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

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

this is a social media road map i found

I keep getting asked by fellow business professionals on linked-in discussions the following questions regarding social media and social networking for business.

1. How are you successfully using Twitter, microblogs, blogging, etc. in your corporate environment?

Justin’s Answer- personal branding, product/ service branding, customer service, industry news, trends, event promotion, competitor analysis, building BUSINESS relationships, etc.

2. How do you convince those that don’t “get it”?

Justin’s Answer- I tell them go get educated and come back to me in a year when your ready to build an on-line marketing strategy around your products or services and have it done right. Once companies wake up and start realizing 1-2% returns on direct mail and telemarketing is NOT working. Why do you keep doing things that don’t work? Stop throwing good money after bad ideas and work with an innovative marketing company. Maybe they should get educated on one of our many webinars about social networking, twitter training, or linked-in training for business. I don’t have the time or patience sometimes to deal with business people that “don’t get it”. Time is money!

3. How do you measure successful ROI?
We measure ROI for our customers with our own proprietary methods and software systems we have developed and it works great! We have paying customers, they see results, and we show them monthly reports. We have to measure the success of our clients online campaigns and report to them monthly or they wouldn’t be spending thousands of dollars per month with us!

4. I’m interested in hearing successes, failures, and strategies.

We have MANY success stores (see my blog http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/blog/ or customer testimonial videos.

Failures; just know you will make some mistakes, get over it- just jump it try it, learn, and learn from your mistakes most importantly of course. You will learn, test, and refine the strategy. Try to have a plan at least. The alternative is to do nothing and fail. Need Strategies- see my blog or book some one on one consulting time with me and lets formulate an online marketing strategy together.

We even have an internet consulting team I can dedicate to your next on-line marketing campaign. Don’t have time to do all this social networking stuff yourself? No problem- we’ll do it for you. Give us a shot and we GUARANTEE we can increase traffic to your website IF you partner with us, sign up, and take our recommendations. It’s worked for these clients (see videos to the right) so maybe your business is ready to jump on board.

Is your business ready? What is your understanding of social media and social networking for business? Take the social networking IQ test here: business evaluation

Cheers
JustinRFrench twitterholic
Tweets by JustinRFrench

Executives Must READ-

Research, Education, Attitude, and Drive

These are the only ways to survive in today’s market place.

The Internet is NOT going away so get educated! Education is the #1 failure of internet marketing strategies so don’t let your corporation fall short. Take a competitive edge and gain first mover advantage. There are some very knowledgeable internet consultants out here in San Diego so grab a hold of one of us and start formulating a plan. Remember, business professionals don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan!

I assure you, there is no easy answer and no get rich quick scheme to internet marketing for business purposes. Myspace and Facebook are not just for personal use anymore! There is a BUSINESS use and us on Linked-In are well ahead of the curve. It just takes the right strategy and approach, and then my favorite- execution.

Its not if but when. Its not why but how. Its hard work believe me, and developing relationships just like in the off-line approach is where we as marketing professionals need to help educate the local business community.

But the firms must but be willing to “invest” in their online marketing strategy. its not an expense. I look forward to assisting you any way i can-

I would appreciate any executives or professionals you may know who are ready to turn their company around with a proven internet marketing strategy. We work strictly through close referral (off line and online of course)

Cheers,

Justin

“We consult and educate our executive level clients how to form a strategy on using social media and social networking sites like twitter and linked in to build business relationships and brand awareness in the digital online market place, which in turn increases traffic to company websites and increases sales.”

Please help me spread my message! I do Webinars, Internet Consulting for Business, Twitter training, Linked-In training, Social Networking Packages for businesses, and also Speaking engagements in educational facilities and corporations on this growing trend.

Justin French President
Social Networking San Diego
“We use social networking to grow your business”

Well, isn’t that the truth! It’s a fact that its not what you know but who you know that can get you a job. That old adage works in the real world and very soon going to be applicable on the internet too. Think big with sites like LINKEDIN and FACEBOOK being the new ways that employers become familiar with you and possibly hire you instantly.

But do these social networking sites actually work as self-marketing on the internet?
The internet is the only medium where you do not actually immediately meet and greet a potential employer for your job. No more toting around of large resumes, references, and other documents to impress potential employees. Sites like TWITTER, FRIENDFEED, and ORKUT have made marketing on internet as easy as pie!

Let’s find out how it works…
Take my own personal experience. Without even getting up from my warm leather computer chair, I’ve gotten several clients for my online services. I’ve also got a few good references for future jobs all through my online social networking by using internet marketing my niche services. I’ve made a few good friends and several good contacts all by social networking. The process is very simple. Just log on to the social networking sites like TWITTER to upload your resumes and private contact details. You’ll find one of the best networks on LINKEDIN. That site is best for finding potential employers and personal marketing on internet. You can use the site to promote your own services for free while connecting to several social groups and potential employees. Internet and marketing is also the best way to be eco-conscious and green; just imagine the paper and trees you are saving for the planet to breathe by skipping the use of paper!

Another way to make your impression on the internet is by online marketing on the internet and by building your own website. Once your website is up, you can then link up and use the social media sites to link up, promote your site and drive traffic there. More and more customers also use the LINKEDIN network to find reliable sites that offer professional and reliable services. That was just the reason that my website and profile became so successful.

No matter what industry pundits say; I say that social networking marketing on the internet is here to stay!

First – A BIG thank you to those leaving comments on my blog.  Some of the comments are very moving and I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to leave your insightful opinions. Sometimes you all just make me want to climb on top of a mountain for a fresh breadth of clean mountain air and enjoy a beautiful sky view as blue as the ocean and say thank you twitter followers! 🙂

Tonight’s post will be short and sweet- but as usual, motivating and educational on the importance of understanding how small businesses NEED desperately to form some type of internet marketing strategy to stay in business. But first and foremost, they MUST understand- what rewards will come if they put in the time to get educated on this growing trend in online marketing or inbound marketing. This is still such a new shift for business professionals to comprehend, but is slowly starting to catch on and gain the public’s’ attention.

Social Networking San Diego is a some-what of a pioneer or first-mover for training businesses how to use social networking to generate NEW business and handling this out-sourced service for them.

1. Global Reach- Twitter has allowed Social Networking San Diego to form alliances in countries such as Canada, Spain, UK, India, etc. All from Twitter. If you need clarification on how to use twitter for business purposes contact us for a complimentary 20 minute training session from me- twitterholic justinrfrench.
2. Put in the Time- I have heard some business people tell me “I don’t have time to network or “tweet.” Well this is why your business is not bringing in any new business because networking and building relationships is required all the time especially during these tough times. Only the strong will survive, and maybe you can identify other professionals struggling with similar issues in their businesses and possibly brainstorm on solutions together.
3. Actual Results- our clients that signed up on packages with us last month are signing up again (video testimonials will be out soon I promise) because they recognize the VALUE, have been educated on what an OVER-ALL internet marketing strategy looks like, how complicated it is, and they have gotten a peek behind the scenes from our consultants.
4. Staying the course- We let the clients know that this is an 8-12 month commitment we make to them, but once those months have been reached, they will be able to see sustained results much better than they used to see with direct mail (remember you must be in front of someone 7 or 8 times to finally get their attention.)
5. Education- Constantly be reading, researching, and refining your message you want to portray about your company brand or personal brand. Sometimes this can be difficult for companies on-line, so maybe having a Chief Internet Marketing Strategist like justinrfrench come into your firm may be just what the doctor ordered. This is very important to stay in front of people, but make sure your message is clear on how you or your product or service will help solve that clients problem/ or pain.

i look forward to your comments on this posting, and would hope you could spend just 30 more seconds on sharing this to your DIGG account or Re-tweet.  All The Best- justinrfrench