3 Free Twitter Tools

As business owners, we are only too well aware that to do social media effectively can eat up a fair bit of our time. But if you don’t have the budget to outsource your social media requirements to a competent freelancer or marketing company, then I can recommend these 3 free time-saving Twitter tools that could help your business gain an edge over the competition.

Commun.it

Commun.it is a relationship management tool endorsed by the likes of Social Media Examiner and The Next Web. It is currently used by high profile global companies such as Dell, Nike and Sony. The beauty of Commun.it is that it allows you to build relationships, manage followers and monitor engagement from one simple dashboard. The Commun.it platform provides suggestions as to who you might follow on Twitter and you can see at a glance who your top influencers are – and reward them accordingly.

The Next Web says: "Commun.it turns the status-oriented world of Twitter into a relationship dashboard, enabling marketers to effectively analyse relationships and gain insights.”

InboxQ

InboxQ is a great little tool which enables you to engage with more Twitter users using the power of questions. InboxQ’s research identified that around 100,000 questions are asked every day on Twitter. In addition, 59% of Twitter users are likely to follow a business or organisation which takes the time to answer their questions online.

InboxQ allows you to set up a campaign using industry-related keywords, so that when somebody poses a question relating to your chosen keywords, you will be alerted in real time. Not only that, but you can use InboxQ as a networking tool.

Let’s say you run a PR consultancy. You can set up campaigns for each of your clients using their specific industry keywords. When you are notified of a question that one of clients might like to answer you can simply retweet them the information. Which means it’s great news for you and for your client too. Smart, eh? You can download InboxQ via your Chrome or Firefox browser.

Buffer

Want to give the impression that you are always online, without overwhelming your Twitter followers? Then you need Buffer. Buffer allows you to create a pre-written stream of tweets into a queuing system which you can auto-schedule for delivery, so that they are fed to your Twitter community at regular intervals. Last September, Commun.it announced a collaboration with Buffer, so you can now integrate both tools from one interface promoting added functionality (and creativity).

Many businesses shy away from social media because they believe they don’t have the time or financial resources to do it effectively. But to keep pace with your competitors, if your customers or clients use Twitter, then perhaps you should learn to love it too.

Instagram Is Perfect For Brands . . . Get The Picture?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and as if to prove the point, the Facebook-owned mobile photo sharing app that is Instagram, announced at the end of February (2013) that their active users have topped the 100 million mark.

Now under any circumstances this would be considered something of a major achievement, but the fact is, Instagram only announced in January that users had topped the 90m mark. That’s like – an extra 10m users in one month – wow, that’s not just a big deal, that’s an explosion!

So what does all this mean for you as a business owner?

“Uh-oh, not another blooming social media site I need to keep tabs on . . .”

Hmm. Something like that.

But much, much more than that, Instagram is a tremendous opportunity for savvy brand owners to explode their marketing output to a visually tuned-in audience.

As a platform for businesses, Instagram is a little different from Facebook and Twitter in that it doesn’t currently offer business-specific profiles or paid advertising options. That’s what makes it such a level playing field in terms of business users – it’s an invitation to get creative with your marketing. And this is something your local or online marketing consultants can help with.

While other social media platforms may be scrambling to deliver additional functionality to their users, its inherent simplicity is what’s makes Instagram’s premise ‘social networking genius in action.’

Indeed, Instagram may be first and foremost a social network, but it is also a photo editing tool too. Which means almost anyone can use Instagram’s technology to create stunning images which you can then share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Flickr and in your emails too.

If you don’t consider yourself much of a copywriter, then Instagram is definitely one marketing tool that will demand a closer look. And even if commercial writing is your bag, I’m sure you will still appreciate the impact stunning image effects can give to your branding.

3 Tips for marketing success with Instagram:

• Make sure the focus of your images is on telling a story, rather than delivering a series of product placement ads. Your story can be emotional, motivational, aspirational, or downright hilarious – but don’t, whatever you do, let it scream: “buy me now!”

• Don’t post at less than three-hourly intervals else you run the risk of clogging up your users’ feed. It’s worth spending time getting really creative with your content so that your followers look forward to your next offering, rather than having people tutting: “not them again!”

• Use a tool such as Statigram to help you use, measure and promote your Instagram activity. You can also use it to create a brilliant collage-type cover for your Facebook page.

So if you are in business – and particularly if you sell products or services relating to the design, fashion, or creative industries – then you’ll hardly need any further convincing that Instagram is for you. For assistance with creating some dynamic Instagram marketing, you need look no further than your helpful marketing consultant.

Bet I can guess where you’re headed to next . . .

The Book of Mormon and Social Media

Following on from shows such as ‘Jerry Springer: The Musical’, ‘The Book of Mormon’ is one of the more recent controversial musicals to get the critics talking.  Developed over a period of seven years by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with music from composer Robert Lopez, it is a religious satire which lampoons the ideas of organised religion as well as the conventions of traditional musical theatre. Originally released on Broadway in 2011, the show has now opened at London’s West End and has already broken box office records. It is also, as we shall see, a shining example of how Facebook and Twitter can contribute to the success of a modern-day musical.

In a nutshell, ‘The Book of Mormon’ tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries who are sent to a small village in a remote part of Uganda where a local warlord is threatening the population.  The two missionaries attempt to share the teachings of their religion with the locals but find it an uphill struggle. The musical officially opened in the West End on Thursday 21 March and took more than £2.1 million at the box office the following day. It seems that a controversial theme that gets people talking can often spell box office gold.

But what has also been at work here is the clever use of social media marketing.  Since the show’s opening, alongside the traditional reviews for the show have been a barrage of tweets appearing in press ads to accompany the release of fresh batches of tickets. Some of these were celebrity endorsements, some not, but they had the effect of turning the show into a roaring success by the time the reviews had appeared in the papers.

After all, sometimes all it takes is a well-publicised tweet from a well-known celebrity such as Stephen Fry to shoot a show into the stratosphere. In the case of Mormon, this strategy has worked to great effect. In this case, even drawing attention to negative reviews such as the rather one-star drubbing handed out by Quentin Lett can simply act as a bigger draw.

The great thing about drawing attention to tweets and Facebook comments in order to publicise a show is that, being totally free, it is something even the smaller fringe theatre companies can utilise. Those who may not be able to afford expensive national advertising campaigns to promote their shows may still be able to create a hit if their marketing teams are savvy about the ways in which social media can work for them.

Latest Research Revealed By Technorati Media: - Why Your Business Must Have A Blog

Technorati’s 2013 Digital Influence Report is hot off the press – and its findings might just surprise you.

The report surveyed 6000+ influencers, 1200 consumers and 150 marketing companies to produce a series of valuable insights that could assist your marketing efforts considerably.
As business owners, we are constantly reminded that building strong relationships is key to producing great outcomes in terms of sales and peer recommendations. And Technorati’s latest research confirms that more consumers are turning to blogs rather than favouring social networks like Facebook and Twitter when looking to make purchases (both online and off).

Although blogs have traditionally been considered trusted sources of information, now that level of trust has moved one step closer to the marketplace, with consumers seeking the opinions of influential blogging communities before reaching for their credit cards.

And while we’re on the subject of communities, the research team found that half of the consumers surveyed believed smaller communities to be more influential sources of recommendations than larger communities.

This is interesting, as frequently we have witnessed some of the major global brands attempting to literally explode the size of their online communities by using the influence of a ‘major player’ in blogging circles, believing this to the path to greatness.

Could it be actually, that a more direct path to greatness could involve building smaller, more exclusive communities, with a team of strong personal influencers on board whose purpose is to attract highly prized members to the clan? The point being, that the popularity of an A-list blogger, say, isn’t necessarily indicative of trust.

Equally, there may be many lesser known bloggers whose influence over their smallish communities is such that forming a good working relationship with these people could prove a real asset to your business (a mutually beneficial one naturally).

The survey showed that 86% of key influencers blog and 88% of those blog for themselves. What is also interesting is that 59% of those surveyed use blogging as virtually their only digital content platform. For these committed blogging folk, the only true indication of success comes from more and more people reading their content.

So the number one priority for business bloggers has to be winning the trust of their audience – and getting people talking about them.

Ideally this process should happen long before products and pricing get a mention.

Successful blogging has always been about providing content people want to read and engage with. Keeping this maxim front of mind when creating a marketing strategy for your blog will help you target the right influencers in the right way – and get great results too.

A New Survey Reports Brand Marketing A More Important Skill Requirement Than Digital Marketing

Marketing a product is one of the most important functions when creating a successful brand. After all, there is no point having a fantastic, unique product or service if your target audience is blissfully unaware of it.

We all have so much information assaulting our senses on a day-to-day basis that unless a brand is screaming ‘Look at me!’ it will never be able to compete. This is why the job of the brand marketer will never fade in importance.

In fact, it has been suggested by a recent survey carried out by recruitment firm Michael Page that brand marketing has overtaken digital marketing as the most important skill for new marketing employees. The firm questioned 500 UK marketing employers and found that nearly a third (29 per cent) had named ‘brand’ as the most important function of a marketing team to help grow a business in 2013. This was up from 19 per cent in the previous year.

The survey found that online and web development had dropped from first in last year’s survey to joint-second, with 21 per cent of marketers identifying it as their most vital skill. Paul Sykes, managing director of Michael Page, said this change may have something to do with the ‘cautious and competitive’ state of the market today, in which ‘brand differentiation’ is becoming increasingly vital to driving market share.

But this of course does not mean that digital marketing is in any way on the decline. How can it be when so many companies today are choosing to conduct almost all their business and marketing online? Email marketing, social media marketing, SEO marketing – the tools and technologies for these are constantly being refined and updated. It is more likely that digital marketing is increasingly being perceived as ‘embedded’ in the entire marketing package.

The research firm Forrester has predicted as much when it suggested that digital is set to lose its prefix and simply being referred to as ‘marketing’ in 2013 as all marketers’ output will become ‘inherently digital’ over the coming months. In its ‘Trends for the B2C CMO to watch in 2013’ report, it warns that marketers must expand the ‘utility and value’ of the online experience their brands deliver.

It advises CMOs to work across departments to assess their digital readiness and identify where messages, actions and products can be improved through digital means. Brand marketing and digital marketing are not really even two separate concepts: they are inherently intertwined.

How Viral Marketing Can Work For Businesses

Viral marketing is the process of using social media and other technologies to increase an awareness of your brand or other marketing message. It is called ‘viral’ because it is analogous to the spread of a disease: theoretically, a good viral marketing campaign will encourage those who see the message to pass it on to several others until it spreads like wildfire.

Viral marketing can be a great way to boost the profile of a business because it’s a fast and easy way to increase its visibility a thousand-fold. People are compelled to share things online that they find interesting, unusual or entertaining.

This is what social media is all about after all.

Imagine that a single viewer shares your message with 10 other people. What happens if each of those 10 other people does the same thing? This is just one way in which the Internet has transformed the world of marketing.

This kind of marketing is also a clever way of improving a brand’s credibility, because people are far more likely to trust a product if they have learned of it from somebody they know. By its very nature, then, viral marketing will build up brand’s image as something to be relied upon – breeding familiarity by proxy, almost. It is also a great way of reducing advertising and marketing costs because online social media is completely free.

The key to achieving success through these means is that you have to be original. A viral marketing campaign needs to be something that will capture the imagination and make viewers want to share it. A recent example of a clever, witty viral campaign was that carried out by the two cable channels MTV and BET in tandem. What they did was to ‘hack’ each other’s Twitter accounts in order to make a series of light-hearted digs at each other. By switching identities in effect they were able to generate mutual publicity for their respective programmes.

The tweets came with the hashtag #MTVhack. Those made by BET made references to MTV’s ‘Jersey Shore’ and mimicked some real-life brand hacks we have seen in recent years, such as Burger King and Jeep.

Whilst the Twitter network quickly twigged that this didn’t seem like a genuine hack, the buzz it generated certainly helped the two Viacom-owned channels to achieve their aims, which included publicising the VMA and BET awards.

One of the reasons this particular stunt has worked is that the nature of it fitted in well with the ‘edgy’ ethos of MTV and BET – MTV, after all, is the channel that brought us ‘PUNK’d’.

Marketing Challenge: Can Tesco Restore Its Customers’ Faith?

In the UK the horse meat scandal has knocked several of the big retailers sideways, and Tesco is one of the most high-profile names to be caught in the fall-out. Indeed, unfairly or not it seems to have become ‘the face’ of the horse meat scandal. The revelation that horse meat has been found in many of its beef products has seen customer trust in its products fall to the lowest levels yet. Its marketing experts are going to have an uphill struggle to restore its reputation and brand image to its previous levels.

Whilst the horse meat issue is not the only problem to have rocked the food industry in recent months it is certainly the most incendiary one. According to Canadean Customer Solutions, which recently spoke to a cross-section of 2000 consumers, nearly 40 per cent of shoppers are less trustful of their main supermarket in the light of the ongoing scandal. More than half, meanwhile, are sceptical about the quality of their supermarket’s meat. Downing Street has insisted that it is now the responsibility of the retailers to restore consumer faith.

So what steps has Tesco taken so far? To begin with, it has sent letters to its customers, and its chief executive Philip Clarke gave a talk at the National Farmers Union conference in February. It has also run national press advertising to discuss the scandal and reassure consumers that it is taking the issue as seriously as they are.

Clarke said: “I know that the discovery of horse meat in products sold in several major retailers, including Tesco, has shaken your trust in food retailers and the products we sell. You’ve told us that you want to buy British. And that the journey from farm to fork should be far less complicated. I’ve listened to what you have said and we’re making some real and lasting changes.”

This last issue is a key one: maybe what Tesco needs to do is actively show itself to be in control of the supply chain. The length and sheer complexity of the chains needs to be shortened in order to give consumers more confidence that they know where their meat is coming from. It should now be the job of marketers, not just buyers, to understand the supply chain and find ways to make it clearer to the average consumer. This will also aid them in their task to position products correctly.

Using the Internet and social media will be an important tool in aiding Tesco’s recovery, because it promotes a real dialogue between retailer and consumer. This means the consumer is more likely to feel their concerns are being taken seriously. It has already made a step in this direction with the setting up of Tescofoodnews.com to address some of their fears. The aim of these marketing efforts should be to create greater transparency, rather than shying away from controversial issues, but also in some way to remind consumers what it was about Tesco they trusted in the first place.