Social media can spread out your brand presence far and quickly. Handle with care

1. It’s affordable 

You don’t need the large marketing budgets the big brands have, a social media marketer can help you get started with a social media presence. There are hundreds of social media sites, choose the ones that match your audience and your brand best. Social media is about developing personal relationships so even with professional help the main cost could easily be your time. You know how much your time costs so be efficient or it will end up costing you more than you think. 

2. It’s viral

With the right content your blog posts have the potential to spread out your brand awareness quickly and far, but be careful with what you put out. It can benefit you but it can also hurt your brand.

3. Improves your brand reputation

Putting out quality and focused content will help you establish your brand as an authority in your field. Make sure your content supports your brand position. Be consistent, provide value and avoid writing self-serving content, which can damage the brand reputation you are trying to build.

4. Increases traffic to you website which generates more leads and new business

A social media presence that is well integrated and consistent will generate links and improve your search engine rankings. Prospects will find you before they find your competitors. To generate conversion make sure your website and landing pages are optimized and deliver what your prospects expect. Be aware that although traffic is great never do anything that generates traffic but can damage your brand. Brand is always first.

5. Helps your brand establish a strong connection with your audience

The interactive aspect of Social Media is personal by nature, so the relationships you create can be deeper and last longer than with any other media. To maintain those relationships make sure your brand comes across authentic and transparent. 

6. Connects you with leaders in your field

With Social Media you’ll have the opportunity to interact and network with leaders in your field. Comment on their posts and tweets and participate in their social media conversations. Support them when they ask for support and they’ll support you when you need them.

7. Builds credibility

What others say about you is key to your brand credibility and success. Use Social Media to create a positive perception about your brand. Your clients and prospects will believe what others say about your brand more than anything you can say about it yourself. Track constantly what others say about you in blogs, to make sure you can respond quickly to any potentially damaging comment. I use Google Blog Search in my iGoogle page to keep an eye on what’s been said in blogs about me.

Looking forward to your comments and additions to this list.

Best.
Javier/ JRDG

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

This beautifully crafted animation of the History of the Internet is spreading quickly through the web. It’s success is a good example of the power of well crafted design and story-telling.

You are quickly browsing through the New York Times pages probably on the way to work or on a lunch break. You turn the page and voila! you see a huge scribble or a cryptic image followed by rather dull headline and a massive block of corporate copy.

These IBM ads are part of the ”Conversations for a smarter planet” campaign. Would you feel interested enough to stop in your tracks and dip into the lengthy message?  

The idea of a “Conversations for a smarter planet” green campaign is brilliant and well intentioned, the execution… in my opinion, not so much. Ad images are meant to be relevant and engaging, grab your attention and draw you into reading the copy, and hopefully you will take some action such as visiting a website. But these images, although eye-catching, in my opinion, are neither relevant nor engaging. Would you invest your time in figuring out the meaning of a scribble or an abstract icon?

IBM if you want to engage and “educate” your audience, make it easier for them to understand your message. Make sure the reader actually wants to read your message.

However well intentioned, these corporate-sponsored environmental claims are unlikely to be taken too seriously these days.

Joe Makower from The Energy Collective wrote an insightful story about this IBM ad campaign that explains its goals and strategy and includes interviews with Rich Lechner, IBM’s VP of Energy and Environment and John Kennedy, VP of Integrated Marketing Communications.