2. Our country is built on small and mid-sized businesses and because of the Internet, companies are now able to compete on-line with large fortune 500 companies with an even smaller budget. It’s all about having the right strategy. It levels the playing field and enables a communication channel that would have never been possible in traditional marketing or media. We have now seen that a small business with a great product or service and the right strategy can achieve huge economies of scale on-line. Look at what has happened with twitter. Our current business model leverages twitter to be used as a business tool for our clients to achieve some of these business objectives: PR, customer service, branding, marketing, and of course developing lasting business relationships. Twitter has enabled corporations to get back to the foundations of doing business in a digital age which is much needed right now. Being more transparent, not always selling things, and building an on-line community culture around community. Remember- people want to do business with people. Think of this new way of doing business on line as social marketing. If someone from company A does something good for me, say help me out or point me in the right direction, or does a good job on a project, I am going to tell 10 of my friends and just like word of mouth referrals, the same happens now online in a virtual setting.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post!

Social Marketing is a new buzz word going around. Social marketing basically means word of mouth marketing using online tools such as social media, social networking, and other online PR tactics. You know how powerful word of mouth can be, just imagine what it can do for your products and services! Social Networking San Diego has been able to achieve great success for our clients, and the way business is conducted today is very different from the 20th century. Consider our 21st century marketing methods which you can see here:

1. Even though businesses are going through some tough times due to economic conditions, this does not make it ok for management and executives to do nothing. Good leadership in all companies is needed to find innovative ways to be resilient during these times and figure out ways to cut costs where necessary (not employees) streamline operations, upgrade technology, and invest in an online marketing strategy. Why? Because online marketing strategies can mean a more cost effective advertising and marketing approach than traditional marketing efforts and can even reach a more targeted market in a shorter amount of time. Having your company set up on twitter, linked-in, or face book is one thing, but how are you using these tools? This is where you need an online marketing strategist to develop the right creative campaign that can then track results, measure progress, and show good ROI. The economies of scale are much greater with an on-line marketing approach as opposed to off-line. Consider this: an inbound marketing campaign, or inbound marketing system in which we help formulate and execute around your business model. We do the back-end work for our clients on social media and social networking and train them on how to leverage these tools for business development purposes and how to build business relationships online. We function as the out-sourced virtual marketing department and partner with our clients for long term contracts for long term business strategy success.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post!

As extremely busy executives, we know the following:

-budget allowances are gone
-competitive forces are growing
-layoffs and cuts have been made, and hopefully not a second round
-sales are down

As the VP of marketing goes into the CEO’s office Monday morning and says “I just spoke to a company on Linked-in who is doing social media and social networking consulting for business development and lead generation and I think we should consider it. This could be our chance to get ahead of our competitors and shift some of our off-line marketing budget into on-line marketing and advertising. The CEO says “That on-line marketing crap has never worked before, what makes you think it will work now? We don’t even understand how the hell it works! Do they even have case studies? What was the ROI?” VP Says “I spoke to a company who seems very credible from their recommendations, has case studies, video testimonials, and has developed a proven system and strategy that really seems to make a lot of sense. I think it leverages social networking and social media sites for business development and lead generation purposes. It really gets back to the old way of doing business by developing relationships with customers first, earning their trust, and then it’s just a matter of time before they do business with us. Plus, the viral ability with online marketing makes word of mouth referrals spread much quicker when they see how great our products are they tell their friends, family, and colleagues. What do you think? CEO says “Well, maybe this couldn’t have come at a better time because sales, marketing, and IT have never seemed to be on the same page, what we are currently doing isn’t working, and this may be a chance for us to gain a competitive advantage. How do we move forward? Well, they offered to do a FREE Webinar for us on the growing trend in social marketing to see if we may be a good fit for the program. I think we should do it. The CEO says “let’s check it out”. 3 months later……Progress has been made, ROI is up 15%, and employees at the various departments are shifting gears and getting re-educated/ re-trained on how to use these social tools and how to sell in a digital age.

“When is your VP of marketing going to take a NEW innovative direction for your firm? Give the CEO some hope so he can sleep”

What is your feedback on this story? How many think this ACTUALLY happened? Please respond below. Leave your comments. I look forward to your guesses-
JustinRFrench CEO & Chief Internet Marketing Strategist
Social Networking San Diego
http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

You have a valuable product; you are selling it at a fraction of the price as compared to the competition and you’ve built yourself a really great website to sell your products on the internet! But no one seems to be buying! You know that your product is the best in the market but simply because you haven’t learned how to do internet marketing, you are losing out on big, big money! Competition is getting fierce on online shopping even if the world economy is slowing down. But how do you ensure that customers do come to your site? How do you ensure that you get reliable customers and not just site tourists who are simply browsing?

You have to have full control over the customer market who visits your site by targeting them in the terms of internet advertising and sales. E-business is a professional marketing world where you will need professional and experienced help and that’s where Social Networking San Diego is the best choice for the internet marketer inexperience in online sales techniques.

Tapping potential customers via internet marketing through social networking sites, blogs, twitter and wikis is now made easy with Social Networking San Diego . This innovative internet marketing company will help you achieve the required outsourced marketing through the internet. They are professional and well equipped with the right methodology, tools and personnel to help you in social networking through internet sites. Your ROI (return on investment) will soar as traffic is diverted to your site and you are flooded with clients. The company can start an advertising campaign and an affiliate network for a negligible cost to promote your product all over the globe in the form on online internet marketing! Compare that with the money you have to shell out for print and media ads and you will realize the huge benefits that you are getting for a pittance when you use www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com.

Social Networking San Diego internet marketing will help also ensure that your product and your profile will pop up on internet search engines, high-readership blogs and twitters that are updated instantly with relevant latest content. With this type of internet marketing strategy, your consumer or client will be in touch with you throughout the day; something which could never have happened in the traditional methods of marketing.

Social Networking San Diego is the perfect company to check out your website and ensure you do get business. Of course, if you don’t believe me you can get a free website evaluation done to find out what you’re missing!

graphic credited to www.sciencebuddies.org

Here is a reminder of the scientific method with the spin for a social marketing strategy:

Steps of the scientific method:

1.    Ask a Question -what goals are you trying to achieve with your on-line marketing efforts? On-line branding, customer service, online PR, increase traffic, increased visibility, increase website ranking, better conversion, marketing a new product or service….

2.    Do Background Research -we research your competition, identify what keywords are best to use, and formulate an online marketing strategy/ plan tailored around your particular business model (this can NOT be a one size fits all approach to on line marketing!)

3.    Construct a Hypothesis -based on our research/ assessment- we hope to achieve these types of results with this on-line marketing campaign…

4.    Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment -we will assign the right team, implement the strategy, and market test and confirm our on-line marketing campaign (either 100% outsourced or a joint effort (best results are achieved with a joint effort- we do training, coaching, and educational instruction on who does what in the on-line marketing strategy)

5.    Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion -quarterly reports using analytics, benchmarks, deliverables, goals met, and other ROI measurements compared to alternative marketing efforts

6.    Communicate Your Results -we will report to the executive team what results were achieved, areas we suggest for improvement, and best approaches moving forward.

We work in these 4 capacities:
Hourly Consulting
Monthly Retainer
Per Project Basis
Monthly Subscription

See if your corporation qualifies for starting a social marketing campaign by clicking here: http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/free-website-evaluation/

Want to see some actual Case Studies for existing clients?  Click Here for Case Studies

CEO JustinRFrench

P.S. Here are 4 tips on how to choose the right social media marketing consultant

Guest Post This week by San Diego Corporate Marketing Strategist Holly Reville

1.) What is Social Media?

2.) Branding

3.) Keep it Professional

4.) Messaging

5.) Where to Begin

6.) Networking

7.) Promote

What is Social Media? – Social Media is an ever-growing and ever-changing new phenomenon. It’s the new wave of meeting, networking and connecting with people, most importantly a new method of meeting new potential clients and marketing your business for free. If you stop for a moment to think about the magnitude of this it’s mind boggling. At any given moment there is a worldwide network of people at your reach. Isn’t that an amazing concept? No longer are we restricted to networking within our immediate geographical location. Best of all, people are friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. Those who are not, are weeded out and blocked fairly quickly. The big question that lies in everyone’s head is, “How?” This blog will give you some key insights on what you need to get started and successfully market yourself, product or company through the use of social media platforms.

Branding – In branding, your goals are to gain brand awareness, associate certain qualities and characteristics that make you/your company unique and over time gain brand loyalty. If you plan on marketing your business through social media it is important to keep brand integrity intact. Your brand is an extension of you and your company. How does this translate to social media?

A.) Avatar/picture – Make sure you use a good picture. A professionally taken picture is highly recommended, but if you choose to take your own just make sure you are dressed in a professional manner and have someone take it for you or use your timer. You do not want the “picture taken in the mirror shot showing the camera”. Use this picture on all of the social networking websites. This will give you brand consistency and increase recognition across platforms. It is important to use your picture. Social networking is about creating relationships, people want to know there is a real person behind the company façade and get to know that person.

B.) Name – You wouldn’t put a different business name on all of your sales material so make sure you don’t have different user names on your social networking websites. When social networking for your business it is common to have your full name or full business name as a user name, whatever you choose, just keep it consistent.

C.) Description – Be sure to describe your company, who you are and what you do on all of the social media profile pages. This is the first and possibly last place an interested person or potential client will go to find out more about you. Have a thorough, concise description and double check spelling and grammar. The description can vary from site to site and be custom tailored to the audience, just make sure all of the essentials are there to easily tell people about you/your company.

D.) Custom colors and background – Most of the social networking websites have an option to customize your page. When doing so try to make sure the colors and images used are consistent across all websites. This will also associate these colors and images to your brand and help you to achieve brand recognition.

For the rest of her VERY INSIGHTFUL post Click Here

Special Thanks to Holly For allowing us to share her work for our readers. Please subscribe to her blog- Thanks
Justin

Register Here <REGISTER NOW>

Doing Business In The Digital Age Through Social Networking Workshop

Heard of twitter?  Are you on linked-in and just Lost?

As busy professionals, you probably have heard lately between sales calls and meetings the talk about twitter or social networking right?  Well, we are extending a GREAT offer to our network to come take part in an interactive workshop where you will see why social sites like linked-in, facebook, and twitter can actually have BUSINESS value associated with them IF you know how to use these tools properly.

Our clients typically see these results from using these social tools effectively:  new alliances, new prospects, sales leads, competitive intelligence, industry trends, and even new business!  This can all be accomplished at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional marketing approaches like direct mail and telemarketing which are producing shrinking returns anyway.

Get an up-grade on your business development methods and marketing tactics or lose out to your web-savvy competition!

Once busy professionals realize the power of building BUSINESS relationships online, it actually increases business for them off-line too.  Think of this workshop as an instructional course on how to do business in the digital on-line world.

What? Doing Business In The Digital Age Through Social Networking Interactive Workshop

Where? Irvine

When? May 20th 6PM PST

What you will learn:

• How to generate prospects using on-line tools

• How to get more clients using social media and social networking

• Get an on-line marketing plan for your business to execute right away

• How to fully understand the internet puzzle

• Learn how to beat your competition on-line

• Learn why social media marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing & how to make $

• 299$ value (99$ introductory rate- next event will be more so sign up now!)

Register Here <REGISTER NOW>

BONUES Free E-Book with attendance- Social Networking 101 For Business Survival Kit

Who should attend?

Marketing Managers

Business Owners

Entrepreneurs

VP’s

Business Development Managers

Sales Professionals

Who is www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

“Our mission and purpose with SNSD is to ultimately brand your

business locally and globally by driving traffic to your website,

generating pre-qualified leads, and helping your website rank

higher on Google.”- Justin French CEO

This is an Interactive and “How To”  Workshop on leveraging Social Media and Social Networking  Tools like linked-in and twitter to generate leads and build your business brand on-line!

More about Social Networking San Diego

http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

SPECIAL BONUS- Refer 2 other business professionals get your ticket FREE!

Register Here <REGISTER NOW>

What type of results are you producing for your clients in social media marketing, social networking, and on-line marketing campaigns?

I am constantly asked- “so what are the numbers companies can expect with on-line marketing campaigns? Is it worth it? What will be my ROI?”

Well, first off, every industry is different. Think of your on-line marketing system like a gas pedal- the harder you press on the marketing machine (the more $ you spend the harder we step on the pedal) the greater your reach, exposure, and potential for more business.

I just refer them to our current case studies (see below) and a blog post i did here http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/blog/
which states WHY companies need to formulate some type of on-line marketing strategy revolving around social networking and social media. Otherwise they will keep trying off-line approaches like direct mail, telemarketing, and radio and TV that are producing diminishing returns.

So i ask my audience- what are some of the returns you are producing for your customers? would you mind sharing below some of the challenges your facing in providing various consulting services to your customers? This way i can formulate more case studies for the industry. Your feedback is greatly appreciated

JustinRFrench CEO
Social Networking San Diego
http://www.twitter.com/justinrfrench

Social Networking San Diego:
Actual Existing Client Case Studies
Company names kept confidential due to confidentiality agreements

Company A
Start Date: 2/01/09
Website Grade prior to campaign: 43/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 16.91% (or 5,195,184)
Inbound Links 0
Blog (None)

Current Date: 3/31/09
Website Grade: 65/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 16.24% (or 4,547,459)
Inbound Links 151
Blog (off-site)

26% increase in traffic in 2 months!

Company B
Start Date: 1/28/09
Website Grade prior to campaign: 62/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top) 4.81% (or 1,475,807)
Inbound Links 0
Blog (None)

Current Date: 3/31/09
Website Grade: 71/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 4.29% (or 1,316,909)
Inbound Links 53
Blog (off-site)

27% increase in traffic in 2 months!

Company C
Start Date: 2/01/09
Website Grade prior to campaign: 53/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 5.72% (or 2,857,215)
Inbound Links 0
Blog (None)

Current Date: 3/31/09
Website Grade: 91/100
Traffic Rank (Alexa) Top 1.33% (or 373,541)
Inbound Links 466
Blog (on-site)
75% increase in traffic in 2 months!

Contact me here http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/free-webinar/
for a FREE Webinar and start forming your strategy Today-
and see if your firm is ready to discuss some of your on-line marketing challenges and what we can do to address these like we have been for MANY of our clients.

Hmm… Do you every wonder why there are so many articles on the internet about internet marketing? Is it any different than ordinary marketing and why? I mean, if you are planning to sell your products on line then a little marketing becomes essential to ensure that people buy your product. But other than setting up a website what else can you do?

It’s not that simple! Large companies have now learned that no matter how good your product, you have to be connected with the latest information and any other events that are happening within your industry circle. You also need to ensure that your product and your website is promoted on different blogs, and even free video sites like Youtube to get regular traffic or customers. And you don’t want just any customers; you want customers who want to buy and are serious about sales! And that’s what an outsourced marketing campaign can do for your website. It can get you “friend” connections with people of the same industry, high level relevant traffic of customers from the same industry and even contacts with a buyer or wholesaler from a completely different country. Outsourced marketing campaigns if done by a professional company like can Social Networking San Diego boost your business trends and make you many more useful connections in the industry over night.

Social Networking San Diego is a professional company that will help you implement the perfect marketing strategy based on the company’s specific needs, costs and budgets, marketing and sales department structure and various other requirements. They will also help you in social networking as they have a special internet marketing department staffed with professionals just for that purpose.

It does not matter if you are a small or big business; setting up an internet marketing campaign can be cumbersome due to the complexity of the World Wide Web. Blog marketing is a intricate balance between outright selling and plain content. And readers have come to expect valuable and reliable content from blogs. Direct selling by large companies through vigorous blog promotions can confuse readers and sometimes even put them off completely. Why waste so much time when you already have a niche internet marketing professional ready to help you out in an instant? It may cost you a small amount but its well worth it in the long run! Social Networking San Diego already has the network, the professionals and the expertise to do your work for you at a minimal cost!

Phone calls and telemarketing, billboards, pamphlets and newspaper advertisements are all old fashioned. The latest technology for advertising is social networking through the internet. Although traditional forms of marketing are still popular, the Internet has now become the latest source of entertainment, news reports and business too. The latest and fastest growing trend in the virtual world is simply, OUTSOURCED MARKETING VIA THE INTERNET.

This internet marketing system is used to drive traffic to company websites and derive the maximum profit from the visitors who visit the site. Almost all businesses now have a website created for them to increase awareness about their products and to showcase their business in detail. Companies spend huge amounts of money on these websites. But no matter how pretty your site is, no one’s going to visit it unless you ensure that the site is marketed on the internet. A site which no one visits is a waste of money and time. Social Networking San Diego is an internet marketing department that deals with making social networking simpler and more meaningful in a few effortless steps.

But don’t be fooled, internet marketing is not really that easy. You need some one who knows the ins and outs of marketing with in the least time possible. Social Networking San Diego is a site that is known not only for educating businessmen on the growing trends in the social network and internet marketing world for business but it also helps businessmen achieve a profit by optimizing their websites .

Social Networking San Diego also helps businesses to build up their brands with the help of internet marketing and social networking on a large scale. They have a professional marketing department that can place your advertisements or your company’s profile in prominent sites in such a way that it cannot be missed by search engines, blogs or high traffic sites like You-Tube. Readers and visitors of these popular sites will then get your reference for the product on reliable sites. The larger amount of visitors who realize and enquire about the product you are selling, the more the number of clients or customers who will visit your site with a serious intention of buying your product .

This process of social networking will soon replace all the traditional forms of marketing and advertisement. Social Networking San Diego is just one online company that is breaking new ground in this field. You can rest assured that your company and your product will enter world of internet marketing with Social Networking San Diego. Social Networking San Diego will help in fulfilling your advertisement goals through the internet. Just visit the official site and learn more about internet marketing and social networking.

SocialNetworkingSanDiego.com