. You got love relationships, business, relationships, friend relationships, and it goes on and on. What a genius concept that Facebook and other sites came up with. Do you think it’s important for us to learn from and model this model of success? Absolutely.

Even if someone is just buying your product, they want to feel like they are having a relationship with you. What are you doing to ensure that this fundamental relationship need is met?

Respect:

“I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‘em out, I pick the round.”

-Muhammad Ali

Let’s just take a page out of Dale Carnegie, “How to win friends and influence people.”

He says that every single person on the planet wants to feel appreciated or significant. You’re damn right Dale. Our products, our services, our very being, must make people feel important and appreciated. All of us find a way to feel important or significant. Some of us build great companies and become very important people in society, while others hold people up at gunpoint. Do they both feel significant? You betcha! No matter what we will find a way to feel important and to feel that we matter in this world. Start creating your products so people feel important and respected.

Does Facebook make people feel important?

For Crying out loud, they have a Fan page for people who want to feel ultra important. You can share all your information and videos that you want to express yourself and show the world that, “I Matter.” Facebook is the Respect Need on a totally new level. Thank goodness to social media for making this self-expression possible. If you are behind the times and wish that things were what they used to be, then its time to grow up! We aren’t moving backwards, we are moving forwards, and this leads us to the Fifth and Final Fulfillment Need.

We all find a way to meet the first 4 needs of Safety, Variety, Relationship, and Respect. No matter what, Good or Bad, we find a way. Better good than bad, but we all find a way. They are fundammental to our existence. So, no matter what your product should find a way to fulfill all 4 of these needs. The deciding factor on whether someone moves onto the 5th need of fulfillment has to do with the way they are meeting the first 5 needs. If you are selling a product, such as drugs, and its meeting your customers 4 needs and your 4 needs; BUT its not contributing to someone else’s growth, its not good for them, and it not sustainable, then you will never find your Life’s Purpose in a place where you are fulfilled and where you can help others become fulfilled. But, if your product is a product like Facebook that fills the first 4 needs, the question then becomes: Will your product fulfill the 5th need. If your product does, you will have a customer for life.

Life’s Purpose:

“The Greatest Tragedy in Life isn’t death, its what we allow to die inside ourselves while we are still living.”

-Norman Cousins

Life’s Purpose is about being in your full potential, being your Best Self, and every day you are contributing and growing. If you aren’t growing in life, then you are dying. Ask yourself, does your product help people grow. Does your product contribute to the lives of others in a sustainable and positive way? If it does then the sky is the limit for you. If it doesn’t YET, then what would that type of product or client experience look like?

On Facebook and Social Media, people love showing up because they are growing and they get to contribute to the lives of others. When you share your story with another or a video of your life with another, you are growing and you are contributing to others. They say, “what you share, you keep.” Every Day your Friends list is growing and you can contribute to the lives of other people. Is this enduring and sustainable? Absolutely. So, if you want to build a successful business or launch a successful product, make sure your product fulfills the Five Fundamental and Fulfillment Needs of your clients.

Do it Now. How will your product fulfill the 5 Needs of your Clients?

By Ted McGrath