social media marketing seems to still dominate conversations these days. Companies testing, companies measuring, companies even bringing in outside help like social media consultants. One thing is certain though, through all the hype, noise, and water cooler talk- there are some companies who take action and some sitting on the sidelines still waiting to get into the game.

Let’s take the top three benefits of social media that we have seen on why companies are embracing this new marketing channel:

1. Your business is looking to cut costs on traditional advertising and use internet marketing and social media marketing as a cost effective substitute. This not only cuts down on costs, but allows you to be more targeted with your messaging. You can effectively extract your audience according to the proper demographic and geographic market you are going after.

2. Your company is looking for sustained growth or long-term growth with social media as compared to advertising. If your business is considering social media and you’re looking for long-term growth & sustainability then social media should be part of your strategy. Social Media allows scalability, growth over time, and by consistently engaging with your target audience you build trust. You constantly educate your prospects and customers giving them valuable information. When you do this overtime, you develop greater trust with your audience and build your brand equity much stronger. This also helps shorten the sales cycle and touches your audience through various points across the value chain.

3. You can develop an influential relationship with a key influencer who has a large trust relationship built with their audience. Once you have their trust, you can possibly ask them to help you get out a message to your target audience. If you care about social media and go about it the right way, you will be able to leverage those relationships. But one word of advice- if that person does you a favor, don’t forget to do a favor for them when asked. It’s always 50-50.

4.Bonus: Because Lebron James is on twitter now and that’s proof enough of why you’re business/ personal brand should be on there too! Don’t believe me- watch this inspiring video on his brand and being “Real”

Lebron’s story is truly motivating and inspiring.  I think of Lebron as a humble leader on and off the court and he has much less of an ego than Kobe- but I digress…

Sent from my iPad 🙂

Justin “Results” French

p.s. Sharing is caring and re-tweeting is always appreciated

Are you looking for a social media manager? Is your small business actively using social media? Are you getting return on your time invested in this sometimes complicated marketing channel? I have been asked lately by many clients, students, colleagues, partners, small businesses, etc. exactly what makes a good social media manager Justin? So I wanted to share with you the Top 10 Qualities Of A Result Driven Social Media Manager that I have come to find while being active in the social media for business community over the past 2+ years. This is a job title that has been trending in the most recent months, BUT many people are still trying to wrap their heads around what specific characteristics do social media managers need to have? These are the same EXACT qualities & etiquette I teach people when participating, engaging, and conducting business development in the virtual world of social media:

1. You listen to the conversations first- then provide additional value add to it
2. You care about people
3. You are trustworthy, helpful, friendly, courteous, and kind to others
4. You have decent understanding of business, strategy, technology, and most importantly web 2.0 technologies
5. You understand marketing and know how to measure results
6. You practice what you preach
7. You add your insight when appropriate
8. You develop relationships first and sell second
9. You actively stay on the cutting edge of “whats new on the web” and have a burning obsession to stay on the pulse of social media
10. You have somewhat of an influence in the social media for business community

Any you would like to add?

Enjoy your week, hope these help shed some light- Justin

p.s. Looking for a result driven social media manager for your business ?

Call 760-576-4653 and mention this top 10 list for a FREE phone assessment!

Okay for today’s blog post I’m actually recording this live on my iPad and the program I’m using is dragon naturally speaking. If I have a few issues with the grammar I’ll go through and fix it myself manually but I want to talk about today’s topic and discuss the difference between SEO and Social Media and you should know by now the two go hand-in-hand unless your living on Mars.

Let me explain why SEO is more beneficial for a product driven business model. When it comes to other business models that are more service-based businesses compared with events, it’s very difficult to do SEO for non-product driven websites based on my experience in the social media trenches. Being in this field for almost 3 years now, if you’re looking for quick rankings or a way to get quick traffic, quick visibility, quick brand recognition, then social media is that the best route to go. You will see over time you will start to rank for certain keywords based on social media tactics and relevant postings that you are doing. I had stumbled upon this in my early years just running some tests and putting out great content while doing basic keyword research. I was actually being ranked for some very competitive keywords which was cool! What’s even more interesting is that 1.5 years ago before Google and twitter signed an agreement, I started to notice my twitter messages ranking in Google search results on page 1 real time. This occurred from my twitter account because as we know twitter is a micro-blog so that was even more interesting.

So I guess the take away for today’s topic is when it comes to social media versus SEO, social media is actually going to be beating SEO for product & service driven businesses that’s my prediction in the not so distant future. Id like to hear your feedback in the comments section if you somewhat agree or disagree we can debate all day and Id be more than happy to. So thank you again for coming to the social networking San Diego blog. Please sign up for a newsletter on the right-hand side or download our free e-book if you have not already. Also there’s an ebook that I wrote for $9.95 for the best 10 you will ever spend as far as an informational social media guide for small business. This is Justin “Results” French signing off. Will see you guys tomorrow. Thank you

Are you a social media consultant? Are you involved in a social media mastermind group? Well if you are not, I wanted to share with you a question I get asked a lot lately. I wanted to explain why I feel social media for business is BOTH an art AND a science.

1. Social media is an art because you have to be both strategic, creative, and somewhat tech savvy. I’m not saying you have to be a programmer, BUT you have to know how to be human in a digital world and utilize the online tools. This can be very difficult for some, and require some teaching, which is why I passionately teach at Mira Costa College a Social Media and Internet marketing course that has been rising in popularity. It’s called Introduction to Marketing Your Business Online and you can find out more info by clicking here: social media workshop

2. Social media is a science because it ties very closely in with sociology (which was one of my favorite subjects in my lower division) and studies the human behavior in groups. Hence the rise of social networking, social media, and other human behavioral technologies that continues to advance. Social media requires people to be REAL and if you are not, others will know. The 5 realest people I know in social media are GaryVee, Chris Brogan, Scott Stratten, Brian Solis, and Tony Hsieh of Zappos.

So what do you think? Is social media an art OR a science? I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Enjoy the world Cup!

Justin “Results” French

Top 3 FREE Social Media Tools For Small Business

Today’s 60 Second Social Media MBA is on Leaders are always Readers. I am a huge advocate of constant learning, education, and constant improvement. Listen as I give you the latest books you MUST read on social media for business. Enjoy, and please re-tweet this post and share it with your facebook friends, it would be much appreciated-

Justin

Are you a social media matchmaker? Just wanted to give a speical shout-out to all those I am connected with on twitter, facebook, linked-in, etc. Things have been busy in the social media mastermind for business trenches so keep up the good fight! Stay tuned for more exciting news to come from the journey!

Justin

p.s. Still not enough infomration? Check out this post I did a while back on Top 4 concerns of businesses getting into social media and social networking that got a lot of traffic 🙂

Cheers

Justin

Due to time constraints to blogging everyday, I am starting my Social Media 60 Second MBA Video Series. Its all about results from Justin “Results” French. Have a listen to my new video series and I look forward to your feedback-

Justin

Please don’t forget to lave your comments, feedback, questions, and what topics you’d like me to cover in my video series- thx!

p.s. Be sure you download our FREE Social Networking 101 for business e-book in the upper right hand corner! 500+ people already have! Look to the right ————————>

Due to time constraints to blogging everyday, I am starting my Social Media 60 Second MBA Video Series. Its all about results from Justin “Results” French. Have a listen to my new video series and I look forward to your feedback-

Justin

Please don’t forget to lave your comments, feedback, questions, and what topics you’d like me to cover in my video series- thx!

p.s. Be sure you download our FREE Social Networking 101 for business e-book in the upper right hand corner! 500+ people already have! Look to the right ————————>